Part 2:BEAUTIFUL AND

WONDERFUL BOTANY

By

An Admirer Of Nature

Giant Water Lily Victoria cruziana Deep water aquatic Leaves 4.5’ diameter with rim of 8” height Outer side of the rim is greenish In summer 4” (across) white flower with

many petals – South America

Victoria amazonica Leaves 6’ diameter with a rim of 5” Flower: one foot diameter, white initially, dark pink later 20’ Remains open a day or two Sinks under water to ripen the seeds

Victoria amazonica ( old name Victoria regia) Hybrids: V. amazonica + V. cruzianaFamily: Nymphaeaceae South America Order : Nymphaeales - AmazonClass : Magnoliopsida Division: Magnoliophyta

A young girl (allegedly Joseph Paxton's daughter) was demonstrating the strength of V. amazonica

10” Cranesbill Stork’s billGeranium robertianum Erodium cicutariumFamily : GeraniaceaeOrder : GeranialesClass : Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons)Division : Magnoliophyta (Flowering plant)

Erodium ciconium

Erodium cicutarium

One long "beaked fruits" that point up into the air, is removed from the plant and the top is twisted between thumb and forefinger. The seeds popped from the main part and soon begins to gyrate into spirals. When moisture is added the seed will have more spirals.

The corkscrew shaped stamen falls from the plant is screwed into the soil by the changes in the atmosphere. Dry and Humid air unwind and rewind the coils. Deep germination is achieved!

Cranesbill seed lands on the ground and the sun shrinks the stem. As the stem shrinks corkscrew

action drives the seed underground.

Puya raimondii is the largest known bromeliad forming a rosette around 3 meters high and reaching 10 to 12 meters in flower.  Legend has it that the plant takes 150 years to flower. More recent estimates reduce the time for maturity to between 80 and 100 years. Puya raimondii grows in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia at around 4,000 meters, and is said to be threatened with extinction.

Puya raimandii GENUS OF 170 SPECIES TERRESTRIAL, EVERGREEN PERENNIALS 80-90 YEARS TO PRODUCE A MASSIVE

FLOWER SPIKE UP TO 10 METRES TALL AFTER PRODUCING FEW SEEDS IT DIES

FAMILY: BROMDIACEAE ORDER: POLES CLASS : LILIOPSIDA DIVISION: MAGNOLIOPHYTA

WATER HYACINTH Eichhornia crassipes FLOATING AQUATIC PERENNIAL THICK FLOATING STEM

BEARING ROSETTES OF ROUNDED TO OVATE LEAVES ( 6” ACROSS)

INFLATED SHINY PALE GREEN STALKS

Fastest growing plant in the world Long purple green roots hang down 12” under water 18”FAMILY : PONTEDERIACEAE 18”ORDER : LILIALES DIVISION : MAGNOLIOPHYTA (Flowering plant)CLASS : LILIOPSIDA (Monocotyledons)

Eichhornia crassipes A weed with beautiful flower Reproduce asexually very quickly Water pollution filter: Nitrates, phosphates Potassium, Toxic Wastes, Pesticides & Heavy Metals. Bulb like structure contain air pockets

Some fish including tetras, rainbow-fish, killifish can use its root as spawning ground Fish can survive there for a short time since the plant grow rapidly cutting off oxygen and suffocating the fish

Department of Boating and Waterways, California maintains a program of control of aquatic weeds in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to keep the channels open for navigation and commerce. The weeds grew to choke Delta waterways in the 1980s, interfering with irrigation, agriculture, recreation, and business there.

A population of Wolffia columbiana (A), W. globosa (B), and W. borealis (C) in the San Dieguito River of San Diego County, California. The smallest plants are W. globosa, some of which are only 0.3 to 0.5 mm in diameter

THE SMALLEST KNOWN FLOWERING PLANT WOLFFIAA wolffia plant is about 1020 power larger than a water molecule. The earth is about 1020 power larger than a wolffia plant.Wolffia plants also produce the world's smallest flower. Two Wolffia angusta plants in full bloom will fit inside a small printed letter “o” in a page of a book

(California and Pacific Northwest. ) The world's smallest flowering plant also

has one of the most rapid rates of vegetative reproduction. The Indian species, Wolffia microscopica, can produce a smaller daughter plant in its basal reproductive pouch by budding every 30-36 hours.

Wolffia arrhiza FAMILY : LEMNACEAE ORDER : ARALES CLASS : LILIOPSIDA

DIVISION : MAGNOLIOPHYTA

The Daffodils Williams Wordsworth I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never - ending lineAlong the margin of a bay;

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but theyOut - did the sparkling waves in glee.

A poet could not be but gay.In such a jocund company;

I gazed - and gazed - but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought;

Narcissus odorusFor often when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

'Cockermouth - Wordsworth Memorial'

This bronze bust of the poet, unveiled on 7 April 1970, the bicentenary of poet’sbirth, by his great-great

-grandson. As part of the same

celebrations, 27000 daffodils were planted on open spaces and approaches to the town.

J.W. Waterhouse,1903 Caravaggio,1598 Salvador Dali,1936 ECHO and NARCISSUS

Tiresias foretells the fate of Narcissus "He will live a long life if he never knows himself" Beautiful, proud, aloof youth Bernard Lepicie 1771 Rejects all lovers, incl. the nymph Echo, who wastes away Falls in love with his own reflection Dies of love for himself, turned into flower Hence the term: "Narcissism" Nicolas Poussin 1628

Son of the nymph Liriope and of the sacred river Kiphissos, Narcissus was punished by Nemesis and then fell in love with his reflection in a pool and pined away, becoming the flower that bears his name.Echo, daughter of the Air and the Earth, a lovely

nymph fell in love with Narcissus but lacked the power of speech and could only repeat the last syllables of what she heard (punishment made by Zeus’s wife, Juno)

Narcissus pseudonarcissusRiverside, grassy slopes, damp woods & meadows Northwest Europe to North of England Spain, Portugal & Italy Family : Liliaceae Order : Liliales 6 - 14” Class : Liliopsida Division :Magnoliophyta

This cloned Narcissus odorus originated as a hybrid of the wild Jonquil (N. jonquilla) with the Lent Lily (N. pseudonarcissus). Despite that it is a hybrid it is regarded as a botanical narcissus because it was discovered as a wildflower in the eastern Mediterranean region, where spontaneous crosses of wild daffodils & wild jonquils were first reported in 1595 & in 1601.

Narcissus species