Heavenly Blue. Heliophila coronopifolia, African Sunflax, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Johannes Commelin (1629-1692), one of the founders of the Hortus Medicus of Amsterdam - later to become the Hortus Botanicus -, set great store by exotic plants. In his catalogues he's very careful to attribute whatever he writes to scientific sources. Thus in his description (1689) of this Heavenly Blue plant in the Mustard Family which hails from South Africa, Commelin refers to the work of his younger contemporary at Leiden, Paul Hermann (1646-1695).
Hermann had had an exciting career, visiting South Africa and Sri Lanka in the service of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC) between 1672 and 1677. He collected many plants there. Upon his return he was soon (1679) appointed prefect of the Botanical Garden at Leiden and professor of botany there.
In his catalogue of rare plants (1687) he describes our plant under the name "Leucoïum Africanum, coeruleo (= Heavenly Blue, RP) flore".
On his way to Sri Lanka, Commelin had stayed at the Cape only a short time. Perhaps too short to collect Coronopifolia, though it's quite common there. In his description he refers to the worthy gentleman Pieter (Petrus) de Wolff (1647-1691). De Wolff was the owner of a great estate in 'De Purmer', "Wolff en Hoeck", which was famed as a foremost 'viridiarum' - Greenery - of exotic plants. De Wolff had procured seed of Coronopifolia from the Cape and it had flowered in his garden to the great enthusiasm of Hermann. Commelin, too, was an acquaintance of De Wolff's, but doesn't mention him in this Blue Connection; he didn't need to, of course, given the reference to Hermann. The first catalogue in 1646 of the Amsterdam Hortus - written by Johannes Snippendaal (1616-1670), its first prefect - doesn't mention our plant yet, so it was probably acquired after that date. Whether there's continuity with the present I don't know.
Today this Pretty Blue flowers in the Hortus Botanicus of Amsterdam under the given name. Appropriately, one of the Hortus's specialisations is exactly the botany of South Africa.
Heavenly Blue. Heliophila coronopifolia, African Sunflax, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Johannes Commelin (1629-1692), one of the founders of the Hortus Medicus of Amsterdam - later to become the Hortus Botanicus -, set great store by exotic plants. In his catalogues he's very careful to attribute whatever he writes to scientific sources. Thus in his description (1689) of this Heavenly Blue plant in the Mustard Family which hails from South Africa, Commelin refers to the work of his younger contemporary at Leiden, Paul Hermann (1646-1695).
Hermann had had an exciting career, visiting South Africa and Sri Lanka in the service of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC) between 1672 and 1677. He collected many plants there. Upon his return he was soon (1679) appointed prefect of the Botanical Garden at Leiden and professor of botany there.
In his catalogue of rare plants (1687) he describes our plant under the name "Leucoïum Africanum, coeruleo (= Heavenly Blue, RP) flore".
On his way to Sri Lanka, Commelin had stayed at the Cape only a short time. Perhaps too short to collect Coronopifolia, though it's quite common there. In his description he refers to the worthy gentleman Pieter (Petrus) de Wolff (1647-1691). De Wolff was the owner of a great estate in 'De Purmer', "Wolff en Hoeck", which was famed as a foremost 'viridiarum' - Greenery - of exotic plants. De Wolff had procured seed of Coronopifolia from the Cape and it had flowered in his garden to the great enthusiasm of Hermann. Commelin, too, was an acquaintance of De Wolff's, but doesn't mention him in this Blue Connection; he didn't need to, of course, given the reference to Hermann. The first catalogue in 1646 of the Amsterdam Hortus - written by Johannes Snippendaal (1616-1670), its first prefect - doesn't mention our plant yet, so it was probably acquired after that date. Whether there's continuity with the present I don't know.
Today this Pretty Blue flowers in the Hortus Botanicus of Amsterdam under the given name. Appropriately, one of the Hortus's specialisations is exactly the botany of South Africa.