HOHOHO Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

HoHoHo Merry Christmas All!

I have just learned that we now have a link to download the entire manuscript (121MB). Here it is again for sharing with your people.

https://ojs.library.dal.ca/NSM/pages/view/Plants

Don’t forget to bookmark the direct link to the manuscript. The download link takes you to the NS Provincial Library server. At the moment, it is not recommended for mobiles.

Thanks to all who helped make this document available to the public. Mark your calendars now for April 8 2015, 7:00PM.

BOTANICA EROTICA

Follow the links to facebook or Youtube for a look at flowering.

Slo-mo flowering

Emancipator -Greenland

COLLECTING POSTCARDS and BOTANY

COLLECTING POSTCARDS and BOTANY

Collecting postcards by topic allows the deltiologist to control the appearance of their collection. Often times, the topical collector is interested in other artifacts or paper relating to their topic.

For example those whose interest is in railroads and trains, may also collect tickets, menus and memorabilia from the railways of interest.

I collect many themes, but one of my favourite topicals is the use of flowers as theme or motif representing a celebration.

Let's consider two common ones: the rose and the daisy. The Rose has several meanings, depending on the colour presented. 

 

 

Pink signifies friendship. This card is as likely to be sent from woman to woman, friend or family, perhaps just as a reminder of friendship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

while red indicates passionate love. There is little doubt that a gentleman would have sent this card to his betrothed or hopeful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The common daisy is a reference to Innocence. Often the daisy is accompanied by a beautiful child.

 

 

 

Do you feel or sense these intangibles when you view the attached images?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Meaning of Flowers is associated with Victorian times, when communication was less by words and more symbolic, using gestures to indicate emotion. Several postcard illustrators became famous for their botanical illustration Kate Greenaway actually illustrated The Language of Flowers. 

 

 

Catherine Klein became synonymous with her renderings of fruit and flowers, using them as portrait subjects rather than bearers of messages. Her roses are shown left on a signed card.

Did you Know?

Did you know?

Having come a full year around the calendar with birth month flowers, this month I thought I would make a short plug for a relatively new fruit to the global cuisine.

We don’t usually associate the Cactus family with food provisions, but the  pitaya, is a notable exception. Popular in Asia, from China to Thailand and probably further, the fruit is actually a North American native. Pitaya or dragon fruit is native to the arid regions of Mexico and further south, and introduced to Asia by the Europeans who brought it back from the New World. This climbing cactus flowers at night.

In our supermarkets we generally have the white-fleshed Hylocereus undatus, or White-fleshed Pitaya. It is delicious and refreshing, although some may call it bland. With its crunchy dark seeds it reminds me of a kiwi fruit in appearance with the mild watery sweetness of a melon. Wonderful addition to a smoothy, they are also quite fine peeled and scooped from red flaky rind that surrounds the edible pulp.

In other places there is a red-fleshed pitaya, native to Costa Rica which has been called pitaya dulce and the Yellow Pitaya which is actually white within, yellow on the outside.

Carnations to enjoy for January and make!

Carnations to make and enjoy!

January’s birth flower is the carnation. This popular flower for arrangements is associated with love, fascination and distinction. The flowers, particularly the red ones have also been associated with May Day and the Labour Movement, or even socialism. This connection evolved into the wearing of carnations on Mothers Day, celebrated in the US and Canada on the second Sunday. Traditionally one would wear a white carnation if Mother had passed on or red if Mother is still alive.

The Latin name of the carnation is Dianthus caryophyllus, as given by Theophrastus and refers to Dios, divine and anthos, flower.

Many of us will remember the handmade Kleenex carnations that decorated many a gift and bridal party cars when we were youth. For those wishing to instruct others, the instructions are:

Supplies:

    Tissues – I used 3 ply for extra fluffy flowers
    Bobby pins
    Markers
    Scissors
    Floral tape
    Dollar store fake flowers if you want to make a bouquet

First, layer 2-4 tissues on top of each other.  I used 3 per flower because I had three ply. Then fold them accordion style, push a bobby pin over the center.  Next pinch of the ends.  I left about 2 inches on each side, but you can make any size you want.  Then take a marker and color the ends. (Optional).

Now starting at the top, pull each layer of the tissue apart until it is at the center.  Be careful not to tear the tissue. Work your way down the side until you reach the bottom, and then repeat on the other side.  Then fluff.

Then repeat…a bunch of times.  This is where the hours of busy time come into play!

It is also optional to pick up some stems of greenery from the dollar store. Expose the tips by cutting away the top leaves. Attach one carnation per stem with floral tape after first attaching the flower to the bobby pin, then to the naked tip.

Similar flowers can be made of coloured tissue paper. Stack 4-6 pieces of tissue cut into 8inch squares and follow instructions above.

There are many vids on youtube to assist with making these. A quick search will show you using 'kleenex' and 'carnations'.

December's flower, the Narcissus

 

December is represented by the Narcissus in The Language of Flowers. It reflects respect, modesty and faithfulness.


 







 If we go back further in time, to the origin of the name Narcissus,   we learn that the Greek myth claims Narcissus as the beautiful hunter who fell in love with his own image in a pool of water. Apparently he was attracted to the pool of water by Nemesis and was so enamoured by his reflection that he couldn't leave it and died there. Hence we have narcissicism, which according to wikipedia is a fixation with oneself.


The Christmas association with the poinsetta originated in Mexico in the 1500s, where this Euphorbia grows in the wild. The American horticultural industry's use of poinsetta is tied to the development of grafting techniques in the early 1900s.
For those wishing to grow the plants after the holiday season, "the poinsettia can be induced to reflower after the initial display when purchased. The red blooms should be pruned, and the plant moved outdoors after the last frost. It should be returned indoors in the Fall, before the first frost, to a room which is not lighted after sunset. The plant requires a period of uninterrupted long, dark nights for around two months in autumn in order to develop flowers. Incidental light at night during this time will hamper flower production. When watering it is important to allow the plant to drain out any excess water. Having a poinsettia sit in water can do harm to the plant as it prefers moist soil to direct water."

quotes from Wikipedia.

who am I?

I’m a botanist by profession and a natural history conservationist by birth.  My feet have taken me through almost 3000 kilometers of Nova Scotia’s back country. I’ve skirted the shores of more than150 lakes in the province, surrounded by a dazzling array of flora and fauna.

Even with my duties as Curator of Botany at the Nova Scotia Museum, I am still amazed at the huge number of plant species existing in this tiny province. Do you know we have 1640 different plant species in Nova Scotia?  I’m on a first-name basis with just about all of them, and I know where they live. That’s the botanist in me.

The conservationist in me says something else. People have a way of affecting plant species in a big way.  For example, about a third of all the plant species found in Nova Scotia were brought here by people from other places in the world over the centuries of settlement  A third of all of our plant species are rare or at risk because of the activities of people and development of the land. Nova Scotia is in danger of losing these plant species forever.

That’s why I do what I do.  To me, our natural history is one of the biggest reasons people have chosen our province as a place to bring their families for the last 500 years.  It’s a reason Nova Scotia was a home to ancestors of the Mi’kmaq almost 10,500 years before that.  We and the people before us were and are completely tied to Nova Scotia’s unusual climate and geography, a natural habitat the like of which exists nowhere else in Canada.

That’s why it is so important to understand more about ways to conserve the plants found here.

As Curator of Botany, my work involves documenting and caring for the Nova Scotia’s Museum collection of plant specimens.  For more than 150 years, the plant life of the province has been carefully recorded, studied, and preserved by curators at the museum so that researchers today and tomorrow can understand what existed in the past, what exists here now, and explore ways to preserve their existence for tomorrow.

The study of botany is....organic. It never ends, and lives and grows like the plant life I study.  The museum constantly adds new information to the precious provincial collection, and wherever possible supports researchers in their quest to know all there is to know about plant life in Nova Scotia.

The result is a plant archive gathered over a very long time. It is accessible to the researchers, scientists, educators, and others who use them for study and understanding toward conservation of all of the plant species found here.

To conserve Nova Scotia’s plant heritage, I work on many projects with other conservationists within government and from private sector. I’ve also helped develop strategies to protect particular species under threat. The Eastern Mountain-avens (Geum peckii) and the Thread-leaved Sundew (Drosera filiformis). are “Red-listed” vascular species found nowhere else in Canada, but southwestern Nova Scotia. Low population numbers and size, plus proposed industry have increased the risk of extinction to these species.

From 1988 until 1996 I reviewed and revised the1969 publication The Flora of Nova Scotia (Roland and Smith).  The resulting publication was titled Roland’s Flora of Nova Scotia, revised by Marian Zinck.   In 2006, I started production of an ebook on Nova Scotia plants, with my friends and mentors, Ruth Newell and Nick Hill. It is nearly 7 years later and we hope to publish in 2014.

To me, conservation of Nova Scotia’s precious plant population depends on having great information to work with, such as the documents and collection at the Nova Scotia Museum.  It depends on continuing to add to that important body of knowledge through ongoing collections and research. And it depends on professionals and non-professionals alike taking time to appreciate, study, and work together to find solutions that will protect Nova Scotia’s diverse plant species for future generations.