April 6, 2021 The ‘Plant for Peace, Johann Zinn, California Poppy Day, North With the Spring, Happy Orchid by Sara Rittershausen, and the Florida botanist Alvan Chapman
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Botanical History
1759 The anniversary of the death of Johann Gottfried Zinn, the German botanist and anatomist who died at the young age of 32. Despite his brief life, Zinn made significant contributions in two seemingly distinct fields: human anatomy and botany.
2010 The annual celebration known as California Poppy Day, honors the golden poppy (Eschscholzia californica), the state flower of California. Its botanical name honors Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, a Russian ship’s doctor whose colleague discovered the flower in the San Francisco Bay area. The poppy has many nicknames reflecting its fiery color and delicate habits—including the flame flower, “la amapola,” and “copa de oro,” or cup of gold. It closes its petals at night or in poor weather, leading Spaniards to call it “Dormidera,” or sleepyhead.
Unearthed Words
Naturalist Edwin Way Teale poetically captures the unstoppable advance of spring across landscapes: moving fifteen miles a day across the U.S., climbing mountainsides by a hundred feet daily, a flood racing down valleys and surging over hills, something we may only partially perceive but which relentlessly reshapes the world each year.
Grow That Garden Library
Read my review of Happy Orchid by Sara Rittershausen, a beautifully illustrated guide from a celebrated orchid specialist, teaching how to care for orchids and help them flourish. With practical advice on watering, feeding, and environment, this 144-page book is a treasure for orchid lovers and gardeners seeking vibrant blooms.
Buy the book on Amazon: Happy Orchid by Sara Rittershausen
Today's Botanic Spark
1899 The botanist and doctor Alvan Wentworth Chapman died after a lifelong passion for Florida’s flora, authoring Flora of the Southern United States and exploring wild landscapes with vigor into old age. Chapman's name lives on in plants like the Chapman oak and Chapman rhododendron, with his legacy honored at the Chapman Botanical Garden in Apalachicola.
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