Stephen Spitewinter

#plants #botany #history #art 🌼

It's Friday in the UK. Have a good weekend and do something different, if you can 🙂

CHARLES GINNER, A.R.A. (1878-1952)
Doran's Farm, Mourne Mountains
Oils on canvas .1930

The Ancient Origins of Apple Cider The classic fall drink has a boozy history going back thousands of years

Malus domestica - Cultivated Apple (Cider)

Links
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cider

www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture...

Illustration by Guillot, 1904

#plants #history #botany #art
Malus domestica - Cultivated Apple (Cider)

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Pomme Isidore Dupont, possibly from the Dupont cider domain. Apples were used for cider production as a reliable and sterile drink long before the dessert apple was bred. Recorded by Roman armies in Britain c 55BCE.

#plants #trees #botany #history #art 🌳

Fagus.sylvatica - European Beech

Beech fruits erratically. In a 'Mast' year it produces a glut of nuts which were treasured by Medieval villagers who drove pigs into the autumn woods to fatten on them.

Background:
www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-...

#plants #gardening #vegetables #food 🍅

Books that are worth reading if you're new to gardening:

The Kitchen Gardener by Alan Titchmarsh. You can buy a good used copy on line for less than £5/$5 with free delivery.

Alan's philosophy - "Plants want to grow – it's up to us not to get in their way"

#plants #history #botany #art 🌱

It turns out that I have the New Improved Version of Covid. Oooooh... I may go back to bed soon. (Or after I've made a couple of posts.) Have a good day😷

#plants #botany #gardening #art 🌱

Dryopteris filix-mas syn. Aspidium - Male/Basket/Shield Fern.

I haven't paid much attention to ferns in the past. Here's a green, graceful example common to the N. Hemisphere. Likes the damp, shady places that need some life.

RHS:
www.rhs.org.uk/plants/11446...

Quercus suber L. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science The native range of this species is W. & Central Medit. It is a tree and grows primarily in the temperate biome.

I don't know it but quite possible. Take a look at the Kew Distribution Map (link) you'll see that Q. suber is strictly W. Mediterranean, centred on Iberian Peninsula, where it has adapted to the climate. If still there, seen any plantations in California?

powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:ls...

You got the identity correct then.

Well, you certainly got some attention. Local authority or DEFRA?

#plants #history #botany #art 🌱

I hope that you've had a safe and refreshing weekend. I'm taking shelter in my study in the early hours - I have family visiting and I'm keeping my head down. 🙂

I may repost today's stuff later because I have no idea how it will cope with time zones.

#plants #trees #history #botany #art 🌳

Quercus suber - Cork Oak

Another talented plant, this time making a come-back after a lean spell. After corks were largely abandoned by the wine industry, cork has found new uses in biodegradable construction materials.

www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

#history #USA

For our American Friends...

This weekend the forgotten graves of two Englishmen who fought for the Union were marked with Arlington Headstones in Derby 🇬🇧.

Rest in Peace,
Samuel Hough, 2nd New Jersey Cavalry,
Henry McGuinness, 65th New York Infantry.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

#bees #hornets
Well done. Good observation. Let's keep on top the little bastards.

Thank you. I'm here to find interesting stuff.

If you have a quiet weekend open my profile and look through my posts. Not every plant known to man is as multi-talented as Flax but you can find some pretty good ones.

[Scene is ANCIENT GREECE - where SOCRATES and PLATO and others are sitting round, thinking] 1 SOCRATES: Plato.. PLATO: Yes Socrates? 2 SOCRATES: Can you tell me, are you human? PLATO: Why… yes, Socrates 3 SOCRATES: And would you agree, Plato, that a human knows what a chariot is? PLATO: Um, yep 4 SOCRATES: So you can tell me, then 5 [Socrates produces a papyrus, showing a drawing of the corner of a chariot wheel] SOCRATES: *Is that a chariot*? 6 PLATO: Well that’s more just a bit of wheel 7 SOCRATES: So not a *chariot*. PLATO: No. 8 SOCRATES: [Producing another papyrus with the full drawing of the chariot, chopped into boxes] So if a man were challenged to “tap the boxes containing chariots to prove you’re human” when he was just trying to check his ClubCard points... *where could he tap*? 9 PLATO: Well you can’t tap any of them really 10 SOCRATES: So are we not human? PLATO: ‘Spose not. 11 [Bleak pause] 12 PLATO: I’ll get the hemlock SOCRATES: Yeah [ends]

#plants #botany #history #art

The First Friday of October. Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Get out and about this weekend - but let's be careful out there. 🙂

I'll look for something interesting to post on Monday.

Josif Krachkovskii (1854-1914)
Autumn c1904
Oils on Canvas

Roma tomato - Wikipedia

Solanum lycopersicum - Cultivated Tomatoes.

I usually grow a variety called 'Roma'. They're small, good for cooking, open pollinated and not hard work.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_to...

They do need a cage or frame to hold them up. Make your own works for me:
getbusygardening.com/sturdy-tomat...

Solanum lycopersicum, cultivated tomatoes, Grønne Florilegium, around 1650.

#plants #history #botany #food #vegetables

Solanum lycopersicum - Cultivated Tomato

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Tthinking about things to grow on the back yard next year. We have a bucket garden at the back wall and bush tomatoes can do well there.

A history of Tomatoes:
herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/plants40...

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#plants #botany #history #art 🌱
Linum usitatissimum - Flax

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An all-time super-useful plant. You can eat it (Flax seeds), waterproof with it (Linseed Oil), dress in it (Linen) and make a resilient floor covering from it (Linoleum).

My lino floors have survived children and dogs for 25 years.🙂

Flax

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Links
Herbaria
herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/plants40...
Linen
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linen
Forbo, still making Lino
www.forbo.com/flooring/en-...

#plants #botany #history #art 🌱
Linum usitatissimum - Flax

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An all-time super-useful plant. You can eat it (Flax seeds), waterproof with it (Linseed Oil), dress in it (Linen) and make a resilient floor covering from it (Linoleum).

My lino floors have survived children and dogs for 25 years.🙂

Let's be careful out there :)

This is interesting. Do you think that the leaf shape and spacing, and the petal array proportions, look like the original Helianthus giganteus? It grows right down the Eastern Seaboard from Canada to S.Carolina and down into the Plains through Minnesota & Mississippi. Is that your home range?

#plants #botany #history #art 🌼

Good morning all (or whatever time of day it is where you are). I hope you had a pleasant weekend.

#plants #history #botany #art 🌼

Nymphaea gigantea Hook - Giant or Blue Water Lily

Native to N. & W. #Australia, has been reported in #NewGuinea but I can't verify that. Range of colours but usually illustrated in its striking blue or purple habits.

This illustration Ellis Rowan c1870 - 1921

#Derby #DerbyCityCouncil #History

Vandalism.

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So why has Derby City Council turned it into an empty Astro-turfed desert decorated with a few scatter cushions?

If you can't use it as a commercial centre why not turn it into a Winter Gardens to benefit the City?

#Derby #DerbyCityCouncil #History

Vandalism.

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This is what Derby Market Hall 🇬🇧 used to be. A crowded, bustling arena of island stalls in a cast iron and glass Victorian palace.

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Have a good weekend! (I'll be busy trying to repair my house whilst there's still daylight.)

#plants #orchids #botany #art 🌼

Cattleya - A genus of Orchids native to S. #America, Isthmus of Darien and #Mexico.

Large, colourful, tropical Orchid genus beloved of Wedding Florists. Estimates of 50 - 150 members and hybrids.

NYBG article (Internal links to PT 1)
www.nybg.org/blogs/plant-...