Human Flower Project

Friday, March 10, 2006

Arctic Plenty

An energetic Norwegian scholar proposes that the number of plants in the Arctic is many times greater than previously believed.

Woolly Lousewort (Pedicularis dasyantha) Svalbard, Norway
Photo: Michael Haferkamp, from wiki

Living at latitude 30N, where summer starts in late April, we tend to think of the Arctic as blank—nothing but ice, sky, a few white bears, and, somewhere, Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.

So with amazement we read about the research of Hanne Hegre Grundt, a botanist at the University of Oslo. Grundt’s latest article, in Apollon, contends that there are thousands more Arctic plant species than scientists had thought. Previous studies far underestimated the number of species, Grundt discovered, because the Arctic is home to so many “cryptic species.” These are plants that, even to the expert eye, appear identical, but in fact they are genetically so different “that their pairing fails to produce fertile hybrids.”

In other words, a dryas octopetala (Mountain Avens) in Russia may not actually be the same plant as the dryas octopetala in Svalbard, Norway.

Botany in the Arctic region—like so many other endeavors in the world—appears to have been hampered by contradictory research traditions, definitions and “principles,” in this case, “for the determination of plant species.” The Centre for Advanced Study in Norway is working to overcome these intellectual barricades with interdisciplinary research, multinational research teams, and multlilingual reporting.

In the same vein, the Pan Arctic Flora Project brings together botanists from the nine Arctic countries (Norway, Russia, Iceland, Greenland, Sweden, the Faroe Islands, Finland, the USA, and Canada) to collaborate on scientific study.

Hanne Hegre Grundt
Photo: University of Oslo

Cooperative institutions move the project of Arctic plant discovery and conservation forward, but finally the revelations arise through the intellectual industry of scientists—like Hanne Hegre Grundt. While still a grad student, she undertook a rigorous study of draba and wound up discovering that “there may be thousand different biological species” of this plant in the Arctic region.

She writes, “There may be much more diversity in arctic plants than previously believed, and the evolutionary potential may be much greater.” Grundt says the findings also point up “the great discrepancy that may be encountered when using different species concepts (e.g., morphological criteria vs. criteria
related to fertility).”

Grundt’s breakthrough is indicative of Norway’s scholarly vitality in this field. “Whereas the North American and Russian expertise, on the average, is approaching retirement, the Norwegian research environment is seeing a steady influx of new students.” According to the Centre for Advanced Study, “Alaska, Canada, and Denmark/Greenland have fewer students of Arctic botany than Oslo alone…. The trend in the United States and Canada is for students to be attracted to more lucrative studies like biotechnology or agriculture-related subjects, or to purely theoretical courses.”

Here’s yet another example of how the scope of human cultures can either see or miss whole galaxies of flowers.

Check out this more detailed abstract of H.H. Grundt’s new report. And if you, too, thought the Arctic was frozen solid, we recommend this lovely guide to the Flora of Svalbard, from wikipedia.

 

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Florists, Let’s See Your Signatures

The hotshots of the Philadelphia Flower Show and a Japanese design school highlight the personal styles of desginers. Could hometown florists do the same?

Bouquet by Miho
Photo: Flora

In the art museum, there’s a crowd in front of the piece by Piero della Francesca, but if the wall label reads “School of Piero della Francesca,” no matter the quality of the painting, people generally walk right by. Because we value the individual—and relish evidence of his or her hand—the artwork with sure attribution is nearly always more compelling than an anonymous piece from the same period.

The guys of Life3
matching black t-shirts
but distinctive styles of floral design
Photo: Life3

So what about flowers and floral design? Wouldn’t our enjoyment of them, too, be enhanced if there were names, recognizable styles and reputations attached to arrangements? We think so.

This year’s Philadelphia Flower Show,  the oldest and toniest such event in the U.S., features Life3, a partnership of darling European designers.

Design by Tomas de Bruyne
Photo: Life3

Like Harpo, Groucho and Chico, the threesome has enhanced collective worth by exploiting individual differences. Check out the gallery on the Life3 website and look at their designs side by side. Per Benjamin’s arrangements tend to be axial and strong on color, mixing shades of red with purple and cerise pink. Max van de Sluis gravitates toward pendant shapes with a much softer palette. Tomas de Bruyne’s arrangements are more like installations, combining flowers with all sorts of non-floral objects—like this intergalactic hairdryer(?).

We know that many flower shops are struggling along today—as internet retailers and supermarkets swallow their market. Couldn’t a hometown florist do what Life3 has done—encourage its designers toward stylistic originality and then show customers a range of signature designs? Some of you florists may already be trying this approach. If so, please let us know how it’s working for you.

Lest you think it takes a huge marketing budget or flashy graphics to communicate signature styles, take a look at this wonderful site from Flora, a Japanese school of floral design. Beginning with a set piece—a bouquet, a Christmas decoration or an oval arrangement—designers (we don’t know if they’re students or professionals) follow through, and we see the results side by side. This kind of presentation illuminates the choices florists make—their talents and tastes—and invites us, deliciously, to discover our own floral preferences, too.

“Epaulette Corsage,” by Mami
Photo: Flora

We’d love to see such design comparison from local florists! How much more fun—and reassuring—it would be to order a bouquet by Miho, knowing the colors will be unexpected and boldly combined. Or, oh my, how about one of these “epaulet corsages” by Mami??!!

The Marxists may call it fetishism—and they may be right—but we can’t help sensing magic when we can see authorship, whether in the placid expressions of Rafael or the surprising color schemes of Miho. Just as the museum goer will walk through several galleries to find the sure Piero, we’d be more likely to spring for a Miho bouquet—a name and an eye, as well as a flower.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Hummingbirds - Who Needs a Watch?

As flowers refill with nectar, hummingbirds keep time.

Rufous hummingbirds (this one, in Mexico City) can schedule meals at up to eight flower “kitchens” at once.
Photo: Omar Torres, for AFP

“Is that bloom worth visiting again right now?”

Scientists from the universities of Edinburgh and Lethbridge have found that hummingbirds answer that question correctly many times each day.  Amazing research in the Canadian Rockies—published today in Current Biology—has shown that rufous hummingbirds can time when to return to a flower—when a plant will have produced enough new nectar to make a blossom a meal. And all without television advertising or snooze alarms.

In the work of nectar harvesting, to come back to the same flower too soon is a waste of energy; there won’t be anything to drink. But if a hummingbird waits too long, it’s likely another hummer will have drained the replenished blossom. Hummingbirds need to keep time, and they do.

“Not only were the hummingbirds able to remember how long it had been since they had last emptied a flower, but they could also keep track of the time since the last visit to eight different flowers, and could continue to do this through the course of a day. In essence, these birds can maintain, over long periods of time, at least eight independent stopwatches, each of which is started by a visit to a particular flower and is reset when the bird next empties that flower.”

Experiments on animals’ capacities for “interval timing” have taken place in the lab. But Susan Healy and Andrew Hurly found that hummingbirds in the wild were more skillful timekeepers than captives. They conclude that non-human animals may, like some of us, be “planners.” What’s more, according to one psychologist, “There’s long been speculation that only people have a memory for unique personal experiences” which he says indicates “a sense of self. If future experiments show that hummingbirds can also keep track of the quality or type of nectar, they could challenge the view that only humans have this sense.”

We hope the botanists will step up to this fascinating challenge (or perhaps they already have). For it seems unlikely to us that timing is one-sided. Maybe flowers that refill their nectar at regular intervals switch on neon signs or shout every twenty minutes: “Come and Get It!”

 

Monday, March 06, 2006

Flowers of the Silver Screen

Can the name of a movie star glorify a rose, or is it the other way around?

Henry Fonda (the actor)

With this year’s Oscars passed out (and, likely, many of the losers and winners, too), “Cary Grant” and “Audrey Hepburn” are just beginning to come on in the garden.

The naming of flowers for movie actors and actresses reaches back to the era of Hollywood’s big studio stars: to wit, roses named for Audrey, Cary, “Elizabeth Taylor,” and “Grace Kelly,” but to our knowledge no “Johnny Depp” or “Charlize.”

“Marilyn Monroe” was developed by hybridizer Tom Carruth, “who bred it specifically to honor the world’s most famous blonde. Since it was well known that Marilyn had a preference for pastel colors, Tom was assured that the actress would have adored this creamy soft apricot creation.”

Because the marketing of new rose cultivars has been larger-scale and more profitable than introductions of the latest viola or peony, most Hollywood flowers are hybrid teas, though not all. For example, “Bob Hope” has to his credit a red camellia, showy but odorless. 

Henry Fonda (the rose)

It’s all very well for nurserymen to hitch their wagons to stars, but gardeners are fairly headstrong people. They tend to call plants what they wish. My mother has a perfectly lovely “Henry Fonda” rose in her garden, but my father, who turns 92 today, thinks this an unseemingly name for a flower and calls it without fail “The Yellow Rose of Texas.”

One recent shot at celebrity naming is Meilland’s “Liv Tyler” rose, created for Givenchy Perfumes. This is triple-piggy-backing—since ” the young and beautiful american movie star (who) charms everyone with her modern and luminous beauty” is also “the face” of Givenchy’s perfume “Very Irresistible.” In 2005, there was a brief flurry of PR about the Liv Tyler rose, though the flower won’t be available in the US until 2007. We didn’t spot Liv at last night’s Oscars. Will she still be “irresistible” a year from now?

Recently, we’ve noted a counter-current in the magic intercourse between movie stars and flowers. Ben Affleck has just named his daughter “Violet,” and of course Gwynneth Paltrow has her “Apple.” Possibly some actors sense that beloved plants may outlast personal celebrity—and so have snitched this marketing trick from the breeder/horticulturists. Rather than the nurserymen’s selling new varieties of flowers by linking them to movie stars, the stars may be selling themselves (and their offspring) by naming them for flowers and fruits.

For those plant breeders casting about for ideas, we think “Carrie Snodgrass” would make a fine name for a pink dianthus. And for a new variety of coconut palm, how about “Kenau Reeves”? While we’re not aware of any flower yet named for a film editor, “Hughes Winborne,” this year’s Oscar winner in that category, suggests a variegated poppy. Congratulations, Hughes!