May Plantbank Residency + Workshop, 2015.

Apologies for the disappearance of the images at this post... and no doubt at other posts. 

Not spending much time blogging these days I have possibly lost track of where images are stored and downloaded. Other sites I've downloaded images to have not presented a problem. Will see what can be done!

Sophie Munns

On Monday I commenced a 2.5 week residency at Plantbank, located at The Australian Botanic Garden Mt Annan in SW Sydney.

Diversity wall at PLantbanks Foyer.

This follows an intensely rewarding residency conducted here at virtually the same time last year. The drive from Brisbane was a drawn out over three days to visit friends along the way and take in the landscape of NSW where I grew up and lived for many years. 

Saturday night stopover in Newcastle.

Yesterday was a series of lively conversations, catching up with familiar people, settling in to onsite accommodation & creating a workspace in the Plantbank Staff work area which is expansive and has wonderful natural light streaming in.

Seed-collecting shelf next to my work desk at Plantbank ... looking out to the Garden.

I managed to fit in a two hour walk in the Connections Gardens seed collecting and taking photos in the afternoon but last night by 6.30pm I was ready for a simple dinner in the Residency flat & catching a couple of TV programs, too tired to even write on my laptop.

Today was more conversations, reading material and another quick trip to find seedpods.

Sophora tomentosa found today in the Wattle Garden.

Near the staff Kitchen at Plantbank I set up a drawing table and placed a large sheet of paper, sepia ink, seed pods and twigs for drawing implements. Everyone is invited to contribute to this #BigSeedDrawing.

After a few staff had dropped by and made a start of this communal Seed drawing which will be completed by the time I leave.

Gum blossom

Gum blossoms via Instagram and Apps.

Callerya megasperma found Monday in the Garden.

From Plantbank Seed Material

Gmelina leichardtii .... found in the Gardens on Monday.

You can follow the residency through extensive posts with images on my

 FACEBOOK PAGE:  Homage to the Seed

or 

at TWITTER: https://twitter.com/sophiemunns

Instagram will also have some posts.

https://instagram.com/sophiemunns/

READ ABOUT THE WORKSHOP HERE:

Add caption

I'm here till May 27th. Look out for the Workshop details on May 23 + 24... places left if you are local!  

MORE INFO HERE AT EVENT PAGE.

Cheerio,

       Sophie

Local focus

Since moving house recently Ive been enjoying seeing Brisbane from a slightly different angle. No longer on the side of a large hill close to the Brisbane River in a suburb with white painted Queenslanders renovated to perfection Ive moved 10 or 15 minutes further out from the city and have two creeks not so far away to go explore in a suburb that is a more of a mix of post WWII homes and contemporary homes, with less trees and gardens on the whole then where I was living.

However the renewal of local creeks by active catchment groups and volunteers means that these areas are bringing birds and waterways back to life I'm pleased to say. 

Today I caught up with Denise whom I met in 2009 when working in the Seed Lab at Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens. I wrote a post on Denise in 2010 and its been one of the most visited posts on this blog incidentally.

Denise at the Seed lab in 2010

These photos were taken by Denise and included in the earlier post:

Sterculia quadrifida - the peanut tree is native in this region and edible, striking easily from seed and is also known to be fast growing. Interested in planting it? Its perfectly suited to this region but bear in mind it does grow to 18 metres! The pods are spectacular and the black seeds are the edible bit. Its available in local council nurseries.

Acacia mangium still in its pod (top photo) and separated (underneath). If you observe closely these have an amazing yellow cord - like an umbilical cord almost - linking black seeds to pods. It zig zags out if you carefully unravel it! Denise notes its very strong smell and says a mask is required for cleaning. She points out some acacia have a soft seed coat and are easy to release...others need hot water and prying open. 

She's been volunteering at a number of sites over the last 10 years... and today took me to the one closest to her home in the Kedron Avenues... named Bennelong.

We trecked around in the midday sun and I got a great introduction to the area she knows so well having spent one day a week over ten year coming down to work here as if it were her back-yard garden.

I took samples of various finds home to my studio... love these red quandong leaves and the stalks from Lomandra grasses which Denise gave m a full introduction to on request today. More on that another time! Tonight I'm doing a very quick post!

Lomandra seeds which I am going to grow ... images in the background are from a book we were looking at on local species.

Loved these spectacular leaves from the Quandong tree with their amazing insect trails which characteristically are to be found wherever there is a tree at this stage in its cycle.

I painted the fruit of these trees in 2009 and find them stunning with their blue skinned fruit and bright green flesh ... and the bright red and bright green leaves. Different varieties have other coloured fruits but in eastern Qld I have certainly come across the blue Quandongs quite frequently.

The photo below was taken at Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens and the painting above was done in acrylic and inks on the oval canvas. 

I will be back sometime with more on a local project.

And warm thanks to Denise for taking me seed-collecting today! All volunteers welcomed by the way!

Seed collecting in Cairns

Seed collecting.... well actually seed pods, Rainforest fruits, whatever might contain seeds!

The Garden staff here at the Botanic Gardens in Cairns have been doing a great job of saving things for me. Yesterday I went to pick up yet another batch and was stunned to see huge pandanus cluster that was impossible to lift virtually. These ones below however were as light as can be.

Note the seeds are actually rather small ...yet they case friction as the pod develops so that the marking is much larger than the seeds that nestle in the pods.

I will come back with the species name ... I've photographed these before and should know.

I had a lot of fun arranging them...  always love the patterns to be found in nature!

the curling pod is still closed, as are the other brown pods.

Endless inspiration... I have downloaded so many seed images over the last few years... 

great material for drawing. Alas... there is never enough time!

This red seed is used in jewellery making extensively. I saw two stalls at the market in town yesterday featuring these seeds. They are contained in a pod that explodes open to reveal this bright seed... and the pods themselves curl up into a tangled mess with the seeds curiously often still attached and exposed.

The image below comes from WIKI: Adenanthera pavonina 

From Wiki:

Its beads has long been a symbol of love in China, and its name in Chinese is xiang si dou (Chinese: 相思豆), or "mutual love bean". This tree is useful for nitrogen fixation, and it is often cultivated for forage, as a medicinal plant, and as an ornamental garden plant and urban tree. The beauty of the seeds, their use as beads and for necklace, and their nourishing qualities (the raw seeds are toxic but can be eaten when cooked), have combined to scatter the plant. E. J. H. Corner states that in India, the seeds have been used as far back as history records as units of weight for fine measures, of gold for instance.^[1] The Malay name for the tree, saga, has been traced to the Arabic for 'goldsmith'.

The small, yellowish flower grows in dense drooping rat-tail flower heads, almost like catkins. The curved hanging pods, with a bulge opposite each seed, split open each into two twisted halves to reveal the hard, scarlet seeds. The young leaves can be cooked and eaten. The wood, which is extremely hard, is used in boat-building, making furniture and for firewood.

This tree is used for making soap, ^[2] and a red dye can be obtained from the wood.

High doses of the seed extract show an anti-inflammatory effect in studies in rats and mice.^[3]

[edit]

I recall Jason Halford at Brisbane Botanic Gardens talking about various species that explode open when the temperature/conditions have reached a certain point. It must be something to witness a plant in this process.

So many seeds are well hidden under foliage... walking through gardens or wild habitat requires a keen eye very often!

I've tried to keep my diary current... when documenting one realises how full a day can be. I have really made a point of photographing the growing collection as soon as possible as some of the fruits deteriorate rather quickly!

Seed catalogue archives tell interesting stories...

Ive had a huge time in the studio of late... so posting here has been all too rare.

This morning I came across these seed catalogues from US Archives from as early as 1823... and it got me thinking and off I went on a whole lot of tangents....

Linnaean Garden, William Prince
Catalogue of American Trees, Plants, & Seeds
Flushing, Long Island, NY
1823

Peter Henderson & Co.'s Manual of Everything for the Garden
New York, NY
1885

US NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY

as above

Japanese Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogs  Special Collections of the National Agricultural Library houses a wide variety of seed catalogs from Japan from 1892-1955. Many of the Japanese seed catalogs in the collection were produced by the Yokohama Seed Company, Ltd., which was a consortium of Japanese nursery owners who worked together to export seeds and plants from the 1890s through the early 1920s. The catalogs are treasured for their artistic beauty and are still used by researchers today as evidence of the Japanese seed trade at the turn of the last century. The following catalogs have been digitized in their entirety. Click on a thumbnail to view the englarged image and navigate through each page of the catalog. Iris Kaempferi 18 Best Var. The Yokohama Nursery Co., Ltd. Published: Japan Date: n.d.

FROM WIKI - Pomology (from Latin pomum (fruit) + -logy) is a branch of botany that studies and cultivates pome fruit, particularly from the genera Malus, Prunus and Pyrusbelonging to the Rosaceae. The term is sometimes applied more broadly, to the cultivation of any type of fruit. In the latter case, the denomination fruticulture—introduced from romance languages (from Latin fructus and cultura) —is also used.

Pomological research is mainly focused on the development, cultivation and physiological studies of stone fruit trees. The goals of fruit tree improvement include enhancement of fruit quality, regulation of production periods, and reduction of production cost.

Pomology has been an important area of research for centuries. During the mid-19th century in the United States, farmers were expanding fruit orchard programs in response to growing markets. At the same time, horticulturists from the USDA and agricultural colleges were bringing new varieties to the United States from foreign expeditions, and developing experimental lots for these fruits. In response to this increased interest and activity, USDA established the Division of Pomology in 1886 and named Henry E. Van Deman as chief pomologist. An important focus of the division was to publish illustrated accounts of new varieties and to disseminate research findings to fruit growers and breeders through special publications and annual reports. During this period Andrew Jackson Downingand his brother Charles were prominent in Pomology and Horticulture, producing The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America (1845).^[1]

The introduction of new varieties required exact depiction of the fruit so that plant breeders could accurately document and disseminate their research results. Since the use of scientific photography was not widespread in the late 19th Century, USDA commissioned artists to create watercolor illustrations of newly introduced cultivars. Many of the watercolors were used for lithographic reproductions in USDA publications, such as the Report of the Pomologist and theYearbook of Agriculture.

Today, the collection of approximately 7,700 watercolors is preserved in the National Agricultural Library's Special Collections,^[2] where it serves as a major historic and botanic resource to a variety of researchers, including horticulturists, historians, artists, and publishers.

One involved in the science of Pomology is called a Pomologist. The science of Pomology has somewhat dwindled over the past century, with the number of accredited Pomologists at less than 200 worldwide, 12 of whom are in the US.

The USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection documents fruit and nut varieties developed by growers or introduced by USDA plant explorers around the turn of the 20th century. Technically accurate paintings were used to create lithographs illustrating USDA bulletins, yearbooks, and other series distributed to growers and gardeners across America. 

Fast Facts:

• Time period: 1886 to 1942, with the majority created between 1894 and 1916.
• Content: 7,584 watercolor paintings, lithographs and line drawings, including 3,807 images of apples.
• Fruit origins: The plant specimens illustrated originated in 29 countries and 51 states and territories in the U.S.
• Artists: The paintings were created by approximately twenty-one artists commissioned by USDA for this purpose. Some works are not signed.
• Reproductions: NAL can provide, for a fee, high quality prints and digital files of the images. Please refer to the "Buy Rare and Special Collections Products.".

Punica granatum: Pomegranate

Artist:

Arnold, Mary Daisy, ca. 1873-1955

Scientific name:

Punica granatum

Common name:

pomegranates

Variety:

Pomegranate

Physical description:

1 art original : col. ; 17 x 25 cm.

Specimen:

112569

Year:

1932

Notes on original:

From fruit stand

Date created:

1932-11-17

Rights:

Use of the images in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection is not restricted, but a statement of attribution is required. Please use the following attribution statement: "U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705"

Two interesting stories come with these catalogues found at EDIBLE ETHICS TUMBLR. 

2. D. Landreth Seed Company

© Landreth Seed Company

The recent troubles of the D. Landreth Seed Company, America’s oldest seed companies, were documented by my TreeHugger colleague, Colleen, in the post encouraging you to help save one of America’s Heirloom, Non-GMO Seed Houses.

The company’s financial situation is getting stronger and they’re still a good source of seeds. In particular, their African American Seed Collection, which highlights the culinary history and contributions to American cuisine by the African Diaspora.

Print Catalog: Yes. $5.00. Online ordering: Yes.

3. Kitazawa Seed Company

© Kitazawa Seed Company

The Kitazawa Seed Company was founded in 1917 by Gijiu Kitazawa in a storefront located in downtown San Jose, California. The business was shut down from 1942 to 1945 due to WWII and the family’s internment in Relocation Camps.

After the war the seed company was reopened, but by then many of the company’s customers had relocated across the United States and the company started mailing seeds across America to their customers. Today Kitazawa is a source for many fine Asian varieties of vegetables and herbs. Their simple seed catalog is a pleasant contrast to the glossy and ornate seed catalogs you’re accustomed to and even provides recipes so you can prepare dishes from your harvest.

As for finding catalogues from other parts of the world... I found that a challenge.

Via here

I'll look out for catalogues from other countries... and if you find any... do send word.