After the Czech Republic, our next stop took us all the way across Germany by train, to Bonn, where we visited the
University of Bonn's Botanical Garden. They have a wonderful collection and let us choose plants in the garden to sample from; they actually did all the work once we had identified the plants we wanted, which made our job there easy. We spent some time in the greenhouses, where they had a wonderful collection of
Salvinia, one of only five genera of water ferns (Salviniales).
Salvinia has very interesting, complex hair-like structures on the top surfaces of the leaves. Their purpose isn't entirely understood, but they are thought to maintain a layer of air on the top surface of the leaf that may help the leaves remain dry and/or shed water if they get flooded. You can see these hairs in the first photo, of
Salvinia molesta.
 |
| Salvinia molesta |
 |
| Salvinia molesta (big) and Salvinia minima (right) |
 |
| Salvinia cucullata |
 |
| Salvinia biloba |
 |
| Salvinia oblongifolia |
Some beautiful aquatic non-ferns...
 |
| Nymphoides aurantiaca |
 |
| Ludwigia sedioides |
The garden was full of these wonderful animal sculptures. This was near the end of the trip so the alligator/crocodile reminded us of home!
No comments:
Post a Comment