October Flower, October Tree

A couple of difficult choices for me when I visited the Cambridge University's Botanic Garden this month. Flowers are not plentiful in October and some of those that are still blooming look a bit sad after all the rain we've been having in the last week or two. Trees, on the other hand, gave me the opposite problem: lots of them are now beginning to get autumn colour.

Cornish Lily, Guernsey Lily or Cape Flower - Nerine bowdenii

These lovely flowers brought a small explosion of colour at the entrance to the Glasshouse Range. The names are misleading; it doesn't come from Cornwall, or Guernsey, and it's not a lily. Cape flower is a better name as it is a native of southern Africa.

The bulbs were first sent back to the UK by Athelstan Cornish-Bowden, so that's where the Cornish bit comes from, though the scientific name comes from the other element of his double-barrelled name. Bowden Lily is also sometimes used. 

It's actually a member of the Amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae), which also includes, along with Amaryllis of course, daffodils, alliums, agapanthus and a whole host of what seem like very different plants.

Like the familiar Amaryllis it grows from a huge bulb, though it's much more reluctant to flower, needing ideally to be left undisturbed for a few years. I presume these are stored away somewhere in the Botanic Garden and just brought out when they are about to flower.

According to Wikipedia the bulbs contain chemicals which may prove useful in the treatment of Altzheimer's disease. Lets hope it does.


Transcaucasian Birch - Betula medwediewii

At first I thought I'd choose one of the spectacular autumn trees growing around the lake (we'll save them for another post). Then I remembered the birch grove which always has the look of a pointillist painting, dotted with golden leaves, at this season. But when I got there I saw the tree in the photo above, which piqued my curiosity.

"What the hell is that?" said my curiosity. Birch trees don't grow like that, do they? Well, most of the hundred-odd species of them don't. They grow like regular trees, like this....

The Transcaucasian Birch is a rare and endangered tree. There is a cultivar of it which is grown in gardens, but the original, sprawling growth-habit is rarely seen. It's an uncommon tree throughout its natural range in Georgia, Armenia and Iran. It's slow growing and of little economic value. It's not much grown in gardens, though apparently it can be trained to grow like a normal tree - but why not grow one of the other birches which do so naturally?

I rather like the way that it tries to go in several unexpected directions at once and almost ties itself in knots in doing so - but then, I've spent my life doing that!

Take care.