Victoria amazonica
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| Victoria amazonica | ||||||||||||||
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 Illustration by Walter Fitch
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| Victoria amazonica Sowerby |
Victoria amazonica is a species of flowering plant, the largest of the Nymphaeaceae family of water lilies.
The species has very large leaves, up to 3 m in diameter, that float on the water's surface on a submerged stalk, 7–8 m in length. The species was once called Victoria regia after Queen Victoria, but the name was superseded. V. amazonica is native to the shallow waters of the Amazon River basin, such as oxbow lakes and bayous. It is depicted in the Guyanese coat of arms. The flowers are white the first night they are open and become pink the second night. They are up to 40 cm in diameter, and are pollinated by beetles.
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[edit] History
Reflected in the water,
Beloved, admired by hearts and eyes,
Stands Annie, Paxton's daughter..."
Victoria regia, as it was named, was once the subject of rivalry between Victorian gardeners in England. Always on the look out for a spectacular new species with which to impress their peers, Victorian "Gardeners"[1] such as the Duke of Devonshire, and the Duke of Northumberland started a well-mannered competition to become the first to cultivate and bring to flower this enormous lily. In the end, the two aforementioned Dukes became the first to achieve this, Joseph Paxton (for the Duke of Devonshire) being the first in November 1849 by replicating the lily's warm swampy habitat (not easy in winter in England with only coal-fired boilers for heating), and a "Mr Ivison" the second and more constantly successful (for Northumberland) at Syon House.
The Duke of Devonshire presented Queen Victoria with one of the first of these flowers, and named it in her honour. The lily, with ribbed undersurface and leaves veining "like transverse girders and supports", was Paxton's inspiration for The Crystal Palace, a building four times the size of St. Peter's in Rome.[2]
[edit] Image gallery
 Leaf of Victoria amazonica |
 Flower of Victoria amazonica. |
 Victoria amazonica |
 Victoria amazonica at the Botanical Garden of Jena |
[edit] Brazil's legend
Legend has it that, a long time ago, the Tupis-Guaranis, indigenous people from Northern Brazil, told that every night, when the moon got hidden down behind the hills far in horizon, it was going to live together with its favorite young ladies. They used to say that, if the moon could like one single girl, so it would become her into a star of the sky.
One princess, Pajé's daughter, - Pajé is the main man of the indigenous people - she got impressed with that story. Then, at night, when everybody was sleeping and the moon traveling across the sky, the princess wanted pretty much to be a star, and she walked up to the hills and chased the moon, hoping the moon could sight her down there, up in the hills. And so she could do, every night, for long, long time.
But the moon seemed not to notice her and, the crying of the princess could be heard in the distance, so her sadness and sighs as well.
At one night, the indigenous princess saw, in the clear waters of one lake, the image of the moon. The innocent girl wondered the moon had come down to take her along, and she jumped in the deep waters, and she was never seen again.
The moon, in return of the beautiful princess's sacrifice, wanted to become her into a different star, different from the ones whose light was up in the sky.
So, the moon became the princess into a "Star of the Waters", whose flower is the "Vitória Régia".
Then, a new plant was born, whose scented white flowers get blossomed and unfasten at night only. And, when the sun appears in the early mornings, the flowers changed their colors in soft pink.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Media related to Victoria amazonica from the Wikimedia Commons.
Information related to Victoria amazonica from Wikispecies.- "Victoria Adventure" - A website dedicated to this lily
- An Article from the Gardener's Chronicle
[edit] References
- ^ In reality they did little or no actual gardening at all, but employed talented horticulturalists such as Joseph Paxton (for Devonshire) and the forgetten Mr Ivison (for Northumberland) to run their estates and gardens.
- ^ H. Peter Loewer. The Evening Garden: Flowers and Fragrance from Dusk Till Dawn. Timber Press, 2002. ISBN 0-88192-532-2. Page 130.
