Archives: December2009

• Greyia radlkoferi

  

  Lindsay Bourque is today’s author:

  Thank you to Nhu Nguyen, aka xerantheum@Flickr, for submitting today’s photo (original image | Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool)!

  Greyia radlkoferi is a riparian species occurring mainly in the mist-belt mountains of Swaziland and eastern South Africa (the provinces of Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal). Cultivated as a popular garden plant in warm temperate and subtropical parts of the world, it is commonly known as woolly or Natal bottlebrush. Greyia has been confusing taxonomically, and has at various times been placed in Saxifragaceae, Sapindaceae, and Greyiaceae. It is currently placed in the Melianthaceae.

  The etymology for this particular species is clear, however, with the genus Greyia being named for Sir George Grey (1812-1898), explorer and colonial governor of South Australia, the Cape Colony (present day South Africa) and New Zealand. The specific epithet honours Ludwig Radlkofer (1829-1927!), Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanical Museum in Munich.

• TOP TEN PHOTO GALLERIES: Most Viewed of 2009

  See National Geographic News’s most popular photo galleries of 2009, starring a fish with a see-through head, seven major missing links since Darwin, glowing animals, ten failed apocalypses, and more.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• World’s Smallest Orchid Discovered (By Accident)

  It’s nearly see-through and only about as wide as a nickel is thick—no wonder it took an orchid expert months to notice the gem right under his nose.