Re: Herbal characteristics

[Dana Scott <dfscott@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello GC,

Interesting observation. While origin of plant specimen in the VMS is
certainly of great interest, there are a number of factors that come to
mind. Off the top of my head, the points of the compass so far seem to
range from Finland in the North (f94r  Botrychium lunaria) down to South
Africa (f93r  Protea), West to the New World and East to Australia. Of
course, when and where the plants were collected is significant, since
plants have a tendency to spread over time (very prolific), no doubt
within their own temperate zone, though they may have been collected and
moved from their point of origin by human hands. I am often amazed when
I see certain plants growing in snow covered ground. I have seen charts
that identifiy the natural locations of plants, but they are usually
limited by study area (state/province, country). I have not yet done
this sort of study on a global scale and at this point want to focus my
attention on trying to identify more plants in the VMS before heading
down this path, though I do keep it in the back of my mind. This is a
special study effort and unfortunately, at the moment, I do not have a
good global source for reference of indigenous plants.

Regards,
Dana Scott

GC wrote:

> Dana, I wonder if it's possible to extract another
> piece of information from your identifications
> than we have considered up to now, the latitude of
> the plants in question.
>
> I've read many herbals where they list plants that
> will and will not grow in colder northern
> latitudes but are in Pliny, etc.  They do this to
> suggest substitutes for plants described by the
> ancient writers.  One plant you had identified as
> the Blue Bell of Scotland got me thinking about
> this, since many cold weather plants won't grow in
> places like Greece or Italy, and many Greek and
> Italian plants won't grow in Scotland.  These seem
> like plants the author had handled, and it may be
> a very way to narrow the field.
>
> Can you say off the top of your head if your
> numerous identifications have a restricted
> latitude or region, or is there somewhere you can
> recommend where I can gather this information?
>
> GC