Botanical drawings again!
I mostly drew Nepenthes these last years so it was a pleasure when I've been asked by Redfern Natural History to produce a large set of diagrams to illustrate the morphology of the genus Pinguicula. I have just finished my duty after quite some hours of labour. You will find below a glimpse of my contribution for this forthcoming Pinguicula monography.
The first picture shows a black and white drawing (pencil, ink) of the two most common flower types.
And here is a look at my table with some of the diagrams.
They have since then been included in the text of the book. ^^
Spending time reading literature for the preparation of these diagrams enhanced my knowledge on these butterworts. And guess what? I did find these plants truly fascinating so now I'm looking forward to observing them more in situ, in botanical gardens and in private collections. :-)
The books will be released and dispatched on February. I do hope that they contribute to popularize even more this genus of carnivorous plants.
Francois, I'm not sure how much you know about the forthcoming publications, but I'm curious to know if you can give us any insight into how the authors are resolving the status of species?
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, there hasn't been a whole lot of fieldwork on Pinguicula. In some areas, such as the Pings of the Balkans, there are a number of conflicting publications regarding some "complexes" such as P. hirtiflora (and its associated species). Depending on who you believe, you could end up with species where others do not see species and vice-versa. To the best of my knowledge, the only areas which hold a number of co-occurring species which have been extensively surveyed are Cuba and parts of the Balkans, so I'm curious to know if you can shed any light into the fieldwork that went into these publications.
I'm also curious to know what, if any, DNA analysis of species was incorporated into these works. A couple fellows out on the West Coast were looking into this a few years ago and had determined that, unlike some plant species, Pinguicula would be a good candidate for differentiation based upon simple analysis. I'm not sure where they went with that project, but I've heard rumors from time to time regarding that type of analysis for the species, especially for plants originating from Mexico.
Sorry for such a long comment, I'm just really curious since I know that major efforts to clarify Pinguicula have extended back to the 90s and haven't seemed to have made much headway, leaving to a very confused genus.