December 6, 2019 Dianthus Syrup, African Flora Threatened, The Potato Exhibit, Johann Zinn, a Smithsonian letter, J Bernard Brinton, Joyce Kilmer, Plants Are Terrible People by Luke Ruggenberg, Fiskars Snip, and the Cincinnati Herbarium

Today we celebrate the botanist who made his mark in human anatomy and the botanist who lost his civil war specimens to a confederate raider.

We'll hear the most popular poem about trees written by a poet who was killed in WWI.

We Grow That Garden Library with a self-published humorous garden book by one of my favorite garden authors.

I'll talk about a garden gift that you can split - one for you and one for a gift - and in the perfect price point for holiday gift exchanges and then we'll wrap things up with a story about the protection of the work done by botanists over a century ago.

But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.

 

 

Today's Curated Articles:

 

Clove-Pink (Dianthus caryophyllus) syrup recipe | Quebec Terre a Terre by Sylvain Pilon & Bonnie Kerr

Dianthus Syrup!

In the past, Clove-pink was esteemed equally with the rose in mixtures. Regarded as "exceedingly cordial" and "wonderfully above measure comforts the heart."

Clove-pink petals w/ verbena infused in alcohol was a refreshing bath liqueur.

 

 

A third of Africa's tropical flora threatened with extinction: study | @physorg_com

The "Red List" is the go-to for birds and mammals but only covers ~10% of plants. A new study's preliminary estimate found a third of Africa's tropical flora (~7000 species) are likely/potentially threatened with extinction

 

 

 

The Potato Shines in New Missouri Botanical Garden Exhibit | @MobotMuseum

You say Potato, I say Potato Exhibit!

Just in time for the Holidays, the exhibit @MobotMuseum is called “Potato (Solanum tuberosum): Apple of the Earth" & will be on display through March 17.

The potato is the most important non-cereal food crop in the world.

Galleries feature contemporary artists Seamus O. Hames, Dornith Doherty, and Corina Kennedy. Each artist has interpreted the unique story of the potato, especially the historic impact of the late potato blight that devastated the potato crop in Ireland in the mid-19th century.

 

 

Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck - because I share all of it with the Listener Community on Facebook. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.

 

 

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Brevities

#OTD Today is the birthday of Johann Gottfried Zinn who was born on this day in 1727.

Zinn died at the age of 32, but he accomplished much in his short life and he focused on two areas of science: human anatomy and botany.

From an anatomy standpoint, in his early twenties, Zinn wrote an eye anatomy book and became the first person to describe the anatomy of the iris in the human eye. There are a number of parts of the eye named in his honor including the Zinn zonule, the Zinn membrane, and the Zinn artery.

It's fitting that Zinn wrote about the iris - which of course is also the name of a flower - and so there's some charming coincidental connection between his two passions of anatomy and botany.

In Greek mythology, Iris was a beautiful messenger - a one-woman pony express - between the Olympian gods and humans. Iris was the personification of the rainbow. She had golden wings and would travel along the rainbow carrying messages from the gods to mortals.

In the plant world, the iris is a genus with hundreds of species and is represented by the fleur-de-lis.

When Zinn was 26 years old, he became director of the University Botanic Garden in Göttingen (pronounced “Gert-ing-en”). He thought the University was going to put him to work as a professor of anatomy, but that job was filled and so botany was his second choice. Nonetheless, he threw himself into his work. When Zinn received an envelope of seeds from the German Ambassador to Mexico, he described the blossom in detail and he published the first botanical illustration of the zinnia. He also shared the seeds with other botanists throughout Europe. Like most botanists in the 1700s, Zinn corresponded with Linnaeus. No doubt Zinn's work as a bright, young garden Director and the fact that he tragically died young from tuberculosis, spurred Linnaeus to name the flower Zinn received from Mexico in his honor.

And so, Zinn