This photo from 1892 made me curious. Thanks for posting.
Henry Theodore Bahnson(1845-1917) , surgeon and cattle breeder, was born in Lancaster, Pa., where his father, George Frederick Bahnson, was the minister of the Moravian church.... Soon after he began his practice, Bahnson bought the house where he and his second wife would rear their children, just two doors north of the Home Moravian Church in Salem. The previous owner, also a physician, was known for a flower garden made of terraces on the steep hillside that fell from the back of the house down to a little creek. Dr. and Mrs. Bahnson further developed this garden, and Bahnson dammed up the creek to make a pond, where he grew not only water lilies of his own hybridizing but also Egyptian lotus and, for the first time ever in the United States outside a greenhouse, the Victoria Regia water lily. In
Old Salem North Carolina, facing page 130, there is a picture of a young girl sitting in the center of one of these large, rimmed lily pads, while Dr. Bahnson, in waders, stands nearby in the pond.
http://ncpedia.org/biography/bahnson-henry-theodore
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Queen Victoria, but the name was superseded.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
Guyanesecoat 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. wikipedia
Forum Host
Bringing the