Palmengarten Exhibition

I am grateful to the Society of Botanical Artists for the opportunity to exhibit my work along with other members and associate members at the lovely Palmengarten Botanical Garden in Frankfurt Germany.  The theme of the exhibit is Medicinal and Poisonous Plants.  The exhibit opens the 24th of October and extends through the 23rd of November, so if you happen to be in Germany over the next month or so, be sure to make it to Palmengarten!

Flier for the Palmengarten Exhibiton in Frankfurt Germany

An SBA member kindly held over and transported two of my paintings from the earlier exhibit in London so I could take part in this event.  According to the Exhibit organizer, Gaynor Dickeson, there will be 205 artworks from 76 SBA members around the world, from as far flung places as New Zealand, Japan, the USA, France and the UK. Gaynor has been blogging about the process of transporting the paintings from England and preparing the exhibition in Germany.  She and the other volunteers from the SBA have made an incredible effort to take good care of the artwork and make the exhibit fantastic! If you scroll down a bit, you can see her beautiful pen and ink rendering of Bear’s Breeches that will be on display at Palmengarten. She has been one busy lady!

My cabbage painting made its way to Germany, as well as my painting of Licorice Fern and Oxalis. If these look familiar to you, they both were paintings I did during the SBA course. Thankfully, they were accepted into the earlier SBA exhibition so qualified for this one too!

Although our German exhibition hosts will be writing informative labels in German for each plant in the exhibit, I asked a German friend to translate the label information that I already had prepared.  Below is the English version with the German translation, in case I have any German speaking readers.

Brassica ‘Deadon’

Brassica ‘Deadon’ (Hybrid Cabbage or Kultivierter oder gezuechteter Kohl)  From Pliny the Elder through the ancient Egyptians to recent times in Europe and America, cabbage has been used as a drunkenness preventative and a hang-over curative.

Kohl war in Gebrauch von der Zeit Plinius des Aelteren ueber die Kultur des alten Aegyptens zu juengerer Geschichte in Europa und Amerika und diente sowohl als Vorbeuge gegen Trunkenheit als auch als Mittel gegen Kater und dessen Nebenwirkungen.

Licorice Fern and Oregon Oxalis

Polypodium glycyrrhiza & Oxalis oregana (Licorice Fern or Lakritz Farn & Oregon Oxalis)  Polypodium glycyrrhiza and Oxalis oregana grow together in the moist forests of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Polypodium glycyrrhiza rhizomes are sweet and licorice flavored. They were used to treat colds and sore throats by Native Americans. Also, they were mixed with bitter medicines as a sweetener. Although Oxalis oregana leaves were consumed as a food by Native Americans, in large quantities they can be poisonous because they contain oxalic acid.

Polypodium glycyrrhiza und Oxalis oregana kommen gemeinsam in den feuchten Waeldern des pazifischen Nordwestens der Vereinigten Staaten vor. Polypodium glycyrrhiza Wurzelstoeckehaben einen suessen Geschmack, aehnlich wie Lakritze und wurden von den lokalen Indianern zur Behandlung von Erkaeltungen und Halsschmerzen benutzt. Ausserdem wurden sie mit bitterer Medizin gemischt um den Geschmack zu versuessen.

Oxalis oregana Blaetter wurden von Indianern auch als Gemuese konsumiert, allerdings koennen die Blaetter in groesseren Mengen guiftig wirken, da sie Oxalsaeure enthalten.