Victoria regia (amazonica)

Via a tweet from peacay, some fantastic images of Victoria amazonica at botanicus.org.

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The victorias are a bit of a grail plant for me (I use that expression a lot – sorry) – from the Amazon basin (or the Paraguay/Parana – home to a fish on my wish list), featured in Victorian photographs with folks standing on them, intricate, thorny leaves – what’s not to love?

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An image shamelessly ganked from Bibliodyssey (thanks for assembling it, peacay) – clicking on it will take you to the originating post, “Gould Hummingbirds“.

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A web site with more info – if you’re curious about what it’s take to grow one of these beauties – is here.