Austria


Dutch-born Nicolaus Joseph von Jacquin became professor of botany and chemistry at the University of Vienna in 1769 and produced a number of sumptuously illustrated works to which many artists contributed. Titles featuring some illustrations of bromeliads are: Selectarum stirpium Americanarum Historia (1763), Hortus botanicus Vindobonensis (1770-1776), Icones plantarum rariorum (1781-1793), Plantarum rariorum horti caesari Schoenbrunnensis descriptiones et icones (1797-1804) and by his son Joseph Franz von Jacquin also Eclogae plantarum rariorum (1811-1844). The number of coloured engravings in those works adds up to over 1600. The species of bromeliads depicted belong to the genera Bromelia and Pitcairnia. Here below (left and middle) are Bromelia karatas (Hort. Bot. Vindob. vol.1 plate 31, 1770) and Bromelia chrysantha (Plant. Rar. Hort. Schoenbrunn. vol.1 plate 55, 1797).


Anton Hartinger was a Viennese artist specialized in flower painting and a pioneer in the field of chromolithography. In Vienna he published between 1844 and 1860 Endlicher's Paradisus Vindobonensis, Abbildungen seltener und schönblühender Pflanzen der Wiener und andere Gärten und Museen. There are few collections who have the complete work of 20 installments, probably only the libraries of Vienna and the British Museum. Hartinger made drawings and lithos for 81 plates on format 56x42 cm, among them Bromelia antiacantha under the name of Bromelia sceptrum (see above, right). The collection has no explanatory text.




The watercolour-paintings above are courtesy Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. Ananas comosus was produced by Joseph Knapp for archduke Johann in the first half of the19th century (left) and Billbergia pyramidalis (as Bromelia nudicaulis) by Mathias Schmutzer for emperor Franz I between 1798-1824 (right).

Some important botanical publications originating from Austria have been dealt with in the past in the BSI Journal (Lineham 1993); I allude to the description of the travels and discoveries in Brazil by Heinrich Wawra, Ritter von Fernsee. Botanische Ergebnisse der Reise seiner Majestät des Kaisers von Mexico Maximilian I nach Brazilien (1859-1860), published in 1866, was illustrated with drawings by Josef Seboth on 32 coloured and 72 monochrome plates, including some bromeliads.

Alcantarea geniculata (Figure 52), placed in the genus Vriesea by Wawra and earlier in 1862 in Platystachys, was collected in Petrópolis, Brazil, where it grows on steep granite rocks (inselbergs). On the drawing the leaves are serrate, this is an error that was made more often by the artists of that time when picturing species of the subfamily Tillandsioideae. Araeococcus chlorocarpus (Figure 53), described in the genus Lamprococcus, has its habitat in northeastern Brazil, from Penambuco to Bahia, growing as a terrestrial and epiphytic plant at low altitudes.

Itinera principum S. Coburgi, Die botanische Ausbeute von den Reisen ihrer Hoheiten der Prinzen von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha (1872-1873, 1879), published in 2 volumes in 1883 and 1888, contained 57 colourplates, 20 of bromeliads, the drawings were made by W. Liepoldt. All the plates were lithographs.

Bromelia itatiaiae (Figure 54), currently in the genus Fernseea, is a terrestrial species from Mount Itatiaia and vicinity (Rio de Janeiro state) in Brazil, growing at altitudes above 2000 m., also occurring in Minas Gerais state. Nidularium ferdinando-coburgii (Figure 55) is an epiphyte in the rainforest of Rio de Janeiro state. On plate 33 (Figure 56) there are two bromeliads portrayed: Vriesea paraibica from the forests of Minas Gerais state and Vriesea psittacina var. decolor from southeastern Brazil and Paraguay. Both are epiphytes.

All of the above figures are of Brazilian taxa which have been collected and described by Wawra. He brought back more than 40 species of bromeliads, 19 of which were new. From seed many were cultivated at the Hofburg-Garten in Vienna.

In 1884 Franz Antoine Jr., horticulturist and director of the Hofburg-Garten in Vienna, wrote and illustrated Phyto-Iconographie der Bromeliaceen des kaiserlichen königlichen Hofburg-Gartens in Wien. An atlas was published in 7 parts with 35 lithographs of bromeliads, many of them grown from seed collected by Wawra and also by B. Roezl. There was a separate volume of 54 pages containing the descriptions.The format of the atlas was very large (about 50x80 cm), the plates were monochrome, on most of them some details like a flower or a part of a leaf had been coloured. Antoine described one new species: Vriesea wawranea, illustrated on plate 1 (Figure 57) and plate 2 (Figure 58). This species is relatively common in the Serra dos Órgăos National Park in the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is very close to Vriesea platynema. The plant on plate 9 (Figure 59) and plate 10 is named Vriesea regina. There has been much confusion in the past on the identity of this and related large species, now all accomodated in the genus Alcantarea. Only relatively recently Elton Leme brought clarity in this matter (Leme 1995, 1997). The plant on the two plates was in 1867 described as Vriesea glaziouana by Lemaire in L'Illustration Horticole and that name has later for a long time been treated as a synonym of Vriesea geniculata. The correct name now for the plant is Alcantarea glaziouana; it honors Auguste Glaziou, a French landscape architect who was director of the public gardens in Rio de Janeiro and who did send many plants to John Baker in London. The flowers are milk-white. Related species like Alcantarea regina and Alcantarea geniculata have yellow flowers, with Alcantarea imperialis the flowers are also white but more cream coloured (ivory-white); of course there are more characters that differentiate these species. Alcantarea glaziouana is endemic to the rocky cliffs in and close to Rio de Janeiro, growing near sea level.



Antoine also made the drawings for the here reproduced coloured plates that were published in Wiener Illustrierte Garten-Zeitung, a periodical with 30 volumes from 1876-1905. The first 3 volumes were titled Wiener Obst- und Garten-Zeitung and after 1905 it continued as Österreichische Garten-Zeitung. The plate of Vriesea gladioliflora var. purpurascens (Figure 60) is introduced by Antoine with the following lines: "With lesser splendour than nature otherwise equips its children's flowers, is the bromeliad from this illustration furnished. The beauty of colours with which in this family often the inflorescence and in particular the bracts are shown, is reduced here to a modest pale green colour of the flowers and a slight transition to red at the points of the sepals". Hermann Wendland had described Tillandsia gladioliflora in 1863 from a plant collected in Costa Rica. Antoine treated his plant - received from a source in Belgium but of unknown origin - as a new variety because of the purple underside of the leaves and the purple-red flowerstalk, differing in his opinion from the type-variety. At present both varieties are presented in the taxonomical records under the name Werauhia gladioliflora. Hoplophytum aureo-roseum (Figure 61) was a new species by Antoine, to be treated later by Lyman Smith as the variety aureorosea of the very common Aechmea nudicaulis, a species with a distribution from Mexico to Peru and Brazil. Aechmea nudicaulis var. aureorosea however, with its dirty red sepals and petals tinged with red, is limited to central eastern Brazil where it grows terrestrial, epiphytic and saxicole; it is (or was) quite common around Rio de Janeiro. Antoine reports that it is a slow grower and rhizomes are scarce; he had to wait 19 years to see the plant in flower and when it did in 1881 the normally green leaves turned purple-red, particularly on the underside. There is also a Morren Icon of this taxon (Smith 1987).


Literature cited:

Leme, E. M. C. (1995, 1997). Contributions to the study of the genus Alcantarea: part 1 Bromélia vol. 2(3):15-23, part 2 Bromélia 4(2):29-40, part 3 Bromélia 4(3):28-32 (Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Bromélias).
Lineham, T.U. (1993). The Brazilian bromeliads discovered in 1879 by Heinrich Wawra. Journal of the Bromeliad Society vol. 43(4):165-174, 180-181; 43(5):204-210; 43(6):263-268.
Smith, L.B. (1987). Morren's paintings, 8: Aechmea nudicaulis var. aureorosea. Journal of the Bromeliad Society vol. 37(4):152.


Figure 52. Alcantarea geniculata (Wawra) J.R. Grant. Published as Vriesea geniculata Wawra. Drawing J. Seboth, Botanische Ergebnisse plate 25 (1866).
Figure 53. Araeococcus chlorocarpus (Wawra) Leme & J.A. Siqueira. Published as Lamprococcus chlorocarpus Wawra. Drawing J. Seboth, Botanische Ergebnisse plate 28 (1866).
Figure 54. Fernseea itatiaiae (Wawra) Baker. Published as Bromelia itatiaiae Wawra. Drawing and lithography W. Liepoldt, Itinera principum S. Coburgi vol.1 plate 19 (1883).
Figure 55. Nidularium ferdinando-coburgii Wawra. Drawing W. Liepoldt, lithography M. Streicher, Itinera principum S. Coburgi vol.1 plate 20 (1883).
Figure 56. Vriesea paraibica Wawra and Vriesea psittacina var. decolor Wawra. Drawing W. Liepoldt, lithography M. Streicher, Itinera principum S. Coburgi vol.1 plate 33 (1883).
Figure 57. Vriesea wawranea Antoine. Drawing F. Antoine jr., lithography C. Höller, Phyto-Iconographie der Bromeliaceen plate I (1884).
Figure 58. Vriesea wawranea Antoine. Drawing F. Antoine jr., lithography C. Höller, Phyto-Iconographie der Bromeliaceen plate II (1884).
Figure 59. Alcantarea glaziouana (Lemaire) Leme. Published as Vriesea regina sensu auct. anon. Drawing F. Antoine jr., lithography C. Höller, Phyto-Iconographie der Bromeliaceen plate IX (1884).
Figure 60. Werauhia gladioliflora (H. Wendland) J.R. Grant. Published as Vriesea gladioliflora var. purpurascens Antoine. Drawing F. Antoine jr., lithography E. Sieger, Wiener Illustrierte Garten-Zeitung vol.5(3) page 97 (1880).
Figure 61. Aechmea nudicaulis var. aureorosea (Antoine) L.B. Smith. Published as Hoplophytum aureo-roseum Antoine. Drawing F. Antoine jr., Wiener Illustrierte Garten-Zeitung vol.6(3) page 97 (1881).