#Victoria waterlilies

[doesgodexist]

Reproductive System of Victoria Waterlilies

Victoria amazonia in botanical garden Victoria amazonica white flower Victoria amazonica pink flower Yesterday, we looked at the amazing design and structure of Victoria amazonica waterlilies. Named after Queen Victoria of England and the Amazon River where they grow, the huge leaves of these plants are amazing, and their flowers are beautiful. However, I think the most impressive is the…

[helluvatimes]

Blessed Are The Pure In Heart

Victoria amazonica or Victoria Water Lily growing nicely in the tropics here. Photo credit: Eleanor Chua.

A native of South America, this giant water lily was so named in honour of Queen Victoria of England in 1837 who had ascended the throne that year. It was an era when many exotic plants, such as this water lily, were cultivated.

[thiswillnotdo]

2023_06_05

[plvnts]

lily pads at naples botanical garden

[heaveninawildflower]

Waterlilies (1906) by Beatrix Potter.

Watercolour, pen and ink.

© Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2023.

[kvb222poonwanghong]

Week 5 Workshop Spatial Work

Task 1

TWO Aspects on the walk:

During the Barrambin/Victoria Park walking tour, two aspects deeply inspired me.

First and foremost, there was a strong bond with the Turrbal and Jagera people, who had inhabited this territory for more than 60,000 years. I was acutely conscious as I strolled around the park that I was walking on unceded Aboriginal land, particularly in places that had historically supported flourishing woodlands with dense scrub, hoop pine, and Queensland blue gum. It was the mountainous terrain that made the history of the landscape come to life, especially when I thought about the waterholes that formerly littered the area, connecting during big rains and storms and feeding the adjacent swampy flats. This region historically maintained a rich ecosystem, including lagoons full of reeds, waterlilies, fish, and ducks, with its margins of mangroves, ti-tree, and rainforest. Like the flowing rivers that connect the hills to the downstream, the continuous regeneration of these lakes and waterholes represents the eternal heritage of the land, passed down through centuries.

The change of the landscape from its original natural state to its present urban form constituted the second feature. Seeing the ruins of York's Hollow, an important supply of water and a meeting site for Native Americans, brought home just how drastically the environment has changed. However, the park's continuous restoration initiatives to bring back native plants and animals combine the old and the new, establishing an area where people and the natural world may live in harmony. I saw a variety of creatures living in their restored habitat along the route, such as the Australian wood duck, dusky moorhen, magpie, and loud miner. During the five minutes of meditation, when I closed my eyes and focused on the beauty of a planet where all creatures may coexist peacefully, this coexistence was especially moving.

Task 2

Site:

Material:

Title: Campfire

Project Concept:

I intend to build a Stonehenge-inspired spatial art project in the center of Brisbane's Victoria Park. This location offers an ideal platform for investigating themes of unification and cultural convergence because it was formerly abundant in natural diversity and has strong ties to the Turrbal and Jagera peoples. Tall trees and stones in various hues and heights will be put in a circle for my installation. This configuration highlights the enduring bond between the land and its people by symbolizing the convergence of several cultures on this hallowed ground.

Background and Site Information:

This region, often referred to as "the ridge," is situated at Site 1, Upper Lake in Victoria Park and was formerly a component of an open forest ecosystem. The location is historically significant since it was once a golf course and is now an urban/Indigenous parkland. The Turrbal and Jagera peoples, the First Nations guardians, feel that the land speaks to us, and this work is an attempt to hear and answer that voice. A symbol of unification that is global, the circle will serve as a reminder of how this land has brought individuals from all origins together, fostering a space for introspection and community.

Reflection:

This project seeks to provide a space that enables people to think on the various cultures that have coexisted on this land while also honoring the history and significance of the location. The artwork is grounded in the history and customs of the area by the use of natural components like trees and stones, which provide a connection between it and its surroundings. The circular layout highlights the unity and interconnectedness of everyone who stands on this ground, while the elements' different heights and hues represent the diversity of people who have come to this location.

In addition to honoring the site's rich cultural legacy, this project provides a contemporary gathering spot where the past and present coexist.

[stephenandsparklesdokorea]

Seoul Botanic Park

We walked from the metro stop through the outdoor gardens, ranging from more natural pond landscapes to themed flower gardens, before going inside the arboretum. The main attraction was the lush, two story indoor jungle filled with hanging mosses, giant fig and ficus trees, waterfalls and ponds, and broad-leaved monsteras and banana trees. My favorite part was the giant Victoria Waterlily in the pond. While beautiful, the lily pads are viscous to surrounding flora as their huge size and rapid growth makes it hard for other plants to compete for sunlight. Some of the other exhibits in the gardens included a dryer, cactus filled biome, and displays of plants native to Korea.

[mariellejohnston]

RESEARCH - VICTORIA PARK/BARRAMBIN

“Locally this region was known as “the ridge.” Most of Victoria Park was open woodlands (open forest) containing blue gum, apple, box and ironbark with grassy slopes.” “What is now Victoria Park and Spring Hill were recalled as particularly bare or open. In springtime at what is now Victoria Park: ’The hillsides were melodious with the calls of the butcher bird and magpie, and in winter, with the twitterings of the pretty little wagtail….’ The prevalence of field birds suggests this ‘forest’ was not particularly dense.” “Meston lists “gums, ironbark, bloodwood and stringy bark.” Other accounts mention some undergrowth: “wattles and dense scrub in abundance.” "The open forest was inhabited by koalas, possums, kangaroos and emus. Lagoons in Victoria Park once supplied abundant reeds, waterlilies, fish (bream and eel) and waterfowl” - Kerchove, R. (2020). Victoria Park Area Summary. “Victoria Park / Barrambin has played a significant role in Brisbane’s history. The site was an important meeting and camping place for Aboriginal people who came from all over South-East Queensland for corroborees. The park was gazetted as a reserve for recreation in 1875 and was a site for brickmaking and timber-felling industries. It was also Brisbane’s first municipal rubbish dump. During World War II the park was home to hundreds of American soldiers based in Brisbane, with these houses later used for social housing for displaced residents. Victoria Park / Barrambin remains the largest inner-city parkland in Brisbane with a new history unfolding as it transforms into a uniquely Brisbane destination.”

- Brisbane City Council. (n.d.). Victoria Park|Barrambin. https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/things-to-see-and-do/council-venues-and-precincts/parks/victoria-park-barrambin#:~:text=The%20site%20was%20an%20important,Brisbane’s%20first%20municipal%20rubbish%20dump.

Indigenous knowledge and history:

“Victoria Park was much favoured as a camping ground. The area’s undulating ridges permitted views in some spots and caught the breezes. Its many waterholes and open woodland offered plentiful water and food resources. The early camps were described as comprising of “ti-tree huts.” Variously 200-1000 people sometimes resided here. … Usually camps were on ridges above waterholes, and presumably they were moved to various different sections of the current park according to conditions or need.” “From archaeological finds, it seems the main ‘York’s Hollow’ camps were up into the northern end of Victoria Park towards the Ekka Grounds.” “This gave the area between Bowen Hills Station and Breakfast Creek its name (Barrimbin/ Barrambin) – a word that meant both ’windy place’ and ’place of swamp oaks.’ … This may explain why ‘wind’ and ‘oak’ were related in Indigenous lore: ‘Those were the days when one could ….hear sweet Aeolian (= wind god) melodies as the gentle north-east wind touched the tremulous leaves of the grand old swamp oaks.’ ”

- Kerchove, R. (2020). Victoria Park Area Summary.

“Barrambin (meaning ‘windy place’) and Walan / Woolan (meaning ‘bream’) comprised the areas now known as Herston and Bowen Hills. The land was undulating, with hills punctuated by a chain of waterholes and gullies. Barrambin and Walan were meeting and gathering places for groups travelling to and from other parts of South East Queensland, as well as dance and corroboree sites, and hunting and fishing lands for local Aboriginal people of Brisbane. The area now contained within Victoria Park / Barrambin was an extensive Aboriginal camp and is a significant European contact and cultural site.”

- Brisbane City Council. (n.d.). Victoria Park|Barrambin. https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/things-to-see-and-do/council-venues-and-precincts/parks/victoria-park-barrambin#:~:text=The%20site%20was%20an%20important,Brisbane’s%20first%20municipal%20rubbish%20dump.

“For local Indigenous communities, the creeks, and the valleys they create, carry stories of their places and histories and are sites of food, water, and corroborees. The waters of the Windy Place are a part of the river system but also a system set within the valleys and groves of the lower hills of Mount Coot-Tha and beyond. The waters that contribute to Barrambin can only be understood as a multiplicity of pools, creeks, and contexts that the waters inhabit and move through (beds, banks, culverts), and the flora and fauna (trees, bushes, grasses, birds, fish, insects) that contribute to its “lifeness”. In this way Barrambin epitomises Place, the living entity that feels and knows (Rose 1996), which is entangled in meaning-making as a storyteller in its own right (Graham 2009).” “We found that at around the same time as the boundaries were invented and labelled, antique colonial news publications letters to the editor depict the shifting relationship between the waters of Barrambin, the Turrbal community, and the Europeans who colonised the region. It was – and remains – a relationship characterised by violence against and deculturalisation of Country, wherein the Turrbal residents were policed and evicted from the lands and waters of Barrambin in the process of reservation for “recreational use” by the colonial government.” “ ’Country is a living entity with a yesterday, today and tomorrow, with a consciousness, and a will toward life’ (1996, 7). The concept of “personhood” is a legal state which can be conferred on natural entities. Personhood is existential – a relational concept that pertains to the inherent state of being a person (e.g. biologically) and the context of being in the world (socioculturally).” “… the Australian Indigenous spiritual understanding of Barrambin (as Country), as a place and hence a living entity, is recognition that the Morethan-Human are living entities that are deeply connected to other living entities.”

- Turner, J., Seevinck, J., Foth, M., Armstrong, K., Vickery, N., Kelly, N., Tyurina, A., McKinnon, H., Low, A., & Davies, L. (2022). Kinning With The Unseen More-Than-Human: Re-Sensing Barrambin’s Disappeared Waterways And Creeks For Community Connection To Place​. Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUADS).

York's Hollow (Barrambin)

It is clear from the literary sources that York’s Hollow played an active role in the lives not only of the Brisbane Aborigines but also other groups within the Moreton Region. The Aboriginal name for the location was Barrambin; it acquired its European name from the Duke of York, the settlers’ name for the acknowledged elder of the local Aboriginal clan. It was a useful food gathering spot, but there are also suggestions that it also held religious significance (Cryle 1986:26). It was here, in the ‘wilds of Bowen Hills’ that Tom Petrie spent memorable childhood moments observing and participating in Aboriginal life (Petrie 1992:27,118). As a boy, he took refuge at the camp ‘out Bowen Hills way’ after being caught smoking by his father (Petrie 1992:3). Groups of up to 800 gathered at York’s Hollow for ceremonial and trading purposes from as far away as the Blackall Ranges (Petrie 1992:164-5). The Brisbane Aborigines did not have the aggressive reputation of some others, eg the coastal and northern groups, but such large gatherings were a source of disquiet for the local settlers (Cryle 1986:26).

18 Indigenous Cultural Heritage Study of Brisbane. 18.2.3 Northern section. Pg 18 - 11.

Green Heart Fair: Regenerate Outline

“Green Heart Fair celebrates and promotes the innovations that are, and will be required for sustainable living, embodied in an annual festival that appeals to audiences from all walks of life. Clearly sustaining the future, and making it better for future generations, has become everyone’s business.”

“model sustainable living”

We also believe certain forms of spatial practice can offer audiences experiments that in some way leave our world a better place. We understand such practices as ‘regenerative’ - in the sense that they model ‘giving something back’, rather than just speaking to sustaining what currently remains.

Victoria Park/Barrambin has always been an important cultural place for First Nations people - whose ceremonies, customs and lores maintained the Country for tens of thousands of years. The First Nations people of this continent have always understood and embodied regeneration - evidenced through their sustainable culture and their innovative land management practices. Clearly, to understand regeneration today, we also need to learn from that long history of sustainable living.

In keeping with the ethos of the Green Heart Fair, Regenerate’s artworks therefore speak to the history of the site, and regeneration; embodying cultural, ethical and material principles of sustainability, whilst making an active contribution to sustaining our collective futures.

[13mtm80-designs]

Photo of some Victoria Plant Water Lily. Photo taken at The Chicago Botanic Garden. August 2016. For more art & photography, find me here:

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[doesgodexist]

Design and Structure of Victoria Waterlilies

Victoria amazonia leaves Victoria amazonia leaf underside If you were going to build a barrier between the atmosphere and the water in a pond or lake, what material would you use, and how would you construct it? The construction industry would probably use concrete or iron. The problem with these materials is that they are vulnerable to chemical degradation and changes in temperature. In recent…

[wolfnowl]

Waterlilies

[plvnts]

𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟗

𝐠𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐜𝐨 

[watermoonming]

Victoria Longwood Hybrid

[purityrat]

NEW GIANT WATER LILY!!!! THERE'S A NEW GIANT WATER LILY AND ITS LEAVES HAVE PINK FRILLS

[jiachi]

Shuangxi Park & Chinese Garden 雙溪公園 (1974) by Hu Guoli _ Shilin, Taipei, Taiwan

[flowers-roses]

Together forever