When we visited the Botanics this weekend for the Big Garden Birdwatch, we took a moment to look at this beautiful exhibition by Scottish glass artist Siobhan Healy. The delicate transparent glass flowers in the exhibition are haunting evocations of this very rare flower, the fragility of the medium reflecting the fragility of the plant in the wild.
The ghost orchid was declared extinct in the UK in 2005 but was amazingly rediscovered in 2009!
This exhibition has now closed in Edinburgh, but apparently (and information is contradictory on this) will be on display at the Blaschka Gallery of Glass Flowers at Harvard Museum of Natural History until 4 March 2012. Well worth seeing if you get the chance!
Plantlife, the UK charity for plant conservation has recently put together a Ghost Orchid Declaration outlining the key issues for wild plant conservation and some potential solutions.
6 comments:
Both the glasswork and the flower itself are so beautiful. What kind of habitat does this plant live in, Juliet?
Hooray for the ghost orchid and all the beautiful, delicate things that struggle to survive in a hostile world!
The ghost orchid...it certainly makes me imagine a metaphysical impact, beyond words, reminding of what being visual becomes at once visionary.
The glass display sounds wonderful. I wish I lived a tad closer to Boston!
Tomorrow I'm thanking you on my Nature Notes post for the bird cakes kit. Just though you'd like to know. :)
Bravo! for the glass orchid, the beautiful exhibit, and Ms. Healy's art.
Wow - had not heard of all the early Jan,\. wind damage. (Or I totally spaced out then ..)
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