Taxa Field Guide

Gk. akanthos = thorn; referring to the plant’s spiny leaves and flower spikes.

For Jacques Barrelier (1606-1673), French Dominican monk, biologist, botanist and physician. 

Gk. blepharis = eyelash, hence fringed; referring to the delicate fringe of hairs that adorn the bracts and calyx below the flowers.

Gk. khaite = spine, bristle; akanthos = thorn. Resembles the genus Acanthus with hairy bracts and calyx.

For James Justice (1698–1763), Scottish horticulturist and writer and owner of two estates, Justice Hall (Berwickshire) and Crichton (Midlothian), where most of his gardening experiments took place. He introduced many ornamental plants to Scotland and cultured new varieties, including the first pineapple in Scotland. He spent large sums in importing foreign seeds, roots and trees; collecting tulips was one of his passions. He authored a well-received book, The Scots Gardener’s Director (1755), a work based on his practical experience of fruit gardening relating to the soil and climate of Scotland. His passion for introducing new plants brought about his financial ruin, and he had to sell his house and garden. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Gk. phaulos = slight, trivial; -opsis = appearance. Perhaps referring to the flowers, which are ‘trivial’ compared with the leaves, which are fairly large and well-veined.

Gk. pseudes = false; er = spring; anthemon = flower. Some plants of this genus were at first placed in the genus Eranthemum, a related genus and confusingly similar.

For Jean Ruel (Jean de la Ruelle) (1474–1537), a French physician, who obtained his doctorate in medicine at the University of Paris in 1502 and became dean of the medical faculty from 1508 to 1510. He was called to be personal physician to François I of France, but tactfully declined, saying that it would interfere with his studies. In about 1512, after the death of his wife, he was free to become a priest and was ordained canon of Notre-Dame de Paris. For the next 20 years, he dedicated his life to translating, commenting on and restoring the real text of the ancient Greek medical authors such as Dioscorides, Hippocrates, Galen, Euclid, Celsus and Pliny the Elder. He also wrote a treatise on botany De Natura Stirpium Libri Tres (1536), a massive work of some 666 pages.

For Carl Pehr (Peter) Thunberg (1743–1828), Swedish botanist, physician, student of Linnaeus, professor of botany and medicine at Uppsala University (1784–1828). He visited the Cape (1772–1775) to study Dutch and the Cape’s flora, natural history and social history, and did extensive botanical exploration in the southern Cape where no botanical collecting had been done, amassing some 3 100 species. In 1775 he went to Japan, Java and Sri Lanka for 15 months. Thunberg published Flora Japonica (1784), his travel diaries (1788–1796), and Flora Capensis (in parts between 1807–1820). He presented his herbarium of 23 510 specimens and 25 000 insects to Uppsala University. He was made a knight of the Royal Order and received many honours.

For Francis Guthrie (1831–1899), English lawyer, mathematician and botanist. He studied at London University, getting a BA degree (1850) and an LLB (1852) before coming to South Africa in 1861 to teach mathematics at Graaff-Reinet College. There he met Harry Bolus, and they became life-long friends. Guthrie moved to Cape Town, where he practised at the Bar and edited a newspaper before becoming professor of mathematics at the South African College (now the University of Cape Town) from 1876–1898. When Bolus wrote up the Ericaceae family for Flora Capensis, he invited Guthrie’s collaboration. Guthrie’s extensive collection of the Cape Peninsula flora is now housed at the Guthrie Herbarium at the University of Cape Town botany department.