These otherworldly blossoms have no genus and species so I'll reach back to my plant taxonomy class and name them Chihuliensis fabulosa.
These were spotted at the Dale Chihuly exhibit in the New York Botanical Garden last fall.
For more realistic glass flowers, if you're in Cambridge MA, be sure to check out the glass flower collection, which receives a four pant-hoot rating on the Bushwellian scale of cool and unusual things to see in the Boston area, at the Harvard Museum of Natural History:
This unique collection of over 3,000 models was created by the glass artisans, Leopold Blaschka and his son, Rudolph. The commission began in 1886, continued for five decades, and represents more than 830 plant species.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
No that's not real and neither are the others in the post! Argonauta Argo, National Museum& Gallery, Cardiff
Spending time at the Museum Comparative Zoology at Harvard (MCZ), a Museum of a Museum, I realize the potential for items to get lost in unvisited cabinets. This happens regularly in…
This is glass:
If you've never been to the glass flowers exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History then you are missing out on a truly spectacular fusion of art and science. Here's NPR:
Back in the late 19th century, botanical teaching models were mostly made of wax or papier maché. Or…
In honour of Linnaeus' 300th birthday, and to rescue him from the canard that he merely applied Aristotelian logic to biology, I offer up this essay on his view of classification and species. I do not think Linnaeus was an essentialist in the Mayrian sense - he nowhere specifies that species have…
What is sprouting this spring on the Denver art scene? This past month, the botanical illustrations of Susan Rubin were on display at the Spark Gallery, in the Santa Fe art district. This area, along one of the oldest stretches of road in the west, recently experienced urban renewal and has grown…
...and, last week, it was blown up by the Boston bomb squad when a troglodyte noticed "A buncha fake flahrs whut mighta bin put'ere bah TUR'RISTS" and phoned the PD in a fit of single-neuron hysteria.
Ha! I hope you don't mind if I co-opt this handy little phrase for future use.
Yes, those glass flowers are evil, eeeeeeevil weapons of silicate botanical destruction, and their continued existence would only embolden the terrorists.
As a former resident of the Boston area (Cambridge), I could only shake my head and think, "Now why am I not surprised by this massive burst of overreactive clusterfuckery?" Good old Mumbles Menino. Too bad the Boston firefighters and cops were pulled away from more pressing tasks by Aqua Teen Hunger Force Lite Brites.
Co-opt away. It's not like I could prevent it from happening anyway. ;)
To be fair, I think we can see how the flowers (at least) could be regarded as threatening, since there's nothing more menacing than a clearly-organized group of pistil-packers.
I've often wondered where the line between due diligence and pure bat-shit insane panic lay. Now I know it's somewhere in Beantown.
That's funny. For the last five years, I thought that line was in the voting booth.
What is the flowers name