We have new photo galleries of “goji” — the fruits of Lycium chinense (shot in the Oriental Herb Garden at the American Botanical Council, created in association with the Academy of Oriental Medicine in Austin) and Lycium barbarum. Go into any health or natural food store these days and you will find goji berries in just about everything—goji juice, goji-laced chocolate bars, whole dried goji berries ready to replace your raisins. Better known in pre-marketing hype days, as Lycium, Chinese wolfberry, Chinese boxthorn, or Chinese matrimony vine, the dried fruits proliferating in the market are either from Lycium chinense or Lycium barbarum. L. chinense has wide distribution in East Asia, whereas L. barbarum is found primarily in the central Chinese Province of Ningxia. Both species are widely naturalized outside of China. Lycium chinense is found in at least fifteen states east of the Mississippi and five states west of the Mississippi. It grows as a weed at the edge of my yard, and perhaps yours as well. Lycium barbarum is found in almost the entire continental U.S. (except Nevada) and half of Canada. The dried fruits are a common food item throughout eastern Asia and the Middle East, where barrels of the inexpensive dried fruits are a staple in every market. When one sees the price and availability in foreign lands, it’s easy to shudder at the price charged for the bright red Asian equivalent of raisins in the American market. The name “goji” was never used for the plant or its fruit until it was popularized in the American market in the past decade. “Goji” is a phonetic twist on the Chinese name for the fruits “Guo qi zi“. The fruits were not commonly called “berries” either. In the American Herbal Products Association’s book Herbs of Commerce (2000), a list of more than 1,600 herbs found in the American market with their scientific names, common name synonyms, and “standard common name,” Lycium barbarum and Lycium chinense are both listed under the standard common name “Lycium”.
To a botanical photographer and herbalist like me, there’s nothing quite as exciting as seeing a plant that you’ve always known yet never seen in bloom for the first time. Such was the case when I was at the American Botanical Council’s annual on-site board of trustees meeting at the Case Mill Homestead in Austin on November 7th, when ABC Education Coordinator, Holly Ferguson, pointed a blooming SAFFRON plant out to me. The delicate stigmas of saffron (Crocus sativus) are, of course, the saffron of commerce. What a beautiful plant! We have additional photo galleries of Crocus species including Spring Crocus (Crocus vernus var. neapolitanus) growing wild on Mt. Komovi in the mountains of Montenegro (part of the former Yugoslavia), as well as cultivated Dutch Crocus (Crocus vernus).
Hollyhock Alcea rosea like many members of the mallow family is a useful medicinal plant due to its high content of mucilagin. Mostly associated with flower gardens, it’s a great addition to the herb garden, adding color and beauty, as well as being a suitable substitute for marshmallow Althaea officinalis. Many gardeners assume that hollyhock originates from Europe, however it is a relatively recent European garden introduction, first grown there in the sixteenth century. It actually originates from South China. Here’s our recent post of Hollyhock photographs. Those images with water in the background were naturalized plants growing on the edge of Kotor Bay in Montenegro in the eastern Adriatic.
My artistic goal as a photographer specializing in medicinal and aromatic plants, is to capture the spirit and botanical beauty-in-form using natural ambient light. As a medicinal plant specialist and photographer, my work takes me around the world. Photo equipment is ever present. In my botanical photography, color, form and design offer themselves to the observant eye at the right time of day, in shade, in rain, or with clouds hiding harsh sunlight.
These are the situations I strive to work in, which give me the best color saturation, the richest light, and the greatest challenge in exposure length, depth-of-field, and waiting for that still moment when a breath of air does not move the subject and offers up the detail values that I seek. I formerly worked with 35 mm color positive film and now have shifted to a digital workflow.
I strive to know the plants that I photograph: their names, botany, history, and human connection (use). I feel this helps to give me a special relationship to the plant as it reveals its beauty.
Our main business is licensing stock photos from our collections of over 150,000 images of medicinal and aromatic plants, herbs, wildflowers and other botanicals from every continent except Antarctica. All images are “rights protected” rather than “royalty free.” Licensing of stock photos is usually on a one-time, non-exclusive basis per image. Licensing fees depend upon the type of use, such as web, print, editorial or commerical; size of use and/or frequency of use. Other factors may also apply. Licensing fees may be as little as $50.00 for a minor use or up to $10,000 for major ad placement. New images go up at our galleries almost daily. Click on “Photography” at our home page, and go to the links under “Scientific Names” of plants to view images. Remember to clean your browser cache when you come back for a return visit. Enjoy! And if we can help you, we would be happy to preview images.