Shows of Hands: University of Bristol Botanic Garden

Today's Shows of Hands is courtesy of Andy Winfield who kindly emailed me this picture from the University of Bristol Botanic Garden. He says:

"The plant is Osteospermum jucundum in our South African display and the hands belong to various staff and volunteers. I wanted the hands to form a circle around the flowers but with the age of some of the volunteers it would have meant them moving into positions they hadn't taken up for some years (their words not mine)."

I did ponder adding this photo to Monday's Puzzle Corner Special, but I loved the smiley face on one of the hands and I felt this might get lost in a smaller photo. Thanks for a great shot Andy!

I also owe Andy an apology. In my previous post about visiting the garden, I promoted him to the position of Head Gardener. His actual job title in my view is equally grand: Botanical Horticulturalist. Oops - he was subjected to a great deal of teasing as a result of my error, sorry! Andy says he's just "happy to be referred to as one of the gardeners".

Talking of the Puzzle Corner Special, here are the answers:

How did you get on? Award yourself 2 bonus points on offer for the bindweed latin names only if you found both of them and 1 point if you found just one of the names. We can't tell from the photo which one it actually is - this guide is particularly helpful for later on in the year when the weed's in flower, though it does also show the characters to look out for when attempting vegetative identification.

Add an extra brownie point for yourself if you can supply the latin species name for the Clematis. I've puzzled through the RHS Plant Finder and I'm stumped. None of the online catalogues I've found name it either. As both the pittosporum and peony plants are named with and without the species name (depending on where you look), I'm wondering why the clematis is so consistently named without it.

Award yourself a further brownie point if you spotted I forgot to italicise the bindweed's latin names. One day I'll finally get to grips with this plant naming lark. *Sigh*.

All the other Shows of Hands contributions can be found here, plus details of how you can join in.