Outdoors at the Munich Botanical Gardens.

After we exited the greenhouses, we walked across the back of the main building of the botanical gardens. (Not sure what happens in that building. It may have been administration, research, classrooms... Who knows? We didn't go in there.)

The sky continued to darken as we passed the oblong pools with a wide variety of outdoor aquatic plants. I'm sure the colors would have been much more vibrant under a blue sky and the clouds would have reflected beautifully in the still waters.

At the top of the steps looking back at the gardens, a whimsical statue framed my photo like a crazy docent out of Alice in Wonderland. Looks like the back end of a lion wearing clothes...

Just before we went through the gate into the herb garden, Dr. Schnaubelt pointed out a Gallica rose (Rosa gallica), the predecessor to modern roses. It is apparently one of the earliest species to be cultivated by the Greeks and Romans; most contemporary European roses have at least a small contribution from this cultivar in their ancestry. 

Pink Rosa gallica

Supposedly, Rosa gallica officinalis, probably similar to the one here, won fame as the Red Rose of Lancaster during the War of the Roses (the white one was Rosa x alba). Rosa damascena, said to be originally from Damascus, Syria, (and now the highly prized species used in Bulgaria for essential oil production) is a descendant of Rosa gallica.

Continuing on towards the rear of the property, we came upon the herb garden, including an extensive area of herbs, trees, and bushes that produce essential oils (Atherische ole). Of course, that was our main area of interest so we spent a lot of time there examining the foliage and taking tons of pictures.

Below are two types of Echinacea purpura, white and pink.

 

We saw several more members of the Asteracea family: Feverfew and German chamomile, or Matricaria recutita.  I took a photo of the chamomile in with the poppy because I liked the combination of the red with the delicate white and yellow.

Feverfew.

German chamomile.

Nice combo.

Georg showed us how to tell if a chamomile flower is German chamomile or Roman chamomile. Apparently, German chamomile typically has a split stem. In the picture below, he is demonstrating the division at the base of the flower:

Here's what the flower of the Valerian plant looks like.  (Later, I recognized several Valerian plants growing wild in the ditch at Bernard Nusstein's farm.) Of course, it didn't smell like Valerian since the oil is obtained from the roots.

I don't remember what this plant is but the bee sure liked it!

I thought these were pretty interesting looking:

Black cohosh.

And of course, we all recognize Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia. These are obviously planted from seed as the colors are so different.This is referred to as "population lavender". (Clones, by definition, will be all one color as the off-spring are taken from cuttings of the mother plant.)

Population Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia grown from seed).

Kurt mentioned that the way to tell angustifolia from a Lavender hybrid is to look at the flower buds. He said that the true lavender buds will have gaps between little bunches on the stem, whereas the hybrids are uniform and closely packed in a spear. Also, the hybrids have flower shoots that come off the sides of the main stem, but L. angustifolia doesn't. Of course, most hybrids have longer stems as well since they are crossed with Spike lavender (L. latifolia).

The plant below, Monarda, is also known as Bee Balm. Little did I know when I took this picture that this unassuming herb would be the star of the show during our distillation demonstration at the Technical University of Munich.

Monarda fistulosa.

Monarda is a highly anti-bacterial essential oil often used for sore throats and mucus infections of the respiratory tract. Some people refer to it as Bergamot, because it has a light, citrusy aroma, but it's not the plant we know by this name (Citrus aurantium var. amara). This is a great example of the confusion caused by using common names for plants.

In researching Monarda, I found out that Monarda fistulosa typically has a purple colored flower.  Monarda didyma has a reddish blossom in the same shape as fustulosa but a different color. The native Americans used to make a tea of it called Oswego tea and this is the variety that is often called Bergamot mint. The natives in the New World taught the newly arrived English folks how to make tea from the Monarda plants after they refused to drink English tea (the original tea party in Boston harbor).

The following Thyme plant, Thymus serpilum, is supposed to be an old form of thyme from which our modern varieties descend:

Thymus serpilum

Laurus nobilis

There were so many more types of plants in this extended herb garden. I saw a healthy looking specimen of milk thistle; a peony plant with pods that apparently develop after the flowers fade; several beautiful examples of foxglove that reminded me of the lone foxglove in my backyard; and a small bay tree (Laurus nobilis):

We ate a light lunch in the glassed-in terrace of the "Palmenhaus", then proceeded to the back of the property and through a gate to the grounds of the Nymphenberg Palace. 

Check out the next blog post for more details about the amazing complex of buildings that make up the Nymphenburg Palace Park.

(We dubbed this tree on the palace grounds The Love Tree because of the heart on the branch at the top left. Someone from our group suggested that Gudrun and Georg hold hands around The Love Tree. Cute...)