Author Archives: J.K. Petersen

Voynich Large Plants – Folio 8r

Note: This is a re-upload of a blog I posted in July 2013 and removed soon after, along with a number of other large-plant articles, because I felt I was giving too much away (I thought I was close to finding a solution to the VMS—a common affliction among VMS researchers  🙂 ). I have trimmed the images slightly, added a hyphen, and fixed a comma. Other than that, I have not altered the text in any way because my opinion about the identity of the plant hasn’t changed at all in the intervening time.

Plant 8r

Plant 8r stands boldly upright, filling the middle of the page from top to bottom, with text flowing around it on either side. There is more text than on many big-plant pages, three moderately long paragraphs.

It has a slender erect stem, very slightly colored with a pale amber wash, a single spade-like leaf drawn erect and painted in quite a flat shade of medium green. There is something that resembles a smaller leaf or node just below it. Just above the node, the stem is slightly more bulbous, a feature that appears to be deliberate, rather than a slip of the pen.

The roots are long and spindly and colored medium-dark to light brown, spanning the width of the page.

There are a number of plants, both New and Old World that have spade-like leaves, some of which are quite erect. What is more difficult to interpret is the node-like green spot under the leaf. This is less common and might aid in identification, but it depends how one interprets it. Is it a leaf (clasping), a leafy node? Or something else?

Prior Identifications

Edith Sherwood has identified this plant as green pea (Pisum sativum). I suppose this is reasonable if one interprets the green spot as a stem that goes through a rounded leaf, is in Pisum and some of the Lonicera species…

but, how does one explain the rest of the plant? P. sativum doesn’t have unpierced oversized spade-like leaves, and it’s not an upright plant (it’s a vine that uses tendrils to climb and has a somewhat staircased stem that goes in a different direction after each leaf, as you can see in Sherwood’s picture). Pisum is also distinct for its pods and this feature is absent from the VMS drawing (I’m not saying the VMS illustrator included every feature, but pea plants are almost universally drawn with pods by other medieval artists, or with several leaves in a viny formation and the VMS illustrator did take the time to draw a nub of broken stem and the slightly enlarged part of the stem above the green spot).

Without completely discounting Pisum, there are other plants that resemble Plant 8r more closely than Pisum that should probably be considered as better candidates.

Other Possibilities

One way you might explain the green spot under the leaf is as a reflection. If this is an aquatic plant, then a spot of green is often mirrored on the water just below the leaf, it looks like a little puddle of green. There are many plants that are terrestrial for part of the year and aquatic during seasonal floods. Other plants are primarily aquatic or semi-aquatic. If the green spot is mnemonic, this would be an easy way to remember this as an aquatic plant.

If it is, instead, something more literal, like a leaf or leaf-node, then it narrows down the number of plants that might qualify.

Pericaulis is an attractive plant with masses of blooms. Some species are fairly erect, while others have a more staircased look to the stems. But the “staircasing” is longer than that of Pisum and thus more similar to the VMS drawing. The leaves are not upright, but are shaped similarly to Plant 8r, a characteristic that is more noticeable in the spring before the buds and blooms start to appear.

What is particularly interesting about Pericaulis is the way the leaves of some species attach to the stem. There is a large broad leaf, a narrow section, and then a rounded clasping part, as can be seen in the image to the right. This characteristic can be found on species growing in Madeira and the Canary Islands, islands off the coasts of Portugal and Spain.

I don’t think Pericaulis is the best candidate for the VMS plant, but I do think it might provide an explanation for the green splot that is under the leaf on the VMS plant. Perhaps VMS 8r is one of the plants that has a double-leaf shape in which the part between the two broader parts looks like a stem.

Colt’s Foot

Tusilago farfara, also known as colt’s foot, is a distinctive plant found in many herbal manuscripts. It has leaves shaped similarly to the VMS and they are fairly upright. Where they attach to the stem, they widen into a rounded clasping shape, not quite like the VMS or like Pericaulis, but at least their orientation and shape match Plant 8r reasonably well.

One often sees several leaves before the flower stalks appear and they are distinctive enough to identify the plant without the flowers.

T. farfara has long spindly rhizomes, sometimes drawn in the middle ages to look like a tap root, but more often drawn as long stringy roots with secondary roots. The picture on the left post-dates the VMS, but gives a good sense of the shape of the leaves and their erect posture.

Tussilago spuria has leaves similar to Tusilago farfara and Plant 8r, but the root is quite bulbous and the towering flower stalks set it apart from the more modest T. farfara. Given the difference in the roots, it’s probably not a good candidate for Plant 8r.

Tussilago petasites, now known as Petasites hybridus is somewhere in between T. farfara and T. spuria in terms of similarity to the VMS plant, and it’s a plant that is often submerged in fresh water, but the root tends to be thicker than that of T. farfara.

An interesting characteristic of T. farfara is that if you stand above the plant when the leaves are growing, before the flower stalks are visible, it looks like there is a backwards leaf-cup attached to the stem of the older fully formed leaves. This is because the old leaves fan out and the new leaves poke up in the center right next to them, making it look like the two are attached (very much like the VMS leaf). I don’t know if this might account for the way the VMS plant is drawn and I don’t know if it’s obvious enough to most observers to be relevant, but I thought it worth mentioning.

Indian Plantain

Arnoglossum atriplicifolium (a New World plant) might deserve a brief mention as it sometimes has spade-like leaves and tall slender light-brown stems, but the leaves can be variable, the points are closer together than the VMS leaf, and there are usually many leaves on one stem.

 

So the above plants have some commonalities with Plant 8r, but are they similar enough? Are there others that should be considered?

Let’s look at the Adenostyles.

Mountain Asters

You may not have heard of them, but Adenostyles are upright plants that are widespread throughout continental Europe and west Asia. They are particularly prevalent in mountainous areas, growing in lush clumps in alpine meadows, often on rocky terrain.

The leaves are somewhat variable, from rounded to more sharp or angular, but many of them are spade-like, like Plant 8r, and distinctive enough to recognize before the plants begin to flower.

Those of particular interest are species with leaflets at each node where the leaf stalk connects to the stem (upper right), or those with a rounded enlargement at the point where the leaf connects to the stem (left).

These kinds of plant structures may account for the green splot under the VMS leaf.

The leaf margins of Adenostyles are serrated (as are all the plants mentioned so far except Pisum and, to some extent, Tussilago farfara), but the serrations vary from one species to the next… some are deeply toothed, while others are so finely indented you almost don’t notice the serrations. I mention this because the VMS leaf is smooth in between the broader points—there’s no obvious indication that Plant 8r has serrated leaves.

Siberian Asters

There is a Siberian plant that somewhat resembles Petasites spurius called Ligularia sibirica. Like P. spurius, it has spade-like leaves and a tall flower spike. It is more delicate and slender, however, more similar to the VMS plant, and the place where the leaf connects to the stem is more rounded and clasping. Like the Adenostyles, it grows in lush clumps in sunny meadows. The leaf margin is not as distinctly angular as Plant 8v, so it might not be the best candidate.

Butterbur

Coming back to Petasites (which is one of the synonyms for Tussilago), there are some species that resemble the VMS plant more closely than those already mentioned.

Petasites radiatus is of particular interest because it grows in wetlands and has tall slender stalks with a single leaf at the top, while older leaves of this species and others sit just below the surface of the water and are seen less distinctly (perhaps inspiring a green splot under the main VMS leaf?).

Often there will be broad patches of skinny stems sticking far up out of the water and no flowers at all. When the flowers do emerge, many are on separate stalks (Petasites spurius also has this characteristic—see illustration right).

The tall stalks are due to the shifting water levels on the edges of rivers or ponds. When the water level goes down, one sees a forest of tall spikes with green tops and the reflections of other leaves under the water. It’s quite an amusing sight.

As with many aquatic, or semi-aquatic plants, P. radiatus has long rhizomes (sideways-growing roots) and long spindly secondary roots, a reasonably good match to the VMS drawing.

I could definitely see an upright spindly plant like Petasites radiatus or P. spurius inspiring a drawing like Plant 8r.

 

J.K. Petersen

© Copyright 2013 J.K. Petersen, All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Large Plants – Folio 6v

Most of my notes about the Voynich and my plant identifications were done in 2007 and 2008. I glanced at the Voynich manuscript in the early hours of the morning when I should have been sleeping, amassed a database of over 13,000 plants (how, I don’t know since I had many personal responsibilities, was working very long hours and was not feeling well at the time) and came up with identifications for as many of the VM plants as possible. Those stolen minutes I spent with the VM were therapeutic for me. I have always loved both puzzles and plants.

After compiling my notes and cleaning them up toward the end of 2008, I looked around the Web to see what others had done and discovered that my identifications and theirs, except for some very obvious plants like the viola, didn’t match at all. At first this concerned me, but then I decided it was unimportant. They had their opinion, I had mine. Their identifications didn’t seem right to me and I decided to leave my notes as they were and let the world decide which ones were correct rather than stressing over the discrepancies. Except… that I never found time to upload them.

Far too many years went by before I set up this domain to share my thoughts with the Voynich community, and I find it somewhat shocking that life could speed from 2008 and 2013 with little more than a few glances at the document I so thoroughly loved. The VM gave me an escape from the daily stresses of coping with a globalizing economy and I had to give up even that.

So… the plant identifications I am uploading are grammatically comprehensible versions of my original notes from 2008 and what you see are my thoughts from five years ago. If I win a lottery and find some free time, I’ll read them over again and see if the information needs to be updated. As it is, this is the best I can do for now with what little free time I have.

The Spiny Fruit Plant

Folio6vThumbThe moment I saw it, Voynich 6v reminded me of spiny-fruit plants like chestnuts, the castor oil plant, datura, and wood avens.

Plant 6v features an upright, relatively slender stem, star-shaped leaves with seven lobes and a somewhat upright cluster of bluish-green “fruits”. There are small blue dots on the fruity shapes that may signify more spines pointing in the direction of the viewer or perhaps some other anatomical or color aspect of the plant.

There is a faint suggestion of a main vein on each of the leaf lobes and the leaf margins are serrated. The painting is somewhat rough and the blue ink appears to have been on the dry side when applied. No attempt was made to extend the ink into the spines, so either the painter couldn’t be bothered or didn’t have a fine enough brush, or wanted the spines to stand out as lighter than the rest of the plant.

The leaves are drawn opposite but the fruits are alternate and one fruit, a larger one, is oddly placed near the base of the plant. The roots are long and relatively slender, numerous, have not been colored in, and have a tendril-like character.

Integration with Text

The plant occupies most of the right-hand side of the page, stretching from the bottom to nearly the top, where it pokes into the upper lines of text except for the two lines at the top.

The text has been worked around the fruits at the top and continue down the rest of the page on the left, sometimes slightly crowding the drawing and almost overlapping.

Prior Identification

Sherwood6vThumbEdith Sherwood has identified Plant 6v as Eryngium maritimum (sea holly), but I don’t see many commonalities other than color and the general arrangement of the leaves.

Sea holly has the flower heads closely associated with the leaves—each head is perched tightly within a whorl of leaves. In contrast, the Voynich plant has a separate stem for each spiny head and there is no association with the heads and the leaves. The Voynich plant has a cluster of heads, whereas each sea holly head is perched on the end of a leafy stem and their shape tends to be slightly more conical than round.

Another significant difference between sea holly and the Voynich drawing is the association of the leaves with the stem. Sea holly leaves, which are more holly-like than star-like, are closely attached to the stem, whereas Plant 6v has distinct stems leading from the main stalk to the star-shaped leaves.

Finally, the leaves of sea holly are fairly deeply indented and pointy whereas the Voynich leaves have modest, even serrations that are more often found on soft-leaved plants.

Even if inexpertly drawn, I am inclined to believe the Voynich plants are somewhat botanically accurate even if sometimes stylized, and I doubt the illustrator would have completely dissociated the leaves from the heads and from the main stalk if this were intended to represent Eryngium maritimum.

If not Eryngium maritimum then what are plausible alternatives?

Alternative Identifications

Let’s discuss datura first, since I think it can be eliminated. Datura, also known as thorn apple or devil’s apple has spiny fruits somewhat like a chestnut, but they tend to be a little less round than the Voynich fruits and, depending on the species, the leaves are more palmate or sometimes similar to a dandelion shape than star-shaped. The veins in VM 6v leaves are distinctly placed in a star.

Chestnut trees (Aesculus and Castanea) are stately plants with somewhat star-shaped leaves and spiny fruits. In some species the fruits can be eaten. In others, they are toxic. The leaves of Aesculus more closely resemble Plant 6v than Castanea, but nevertheless differ in an important way—each of the lobes in the star is distinct from the leaf beside it and sometimes rounded at the attachment point instead of blending into the next lobe. While chestnut trees will occasionally have seven lobes, more often there are five or six.

Cyclanthera langaei has a star-like arrangement of leaves but, like Aesculus, the leaf lobes are distinct from each other rather than merging in the center and the spiny fruits are a little more elongated than the VM fruits. It is from a part of the world unknown to Europeans in the 15th century.

Magnolia hypoleuca has lobed leaves like Aesculus, but they typically have six lobes not seven and the spiny fruit is more elongated than the VM plant.

Ricinus communis is an age-old medicine and source of castor oil, which is used to treat constipation and sometimes skin conditions. Ricinus can also be highly toxic. Like VM 6v, the leaves of Ricinus are distinctly star-shaped with a prominent central vein and serrated margins. The fruits are round and stand on their own stem above the leaves and at some times of the year have a bluish-green color (at others times they are bright red).

The stems can be pale greenish or red and turn grayer as they get older. They are moderately slender compared to the overall proportions of the plant, making Ricinus a better candidate for the VM plant than chestnut trees, which have thick trunks. While Ricinus leaf lobes can vary, Ricinus communis very often has seven lobes. Ricinus leaves tend to be alternate and Plant 6v shows them as opposite, so the correspondence between them isn’t perfect, but enough elements match to give it some consideration.

It’s my opinion that of the plants mentioned so far, Ricinus communis has more characteristics in common with Plant 6v than the others.

Posted by J.K. Petersen

 

 

Voynich Large Plants – Folio 6r

Voy6rDescription

Plant 6r fills up most of the page from top to bottom and left to right. It has palmate green “wiggly” leaves alternating on a central stalk, and what appears to be a fairly prominent central vein (somewhat reminiscent of several members of the Lactuca family).

The stem is slender and has a spike of seed capsules  with distinctive openings at the ends. There’s also a very odd yellowish bump on their backs. They are colored a pale yellow and have little lines radiating outwards.

The roots look more metaphoric than naturalistic to me. At first glance they reminded me of jellyfish or hair tendrils like those on a doll’s wig, or maybe skeins of yarn. I wondered if this might be an aquatic or wetland plant, since the roots look like they might be suspended in water.

Prior Identifications

Sherwood6rEdith Sherwood has identified 6r as Acanthus mollis, a well-known plant commonly called Bear’s Breeches, probably due to the spiny claw-like leaf margins. Acanthus has a very distinctive leaf that has inspired countless decorative elements in architecture and furnishings. Corinthian columns are often carved with Acanthus motifs.

I can see why Acanthus might be offered as an ID. The leaves are odd-pinnatish and it has a tall flower stalk. Even the roots might be a good match, but somehow I didn’t get that satisfying, “Yeah, that’s it!” feeling when I looked at VMS 6r next to the picture of Acanthus. Acanthus has a basal whorl and the VMS plant has alternate leaves, the Acanthus leaves are serrated (spiny) and the VMS leaves look softer and wigglier, as though they might be ruffled rather than spiny, or as if viewed through water. I felt there might be a better ID.

Other Possibillities

The first time I saw Plant 6r, the leaves struck me as somewhat palm-like or philodendron-like except that the seed pods (assuming they are pods and not buds) are out of proportion to palm trees and not at all like any philodendron I know, so neither of those seemed like good paths to follow.

JellyfishRootSo I looked for marine plants that might match the root of 6r, since it reminded me of jellyfish or anything that might be suspended and moving in mildly active water. Not all aquatic plants are rooted in the substrate. Some of them float in water or have little bladders to walk on water. I didn’t have much success in finding anything that looked substantially like 6r. A number of aquatic plants are included in herbals, sometimes even seaweed, but I couldn’t find a combination of roots, leaves, and seed capsules (or buds) in the plant world that satisfied all the characteristics of Plant 6r.

Because the VMS illustrator drew most of the plants to fill the pages regardless of their relative size in real life, it’s hard to get a sense of scale. I didn’t want to overlook a plant due to assumptions about its size.

ResedaCapsuleI turned my attention to terrestrial plants, a subject I know better than aquatic plants, and a plant with distinctive seed capsules came to mind.

I didn’t think it could be Plant 6r at first because this plant usually has a tap root rather than divided roots, but then I recalled my first impression of the VMS root was not only of a jellyfish, but also of tendrils of hair or skeins of yarn… and that’s when I remembered that Reseda is one of the oldest dye plants in the Mediterranean region. Reseda was used to color silk and wool with yellow tones and sometimes to tint medieval manuscripts. Freshly dyed wool is hung out in skeins to dry. Could the roots be suggestive of yarn wafted by the wind? Was the pale yellow color of the roots a reference to plant dyes?

There are many species of Reseda, some with lanceolate leaves and some palmate. Many of them originated in Eurasia or around the Mediterranean and a number of them are valued for their natural dyes as well as for their fragrance. Reseda lutea, and Reseda luteola are probably the two most popular species for dyestuffs. Both have ruffled leaves and long flower spikes with distinctive seed capsules and both have a prominent white vein in the leaves.

ResedaAlbaPlant 6r resembles the leaves of Reseda alba more than most of the others. R. alba is endemic to north Africa, Eurasia, and possibly parts of Pakistan or eastern India. It too has distinctive seed capsules, with a reddish “mouth” and bumps that become more prominent as the seeds ripen. The roots of R. alba tend to branch a little more than some of the others, but it is still essentially a tap root and thus doesn’t match the VMS plant unless Plant 6r’s root is intended to be metaphorical.

R. alba was prized for its fragrance and, in the past, for its medicinal properties, but not so much for its dye as other species of Reseda. Reseda was known to the ancients. It is represented in old manuscripts such as Materia Medica, Circus Instans, and the herbal of Leonard Fuchs.

Assuming for a moment that Plant 6r might be Reseda, what are those bumps on the seed capsules? The seeds do push out along the sides when they ripen, but they don’t poke through and they aren’t as yellow or reflective as the lines in the VMS drawing seem to indicate. I don’t know whether the bumps might be suggestive of the heat coming off of dye pots or if they are meant to suggest the scaly round flowers that come out before the pods, but they obviously were important enough that the illustrator drew several of them.

While Reseda seems like a good candidate, I’m never completely satisfied until I’ve explored other options, so I asked myself, could those seed pods be spore capsules?

Thinking Less Big

Fissbryoides

Fissidens bryoides photo copyright Michael Lüth, hosted by the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database.

Because the leaves and roots of Plant 6r reminded me of aquatic plants, I looked up various wetland species and paid particular attention to mosses, as they have sporophytes that somewhat resemble the distinctive pods of Plant 6r. Mosses are quite variable and many have palmate leaves. Some of them, like Fissidens bryoides (right) develop distinctive reddish tips as the sporophytes ripen.

The spore capsules of Funaria hygrometrica resemble the VMS plant even more than F. bryoides—they are somewhat irregularly shaped and, as they ripen, the “beaks” fall off and they are left with red tips that don’t have fuzzy ends. Isothecium alopecuriodes and Helodium paludosum also have palmate leaves and long spore capsules, but the capsules tend to be brown rather than green and they don’t have distinctive red tips.

VoyPlant84vYou might question whether there would be moss in the VMS, but some mosses and lichens (e.g., Muscus pulmonarius) were included in medieval manuscripts, particularly species believed to have medicinal properties.

If you look at another VMS plant (Plant 94v shown right), you’ll see that it too could potentially be moss, not only because of the seed heads that resemble sporophytes, but in the way it is clumped and the plants somewhat connected at the base, a common characteristic of moss. Thyme-moss has elliptical leaves and oval spore capsules similar to VMS 94v and might be worth consideration.

Plant6rDropletsSo it’s possible that Plant 6r is moss but what could explain those odd little bumps? I puzzled over that for a long time until I saw a photo of moss that was taken after a rainstorm or perhaps early in the morning when the plants were covered in dew. Each capsule had a tiny drop of water on its back that glinted in the sun, and some of them magnified the texture of the spore capsule, which becomes yellower and more wrinkled as it ripens. Could it be water? It seems as though water would slide off the two spore capsules on the left, so maybe it’s not water.

There’s another problem with identifying this as moss. There are multiple sporophytes on one stem. That’s unusual, but not unprecedented. I’ve lost track of the botanical name but I believe I found at least one moss with more than one sporophyte per stem. If I locate it again (assuming I’m not remembering it wrong), I’ll upload the name. Suffice it to say that the spore capsules are usually in singles so, if this is moss, it’s either a composite drawing, or a rare species.

Summary

KunstJellySmallI don’t have a definite ID for this plant. The VMS plant could potentially be either Reseda or moss, even though they’re quite different from one another.

It’s tempting to lean toward Reseda and call the roots a metaphorical allusion to yarn, but many species of mosses grow in wetlands and the roots might be drawn that way to represent a watery habitat. Or… it could be a plant I haven’t yet considered.

J.K. Petersen

© Copyright 2013 J.K. Petersen, All Rights Reserved

 

 

Voynich Large Plants – Folio 5v

Folio5vDescription

Plant 5v occupies about 2/3 of the page and is positioned under a 5 1/3-line block of text. The plant has an interesting oval shape in the center, rather decorative looking, a profusion of serrated or toothed leaves somewhat asymmetric in distribution (as opposed to a mint plant, for example, which branches very regularly).

There is a rounded brownish root with medium-thick tendrils extending out to the sides. The stem is only very lightly colored, with a soft brownish wash.

The leaves are mostly green, although some have been left lighter and some slightly brownish. It appears that the leaves of this plant may not be highly consistent in color or perhaps it’s later in the season and some leaves have begun to wither.

The flowers are at the ends of the stalks, have five petals, are colored red, a color not often used in the VM (most of the reds are brick red) and the calyx has been colored blue on the inside, but remains unpainted on the outside. A couple of the heads nod. This may be a characteristic of the plant or it may be a means of showing the flowerheads from a different angle.

The somewhat irregular, meandering path of the stems looks to me like this may be a vine, and since vines often intertwine, the oval shape in the top center may simply be a way of representing an intertwining vine.

Previous Identifications

Sherwood5vEdith Sherwood has identified this as Malva sylvestris. While there are some similarities, there are also some significant differences. Malva leaves have a more fanlike shape, while Plant 5v appears more palmate serrated. Malva flowers emerge from the stem nodes, while the VM plant shows the flowers more concentrated at the ends of individual stalks. The ends of the petals of Malva tend to be broader and blunter than Plant 5v, which as more pointed petals. Malva roots tend not to be as tumescent as the root on Plant 5v.

Other Possibilities

The petals and plump root lead one to wonder if the VM plant is Anemone, for example, Anemone hortensis. It has palmate leaves, the stems curve somewhat, and the flower petals are a bright cheery red. But it’s not quite a match to Plant 5v. A. hortensis has more than five petals, the hairs emerging from the fleshy part of the root tend to travel down rather than sideways (and are finer), and the calyx doesn’t come up around the base of the flower in the same way as illustrated in Plant 5v. Also, A. hortensis leaves, while being palmate, are not serrated or toothed.

Many of the same things could be said of Paeonia officinalis. It has palmate leaves, bright red flowers, thickened roots, and stems that sometimes curve. But the leaves are really more odd pinnate than palmate, they’re not serrated, and the bumpy roots tend to orient more downward than sideways and to be connected with “strings” in a way that isn’t emphasized in the VM plant. There are five petals, but the calyx doesn’t quite match Plant 5v.

Potentilla has palmate leaves very similar to Voynich 5v, a vine-like quality and can sometimes have significantly enlarged roots, but the flowers are usually yellow and there are four petals, typically with more rounded margins than Plant 5v, rather than five.

Other than the roots and serrated, palmate leaves, the VM plant doesn’t resemble Aconitum (Monk’s hood) or Acanthus. Aconitum and Acanthus have distinct upward-growing stalks and a spike of hooded flowers quite different from the viny, more delicate nature of Plant 5v.

CmatthioliCortusa matthioli warrants some consideration. It has enlarged roots, somewhat palmate, serrated leaves (though not as distinctly palmate as the VM plant), a somewhat curvy appearance, and lovely fucschia-colored starlike blossoms at the ends of the stalks, each with five petals. Of particular interest is the way some of the flowers nod more than others, just as shown in the VM drawing. But there are also differences. Cortusa has a more upright, rather than viny, growth habit, most of the leaves come from the base, just above the root, rather than along branching stems, and the single stem extends quite far from the lower leaves. It resembles Saxifrage or Primulus in general proportions rather than looking like a vine with leaves coming from the nodes as in Plant 5v. Still, it might be worth keeping Cortusa on the table, at least for now.

Manihot could be considered also. It has swollen roots, flowers at the ends of the stalks, and reddish stems but the leaves are more digitate than palmate and are not serrated.

There are some Geraniums that merit consideration, that have enlarged roots, palmate leaves, sometimes of gently curving stems, flowers at the ends of the stems that are sometimes red or bright pink, but the flower heads tend to have more flowers on each, in some cases arranged in umbels, and the petals tend to be more rounded than starlike.

Ranunculus shares many characteristics with wild Geranium in addition to which, it has a more viny habit than Geranium, setting out runners to propagate more plants. While many Ranunculus have a thick mass of tendrils, some species have bulbous roots. The leaves tend to be more lacinate than the VM plant, and some are quite rounded (similar to strawberry plants), but some are similar to VM 5v, as well. Most Ranunculus are yellow, but some are pink. The main difference between Ranunculus and Plant 5v is that Ranunculus petals tend to be very rounded, rather than pointed.

Potentilla and Ranunculus can be hard to tell apart, they share similar leaves, growth patterns, and blossoms, except that Potentilla has four petals, Ranunculus five. VM 5v has five.

Osmorhiza shares some characteristics with Plant 5v. It has a fleshy root, palmate, leaves (although they are more frondlike- than 5v), and delicate flowers at the ends of the stems, but the flowers tend to be arranged in umbels and are typically white. The calyx is more vase-shaped as the plant nears fruiting and the flower petals less distinct than Plant 5v.

Where vines are concerned, Convolvulus should always be considered, and it has enlarged roots (I always use the term “root” loosely since some roots are actually swollen stems rather than swollen roots), but the leaves tend to be larger and not quite so distinctly palmate as Plant 5v, and more importantly, the flowers are trumpet-shaped, with fused petals, rather than small and star-like.

The South American giant potato, a vine with somewhat palmate leaves, might be in the running, but the flowers are more trumpet-shaped and the leaves often more digitate, and unserrated.

I think it’s more likely that Plant 5v is Bryonia. Bryonia roots are more swollen than Malva, and have additional tendrils shooting out to the sides. The leaves are palmate, as in the VM drawing, and the flowers are more concentrated at the ends of individual branching vines. The petals of Bryonia are pointed, and more starlike than Malva and the calyx tips peek out from between the flower petals as they do in the VM drawing. The meandering quality of the VM plant is quite typical of Bryonia. The parts that don’t fit the VM drawing are the lack of tendrils (Bryonia has very distinct spiraling tenrils), and the color of the flowers. Bryonia flowers are almost always white, occasionally yellow. Red flowers, especially a red that stands out from other reds in the Voynich Manuscript, isn’t characteristic of Bryonia.

Nevertheless, in terms of the other characteristics, Bryonia should probably be considered. Is it possible Plant 5v flowers are painted red because they eventually turn into red berries? That might be a stretch, but until a better contender than Bryonia is found, maybe it’s possible. Or maybe the VM plant is something related to Bryonia, which is from the Cucurbitaceae family.

 

J.K. Petersen


Postscript Jan. 18, 2018: Since I originally posted the above blog, in July 2013, more public domain images have become available, so I am including them now, so you can see why I feel that Geranium/Pelargonium/Erodium should be considered as one of the possibilities for this plant. Many geranium species have palmate leaves, and some of them, like the one on the right (G. maculatum) and the larger picture at the bottom (G. glutinosum), have somewhat viny stalks that curve a bit and spread more than some of the upright species.

Geraniums (often called stork’s bill or crane’s bill) are commonly represented in medieval herbal manuscripts and books of recipes (with Geranium sanguineum as one example). Geranium palustre (which also resembles the VMS drawing) is said to have been spread across Europe by soldiers packing fodder for their horses and mules:

Geranium robertianum (a very widespread plant also known as herb Robert) was used medicinally in the early days, and is still used as a mosquito repellent:

 

Voynich Large Plants – Folio 5r

Folio5rDescription

Folio 5r consists of two blocks of text followed by a plant picture that reaches almost to the bottom of the page.

The overall shape of Plant 5r is fairly typical of a number of woodland species. It has a long stalk with a whorl of leaves, another shorter length of stalk and a flower, bud, or fruit at the top. There are long sepals extending from the calyx that curve down from what resembles a single berry.

The roots are irregularly shaped with what appear to be modest tubers and extend to the sides like rhizomes.

The leaf whorl consists of about nine leaves and they have been painted alternately green and a slightly lighter green, possibly to help distinguish one from the next. The tips curl under in a manner that might be characteristic of the plant or which might indicate that it’s later in the year, as several plants with this basic structure do tend to curl both in the leaves and the sepals later in the year when the berry or other seed pod is fully ripe.

Prior Identifications

Sherwood5rEdith Sherwood has identified 5r as Arnica montana, a flowering plant with elliptical basal leaves, a long stem, and a single yellow flower at the top. However, the VM illustrator has positioned large leaves high on the stem rather than a ground-level whorl of smaller leaves that differs noticeably from A. montana. Also, while Arnica montana frequently has a single stem, it can also branch and put out a flower at the end of each stem. VMS Plant 18r probably better represents Arnica montana (or one of its relatives) than Plant 5r. It seems unlikely that Plant 5r is Arnica montana.

Other Possibillities

There are a number of plants similar to Plant 5r in general arrangement, including Plants 15v, 27r, 29r, 42v, 44r (and possibly 55v, 35r and 28r). The shape of the leaves and their direction vary, as do the shape and number of berries, but they have the single-stalk, stem-whorl-off-the-ground shape in common.

5rPlant   15vPlant   27rPlant   29rPlant   42vPlant   44rPlant                           55vPlant   35rPlant                28rPlant

The high stem whorl brings to mind a variety of plants like star flowers, cucumber root, trilliums, bunchberries (dwarf dogwood), and paris. They all have a lower stalk, a whorl of leaves, an upper stalk (usually a little shorter than the lower stalk), and a flower head at the top, often with a berry-shaped fruit forming later in the year. One might include Panax (ginseng) in this group, except that it has branching leaves. Plant 55r may have a short lower stalk and it’s difficult to tell whether Plant 35r has a long lower stalk, or a short stem and a long tap root. Judging by the color the stalk has been painted, it may be short.

It can also be debated whether 28r belongs in this group. At first glance it looks like it might, but the elaborate detailing on the upper “stem” may be part of the flower head and may come immediately out of the leaf whorl, in which case it doesn’t have an upper stalk like the previous examples.

There are also VM plants with the same basic shape as 5r that can be thought of as “double-decker” versions, with two sets of leaves, including 19v and 87r, but it’s important to try to discriminate between double-decker plants and drawings meant to represent plants that put out runners (e.g., strawberry plants). Plant 47r may be an example of a plant with a runner rather than with two tiers of leaves.

It’s tempting to declare that Plant 5r might be Paris, but the European versions of Paris rarely have this many leaves. There are some species of Paris with longer, more numerous leaves, but they tend to grow in Malaysia.

Other Possibilities

Plant 5r has a number of traits similar to star flower, also called Indian potato. Star flower (Trientalis latifolia) has a long stem and a whorl of elliptical leaves, but there are usually only about five leaves, and the stems tend to curve under the leaves when it begins to fruit, and the fruits are small and delicate. Also, star flower has quite a distinctive root, like a thumb, similar to Indian cucumber (an eastern cousin to the star flower), but quite small, and doesn’t match Plant 5r.

Maybe Indian cucumber (Medeola virginiana), a member of the lily family, should be considered. The roots are thumb-shaped and are larger and longer than those of star flower. They grow out sideways and are big enough to be eaten and could somewhat resemble the roots of Plant 5r. Notice that the roots of 5r have not been painted brown or reddish-brown like so many of the other plants. It’s very common for plants of the lily family to have light or white-colored roots, as do those of Indian cucumber. M. virginiana has another trait in common with Plant 5r—a distinctive berry topping the stem above the whorl of leaves.

M. virginiana is a closer match than star flower, but differs from Plant 5r in that it usually has two tiers of leaves and there are no distinctive filaments extending out beyond the fruit. Sometimes the fruits are single, but often there are three or more.

Eranthis cilicica, a Mediterranean plant, doesn’t look like Plant 5r until you dry it, and then the leaves curl under and the fruit sticks straight up above the leaves, but it doesn’t have prominent filaments nor is the fruit round.

Paris1885Which brings us to Paris. Paris is actually quite a good match for Plant 5r. It has a whorl of leaves a number of inches from the ground and it forms a berry-like fruit cupped by long sepals. The light-colored root extends to one side.

Paris quadrifolia, as the name implies, as four leaves but they tend to spread out from the stem rather than curling under. P. quadrifolia is a Eurasian plant that is physically similar to Indian cucumber but belongs to a different family. It’s unusual to find examples of P. quadrifolia with more than four leaves.

Most Paris species don’t grow in Europe. There is a wide variety of these spidery plants known as Paris or Daiswa gracing the forests of Malaysia and northern India, often at higher elevations. Eastern species frequently have between six and nine leaves and many of them have two tiers of leaves. Some form a single berry-like fruit. Others have a ring of smaller fruits that look like the bumps on the end of a hairbrush. Some have a knobby root, others have finer root hairs. Most of them have long slender structures between the fruit and the top whorl of leaves the resembles a calyx (or might be a calyx). Some of them are a good match for Plant 5r but the ones that are closest in terms of roots, leaves, and fruit often have two tiers of leaves, rather than the single whorl of leaves on Plant 5r.

Summary

Since there are several possible candidates for Plant 5r, I’m reluctant to single out any one of them as the most likely just yet but I’m quite certain 5r is not Arnica montana. It’s much more likely that Plant 18r, if it’s not Calendula may be Arnica Montana.

 

Posted by J.K. Petersen

 

Voynich Large Plants – Folio 4r

Folio 4r – Interpretations

Folio4rThumbIt’s rare for me to look at other researchers’ plant identifications. I’m worried I might be unduly influenced and lose whatever objectivity I may have. The only ones that I’ve perused with any regularity are those by Edith Sherwood, mainly because they pop up frequently on Google when searching for general plant information.

I made an exception for the plant on Folio 4r, however. because my curiosity got the better of me. Was I seeing something different from others? or rehashing old ground?

Sherwood4rMy first search took me, predictably, to Edith Sherwood’s site where Plant 4r is identified as alpine saxifrage (Saxifraga cespitosa). Once again, as I have on the majority of Sherwood’s IDs, I have to disagree—while the leaves and seed capsules may look superficially similar, there are some important differences between  S. cespitosa and Plant 4r:

  • S. cespitosa does not have the stiff-looking linear leaves of Plant 4r.
  • S. cespitosa leaves are palmate and grow mainly around the base, not up along the stem. They also do not form the long branches found in 4r, preferring a more rosette-like habit.
  • The seed capsules of S. cespitosa are rounded, but that’s where the similarity ends—there is no little knob at the top, nor are the sepals positioned as they are on 4r.

Given these significant differences, I don’t think it’s likely that Plant 4r is S. cespitosa.

My second search took me to a recent post (July 2013) by Ellie Velinska. where she summarizes some of the IDs already extant on the Web, including one by Steve D. that identifies Plant 4r as Flax (Linum usitatissimum). Steve did a good job of finding a seed capsule with characteristics similar to 4r—it has a rounded center, surrounding sepals, and a central “knob.” Also, the narrow leaves are arranged along the stem rather than forming a basal rosette. I think it’s a more valid proposal than Sherwood’s S. cespitosa but I wasn’t completely convinced the VM illustrator intended L. usitatissimum because flax leaves would not typically be represented with green and red leaves, or with very short, tight leaves. I felt there were plants that might match Plant 4r more closely.

Historic Identifications

HyperCorisMy third search brought me to identifications in the 1940s by Theodore Petersen (no relation), where Centaurium erythraea and Hypericum were suggested. C. erythraea has opposite leaves spaced widely apart, and the seed capsules are long and narrow and not similar to Plant 4r. Hypericum seed capsules are quite variable, from those with two pointed tips to others that resemble a berry, but even those with similar fruits don’t have all the characteristics of 4r and the leaves of Hypericum, while sometimes both green and red, are typically wider and more broadly spaced than Plant 4r.

Hypericum coris has narrow leaves and reddish stems, but lack the knob on the seed capsules, as do the capsules of H. brachyphyllum and H. fasciculatumHypericum repens might be considered except that the leaves are wider and more regularly spaced, rather than clustered, as they are in 4r.

An argument could possibly be made for Hypericum kalmianum, H. linarifolium, or H. cistifolium, as the fruits have both sepals and knob, and the leaves are narrow, but they are more broadly spaced along the stem than 4r and, in the case of H. cistifolium, the leaves are lyrate, a detail the VM illustrator most likely would have noted since lyrate leaves are expressly emphasized on other plants. Also, H. cistifolium has a taproot, rather than the spidery roots of Plant 4r. H. linarifolium and H. lloydii don’t branch in the same way as Plant 4r.

Suggested IDs

ApolifoliaWhen I first saw 4r, it reminded me of rosemary, especially bog rosemary (Andromeda polifolia), which grows throughout Europe. Bog rosemary has short stiff leaves that alternate up along the stems, rounded seed capsules with surrounding sepals and, at one point (as it ripens, before it turns brown and splits), a little knob on the top. The roots are spindly and they spread in all directions.

Dwarf bog rosemary (Andromeda glaucophylla) should also be considered. It has the stiff linear leaves, round, knobbed seed capsules and the upright posture of Plant 4r. The stems are a brownish burnt-orange. It differs mainly in that the leaves are a little longer and less clustered than 4r.

An argument could be made for bog laurel (Kalmia polifolia), especially considering that red and green leaves are often seen together in the fall, but bog laurel has a very long distinct “knob” on the seed capsule, and the leaves are somewhat longer and more broadly spaced than 4r.

AprocumbDeserving equal consideration to A. polifolia is Loiseleuria/Azalea procumbens, a low, stiff plant that grows in arctic and alpine environments. The leaves are similar to rosemary, short and narrow, the seed capsules are round, with surrounding sepals and a knob that ranges from short to medium-length. The branching pattern is a reasonably good match for Plant 4r and the leaves are mostly opposite, although some are alternate. Given a choice between the two, it’s difficult to decide which is a closer match, especially considering the limited artistic skills of the VM illustrator. It might be meaningful that L. procumbens is far less common than A. polifolia but I wouldn’t want to assert that one is more likely than the other until more information is available.

As for one of the narrow-leaved Hypericum species… it’s possible one of them matches 4r, but the spacing of the leaves is broader than Plant 4r, so it should perhaps only be considered after some of the others.


Postscript: Dec. 2013

Plant Annotations

Voynich Manuscript color annotation rotA later search, about half a year after I had written the above, didn’t take me to a plant ID, as I had expected. Instead, I stumbled on the VoynichCrypt and an interpretation of the symbols on the lower part of the plant stem. There is an intriguing and somewhat complex explanation of the page of symbols as the initials T O 2, extrapolated to signify a biblical reference.

I think the answer is much simpler. First of all, I don’t think it’s T O 2. If you read this as typical handwritten script of the time, it can be read, from top to bottom as lowercase r o t. Lowercase t in medieval manuscripts is often difficult to distinguish from the letter c except for the slightly straighter top bar. There are German-like words sprinkled throughout the VM, including short annotations on other plant pages, a top margin note, and some of the longer text on the last page. They are not quite German, but close. In German rot means red.

Voynich Manuscript f1r color annotation g My guess is that the 4r stem annotation describes the color of the stem or (more likely, since the painter’s palette was limited) is an instruction for the color to use for painting the stem, just as the leaf on the plant on Folio 1v has a “g” that may stand for “grün” which is green.

So this link didn’t lead to any further information on the identity of Plant 4r, but it was an interesting side tour into some of the more creative interpretations of the manuscript.

Posted by J.K. Petersen