Category Archives: The Voynich Large Plants

Investigation of the large Voynich plant images.

Voynich Large Plants – Folio 17r

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The Plant with the Mysterious Root

Plant 17r is a slender plant with a stem that branches at the top. Three puffs of blossoms are painted dark blue toward the calyx, but left unpainted across the top. This might suggest a two-toned blossom, or possibly sunlight on the top of a blossom, or two stages of development (like a dandelion changing from petals to fuzzy seed forms), or might simply be an effort to draw the flower to look three-dimensional.

The leaves are opposite, lanceolate, and very slender. Note that they stand out from the central stem, and not from branching stems. Also noteworthy is how straight and stiffly they are positioned—many plants have a slight curve or droop to the leaves and quite a few VMS plants are drawn with a significant droop. The veins are not indicated, so it might be a plant with parallel veins (which do not show up well when the leaves are narrow), or very small hard-to-see veins.

The roots are long and stringy, radiating from a larger central mass that includes two eye-like forms rimmed in red. This is the most curious part of the drawing as the unusual shapes look like they might have symbolic significance. Note that there is a red line extending from the top “eye” into the stem that does not continue down to the lower eye.

Other Curiosities

This folio is also unusual in that it includes a fairly long line of marginalia along the top, in a hand that resembles the handwriting on the last folio. Unfortunately most of the text to the right is faded and almost impossible to see. This folio also has some unusual characters next to the plant, including a diminutive version of one of the VMS glyphs which is usually drawn like a capital letter. The marginalia is a subject on its own, and will be discussed in a separate blog.

Prior Identifications

Edith Sherwood has identified Plant 17r as Catananche caerulea. I disagree with quite a few of Sherwood’s plant IDs, but this one seems reasonable for a number of reasons: the VMS flowers have been painted blue and appear as “puffs” at the end of slender stems, and the leaves are narrow. The common name of “Cupid’s Dart” from an ancient Greek and Roman practice of using the plant in love potions might also fit the shapes in the VMS root.

Sherwood didn’t comment on the imagery in the roots. The long, stringy unpainted tendrils include two eye-like almond-shaped forms with a dark dot inside and a lining of red around the rim. Red pigment has been used sparingly in the plant images, so the use of red in such a specific way might be significant. It’s not uncommon to find roots with holes or hollows or with red in the roots, but this specific shape and the double nature of the “eyes” is unusual.

What are Those Eye Shapes?

The resemblance to the opening of a vagina would be difficult to dispute, and would fit if the plant is an ingredient in love potions, although it doesn’t entirely explain why there are two red shapes. Could this be a reference to lesbian love? Male homosexual imagery was very common in classical Geek pottery, but not very common in medieval times. Images of lesbian love are rare in all historic time periods. The female erotic painting on the right, from the walls of Pompeii, is one of the few that has come down to us from ancient times.

Perhaps the VMS “eyes” are not two vaginas. Maybe one eye-shape is intended as a vagina and the other as an anus (I know, it’s not a very polite term, but if that’s what it is, we might as well say it). It’s even possible those long stringy roots are intended to double as pubic hair.

When you have a document that is carefully crafted, extensive, and yet unreadable, it’s possible that forbidden subjects are hidden in the text and possibly also encoded into the drawings. The manuscript has an unusual preponderance of female nymphs (only a few appear to be male) which might be another reference to lesbianism, but not much has been said about this subject, and the manuscript as a whole seems more clinical than erotic, and doesn’t appear to confirm this idea. Still, the possibility should remain open until more is known.

Getting back to the plant ID…

Other Possible IDs

Even though Catananche caerulea might be a reasonable ID, given the shape of the plant and its relation to love potions, I didn’t want to assume it was the only one possible. The VMS flowers look quite thick and dense, in contrast to the light airy petals of C. caerulea and C. caerulea has alternate, somewhat clasping, droopy leaves, while the VMS leaves are opposite, straight, and distinctively horizontal, so I searched for a closer match.

It occurred to me, when looking at the root, that if the two red shapes are eyeballs, then turning the root sideways is reminiscent of certain forms of sea-life, a resemblance that occurs in a few other VMS plants, such as the root that looks like an octopus and another that looks like a jellyfish.

If one turns the root upside-down, it has a rather torch-like appearance, like two candle flames radiating waves of heat. There are quite a few plants that are dipped in wax and lit to create torches, such as Aaron’s rod (Verbascum), but it’s usually the stem and flowers, rather than the roots, that are used.

Plant 17r is a rather fun image incorporating shapes that could be interpreted in many different ways.

Searching for a Better Match

There are many plants with leaves like 17r, but most of them don’t have puffy flowers—many have flower spikes, bell-shaped blossoms, or a small number of petals. The challenge is to find a plant that matches all characteristics of the drawing. Some of the Dianthus plants with multiple petals are similar, but they tend to have clasping leaves, unlike Plant 17r.

Phylica capitata has slender, opposite leaves, but they are not as long as 17r.

There is a plant that has very stiff, somewhat horizontal leaves, in the aster family, called Anaphalis (see left)—known to many people as “pearly everlasting”. The blossoms have a papery texture and, when dried, retain their original color, making them a favorite in dried flower arrangements. The roots often have a slightly knobby portion with many long stringy root hairs, similar to the VMS root. The flowers are quite dense, like those of the VMS plant, but they are not typically blue. Most are white or pink with yellow centers and the plant is not native to Europe—it is from India, parts of east Asia, and North America.

One of the problems with identifying the VMS plant is deciding whether the opposite leaves are literal. If they are, then 17r is neither Catananche or Anaphalis which both have alternate leaves. I’ve spent a significant amount of time evaluating all the plants to try to determine which aspects are symbolic, which are referential (not necessarily literal), and which are literal. I have the impression that leaf margins, veins, and possibly the leaf arrangements are meant to be naturalistic in many of the plants. The roots sometimes have fanciful embellishments, but perhaps they are meant to be mnemonic, as in many traditional herbals. If the 17r  leaves are meant to be literal, then perhaps there are other plants that should be considered.

Further Possibilities

Valerian has long narrow leaves and a slightly bulbous root with long stringy root hairs, but the leaves do not branch off the main stem, they are odd-pinnate and there is another VMS plant that more closely resembles Valeriana than 17r.

Scabiosa suceisa has roots and flowers that resemble Plant 17r. The roots come from a thicker middle portion and branch out into long white, stringy tendrils. The flowers are dense with a slightly protruding calyx, and they are often a deep violet color, but the leaves are wider than Plant 17r and come up mostly from the base of the plant—they do not distribute themselves evenly along the stem. But…

…there is another “Scabiosa” that might qualify. Scabiosa syriaca (Cephalaria syriaca—right), commonly called Makhobeli, has puffy flowers and long slender opposite leaves. It originated in Syria and has spread across Eurasia. The seeds are used as a flavoring for bread but it was not traditionally used as medicine and no particular significance has been given to the roots, nor could I find any records of a relationship to eyes or to female concerns. Morphologically it matches well to Plant 17r, but it doesn’t seem related in other ways.

There is a SW African plant called Mesembryanthemum viridiflorum that has puffs of flowers, very stiff opposite leaves growing from long stems, and a knobby root, but the calyx is very long and almost wraps around the flowers, and the leaves don’t have petioles and are not as long as the leaves of 17r. It is not as upright as the VMS plant either. I thought it was worth mentioning due to the shape of the flowers and the opposite leaves, but I don’t think it’s a close match to the VMS.

Getting Closer

Vernonia fasiculata courtesy of Wisconsin Flora.

Vernonia crinita, Vernonia fasciculata, and Vernonia noveboracensis have more in common with Plant 17r than most plants, including those already mentioned. They are erect, with long, narrow, opposite leaves (or a mixture of alternate and opposite), and branching puffy purple flower heads that become darker and stiffer when they turn to seed. The roots of V. fasiculata look very much like the VMS roots, a thick mat of long stringy whitish tendrils.

There is also a Hawaiian species of Vernonia with opposite leaves, but the leaves are stubbier than most of the North American species.

Summary

So there is a plant that closely resembles the VMS plant on all counts: thick puffy branching flowers, long thin opposite leaves distributed evenly up the stem, and a long stringy whitish root. Sometimes the stem is red.

The oil from Vernonia is commercially used as a binder and the roots of certain North American species are used as a tonic for certain female conditions, which might explain the imagery in the VMS roots.

Unfortunately, varieties of Vernonia that most closely resemble the VMS plant are not native to Europe. If Plant 17r is Vernonia, the VMS illustrator would have to know New World plants to include it, and other aspects of the manuscript lean toward a pre-Columbus timeline. Even so, I prefer not to assume an exact date for the creation of the VMS, It simply feels to me, on a detail-by-detail basis, to be an earlier date, possibly late 14th century or thereabouts.

Because Vernonia matches so well compared to other options, I searched for Vernonia species with origins in the Old World and discovered that Vernonia galamensis is native to east Africa. This seemed promising until I noticed that V. galamensis has alternate leaves (which is also true of some of the New World Vernonias). It is less like the VMS drawing than the New World varieties mentioned above.

So, unless one is willing to accept that the VMS illustrator knew about New World plants, there are no perfect Old World matches, but the latter ones above are fairly close. As for the interpretation of the shapes in the root, there are many possibilities, some of which were socially taboo in the Middle Ages.

J.K. Petersen

© Copyright 2013 All Rights Reserved

Voynich Large Plants – Folio 16r

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Description

VoyF16rThere is a large plant drawing occupying most of Folio 16r, accompanied by three blocks of text (if you consider the hanging indent as part of the first “paragraph” and the text at the top right a continuation of lines 1 and 2). The plant has some very specific and fairly naturalistic characteristics.

The root is thick, appears to have short root hairs, and is painted brown. The stems grow out from a bole (a diagrammatic representation of a tough woody base), something you might find on a sturdy shrub or tree.

The star-like serrated leaves have from seven to nine leaflets and are somewhat widely spaced along the main stem. The leaves are attached by fairly long stems and are peltate (centered) or nearly so.

At the top of the plant are what appear to be fruiting bodies or very small florets, with leaflets poking out from between them that are rounder than the lower leaves, singular, and painted a slightly lighter shade of green.

Identification

CannabisBudI didn’t bother to seek out identifications of this plant by other Voynich researchers because it looks so much like Cannabis it’s hard to imagine it as anything else. Cannabis plants can grow quite large and treelike, sometimes over nine feet high. They have distinctive buds at the ends of the stems, with leaflets visible between the numerous florets. The leaflets aren’t quite as blunt as FM 16r, but the lower leaves do tend to be a bit darker. As the fruiting bodies mature, the area around them darkens to a reddish brown.

Small Cannabis plants have numerous fine roots and I wasn’t able to verify whether large plants develop the heavy roots illustrated in Plant 16r. If not, then either this is a different plant or the VM illustrator was guessing (or ascribing some unknown meaning to the shape of the roots).

Other Possibilities

No matter how much 16r looks like Cannabis, it’s important to consider alternatives.

Lupinus plants have star-like leaves, but the flower spikes differ markedly from Plant 16r. There are other plants with leaflets poking out from the florets, but their leaves differ significantly from Cannabis.

One could frame an argument that this is a chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus), another ancient medicinal herb, but  chaste-tree branches split and spread more broadly than plant 16r, and the more widely spaced florets have no significant leaflets poking out from the spikes. The leaves of V. agnus-castus are less serrated and have fewer leaflets than the lower leaves of Plant 16r. Vitex negundo has more distinct serrations than V. agnus-castus, but the leaflets are petioled and the stems are opposite.

CSativaAssuming for now that Plant 16r may be Cannabis, it’s difficult to say whether the drawing represents C. sativa or C. indica—both plants are similar in general morphology. Since Cannabis plants can be quite variable, depending on growing conditions and climate, the VM plant might even be somewhat generic, representing both.

We could hazard a guess that the wider spacing of the leaves and larger number of medium-narrow leaflets favors sativa, but that assumes the illustrator knew there were two species and was intending a naturalistic representation rather than a schematic one. Since there are stylistic choices in some of the other VM plants (roots with heads, roots as animal shapes), we can’t assume all the plant drawings are strictly literal. Nonetheless, if this is Cannabis, it’s a pretty good drawing, better than most botanical drawings of the time, and almost as recognizable as a real plant as the viola on Folio 9v.

 

J.K. Petersen

 

Large Plants – Folio 15v

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Description

Prior Identification

Sherwood15v

Edith Sherwood has identified Plant 15v as Paris quadrifolia. This seems unlikely, even if the plant has the same basic shape and number of leaves. In contrast to Paris, Plant 15v has long, gently curved stems with rows of berries or small rounded blossoms. Paris has a single flower or berry at the end of a much shorter stem. It is far more likely that this is Spigellia, which it matches well, than Paris.

 

Posted by J. Petersen

July 25, 2013

Postscript (Jan. 12, 2018): When I originally posted the above identification, in 2013, I didn’t have time to search for public domain images of Spigellia to show how well the VMS drawing matches. Now that more images are available, it’s much quicker and easier to find them and I am posting a small selection so you can see that the VMS drawing resembles Spigelia much more than Paris quadrifolia:

Spigelia anthelmia flower stalks are often longer and more wavy than these drawings. When they mature, small round berry-like fruits are formed. The root forms side-growing rhizomes which were used in traditional medicine.

As can be seen from these images, Spigellia anthelmia typically has double pairs of leaves (from a distance they look like four leaves because the pairs are next to each other at right angles) and sports distinctive long curving flower stalks that form berry-like knobs when the fruits are ripe. There may be one to four flower stalks per plant, but often they grow in pairs.

There’s a good photo of the living plant here.

Note how these dried specimens are more similar to the VMS plant—many of them have only a single set of leaves, especially when they are young. Note how the root-stalk has a small swollen knob. Specimens courtesy of the Linnaen Herbarium, Department of Phanerogamic Botany Swedish Museum of Natural History:

 

Large Plants – Voynich Folio 13v

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Folio13vDescription

Plant 13v covers most of the page from the upper text block to the bottom edge, but isn’t as wide as some of the other large plants.

There are two widely separated text blocks, and the bottom block breaks across the plant stalks in two places.

The drawing appears to represent two closely associated plants, the stems are arising from separate tubers, one behind the other. The tubers are rounded, somewhat onion-shaped, with fairly thick, short side roots. The stalk curves a little and has the occasional leaflet or bract.

The leaves are arranged in pairs and densely clustered. The attachment between the stem and leaves suggests this is a branching plant. Note that it branches five times. The leaves have been painted brown, light brown, green, and light green, probably to distinguish individual leaves in a thick cluster or otherwise in close association with each other, as has been done in some of the other drawings.

The plant on the right has a second stalk or runner leading to another dense clump of leaves, which makes it hard to tell, without further study, whether this is an upright plant or a trailing vine. The plant on the right has no flowers.

Folio13vFlowersThe plant on the left has, at its end, flower heads that extend from behind the three end leaf pairs. There there is a pair of leaflet-shapes or a claw shape at the base of the center flower head that has not been painted green (and may be something other than leaflets).

The flower heads on the sides don’t protrude as far as the one in the center, so it can’t be seen from this angle whether they too have petals/bracts/leaflets between the flower head and the end leaves but it’s probable that their shape mimics that of the central flowerhead.

 

Prior Identification

Sherwood13v

Edith Sherwood has identified Plant 13v as Lonicera periclymenum (Honeysuckle) even though few of the structural details are the same as 13v. Here are some of the ways in which L. periclymenum differs from the VM plant:

  • L. periclymenum leaves have longer tips, are not rounded and don’t grow in dense clumps. They tend to be more evenly spaced along the vine.
  • L. periclymenum doesn’t have a vase-like structure where the blossoms connect to the stem, as is seen in 13v.
  • L. periclymenum has reddish and yellowish blossoms, but the VM illlustrator chose blue for the main part of the flower head, even though a reddish pigment (or at least a brown pigment) was available to the VM illustrator.
  • L. periclymenum roots are more slender or stringy, rather than roughly onion-shaped.
  • L. periclymenum does not specifically branch in five directions at the stem node as shown on both plants in 13v.

It’s true that L. periclymenum leaves sometimes have a “fused” appearance where the flowers come out of what appears as “Siamese leaves” (e.g., L. Sempervirens) but the similarities to 13v in other respects aren’t sufficient to make L. periclymenum a good candidate.

Other Possibilities

Some VM plants are more difficult to identify than others. The illustrator was somewhat scientific in approach, interested in portraying details, but was clearly not a professional artist and shows a certain “impatience” or haste in filling in the colors in the plants. Nevertheless, there are good reasons to believe that Plant 13v may be a species of Euphorbia.

The most distinctive features of Plant 13v are 1) the rounded root, 2) the dense association of the leaf shapes, 3) the vase-shaped flower heads with protrusions reminiscent of a snake’s tongue, 4) a stem that branches in five directions, and 5) the fact that two plants, one with flowers, one without, have been drawn together. That the rightmost plant has a double stalk or perhaps a runner should also be considered.

These features are found to a greater or lesser extent in a number of Euphorbias.

Euphorbia is an extremely diverse species. Many closely related Euphorbias don’t resemble each other at all. They range from large multi-limbed cacti, to small star-leaved groundcovers.  Some even look like pineapples, with a round scaly clump that resembles a soccer ball waiting to be kicked. Even the tiny spotted spurge that creeps along driveways and lanes is a species of Euphorbia. Not all Euphorbias have rounded tubers. Many have medium- to fine-texture tap roots.

Thus, it’s important to focus on Euphorbias with characteristics similar to 13v, such as Euphorbia apios, a small Mediterranean plant with tubers that resemble lumpy turnips. Euphorbia helioscopia is a common variety with similarities to E. apios, but the root is rarely rounded—it is more of a tap root.

E. apios was historically called “wild radish” and may be the Apios ischas mentioned in Pliny’s The Natural History. E. apios throws out runners that creep along the ground. The outside of the tuber is dark, the inside lighter.

Details

EuphorbiaBranch    EuphorbiaBranch2               EuphorbiaBranchBot

Pinning down the species of Euphorbia is difficult but it might be possible to narrow them down based on some of the 13v details. For example, a number of Euphorbias specifically branch in five directions as is illustrated by the VM plant.

EuphorbFlowerHead          EuphorbiaOvary   EuphorbiaHeads   EuphorbiaHeadNod

There are numerous Euphorbias that have the vase-like flower heads with “snake tongues” at the ends. As the season moves on, the vase-like structure becomes rounder and fuller and starts to nod, so Plant 13v may have been observed earlier in the year rather than later.

The curved ends of the 13v flowerhead resemble E. helioscopius or E. cyparissias more than E. apios—the snake-tongue protrusions are more distinct than those of E. apios, but E. apios has a tuber very much like 13v.

E. apios is not a perfect match either, despite the rounded tuber. The flowerhead is quite nobby, while the flowerhead on 13v is smooth.

Not all Euphorbias have rounded leaves. Some have points at the tips and many are elliptical or lanceolate, but 13v emphasizes the rounded shape typical of a number of Euphorbias.

Whether 13v is a lesser-known species, an extinct species, or whether the VM illustrator created a picture intended to demonstrate the more common characteristics of closely related species is not clear but it seems unlikely that this is Lonicera periclymenum and more likely that it’s Euphorbia.

 Posted by J.K. Petersen

 

 

Voynich Large Plants – Folio 13r

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The Pot-Bellied Plant

As odd as it may seem, with its strange shapes and big round belly, I consider this one of the more easy-to-identify plants. The flowers, leaves, and root are pretty accurate with the exception of the color of the flower sheaths (perhaps the blue is used here to indicate shadows).

Plant 13r is a little stubbier than some of the VMS plants—it doesn’t quite stretch to the top of the page. In fact, the whole plant has a jolly, rounded look to it.

There is a clump of flowers at the top similar to the blooms on a plant called “pussytoes” (Antennaria) except that the VMS flowers are colored dark blue and a grayish brown and the sheath extends farther up around the flowers than Antennaria. Note the little dots across the tops, indicating their texture and relative flatness (pussytoes are more rounded and do not typically have fat roots or ovate leaves).

Below the flower stalk is a mat of rounded two-tone leaves with fine serrations and a number of larger slits (the kind of notches one often sees in plants that are aging).

At the base of the stems, there is a bole with a number of cut-off tops where there may have been leaves or stems in previous years and, at the bottom, there’s a big red pot-like root, tuber, or corm, with thick tendrils arcing out to the sides.

I’ve mentioned boles in a previous blog and I think one or two of the common reasons for including boles in a plant drawing might apply to Plant 13r, as well.

Prior Identifications

I didn’t even look at prior identifications for this plant. It’s like the VMS Viola or Tragopogon in the sense that it’s drawn naturalistically and is easy to recognize—it’s not likely to be very controversial. It’s a semi-aquatic plant called Petasites or “butterbur”—a cousin to Tusilago farfara (which is quite a bit smaller, and not as bushy, but is often found in medieval herbals).

Petasites is primarily a wetland plant, in the aster family. Some species have flowers organized in tight, rounded groups like Plant 13r, others have long spikes. As the plant ages, the stalk tends to lengthen or the flowers to spread out. The VMS plant has a typical arrangement, with a cluster of small microphone-shaped fuzzy flowers that are similar to those of groundsel. They vary in color from white to pink.

The leaves can vary. They may be sagittate (spear- or shield-shaped), or shaped like the wings of moths, indented like maple leaves, or rounded, like the VMS plant. Those that are rounded have finely toothed leaf margins.

Of the various species, the leaves of Petasites ovatus, Petasites vulgaris, Petasites hybridus and Petasites amplus probably resemble the VMS leaves most closely. When they first emerge, the leaves of these species are fairly round. As they grow and age, some become more shield-shaped, and the edges start to ruffle and tear. P. ovatus (as its name implies) tends to retain its rounded shape (see right).

Many of the larger Petasites species have a thick swelling where the stalk connects to the root and red roots are not uncommon (see left). The size of the root depends partly on the habitat.

You’ll notice that the VMS plant is painted with two-toned leaves, green on one side, brown on the other. Two-toned leaves are not uncommon in Petasites. For example, Petasites albus has leaves that are green on the top and distinctively white on the underside,

The uses of the plant are twofold: the roots of certain species were considered medicinal in medieval times and are still sold for their flavonoids, alkaloids, and other components. Flowers and young shoots are sometimes cooked and eaten.

Common names for the species with more rounded leaves include butterbur, bog rhubarb, devil’s hat, pestilence-wort, and umbrella plant.

There’s nothing really mysterious about this plant except that it shows up less often in medieval herbals than its smaller cousin colt’s-foot (Tussilago farfara).

 

J.K. Petersen

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

This article was originally posted July 2013, put back in draft mode a couple of weeks later, and made live again in August 2017. I have not changed any of the text or illustrations. Like the VMS viola, it’s a straightforward ID that was probably made long before I started identifying VMS plants (late 2007, 2008, early 2009), and probably after, as well. I’m more interested in the plants that are difficult to identify, particularly those with symbolic components.