1763 Granadilla, Passion Flower, Jacquin, folio hand coloured botanical

Passiflora quadrangularis, the giant granadilla, barbadine, grenadine, giant tumbo or badea, is a species of plant in the family Passifloraceae. It produces the largest fruit of any species within the genus Passiflora. It is a perennial climber native to the Neotropics.

This highly decorative, folio botanical engraving from Jacquin’s "Jacquin, N. J. v Selectarum stirpium Americanarum historia, in qua sistuntur plantae illae, quas in insulis Martinica, Jamaica, Domingo aliisque, et in vicinae continentis parte, observavit rariores.."

Fine original hand colour.

Overall size: 35 x 21.3 cm

The work was published in Vienna in 1763.

"In 1754, at the age of 27, a botanist born in Leiden, Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, made his first expedition to Central America. He was collecting seeds and plants for the Imperial gardens at Schonbrunn in Vienna. He took with him his Dutch head gardener and two Italian zoologists, and initially they concentrated on Grenada, Martinique, and Domingo, then under the control of the French. Von Jacquin sent the others home, in succession, laden with plants, but was himself captured by the British and kept prisoner for over a year. On his release, he remained in America, visiting Cuba and Jamaica to collect more plants before returning to Vienna in 1759. His books are among the finest of the period: 'Selectarum stirpium Americanarum historia' was first published in 1763" (as here) (Martyn Rix, "The Golden Age of Botanical Art," p. 114).