The Voynich Ninja

Edith Sherwood identifies the plant on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as a sago palm:

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Turning to Wikipedia, I find that a sago palm is not actually a true palm at all, but a type of plant called a cycad:

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It seems that most if not all species of cycads have these characteristic cones that resemble the structure seen in f56v.  The Wikipedia article provides this image of a dying cycad cone, which is even closer in shape to the one in the VMS than the example provided by Edith Sherwood:



Well, I do think You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. looks like it may be a cycad.  Is it?  What other contenders are there for the identity of this plant and its conspicuous cone-like structure?

Also, here's a map from the Wikipedia article showing the approximate world distribution of living cycad species:

This plant is not on my personal list of plants with highest chances for succesful identification. But, applying the mnemonics concept, the roots remind me of walking paws of a 4-legged animal (lion's?).

Could one find something matching in Pliny, please?

Here of course we bump into the problem that only a handful of researchers (including myself) will accept proposed plants that don't occur in Europe or around the Mediterranean. 

If I were to check whether this could be a Cycad I'd start by looking for Indian species with an edible component.

Sago palms have an edible component, namely sago itself.

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Though personally, I'm not convinced that the plants in the VMS are limited to those of medicinal, culinary, or even more broadly economic use.

(12-01-2017, 02:56 PM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.This plant is not on my personal list of plants with highest chances for succesful identification.

I don't see why not: it has some specific details that provide a pretty good match for a cycad.  Do they match any other type of plant equally well?

By the way: there is more to the root than meets the eye. 

In one of the droopy ends there's what looks like a little eye intentionally left blank by the painter (green arrow) and in the central part some of the line work has been distorted by the paint (red arrow).

Quote:I don't see why not: it has some specific details that provide a pretty good match for a cycad.  Do they match any other type of plant equally well?

That's solely by the (limited) criteria that I You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. via analysis of the text. I just wanted to say that there are other plants that I would personally try to identify prior to this one.

As the first guess regerding the lion's feet, there is leontopodion (alchemilla vulgaris) (see "The Western Herbal Tradition" by Tobyn et al., pp. 57-59), but while the leaves are so-so, the flower is not a good match IMO - unless that's obscured by some other mnemonic.

This is how I see the outline of the roots. Left the bottom open since we don't know if they are complete.

I can't but have the impression that these are four legs walking. And there are no hooves.

(12-01-2017, 10:57 PM)Anton Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I can't but have the impression that these are four legs walking. And there are no hooves.

They could draw much better legs in the mnemonics though. If these are legs they appear to belong to some kind of comic octopus with such feet.



To me it almost seems like the middle part is some kind of hinge system, where parts have been joined...