[split] Are there trees in the VMS?

[-JKP-]

Thanks, Marco. You touch upon an interesting question which I've meant to bring up before: are there trees in the VM? I agree that at first sight the plants look mostly like herbs, though this is hard to tell for sure since we have no indication of scale. Isn't it thought, for example, that You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. might be a tree? This is something that really needs its own thread, though at the moment I don't have time to give it the attention it deserves.

I've looked extensively to see if there are trees, as trees were included in many manuscripts, but it doesn't seem that way except for the one that might be Prunus from the plum/cherry family You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., with what I think are nectar glands (I've never seen anyone else suggest that, but it's an anatomical adaptation to steer bugs away from the fruit that might be represented this way in a drawing). But there also exists an You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. flower with glands (I think they may be air roots rather than nectar glands but when they first come out, they look like nectar glands because they are red and partway up the stem), so even 25r might not be a tree.

I suspect the only reason there's a tree in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is to show the twining habit of the vine (which is probably the main subject and is likely Hedera nigra, now called Hedera helix). So the tree is a prop rather than the focus of the page, just as in the image that I think is You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (dodder). The tree is only there to show the parasitic habit of the dodder.


It is traditional for medieval herbals to include the tree and the host plant as props, so the illustrator probably saw some of those manuscripts and adopted the idea.