Koen Gh.One plant I find particularly fascinating is the one I aptly name the elephant plant. It strikes me as interesting because the elephant drawn here, blended to be hidden in a plant leaf, appears much more biologically accurate than elephants in comparable European manuscripts.
I offer a possibility. If the plant images represent trade good or sources of raw material for a process the elephant leaf may have been added to a real plant to indicate that a plant is a source of an elephant related resource. The real plant might not actually have any elephant shaped leaves on it. I think the similarity of the leaf to an elephant is too good to be coincidental; it's a very respectable drawing of an elephant incorporated into the plant image. Whosoever made the original drawing was familiar with elephants or with a plant with leaves that really, really looked like an elephant. My possibility is that if it was the former the plant might indicate a source of vegetable ivory. There are two, possibly three plants with large, hard, cream-colored seed that can be carved like ivory. Perhaps this page describes one of them.
I offer a possibility. If the plant images represent trade good or sources of raw material for a process the elephant leaf may have been added to a real plant to indicate that a plant is a source of an elephant related resource. The real plant might not actually have any elephant shaped leaves on it. I think the similarity of the leaf to an elephant is too good to be coincidental; it's a very respectable drawing of an elephant incorporated into the plant image. Whosoever made the original drawing was familiar with elephants or with a plant with leaves that really, really looked like an elephant. My possibility is that if it was the former the plant might indicate a source of vegetable ivory. There are two, possibly three plants with large, hard, cream-colored seed that can be carved like ivory. Perhaps this page describes one of them.