f18v...Dioscorides...something about those leaves

[Koen G]

While preparing my paper for VM day, I was browsing the Dioscorides manuscript Chig.F.VII.159. By coincidence, I noticed something unrelated, but remarkable.

When I got to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. I noticed how this plant has several different leaf shapes on the same plant. One of these leaf shapes is a singular lobe attached immediately to the stem. I marked a few of them with arrows:

   

The reason why this looked familiar to me is that not so long ago Cary and I have been studying VM large plant features, and one of the rarer features exclusive to Herbal A is that it can have two drastically different leaf shapes on the same plant. And I distinctly remembered one of those plants having the same kind of silly little lobe attached to the stem.

   

So I recalled this little leaf from memory, but I couldn't quite remember what the rest of this plant looked like, so I went to look it up. It's You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ... What do its other leaves look like?

   

Now I know that the range of leaf shapes and arrangements in the Chigi Dioscorides MS is much more varied, but still. I find it very remarkable that You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is one of the few plants where the VM explicitly includes two very different leaf shapes, both of which appear in the Dioscorides plant. The way they attach to the stalks is also very similar.