The Panama rose (Rondeletia leucophylla Kunth) is a winter-bloomer having deep rose-pink flowers from December to April. It is a tender shrub in the Rubiaceae, the madder family, and will not survive freezing. Cultivated in the southern US, the flowers attract butterflies with nectar when little else is in bloom. The Panama rose has an added bonus for those who sit in the garden in the evening. It becomes fragrant after sunset.
The Panama rose was first collected by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland in "Mexico: Guerrero: inter Alto del Peregrino et Río Papagallo", 'between loft of the wanderer (or peregrine's nest?) and the River Papagayo (parrot)'. The botanical name was published by Kunth in 1818 in the fourth edition of Nova Genera et Species Plantarum.
The Panama rose was not the first species of its genus discovered; Linnaeus had established Rondeletia in 1753. The name honored Guillaume Rondelet, a natural historian, physician, and botany instructor at the university in Montpellier, France in the 16th century. Rondelet or Rondeletius (the educated Latinized their names) is better known among ichthyologists than botanists—he wrote two works on fish and animals found in the Mediterranean Sea.
But as a natural historian, Rondeletius collected and studied plants as well as animals. Charles de L'Escluse was his student in 1551. Clusius (L'Escluse) would later inadvertently cause an economic collapse. (See Plants that Changed History, April 2, 2002) He left his botanical manuscripts to another student, Matthias de L'Obel. The manuscripts were integral when L'Obel and Pena published Nova Stirpium Adversaria (New Memoranda on Plants). Linnaeus would 'remember' de L'Obel with the name Lobelia. Rondeletius was instrumental in the construction of the first anatomy amphitheater where medical students could watch dissections. It also happened that Rondeletius was a colleague of an eccentric medical student named Michel de Notre-Dame.
Michel took his time becoming a doctor and became infamous with his 'centuries' of verses in a mix of Greek, Latin, and French. He lost his wife and children during one of the many plagues and his few friends shied-away when he was targeted by the Toulouse Inquisition. Michel too, Latinized his name—Nostradamus. Coincidentally, Rondeletius and Nostradamus died within days of each other in 1566.
(Compiled from: W3TROPICOS, Jim Solomon, Missouri Botanical Garden; "Pena, Pierre" and "L'Obel, Matthias de", Doris and Marc Patten Collection, Special Collections of the Arizona State University Libraries; "Carolus Clusius (1526-1609) A Life", Scaliger Institute, Leiden University Library; and "Nostradamus (1503-1566)", Books and Writers, Pegasos - A literature related resource site, 1999.)
