Title:Jade Vine With Bat by artist Tina Bone

Drawn on location, courtesy of Cambridge Botanic Gardens. I applied for permission to sit in the glasshouse at CUBG and draw this beautiful and strange plant when it was in flower in March 2006. I spent two days drawing field notes and taking photographs and mixing the correct colours for application in the final painting. I tried to find out more about this exotic plant, which grows in the tropical jungles, but could not find out much only that it is fertilised by flower bats. Hence the furry friend in the tops. The plant is a vine related to the pea family and clings to the trees. The flower stems are usually a metre long. As the flower heads die they fall off, leaving the stalks on the stem (notice the fallen flower head at the bottom nestling on the branch! A little verse for the picture: Have you ever seen, such a lovely shade of green. A jade vine in all its glory, flower bat in upper storey. Not from tropical forest, you'll pardon! But from Cambridge's Botanic Garden. [Limited edition prints available]