STORY BEHIND THE ART OF ALICE TANGERINI

Botanical Art Worldwide

America's Flora

Hibiscadelphus

Hibiscadelphus stellatus

This endemic Hawaiian species collected in 2012 on West Maui represents a new rare member of the Hibiscadelphus genus. Research Curator in the Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution, Warren Wagner, asked for an illustration of this species, Hibiscadelphus stellatus, named for its dense pale stellate pubescence found on most parts of the plant. Using the herbarium specimen as my model and with the aid of field photographs, I made pencil sketches of a short leafy branch and a flower in anthesis. I made enlarged photocopies taken directly from the plant to show details of the flower and fruit. The pubescent surfaces of the fruit and flower were magnified and drawn through a stereomicroscope. The resulting sketches were arranged in a format sized for the journal and inked on a sheet of drafting film using quill pens and a 3x0 sable brush. Care and many hours of inking with the tiniest pen, a Hunt 104, were involved to give the aspect of the minute stellate hairs on all of the surfaces, a key character of the plant and one that was not evidenced in the colorful field photographs.

Maxon's Gold Back Fern

Pentagramma glanduloviscida

Our departmental pteridologist, Eric Schuettpelz, presented me this project of drawing a fern that he collected in 2008, which was found through genetic determination to represent a new species. Although I thought at first it would be a relatively simple fern drawing, I became deeply involved with the details of its sporangia, scales, and glands, all of which required viewing through a compound microscope. The helmet headed sporangia were fascinating with their slightly translucent cells and the leaf detail showing over 1200 tiny glands became a mesmerizing inking project. The sporangia appeared to be an army advancing along the leaf surfaces. The fern fronds with their graceful, thin stipes acted as the centerpiece, binding all of the magnified structures together. I chose to do the drawing entirely by hand with pens and brushes rather than digitally as I wanted the overall effect of a diverse use of line and stipple techniques.

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