Ensete ventricosum 'Montbeliardii' at Longwood

Until recently, the only photograph of 'Montbeliardii' in cultivation was of a plant at Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania published in Alfred Byrd Graf's Tropica edition 3. Dr Graf gives the clear impression that all the photographs in the book were taken by him from his collection of more than 100,000 plant photographs. This is obviously not so and I have recently learned that the photograph of 'Montbeliardii' on page 668 was taken by Steven A. Ruzinsky and not by Dr Graf. I am very pleased to acknowledge Dr Ruzinsky as the photographer and reproduce here a scan provided by Dr Ruzinsky of the original 35mm slide; this shows much more detail than Graf's reproduction.

The photograph was taken in 1974 and shows Dr. Ruzinsky's father standing next to the plant. Dr Ruzinsky comments "I took this in 1974 when my father and I were on a road trip to Pennsylvania. For my father, the only goal of this trip was to buy apple pies at an Amish farmer's market. As you see him here, he was eager to leave and buy pies. Little did my father, who died in 1976, suspect that he was being immortalized".

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