From today's featured article
Victoria, commonly growing as a gnarled tree up to 16 m (50 ft) in height, though it can be much smaller in more exposed areas. It has wrinkled grey bark and shiny dark green serrated leaves. The large yellow or greyish-yellow flower spikes turn grey as they age, and pollinated flowers develop into large, grey, woody seed pods. This Banksia species is one of four collected by Joseph Banks in 1770, and one of four published in 1782 as part of Carl Linnaeus the Younger's original description of the genus. Throughout its range, it grows exclusively in sandy soils, and is usually the dominant plant where it grows in scrubland or low woodland. B. serrata is pollinated by and provides food for a wide array of vertebrate and invertebrate animals in the autumn and winter months. It is a common plant of parks and gardens. ( Full article... )
Did you know ...
Bust of Beethoven by Franz Klein
- ... that the first of many
monuments to Ludwig van Beethoven is a bust (pictured) created in 1812 by Franz Klein during the composer's lifetime?
- ... that Gustav Classens, music director in Bonn from 1933, performed Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, Missa solemnis, and Ninth Symphony during his first two seasons, offering the Ninth in both?
- ... that Finland became a member state of the International Labour Organization 100 years ago today?
- ... that Christian Schreiber, a church administrator, philosopher and poet, wrote a German version of the Latin Mass for the publication, alongside the original, of Beethoven's Mass in C major?
- ... that
Ruth Williams Cupp , the first woman admitted to the Charleston County Bar Association in 1954, was still barred by law from serving on juries, like all women in South Carolina until 1967?
- ... that the Crushed Rock quarry near Abuja, Nigeria, is now a popular tourist destination?
- ... that when Johannes Chum, a tenor in operatic roles from Nerone to Lohengrin, performed in Harnoncourt's recording of Beethoven's Missa solemnis, a reviewer described his singing as "seraphic"?
- ... that Beethoven's Third Cello Sonata, first performed in 1809, has been described as the first sonata for piano and cello to treat the instruments as equal partners?
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Nana Akufo-Addo
On this day
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