Orange The Oddity - Botanical poster 50x70cm

Citrus aurantium var. Bizarreria – La Bizarrerie Orange

Described in Florence as early as 1644, La Bizarrerie is undoubtedly the most extraordinary plant in the history of botany. This orange tree simultaneously produces, on the same tree, bitter oranges, lemons, citrons, and hybrid fruits with unpredictable shapes: half orange, half citron, sometimes arranged in crossed segments.

A single individual can thus bear round or mammillated fruits, with orange peel and citron flesh, defying all classification. Pierre-Antoine Poiteau himself admitted that this "monster" escapes botanical laws and that the science of his time remained powerless to explain this marvel.

The tree has the habit of a bitter orange tree, but some of its leaves are narrow and contorted, foretelling the branches that will bear reddish flowers and hybrid fruits, while the normal leaves prefigure white flowers and classic oranges.

This duality also manifests in its behavior: without careful pruning, La Bizarrerie can "get carried away," favoring only one of its natures to revert to being a simple lemon or bitter orange tree. Presented to the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1711 under the inaccurate name "hermaphrodite," it remains a fascinating mystery, a product of chance: the graft died, the rootstock regrew... and gave birth to this marvel.

This plate is taken from the Traité des Arbres Fruitiers by Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin, a fruit encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference in 19th-century naturalistic illustration.

It combines the rigor of scientific drawing with a rare artistic sensitivity, characteristic of the great plates from the golden age of illustrated botany.

• Each poster is printed using 12-color giclée printing, the benchmark for art studios for rendering fine tones, subtle gradients, and the most delicate botanical details.
• 200 gsm paper, soft matte finish, 0.26 mm thickness: a result close to the original engraving, sharp, glare-free, designed for hanging.
• Printed on FSC-certified paper, individually printed to order.
• Shipped in a rigid protective tube.