Curtis Botanical – Plate 8530 – Few-seeded Derris

Original antique black-and-white botanical print from Curtis's Botanical Magazine — Plate 8530.

Plant: Derris Oligosperma (Few-seeded Derris). Native to: Southeast Asia (tropical forest).

Related to the source of rotenone — a natural insecticide used by indigenous peoples across Southeast Asia to stun fish. Victorian botanists prioritized economically useful plants; the chemistry of this vine was known to indigenous communities centuries before Western science documented it.

Printed in London. Each print is an original page removed from a bound volume of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, the world's oldest continuously published botanical journal (founded 1787). Uncolored plate. Sold individually. Minor age-related toning consistent with 19th-century paper.

This plate originated with the Royal Horticultural Society and passed through Wheldon & Wesley, one of the great natural history dealers of the 20th century. We came into the archive by accident and have spent the time since trying to share it as widely as we can.