Story behind the art of Betsy Rogers-Knox

Botanical Art Worldwide 2025-A More Abundant Future:

Diversity in Garden, Farm, and Field

American Society of Botanical Artists at the Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO

American Hazelnut

Corylus americana

A few minutes walk from my home along a wooded country lane in northwest Connecticut two wild hazelnut shrubs grow close together.

The American hazelnut, Corylus americana, is native to much of the eastern section of the country. Native Americans used hazelnuts for food and for medicinal purposes such as treatment for diarrhea, cramps, hay fever, and cuts, and in childbirth. , At present, hazelnuts hybridized from Corylus species of the US, Europe, and Asia are cultivated in those regions, with Turkey as the world’s largest producer, at 64 percent of total production. Hazelnuts are used as a snack food, in spreads like Nutella, in baking, and in desserts such as pralines and chocolate truffles. Hazelnut oil is used as a cooking oil and for salad or vegetable dressings.

The distinctive leaf clusters from bud to nut intrigued me. The proximity to my house of the plants also made it convenient for me to observe the hazelnut throughout its seven to eight month development

For this painting, I used watercolor on paper. I created an approximately symmetrical composition comprising six stages of growth, which I carefully selected to document the evolution from first buds to maturation. It took me a season to discover that my observations were being shared by others, namely squirrels, deer, foxes, northern bobwhites, turkeys, and other critters who quickly stripped the shrubs of the exposed nuts and left me having to take an additional year to complete my project!

Groundnut

Apios americana

While hiking with a friend on a trail in the White Memorial Conservation Center, a 4,000 acre preserve in northwest Connecticut, I saw a patch of fragile, trailing, blooming vines that captured my attention. It was the vine, Apios americana, commonly referred to as groundnut. I became even more interested when I discovered the part beneath the soil, and I chose this plant as a subject for illustration in the exhibition, A More Abundant Future.

The plant is connected to a rhizome which forms an interconnected chain of tubers. The entire plant is edible, with a nutty flavor, but in addition, the tubers have about three times the protein content of potatoes, as well as other nutrients. If it were cultivated, along with several other overlooked wild plants, it could become a “new” crop that could help feed the world. Of note, ethnobotanical history describes how these edibles were food for Native Americans who taught the European settlers how to use them. Groundnuts were likely eaten at the harvest festival of 1621 that is regarded as the first Thanksgiving.

The challenge for me in this painting was to present all the stages of the groundnut’s growth. The slender, trailing stem made it difficult to achieve compositional balance. I chose a circular pathway to highlight the blossoms, beans, and tubers entwined together, and to symbolize its perennial nature.

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Read more about this artist's work: 27th Annual