A podiatrist photographs some of the world’s most endangered flowers with remarkable precision and artistry, hoping to raise the plants’ profiles before it’s too late.
Photography by Jonathan Singer/Text by Alisa Opar

For the first time in nearly 70 years, an Amorphophallus titanum, dubbed the “corpse flower” for the stench of decay it gives off, was in bloom in New York, and Jonathan Singer had only five minutes to photograph it. In an exclusive viewing room at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden that had been cleared of excited crowds for the brief shoot sat the Sumatran plant, which consists of a single leaf that can be 10 feet across and a phallic flowering structure that can rise 10 feet high. While botanists held pieces of cardboard up to the windows to block harsh rays of light seeping in, Singer instructed his assistant to hold up a black cloth backdrop. He snapped one picture. Perfect.

That photograph is the first in Singer’s tome, Botanica Magnifica, a collection of 250 images, mostly endangered tropical flowers. The first set of the five-volume work occupies a place of honor in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. With his shoulder-length gray hair, thick black-rimmed Versace glasses with gold detailing, and penchant for draping his six-foot-plus frame in unusual clothing (like flowing shirts and designer pajama pants), the 60-year-old Singer looks much more an artist than a podiatrist—his profession for the past 30 years. “I loved taking pictures from a young age,” he says. “I had to have every new Polaroid that came out.”

He studied photography in college and trained under the painter Ilya Bolotowsky. “But my mother wanted me to be a doctor,” says Singer, so he went to medical school. He returned to photography when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease five years ago and after he stopped performing surgery. Armed with a Hasselblad digital camera, he’s invented a new way of photographing flowers that reveals the plant form, color, and texture in remarkable detail. In a light that evokes the paintings of Dutch masters, the flowers seem to be emerging out of darkness.

Singer began by photographing the flowers he found most compositionally interesting. Then, a few years ago, he bought three orchids at a New Jersey nursery, shot them at home, and returned the next day, images in hand. Marc Hachadourian, the New York Botanical Garden’s curator of Glasshouse Collections, happened to see them. Captivated, he hunted down exotic orchids for Singer, who shot them using his unique rapid-fire approach—taking two or three minutes to set up before snapping one picture per plant. After building up his portfolio, Singer showed it to John Kress, a scientist and curator of botany at the Smithsonian. In an unprecedented move, Kress gave Singer access to the institution’s research greenhouse, home to some of the world’s rarest plants.

With Kress as a guide, Singer began shooting the greenhouse’s extremely rare and endangered flowers, some of which no longer live in the wild. “I marry art and science,” says Singer. “People are mesmerized by these photographs, and because of that they want to know the science. People ask me, ‘Wow, what’s the name of that flower? Where do you find it?’ ”

Botanica, which weighs 35 pounds, was printed with handmade ink on handmade paper measuring about 26.5 inches by 39.5 inches. The price tag: $2.5 million—though you won’t need a hand truck or a trust fund to buy the $185, 12-inch-by-15-inch version Abbeville Press is publishing this fall. Using the rare double-elephant dimension for the original was deliberate. Singer aimed to emulate the best-known picture book of this size—John James Audubon’s Birds of America. “Audubon knew birds,” says Singer. “I am not the Audubon of the 21st century in botany because I’m not botanically trained.” Yet he seeks to leave a conservation legacy, doing for plants what Audubon did for birds. “We have to stop the destruction of ecosystems before there is nothing more to see.”
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	Jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) This large tropical vine is a member of the pea family. Clusters of more than 100 striking turquoise flowers hang down as much as three feet. In its native Philippines, bees pollinate the vine’s flowers.
	Giant Amazon water lily (Victoria amazonica) Named after Queen Victoria, this plant blooms at night in the warm, slow-moving waters of the Amazon basin. “Giant” is an apt descriptor: Each leaf can grow up to nine feet in diameter, and the plant can span some 50 feet across. The elaborate network of air-filled veins on the leaf’s underside give it the structural strength to support almost 90 pounds on its surface. (To see this plant’s flower, turn to the cover.)
	Globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus) A member of the thistle family, this plant is native to the Mediterranean. Popular in ancient Greek and Roman cuisine, today the plant is cultivated as an ornamental.
	Parakeet flower (Heliconia psittacorum) These flowers, indigenous to northern South America, can grow to be four feet tall. The colorful spiky plants are closely related to birds-of-paradise and bananas.
	Giant granadilla (Passiflora quadrangularis) Linnaeus first published the botanical name for the giant granadilla in 1759 in Systema Naturae, his famous work on the classification of plants and animals. In its native tropical America, the plant is grown for its large, edible fruits and ornamental flowers. It’s now cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas worldwide. The square stems are the source of its Latin name.
	Corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) Native to Sumatra, the corpse flower’s putrid odor attracts carrion beetles that pollinate the plant. After only three days, the flower collapses. Then the plant sends up a single leaf and 10-foot stalk pictured here. The plant stores energy for producing the bloom in an underground tuber that can weigh nearly 100 pounds.
	Tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa) The first records of cultivation of tree peonies date back to nearly 600 B.C., during the Sui Dynasty, when Emperor Yang reigned over China. The aromatic, silky flowers can measure nearly a foot wide.
	Goldfinger plant (Juanulloa aurantiaca) One glance at these tangerine-colored flowers and you might easily guess that hummingbirds pollinate the climbing plants in their native tropical forests in Central and South America. A member of the nightshade family, Solanaceae, goldfinger is related to the tomato and the deadly belladonna.
	Ginger family (Curcuma elata) This ginger plant is a bit of a mystery: Smithsonian scientists aren’t sure who donated it to the institution, or to which exact area it’s native. The plant’s vibrant green and magenta bracts certainly do, however, accentuate the variable colors among gingers.
	Giant Amazon water lily (Victoria amazonica) The giant Amazon water lily can be 50 feet across.

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