It shouldn’t, but it does come as a surprise to learn that at least 50 plants bear this painter’s name. A painter who was also one of the first occidentals of the last century to so adamantly speak for the trees.

Roberto Burle Marx, whose career spanned a good 62 years (born in 1909 in São Paulo he passed away in 1994 in Rio) is best known as a Brazilian landscape architect and loved for his introduction of modernist elements into the landscape architects canon.

But he initially trained as a painter, first in Berlin, then in again in his native land with the likes of art nouveau painter Leo Putz. It would appear that Marx almost studied music instead. And so it’s almost as if he entered the landscaping trade by chance, upon invitation by a neighbour down the road, so to speak, to help design a residential garden.