moimoi
AV Clubber 
Posts: 5,090 
|
Post by moimoi on Jun 26, 2016 15:24:59 GMT -5
Everyday Edibles II
That’s not real food, you say? Well how about… Exhibit E: Brassica oleracea (Wild cabbage – cultivars include cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, kohlrabi)
Origin: Native to coastal southern and western Europe, its high tolerance of salt and lime and its intolerance of competition from other plants typically restrict its natural occurrence to limestone sea cliffs, like the chalk cliffs on both sides of the English Channel and the windswept coast on the western side of the Isle of Wight. Features: Wild B. oleracea is a tall biennial plant, forming a stout rosette of large leaves in the first year. In its second year, the stored nutrients are used to produce a flower spike 1 to 2 meters (3–7 ft) tall bearing numerous yellow flowers. Through artificial selection for various phenotype traits, the emergence of variations of the plant with drastic differences in looks took only a few thousand years. Preference for leaves, terminal bud, lateral bud, stem and inflorescence evolved the wild cabbage into the many forms we know today. Fun Facts: - Though it is believed to have been cultivated for several thousand years, its history as a domesticated plant is not clear before Greek and Roman times, when it was a well-established garden vegetable. Theophrastus mentions three kinds of rhaphanos (ῤάφανος): a curly-leaved, a smooth-leaved, and a wild-type. He reports the antipathy of the cabbage and the grape vine, for the ancients believed cabbages grown near grapes would impart their flavor to the wine. The preference for eating the leaves led to the selection of plants with larger leaves being harvested and their seeds planted for the next growth. Around the 5th century BC, the formation of what we now know as kale had developed. Preference led to further artificial selection of kale plants with more tightly bunched leaves, or terminal bud. Somewhere around the 1st century AD emerged the phenotype variation of B. oleracea that we know as cabbage. Phenotype selection preferences in Germany led kale down another evolutionary pathway. By selecting for fatter stems the variant plant known as kohlrabi emerged around the 1st century AD. Further selection in Belgium in lateral bud led to the Brussels sprout in the 18th century. European preference emerged for eating immature buds, selected for inflorescence. By the 15th century AD, cauliflower had developed, leading also to the emergence of broccoli in Italy about 100 years later.
- A whole culture around kale has developed in northern Germany, especially around the towns of Bremen, Oldenburg, Osnabrück and Hannover and the region of Dithmarschen. There, most social clubs of any kind will have a Grünkohlessen or Kohlfahrt ("kale tour") sometime between October and February, visiting a country inn to consume large quantities of kale stew, Pinkelsausage, Kassler, Mettwurst and Schnapps. These tours are often combined with a game of Boßeln. Most communities in the area have a yearly kale festival which includes naming a "kale king" (or queen).
- The Kailyard school of Scottish writers, which included J. M. Barrie, consisted of authors who wrote about traditional rural Scottish life (kailyard = kale field). In Cuthbertson's book Autumn in Kyle and the charm of Cunninghame, he states that Kilmaurs in East Ayrshire was famous for its kale, which was an important foodstuff. A story is told in which a neighboring village offered to pay a generous price for some kale seeds, an offer too good to turn down. The locals agreed; however a gentle roasting on a shovel over a coal fire ensured that the seeds never germinated.
- Produced by Humphry Bowen, the reference material called Bowen's Kale was used for the calibration of early scientific instruments intended to measure trace elements in the 1960s. With Peter Cawse, Bowen grew, dried and crushed a large amount of marrow-stem kale (Brassica oleracea var. medullosa) into 100 kg of a homogeneous and stable powder that was subsequently freely distributed to researchers around the world for over two decades. This was probably the first successful example of such a de facto standard.
- Lacinato kale (called cavolo nero, literally "black kale", in Italian and often in English) is a variety of kale with a long tradition in Italian cuisine, especially that of Tuscany, where it is one of the traditional ingredients of minestrone and ribollita. The Lacinato variety is sometimes called "dinosaur kale" because its bumpy leaves are said to resemble what dinosaur skin is thought to have looked like. Because of its taste, "slightly bitter [and] earthy", it has been called "the darling of the culinary world". This cultivar is also popular among gardeners because of its color and texture, and was listed among the plants Thomas Jefferson recorded in his 1777 garden at Monticello.
- The Jersey cabbage (B. oleracea longata), also known as Jersey kale or cow cabbage and by a variety of local names including giant cabbage, long jacks, tree cabbage and the French chour and chou à vacque, is a variety of cabbage native to the Channel Islands that grows to a great height and was formerly commonly used there as livestock fodder and for making walking sticks. The Jersey cabbage develops a long stalk, commonly reaching 6 to 10 feet (1.8 to 3.0 m) in height, and can grow as tall as 18 to 20 feet (5.5 to 6.1 m). Historically the stalks were made into walking sticks, of which 30,000 a year were being sold by the early 20th century, many for export. They were also used for fencing and as rafters. The lower leaves were fed to livestock and were reportedly of great value: The Farmer's Magazine stated in 1836 that five plants would support 100 sheep or 10 cows, and sheep fed them were rumored to produce silky wool up to 25 inches (64 cm) in length.
- Collard greens are a staple vegetable of Southern U.S. cuisine. Traditionally, collards are eaten on New Year's Day, along with black-eyed peas or field peas and cornbread, to ensure wealth in the coming year. Cornbread is used to soak up the "pot liquor", a nutrient-rich collard broth. In the Kashmir Valley between India and Pakistan, collard greens are included in almost every meal, with both leaves and roots consumed.
   
Exhibit F: Genus Cucurbita (Squash, Pumpkin)
Origin: Cucurbita (Latin for gourd) was native to the Andes and Mesoamerica, before being brought to Europe by returning explorers after their discovery of the New World. Five species are grown worldwide for their edible fruit, variously known as squash, pumpkin, or gourd depending on species, variety, and local parlance, and for their seeds. Other kinds of gourd, also called bottle-gourds, are native to Africa and belong to the genus Lagenaria, which is in the same family and subfamily as Cucurbita but in a different tribe. These other gourds are used as utensils or vessels, and their young fruits are eaten much like those of Cucurbita species. Archaeological investigations have found evidence of domestication of Cucurbita going back over 8,000 years from the very southern parts of Canada down to Argentina and Chile. Features: Most Cucurbita species are herbaceous vines that grow several meters in length and have tendrils. Cucurbita species fall into two main groups. The first group are annual or short-lived perennial vines and are mesophytic, i.e. they require a more or less continuous water supply. The second group are perennials growing in arid zones and so arexerophytic, tolerating dry conditions. Cultivated Cucurbita species were derived from the first group. The yellow or orange flowers on a Cucurbita plant are of two types: female and male. The female flowers produce the fruit and the male flowers produce pollen. The fruits of the genus Cucurbita are good sources of nutrients, such as vitamin A and vitamin C, among other nutrients, but the plants can also contain toxins. Fun Facts:- Cucurbita fruits have played a role in human culture for at least 2,000 years. They are often represented in Moche ceramics from Peru. After Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World, paintings of squashes started to appear in Europe early in the sixteenth century.
- Halloween is widely celebrated with jack-o-lanterns made of large orange pumpkins carved with ghoulish faces and illuminated from inside with candles. The practice of carving pumpkins for Halloween originated from an Irish myth about a man named "Stingy Jack". The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips.The pumpkins used for jack-o-lanterns are C. pepo, not to be confused with the ones typically used for pumpkin pie in the United States, which are C. moschata.
- Canned pumpkin is often recommended by veterinarians as a dietary supplement for dogs and cats that are experiencing certain digestive ailments such as constipation, diarrhea, or hairballs. The high fiber content helps to aid proper digestion. Raw pumpkin can be fed to poultry, as a supplement to regular feed, during the winter to help maintain egg production, which usually drops off during the cold months. Pumpkins have been used as folk medicine by Native Americans to treat intestinal worms and urinary ailments, and this Native American remedy was adopted by American doctors in the early nineteenth century as an anthelmintic for the expulsion of worms. In China, C. moschata seeds were also used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of the parasitic disease schistosomiasis and for the expulsion of tape worms. Chinese studies have found that a combination of pumpkin seed and areca nut extracts was effective in the expulsion of Taenia spp. tapeworms in over 89% of cases.
- When used for food, zucchini are usually picked when under 20 cm (8 in.) in length, when the seeds are still soft and immature. Mature zucchini can be as large as a baseball bat. The larger ones are often fibrous. A zucchini with the flowers attached is a sign of a truly fresh and immature fruit, and it is especially sought after for its sweeter flavor. In August 2015, a 79-year-old German man and his wife ate a zucchini grown by a neighbor. The couple noted the unusually bitter taste. Shortly afterwards they were both admitted to hospital, apparently with symptoms of a gastrointestinal infection. The wife, who had eaten a smaller portion, survived, while the man died. Toxicological analysis of the meal confirmed the presence of the toxin cucurbitacin. Investigators warned that gardeners should not save their own seeds, as reversion to forms containing more poisonous cucurbitacin might occur and the toxin is not destroyed by cooking.
   Exhibit G: Lathyrus sativus (Grass Pea) – as requested by Patrick BatmanOrigin: The origins of L. sativus are unclear. Archaeological evidence suggests that domestication of grass pea probably occurred in the Balkan region around 6,000 BC, and further remains have been found in India dating to 2,000-1,500 BC. Today, grass pea is widely cultivated in Asia, (especially in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Middle East), southern Europe and North Africa and to a lesser degree America, Australia and South Africa. Features: L. sativus is a much-branched annual herb up to 170 cm tall with a well-developed taproot. Flowers are blue, reddish-purple, red, pink or white, and resemble the common garden pea ( Pisum sativum) flower. The high protein content and reliable yield of grass pea makes the crop excellent fodder for cattle and can be eaten green or as hay. Like many other legumes, grass pea is able to fix nitrogen from the air which means that the crop is valued as green manure, for example in Australia and Canada. Fun Facts:- The crop is harmless to humans in small quantities, but eating it as a major part of the diet over a three month period can cause permanent paralysis below the knees in adults and brain damage in children, a disorder known as lathyrism. Though the adverse effects of the neurotoxin in grass pea have been known since prehistoric times, and are mentioned by Hippocrates and in ancient Indian writings, lathyrism has been seen to occur after famines in Europe (France, Spain, Germany), North Africa, South Asia, and is still prevalent in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Afghanistan when Lathyrus seed is the exclusive or main source of nutrients for extended periods. Jewish inmates of one Ukrainian concentration camp were subjected to experiments with L. Sativus in 1942. The camp's Nazi officers provided inmates with flour made from grass pea seeds. Within months, many became paralyzed in the lower body.
- Flour made from grass peas (Spanish: almorta) is the main ingredient for the gachas manchegas orgachas de almorta. Accompaniments for the dish vary throughout La Mancha. This is an ancient Manchego cuisine staple, generally consumed during the cold winter months. The dish is generally eaten directly out of the pan it was cooked in, using either a spoon or a simple slice of bread. This dish is commonly consumed immediately after removing it from the fire, being careful not to burn one's lips or tongue. Grass pea flour is exceedingly difficult to obtain outside of Castilla-La Mancha, especially in its pure form. Commercially available almorta flour is mixed with wheat flour due to grass peas' toxicity.
- Because of this hardiness, grass pea is often the only alternative to starvation when crops fail. It is a particularly important crop in areas that are prone to drought and famine, and is thought of as an 'insurance crop' as it produces reliable yields when all other crops fail. Grass pea is one of the 29 priority crops that are the focus of the Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change project led by Kew Garden’s Millennium Seed Bank and the Global Crop Diversity Trust. By collecting the wild relatives of crops such as grass pea and making their seeds available to breeders, useful traits such as lower toxicity levels, in the case of grass pea, and resistance to pests, diseases and environmental stresses can be passed on to crops, making them more resilient and better equipped to deal with climate change. The toxins found in African and Asian grass pea plants are seven times more toxic than Middle Eastern types, so newly engineered hybrids contain just enough to maintain their drought and waterlogging tolerance without threatening human health.
   See Also: Noni, Paw Paw, Scuppernong
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Jul 4, 2016 1:44:01 GMT -5
Superlatives
The amateur botanist in me might regard all plants as fascinating and special, but the American in me just wants to know, like, what’s the best plant? As our empires turn to dust, let’s consider some of the most over-achieving natural species on our planet – the ones that were there before we came along and will be thriving long after we are gone. Exhibit A: Genuses Sequoiadendron, Metasequoia, and Sequoia (Sequoia, Redwood)
Origin: In the subfamily Sequoioideae, there are three genii, each containing a single living species. The only extant species of the genus Sequoia is in the coastal forests eco-region of Northern California and Southwestern Oregon. Metasequoia is native to Lichuan county in the Hubei province of China, but large petrified trunks and stumps of the extinct M. occidentalis make up the major portion of tertiary fossil plant material in the badlands of North Dakota. Sequoiadendron pollen have been recovered from strata of early Pliocene glaciers of the Caucasus in Western Georgia, but the only surviving species is the giant sequoia of the Sierra Nevada region. Sequoias are very popular ornamental trees grown in most of western and southern Europe, the Pacific Northwest of North America north to southwest British Columbia, the southern United States, southeast Australia, New Zealand and central-southern Chile. Features: Giant sequoias are the world's largest single trees and largest living thing by volume, growing to an average height of 50–85 m (164–279 ft) and 6–8 m (20–26 ft) in diameter. Record trees have been measured at 94.8 m (311 ft) in height. Sequoia bark is fibrous, furrowed, and may be 90 cm (3 ft) thick at the base of the columnar trunk. The thick, tannin-rich bark, combined with foliage starting high above the ground, provides good protection from both fire and insect damage, contributing to their longevity. The oldest known giant sequoia based on ring count is 3,500 years old. The leaves are evergreen, awl-shaped, 3–6 mm long, and arranged spirally on the shoots. The seed cones are small and resemble those of other conifers. Water from the roots can be pushed up only a few meters by osmotic pressure but can reach extreme heights by using a system of branching capillary action in the tree's xylem (the water tubules) and sub-pressure from evaporating water at the leaves. Sequoias supplement water from the soil with fog, taken up through air roots, at heights to where the root water cannot be pulled. Fun Facts:
- The name Sequoia is thought to be in honor of Sequoyah (1767–1843), the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary. Native American names for the species include wawona, toos-pung-ish and hea-mi-withic, the latter two in the language of the Tule River Tribe.
- Giant sequoias are in many ways adapted to forest fires. Their bark is unusually fire resistant, and their cones will normally open immediately after a fire, with a preference for soil rich in ash. Without fire, shade-loving species will crowd out young sequoia seedlings, and sequoia seeds will not germinate. Wildfires may also be important in keeping carpenter ants in check. Due to fire suppression efforts and livestock grazing during the early and mid 20th century, low-intensity fires no longer occurred naturally in many groves, so in 1970, the National Park Service began controlled burns of its groves to correct these problems.
- Wood from mature giant sequoias is highly resistant to decay, but it is generally unsuitable for construction. From the 1880s through the 1920s, logging took place in many groves in spite of marginal commercial returns. Due to their weight and brittleness, trees would often shatter when they hit the ground, wasting much of the wood. Loggers attempted to cushion the impact by digging trenches and filling them with branches. Still, as little as 50% of the timber is estimated to have made it from groves to the mill. The wood was used mainly for shingles and fence posts, or even for matchsticks. An estimated 70% or more of ancient old-growth redwood trees have been displaced by environmental changes or cut down. Pictures of the once majestic trees broken and abandoned in formerly pristine groves, and the thought of the giants put to such modest use, spurred the public outcry that caused most of the groves to be preserved as protected land.
- The species S. sempervirens can reproduce asexually by layering or sprouting from the root crown, stump, or even fallen branches; if a tree falls over, it will regenerate a row of new trees along the trunk, so many trees naturally grow in a straight line. Sprouts originate from dormant or adventitious buds at or under the surface of the bark. The dormant sprouts are stimulated when the main adult stem gets damaged or starts to die. Many sprouts spontaneously erupt and develop around the circumference of the tree trunk. Within a short period after sprouting, each sprout will develop its own root system, with the dominant sprouts forming a ring of trees around the parent root crown or stump. This ring of trees is called a "fairy ring".
- "General Sherman" is a giant sequoia (S. giganteum) tree located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, California. By volume, it is the largest known living single stem tree on Earth. Hyperion is a coast redwood (S. sempervirens) in Northern California that was measured at 115.61 m (379.3 ft), which ranks it as the world's tallest known living tree. Researchers stated that woodpecker damage at the top may have prevented the tree from growing taller.
- Metasequoia has experienced morphological stasis for the past 65 million years, meaning the modern species M. glyptostroboides appears identical to its late Cretaceous ancestors. Metasequoia was first described as a fossil from the Mesozoic Era by a Japanese scientist in 1941. In 1944, a small stand of an unidentified tree species was discovered in China in Modaoxi (磨刀溪; presently, Moudao (谋道), in Lichuan County, but due to World War II, these were not studied further until 1946, and only finally described as a new living species of Metasequoia by Chinese scientists in 1948. That year, Harvard University sent an expedition to collect seeds and, soon after, seedling trees were distributed to various universities and arboreta worldwide for growth trials.
  
Exhibit B: Genus Wolffia (Watermeal, Duckweed)
Origin: Most species have a very wide distribution across several continents. Features: Wolffia is a genus of 9 to 11 species which include the smallest flowering plants on Earth. These aquatic plants resemble specks of candy sprinkles floating on the water. An average individual plant of the Asian species W. globosa, or the equally minute Australian species W. angusta, is small enough to pass through the eye of an ordinary sewing needle, and 5,000 plants could easily fit into thimble. An average individual plant is 0.6 mm long (1/42 of an inch) and 0.3 mm wide (1/85th of an inch). It weighs about 150 micrograms (1/190,000 of an ounce), or the approximate weight of 2-3 grains of table salt. A bouquet of one dozen plants will easily fit on the head of a pin and two W. angusta plants in full bloom will fit inside a small letter "o" on this page. The green part of the plant, the frond, is a sphere measuring approximately one millimeter wide but with a flat top that floats at the water's surface. There is no root. The plant produces a minute flower fully equipped with one stamen and one pistil, however it often multiplies by vegetative reproduction, with the rounded part budding off into a new individual. The plant is a mixotroph which can produce its own energy via photosynthesis or absorb it from the environment in the form of dissolved carbon. Fun Facts:
- Wolffia species are composed of about 40 percent protein, about the same as the soybean, making them a potential high-protein human food source. They have historically been collected from the water and eaten as a vegetable in much of Asia. It has long been used as a cheap food source in Burma, Laos, and Thailand, where it is known as khai-nam ("eggs of the water"). W. globosa is a popular item in Thai cuisine, known in Thai as Pham (ผํา).
- Wolffia plants also have the fastest population growth rate of any seed plant. Under ideal conditions a single plant of the species W. microscopica may reproduce vegetatively by budding every 30 hours. One plant could theoretically give rise to one nonillion plants (one followed by 30 zeros) in about four months, with a spherical volume roughly equivalent to the size of the earth. The plants grow in floating mats that are harvested every 3 to 4 days.
- The plant is also useful as a form of agricultural and municipal water treatment. It is placed in effluent from black tiger shrimp farms to absorb and metabolize pollutants. The plants take up large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus from water and plants that grow in wastewater can then be used as feed for animals, such as carp, Nile tilapia, and chickens.
- Tiny wolffia plants are commonly dispersed on the feet of water fowl, tucked neatly under the duck's bodies during flight. In the southeastern United States, there are records of wolffia plants being carried by a tornado, and they have been reported in the water of melted hailstones.
   
Exhibit C: Larrea tridentata (creosote bush, chaparral)
Origin: Larrea tridentata is a prominent species in the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts of western North America, and its range includes those and other regions in portions of southeastern California, Arizona, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah,New Mexico and Texas in the United States, and northern Chihuahua and Sonora in Mexico. Features: Larrea tridentata is an evergreen shrub growing to 1 to 3 meters (3.3 to 9.8 ft) tall, rarely 4 meters (13 ft). The stems of the plant bear resinous, dark green leaves. As the creosote bush grows older, its oldest branches eventually die and its crown splits into separate crowns. This normally happens when the plant is 30 to 90 years old. Eventually the old crown dies and the new one becomes a clonal colony from the previous plant, composed of many separate stem crowns all from the same seed. Fun Facts:- Up until the late 1970's, the oldest living thing was thought to be a tree called the bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva), living for nearly 5,000 years high in the White Mountains of California and the Snake Range of eastern Nevada. Then, Dr. Frank Vasek of the University of California at Riverside investigated the strange, circular growth patterns of creosote bushes in the Mojave Desert. Dr. Vasek proved that each giant ring of shrubs came from its own ancestral shrub that once grew from the center of the ring. The "King Clone" creosote ring is one of the oldest living organisms on Earth. It has been alive an estimated 11,700 years, in the central Mojave Desert near present-day Lucerne Valley, California. This single clonal colony plant of Larrea tridentata reaches up to 67 feet (20 m) in diameter, with an average diameter of 45 feet (14 m).
- The whole plant exhibits a characteristic odor of creosote, from which the common name derives. In the regions where it grows its smell is often associated with the "smell of rain".
- On many creosote bushes you will see black areas on some branches. This is a microbial community of algae, fungi, and bacteria that in exchange for a place to live, gives the plant nutrients as rainwater flows over it and into the soil. It is from a combination of this and dust that has settled on its branches between storms that allows creosote bush to pick up 9 times as much phosphorus and 16 times as much nitrogen than is in regular rainwater. These nutrients are rare in the desert and give the plant a huge leg up over its competition.
- Nordihydroguaiaretic acid is a powerful antioxidant that the creosote bush produces for protection. When it was discovered in the 1930s, people would extract it from the plant and use it to keep food from spoiling. This practice ended in the 70s when the FDA discontinued its use in food, but recent research on the chemical has found some promise in its ability to reduce cancerous tumors in animals.
  Exhibit D: Subfamily Bambusoideae (Bamboo)
Origin: Bamboos have long been considered the most primitive grasses, found in diverse climates, from cold mountains to hot tropical regions. They occur across East Asia, from 50°N latitude in Sakhalin through to Northern Australia, and west to India and the Himalayas. They also occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and in the Americas from the USA mid-Atlantic states south to Argentina and Chile, reaching their southernmost point at 47°S latitude. Continental Europe is not known to have any native species of bamboo. Features: Bamboos include some of the fastest-growing plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. Certain species of bamboo can grow 91 cm (3 ft) within a 24-hour period, at a rate of almost 4 cm (1.5 in) an hour (a growth around 1 mm every 90 seconds, or one inch every 40 minutes). However, the growth rate is dependent on local soil and climatic conditions, as well as species, and a more typical growth rate for many commonly cultivated bamboos in temperate climates is in the range of 3–10 cm (1.2–3.9 in) per day during the growing period. Some of the largest timber bamboo can grow over 30 m (98 ft) tall, and be as large as 25–30 cm (9.8–11.8 in) in diameter. However, the size range for mature bamboo is species-dependent, with the smallest bamboos reaching only several inches high at maturity. Unlike trees, individual bamboo culms emerge from the ground at their full diameter and grow to their full height in a single growing season of three to four months. During these several months, each new shoot grows vertically with no branching out until the majority of the mature height is reached. Then, the branches extend from the nodes and leaves grow. In the following years, the wall of each culm slowly hardens. Over the next 2–5 years (depending on species), fungus begins to form on the outside of the culm, which eventually penetrating the culm and causing it to collapse and decay. Individual bamboo culms do not get any taller or larger in diameter in subsequent years than they do in their first year, and they do not replace any growth lost from pruning or natural breakage. Fun Facts:
- Most bamboo species flower infrequently. In fact, many only flower at intervals as long as 65 or 120 years. Any plant derived through clonal propagation from this cohort will also flower regardless of whether it has been planted in a different location. The lack of environmental impact on the time of flowering indicates the presence of some sort of "alarm clock" in each cell of the plant which signals the diversion of all energy to flower production and the cessation of vegetative growth. This mechanism, as well as the evolutionary cause behind it, is still largely a mystery. However, the mass fruiting also has direct economic and ecological consequences. The huge increase in available fruit in the forests often causes a boom in rodent populations, leading to increases in disease and famine in nearby human populations. For example, devastating consequences occur when the Melocanna bambusoides population flowers and fruits once every 30–35 years around the Bay of Bengal. The death of the bamboo plants following their fruiting means the local people lose their building material, and the large increase in bamboo fruit leads to a rapid increase in rodent populations. As the number of rodents increases, they consume all available food, including grain fields and stored food, sometimes leading to famine. These rats can also carry dangerous diseases, such as typhus, typhoid, and bubonic plague, which can reach epidemic proportions as the rodents increase in number. Mautam (Mizo for "bamboo death") is a cyclic ecological phenomenon that occurs every 48 years in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, which are thirty percent covered by wild bamboo forests, as well as Chin State in Burma. Records from the British Raj indicate that Mizoram suffered famine in 1862 and again in 1911, after the region witnessed similar bamboo flowerings. The 1958–59 Mautam resulted in the recorded deaths of at least a hundred people, besides heavy loss to human property and crops. Preparations by the government to avoid famine were limited and this negligence led to the foundation of a separatist movement that staged a major uprising in 1966 and fought the Indian Army for the next twenty years. Regular rodent outbreaks associated with bamboo flowering (and subsequent fruiting and seeding) also occur in the nearby Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland, as well as in Laos, Japan, Madagascar and South America. The relationship between rat populations and bamboo flowering was examined in a 2009 Nova documentary Rat Attack.
- In its natural form, bamboo as a construction and building material is traditionally associated with the cultures of South Asia, East Asia, and the South Pacific, to some extent in Central and South America, and by extension in the aesthetic of Tiki culture. In China and India, bamboo was used to hold up simple suspension bridges, either by making cables of split bamboo or twisting whole culms of sufficiently pliable bamboo together. One such bridge in the area of Qian-Xian is referenced in writings dating back to 960 AD and may have stood since as far back as the third century BC, due largely to continuous maintenance. Bamboo has also long been used as scaffolding; the practice has been banned in China for buildings over six stories, but is still in continuous use for skyscrapers in Hong Kong. Bamboo has a higher compressive strength than wood, brick, or concrete and a tensile strength that rivals steel. Bamboo construction is also earthquake-resistant. Technical studies of bamboo's mechanical properties ("vegetable steel") have increased interest in its use. Phyllostachys edulis, aka moso bamboo or tortoise-shell bamboo, is the most common species used in the bamboo textile industry of China. Its physical properties boast an average breaking tenacity more than three times that of cotton, wool, rayon, or polyester.
The ornamental plant sold in containers and marketed as "lucky bamboo" is actually an entirely unrelated plant, Dracaena sanderiana. It is a resilient member of the lily family that grows in the dark, tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and Africa.
- Bamboo was in widespread use in early China as a medium for written documents. The earliest surviving examples of such documents, written in ink on string-bound bundles of bamboo strips (or "slips"), date from the fifth century BC during the Warring States period. However, references in earlier texts surviving on other media make it clear that some precursor of these Warring States period bamboo slips was in use as early as the late Shang period (from about 1250 BC). The Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD) Chinese scientist and polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) used the evidence of underground petrified bamboo found in the dry northern climate of Yan'an, Shanbei region, Shaanxi province to support his geological theory of gradual climate change.
- Bamboo also plays an important role in Buddhism, which was introduced into China in the first century. As canons of Buddhism forbids cruelty to animals, flesh and egg were not allowed in the diet. The tender bamboo shoot (sǔn 筍 in Chinese) thus became a nutritious alternative. Preparation methods developed over thousands of years have come to be incorporated into Asian cuisines, especially for monks. Many Buddhist temples have bamboo groves. In Japan, a bamboo forest sometimes surrounds a Shinto shrine as part of a sacred barrier against evil.
- Bamboo plays an important part of the culture of Vietnam. Bamboo symbolizes the spirit of Vovinam - coordination between hard and soft martial arts. A Vietnamese proverb says, "When the bamboo is old, the bamboo sprouts appear", meaning Vietnam will never be annihilated; if the previous generation dies, the children take their place. Traditional Vietnamese villages are surrounded by thick bamboo hedges (lũy tre).
- Several Asian cultures, including that of the Andaman Islands, believe humanity emerged from a bamboo stem. In Philippine mythology, one of the more famous creation accounts tells of the first man, Malakás ("Strong"), and the first woman, Maganda ("Beautiful"), each emerged from one half of a split bamboo stem on an island formed after the battle between Sky and Ocean. In Malaysia, a similar story includes a man who dreams of a beautiful woman while sleeping under a bamboo plant; he wakes up and breaks the bamboo stem, discovering the woman inside. The Japanese folktale "Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" (Taketori Monogatari) tells of a princess from the Moon emerging from a shining bamboo section. Hawaiian bamboo ('ohe) is a kinolau or body form of the Polynesian creator god Kāne. In a Chinese legend, the Emperor Yao gave two of his daughters to the future Emperor Shun as a test for his potential to rule. Shun passed the test of being able to run his household with the two emperor's daughters as wives, and thus Yao made Shun his successor, bypassing his unworthy son. Later, Shun drowned in the Xiang River. The tears his two bereaved wives let fall upon the bamboos growing there explains the origin of spotted bamboo. The two women later became goddesses.
- Cathariostachys madagascariensis, the Madagascar giant bamboo or Volohosy in Malagasy language, is the main food source for the bamboo lemurs. It contains cyanide, particularly in its growing shoots. How bamboo lemurs can detoxify the high amounts of cyanide (from bamboo shoots) in their diets is unknown. Soft bamboo shoots, stems, and leaves are the major food source of the giant panda of China and the red panda of Nepal. Mountain gorillas of Africa also feed on bamboo, and have been documented consuming bamboo sap which was fermented and alcoholic; chimpanzees and elephants of the region also eat the stalks.
- Bamboo's long life makes it a Chinese symbol of uprightness, while in India it is a symbol of friendship. In Chinese culture, the bamboo, plum blossom, orchid, and chrysanthemum (often known as méi lán zhú jú 梅兰竹菊) are collectively referred to as the Four Gentlemen. These four plants also represent the four seasons and, in Confucian ideology, four aspects of the junzi ("prince" or "noble one"). Countless poems praising bamboo written by ancient Chinese poets are actually metaphorically about people who exhibited these characteristics. The pine (sōng 松), the bamboo (zhú 竹), and the plum blossom (méi 梅) are also admired for their perseverance under harsh conditions, and are together known as the "Three Friends of Winter" (岁寒三友 suìhán sānyǒu) in Chinese culture. The "Three Friends of Winter" is traditionally used as a system of ranking in Japan, for example in sushi sets or accommodations at a traditional ryokan. Pine (matsu 松) is of the first rank, bamboo (také 竹) is of second rank, and plum (ume 梅) is of the third.
  bamboo in flower
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2016 2:02:12 GMT -5
Redwood forests really are something else. I'm fortunate to live near one of them.
|
|
|
|
Post by Desert Dweller on Jul 4, 2016 3:45:46 GMT -5
Indeed. I went to visit a Redwood forest in California a few times when I was a kid. It was amazing every time.
|
|
|
|
Post by Judkins Moaner on Jul 5, 2016 9:59:05 GMT -5
This is awesome; I need to come by more often.
I'd add to your "G" list garlic mustard, or alliaria petiolata. An invasive plant introduced to North America by European settlers, it's a problem in gardens and natural areas, especially in the Midwest, but I've been using it now for years as a salad staple (especially since the last few weeks have seen sorry pickings at my grocery store when it comes to kale and mustard greens). Sadly, I don't have a picture on me right now, but foraging for the stuff helps satisfy my gardening jones as the close proximity of bums and rabbits means any garden I try to plant would be a fool's errand.
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Jul 9, 2016 13:02:51 GMT -5
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Jul 18, 2016 0:32:13 GMT -5
Forum Faves & Requests
Time for more of your faves! Today we tackle JLL’s rubber tree along with songstarliner’s succulents--sometimes known as “fat plants”--which in botanical terms are plants that have thickened and fleshy parts, such as leaves or stems, to retain water in arid climates. The word "succulent" comes from the Latin sucus, meaning juice or sap, and plants adapted to living in dry environments such as succulents are termed xerophytes. Cacti are usually classified in this group--however, not all xerophytes are succulents, since there are other ways of adapting to a shortage of water (i.e. developing small or leathery leaves which may roll up). Nor are all succulents xerophytes, since some plants are both succulent and aquatic. Succulents may be termed epiphytes (‘air plants’) if they have limited or no contact with the ground and depend on their ability to store water and gain nutrients by other means, such as: photosynthesizing in the stems; reduction in leaf size, shape, or number of stomata; shallow roots that can take up surface water; and a waxy, hairy, or spiny outer surface to create a humid micro-habitat around the plant. Exhibit A: Ficus elastica, Hevea brasiliensis, Genus Landolphia (Rubber Tree, Rubber Plant)
Origin: Ficus elastica is native to northeast India, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, China (Yunnan), Malaysia, and Indonesia. It has become naturalized in Sri Lanka, the West Indies, and in the US States of Florida and Hawaii as an ornamental plant. F. elastica latex was formerly used to make rubber, before Hevea brasiliensis (the Pará rubber tree), a member of the genus Euphorbia (see below), replaced it as the main commercial source of latex for rubber making. The Pará rubber tree initially grew only in the Amazon Rainforest, but in 1876, cultivated saplings were sent to botanic gardens in Sri Lanka and Singapore. Once established outside their native habitat, rubber was extensively propagated in the British colonies. Ironically, attempts to cultivate and propagate H. brasiliensis in South America failed due to leaf blight. Genus Landolphia is native to various parts of Africa and contains various species of vines that produce latex, though it is no longer cultivated for that purpose. Features: F. elastica is a large tree in the banyan group, growing to 30–40 meters (98–131 ft.) tall, with a stout trunk up to 2 meters (6.6 ft) in diameter. The trunk develops aerial and buttressing roots to anchor it in the soil and help support heavy branches. It has broad, shiny, oval leaves 10–35 cm (3.9–13.8 in) long and 5–15 cm (2.0–5.9 in) broad. Interestingly, leaf size is largest on young plants (occasionally to 45 cm/18 in. long) and much smaller on old trees (10 cm/3.9 in long). The leaves develop inside a sheath which grows larger as the new leaf develops. When it is mature, it unfurls and the sheath drops off the plant. Inside the new leaf, another immature leaf is waiting to develop. In the wild, the H. brasiliensis tree can reach a height of up to 100 ft (30 m). The white or yellow latex is produced in latex vessels in the bark, mostly outside the phloem. These vessels spiral up the tree in a right-handed helix at an angle of about 30 degrees, and can grow as high as 45 ft. Landophia grow as wild vines in the forest and as a shrub in savannah areas. The fruit is reddish-brown with a woody shell and is the size of an orange. Though the vine yields latex, its real value is in alleviating food insecurity, due to the proliferation and nutritional value of its fruit. Fun Facts:
- The Olmec people of Mesoamerica extracted and produced similar forms of primitive rubber from analogous latex-producing trees such as Castilla elastica as early as 3600 years ago. The rubber was used, among other things, to make the balls used in Mesoamerican games.
- In parts of India, people guide the roots of the F. elastica tree over chasms to eventually form living bridges.
- Least fun 'fun fact' to date: Red Kasai and Congo rubbers were collected from Landophia vines in colonial Africa, when rubber demand was at its height among the European powers. King Leopold amassed a personal fortune by brutally enforcing a rubber production quota, ironically named the Congo Free State, on the indigenous people of the Belgian Congo. Failure of local people to meet his rubber quota by tapping L. owariensis often resulted in having their hands cut off by colonial guards. Public outcry over forced labor and human rights abuses, detailed by Arthur Conan Doyle among others, led to the King losing his colonies and inspired Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
 Para rubber tree  Indian rubber fig F. elastica
Exhibit B: Genus Euphorbia (Spurge)
Origin: Euphorbia is one of the largest genera of flowering plants, widely cultivated as an ornamental and found throughout temperate zones worldwide. Succulent species originate mostly from Africa, the Americas and Madagascar. In deserts in Madagascar and southern Africa, convergent evolution has led to cactus-like forms where the plants occupy the same ecological niche as cacti do in deserts of North America and South America. Features: The plants share the feature of having a poisonous, milky, white latex-like sap and unusual and unique floral structures. When viewed as a whole, the head of flowers looks like a single flower, however each flower in the head is reduced to its barest essential part needed for sexual reproduction. The individual flowers are either male or female, with the male flowers reduced to only the stamen, and the females to the pistil. These flowers have no sepals, petals, or other parts that are typical of flowers in other kinds of plants. Structures supporting the flower head and beneath that have evolved to attract pollinators with nectar, and with shapes and colors that function the way petals and other flower parts do. It is the only genus of plants that photosynthesizes in three different ways. About 850 species are succulent in the strictest sense. If one includes slightly succulent and xerophytic species, this figure rises to about 1000, representing about 45% of all Euphorbia species Fun Facts: - The common name "spurge" derives from the Middle English/Old French espurge ("to purge"), due to the use of the plant's sap as a laxative and emetic. The botanical name Euphorbia derives from Euphorbos, the Greek physician of king Iuba (or Juba) II of Numidia (52–50 BC – 23 AD), who married the daughter of Anthony and Cleopatra and wrote extensively on natural history.
- Several spurges are grown as garden plants, among them Poinsettia (E. pulcherrima) and the succulent E. trigona. E. milii (aka crown of thorns, Christ plant, Christ thorn) commemorates Baron Milius, once Governor of Réunion, who introduced the species to France in 1821. It is suspected that the species was introduced to the Middle East in ancient times, and legend associates it with the crown of thorns worn by Christ. E. pekinensis (Chinese: 大戟; pinyin: dàjǐ) is used in traditional Chinese medicine, where it is regarded as one of the 50 fundamental herbs.
- The white sap of E. antisyphilitica (aka Candelilla) was historically used in Mexico to treat sexually-transmitted diseases and for the wax it produces. Commercial harvesting of candelilla began at the start of the twentieth century, with demand greatly increasing during World War I and II. This industry largely disappeared following the end of World War II due to diminished candelilla populations and the availability of cheaper petroleum-based waxes. Later on, new uses were found for the wax, mainly in the cosmetic and food industries. It is still being produced in northern Mexico and exported to other countries as a component of lip balms and lotion bars, as well as a binder for chewing gums.
- E. tirucalli is a hydrocarbon plant that produces a poisonous latex which can, with little effort, be converted to the equivalent of gasoline. This usage is particularly appealing because of the ability of E. tirucalli to grow on land that is not suitable for most other crops. Chemists estimate that 10 to 50 barrels of oil per acre is achievable. Research on E. rigida as a bio fuel indicates an even higher yield of 137 gallons of oil per acre.
   
Exhibit C: Genus Opuntia (Prickly Pear Cactus)
Origin: Like all true cactus species, prickly pears are native only to the Americas, but they have been introduced to other parts of the globe. Prickly pear species are found in abundance in Mexico, especially in the central and western regions, and in the Caribbean islands. Prickly pears are native to many areas of the arid Western United States, including the lower elevations of the Rocky Mountains. They are also found in the Mediterranean region of Northern Africa, especially in Tunisia, where they grow all over the countryside, and arid southern Europe, especially on Malta, where they grow all over the islands, in the south-east of Spain, and can be found in enormous numbers in parts of South Africa, where it was introduced from South America. Features: Almost all cacti are succulents, meaning they have thickened, fleshy parts adapted to store water. Unlike many other succulents, the stem is the only part of most cacti where this vital process takes place. Most species of cacti have lost true leaves, retaining only spines, which are highly modified leaves. As well as defending against herbivores, spines help prevent water loss by reducing air flow close to the cactus and providing some shade. In the absence of leaves, enlarged stems carry out photosynthesis. Cactus spines are produced from specialized structures called areoles, a kind of highly reduced branch. Areoles are an identifying feature of cacti. As well as spines, areoles give rise to flowers, which are usually tubular and multi-petaled. Many cacti have short growing seasons and long dormancies, and are able to react quickly to any rainfall, helped by an extensive but relatively shallow root system that quickly absorb any water reaching the ground surface. Cactus stems are often ribbed or fluted, which allows them to expand and contract easily for quick water absorption after rain, followed by long drought periods. Many smaller cacti have globe-shaped stems, combining the highest possible volume for water storage, with the lowest possible surface area for water loss from transpiration. Prickly pears typically grow with flat, rounded fleshy stems armed with two kinds of spines; large, smooth, fixed spines and small, hairlike prickles that easily penetrate skin and detach from the plant. Many types of prickly pears grow into dense, tangled structures. Charles Darwin was the first to note that the flowers of these cacti have anthers that curl over, depositing their pollen, when they are touched. Fun Facts: - Prickly pears were used for a variety of purposes by the Aztecs, whose empire, lasting from the 14th to the 16th century, had a complex system of horticulture. Their capital from the 15th century was Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City); one explanation for the origin of the name is that it includes the Nahuatl word nōchtli, referring to the fruit of an Opuntia. The coat of arms of Mexico shows an eagle perched on a cactus while holding a snake, an image at the center of the myth of the founding of Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs symbolically linked the ripe red fruits of an Opuntia to human hearts; just as the fruit quenches thirst, so offering human hearts to the sun god ensured the sun would keep moving.
- Both the fruit and pads of Opuntia are eaten, the former often under the Spanish name tuna, the latter under the name nopal. In fact, almost any fleshy cactus fruit is edible. The word pitaya or pitahaya (usually considered to have been taken into Spanish from Haitian creole) can be applied to a range of "scaly fruit", particularly those of columnar cacti.
- Cochineal is a red dye produced by a scale insect that lives on species of Opuntia that has been used as a red food coloring and for cosmetics since the time of the Aztecs and Mayans. Produced almost exclusively in Oaxaca, Mexico, by indigenous producers, cochineal became Mexico's second-most valued export after silver. The dyestuff was consumed throughout Europe, and was so highly valued, its price was regularly quoted on the London and Amsterdam Commodity Exchanges. Although demand fell in the 19th century with the introduction of synthetic dyes, health concerns over artificial food additives have renewed the popularity of cochineal dyes.
- The flesh ("mucilage") of the cactus has been found to purify water. A project at the University of South Florida is investigating its potential for low-cost, large-scale water purification. Mucilage from prickly pear may also work as a natural, non-toxic dispersant for oil spills.
- In Hebrew, the plant is referred to as sabra (Hebrew: צבר). This led to the popular use of the term Sabra to refer to an Israel-born Jew, alluding to the fruit and the people alike being tenacious and thorny ("rough and masculine") on the outside but sweet and soft (delicate and sensitive) on the inside. Kishkashta, a main character on a 1970-80s Israeli children's show, Ma Pit'om, was a large, talking felt puppet of the Opuntia cactus.
- Prickly pears are a prime source of food for the giant tortoises of the Galápagos islands. Six different species are found: O. echios, O. galapageia, O. helleri, O. insularis, O. saxicola, and O. megasperma. These species are divided into 14 different varieties and most of these are confined to one or a few islands. For this reason, they have been described as "an excellent example of adaptive radiation". On the whole, islands with tall, trunked varieties of cactus have giant tortoises, and islands lacking tortoises have low or prostrate forms of Opuntia.
- In the fall of 1961, Cuba had its troops plant an 8 mile (13 km) barrier of Opuntia cactus along the northeastern section of the 28-kilometre (17 mi) fence surrounding the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to stop Cubans from escaping Cuba to take refuge in the United States. This was dubbed the "Cactus Curtain", an allusion to Europe's Iron Curtain and the Bamboo Curtain in East Asia.
 %20opuntia%20humifusa.jpg)  Exhibit D: Tillandsia usneoides (Spanish Moss)
Origin: Spanish moss is a bromeliad that grows upon larger trees, commonly the southern live oak ( Quercus virginiana) or bald cypress ( Taxodium distichum) in the lowlands and savannas of southeastern United States, from Texas and Florida north to southern Arkansas and Virginia. It is also native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America and the West Indies as well as being naturalized in Queensland (Australia) and in French Polynesia. Features: The plant consists of a slender stem bearing alternate thin, curved or curly, heavily scaled leaves 2–6 cm (0.79–2.36 in) long and 1 mm (0.039 in) broad, that grow vegetatively in chain-like fashion to form hanging structures up to 6 m (20 ft) in length. The plant has no aerial roots and its flowers are tiny and inconspicuous. It propagates both by seed and vegetatively by fragments that blow on the wind and stick to tree limbs, or are carried by birds as nesting material. Spanish moss is an epiphyte which absorbs nutrients (especially calcium) and water from the air and rainfall. While it rarely kills the trees upon which it grows, it lowers their growth rate by reducing the amount of light reaching the trees' own leaves. It also increases wind resistance, which can prove fatal to the host tree in a hurricane. Fun Facts- Spanish moss shelters a number of creatures, including rat snakes and three species of bats. One species of jumping spider, Pelegrina tillandsiae, has been found only on Spanish moss.
- Due to its propensity for growing in subtropical humid southern locales, the plant is often associated with Southern Gothic imagery and Deep South culture. In the desert regions of the southwestern United States, dried Spanish moss plants are used in the manufacture of evaporative coolers, colloquially known as swamp coolers. These are used to cool homes and offices much less expensively than using air conditioners. A pump squirts water onto a pad made of Spanish moss plants. A fan then pulls air through the pad and into the building. Evaporation of the water on the pads serves to reduce the air temperature, thus cooling the building.
- It was introduced to Hawaii in the 19th century and became a popular ornamental and lei plant.On Hawai'i it is often called "Pele's hair" after the Hawaiian goddess.
- Spanish moss has been used for various purposes, including building insulation, mulch, packing material, mattress stuffing, and fiber. In the early 1900s, it was used commercially in the padding of car seats. In 1939, over 10,000 tons of processed Spanish moss were produced. It is still collected today in smaller quantities for use in arts and crafts, for flower beddings, and as an ingredient in the traditional wall covering material bousillage. In some parts of Latin America, Spanish moss is used in Nativity scenes.
  Exhibit E: Epiphyllum oxypetalum (Orchid Cactus, Queen of the Night)
Origin: Native to Central America and Northern South America, E. oxypetalum blooms rarely and only at night, with large, fragrant blooms that wilt before dawn. Features: E. oxypetalum is one of the most cultivated cactus species in its genus. The stems are broad and flat, 1–5 cm broad, 3–5 mm thick, usually with lobed edges. The flowers are large, 8–16 cm diameter, white to red, with numerous petals.
Fun Facts:- In India it is called Brahma Kamalam, named after the Hindu god of creation, Lord Brahma. It is also believed that the wishes of People who pray to God while the flower is blooming will be fulfilled.
- The Chinese chengyu (four character idiom) 曇花一現 (tan hua yi xian) uses this flower (tan-hua; 曇花) to describe someone who has an impressive but very brief moment of glory, like a "flash in a pan", since the flower can take a year to bloom and only blooms over a single night. Therefore someone described as "曇花一現" is generally understood to be a person who shows off or unexpectedly gains some achievement and is thought to be an exception or only lucky. The flower also has a rich history in Japan, where it is known as the 月下美人 (Gekka Bijin) or "Beauty under the Moon".
- Epiphyllum species are added to some versions of the hallucinogenic drink ayahuasca.
 
|
|
|
|
Post by ganews on Jul 18, 2016 8:43:28 GMT -5
Exhibit B: Genus Euphorbia (Spurge)
- The white sap of E. antisyphilitica (aka Candelilla) was historically used in Mexico to treat sexually-transmitted diseases and for the wax it produces. Commercial harvesting of candelilla began at the start of the twentieth century, with demand greatly increasing during World War I and II. This industry largely disappeared following the end of World War II due to diminished candelilla populations and the availability of cheaper petroleum-based waxes. Later on, new uses were found for the wax, mainly in the cosmetic and food industries. It is still being produced in northern Mexico and exported to other countries as a component of lip balms and lotion bars, as well as a binder for chewing gums.
Sometime for this series you might look into the other plants that yield gums used as binders and thickeners in food manufacturing and many other things: acacia, guar, carob. Mainly it hosts chiggers. So many chiggers. |
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Jul 18, 2016 11:21:31 GMT -5
Exhibit B: Genus Euphorbia (Spurge)
- The white sap of E. antisyphilitica (aka Candelilla) was historically used in Mexico to treat sexually-transmitted diseases and for the wax it produces. Commercial harvesting of candelilla began at the start of the twentieth century, with demand greatly increasing during World War I and II. This industry largely disappeared following the end of World War II due to diminished candelilla populations and the availability of cheaper petroleum-based waxes. Later on, new uses were found for the wax, mainly in the cosmetic and food industries. It is still being produced in northern Mexico and exported to other countries as a component of lip balms and lotion bars, as well as a binder for chewing gums.
Sometime for this series you might look into the other plants that yield gums used as binders and thickeners in food manufacturing and many other things: acacia, guar, carob. Mainly it hosts chiggers. So many chiggers. Thanks for the suggestions! I already covered carob for Lord Lucan last month, but the other two look promising. As for Spanish moss, I was going to mention chiggers, but per Wikipedia "Chiggers, though widely assumed to infest Spanish moss, were not present among thousands of other insects identified in one study. Whitaker Jr. J, Ruckdeschel C. Spanish Moss, the Unfinished Chigger Story. Southeastern Naturalist [serial online]. March 2010;9(1):85-94." I didn't follow up because, ew, chiggers. |
|
|
|
Post by ganews on Jul 18, 2016 11:34:10 GMT -5
Sometime for this series you might look into the other plants that yield gums used as binders and thickeners in food manufacturing and many other things: acacia, guar, carob. Mainly it hosts chiggers. So many chiggers. Thanks for the suggestions! I already covered carob for Lord Lucan last month, but the other two look promising. As for Spanish moss, I was going to mention chiggers, but per Wikipedia "Chiggers, though widely assumed to infest Spanish moss, were not present among thousands of other insects identified in one study. Whitaker Jr. J, Ruckdeschel C. Spanish Moss, the Unfinished Chigger Story. Southeastern Naturalist [serial online]. March 2010;9(1):85-94." I didn't follow up because, ew, chiggers. I dispute you, Southeastern Naturalist! What other tiny red arthropods bit the hell out of me as a kid visiting my grandparents in Brunswick, GA? |
|
|
|
Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Jul 18, 2016 13:50:27 GMT -5
Another vote for Acacia—really fascinating and loved this week’s entries, moimoi |
|
|
|
Post by haysoos on Jul 18, 2016 16:39:34 GMT -5
I honestly had no idea that Spanish moss was an epiphytic bromeliad. I just thought it was a type of lichen, like we often get hanging from our tamarack trees.
And I once had a prickly pear cactus in pot - it survived longer than any other plant that's ever been in my care: nearly 5 years before a bored kitty somehow managed to dig it up and throw it behind the couch.
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Aug 1, 2016 2:27:40 GMT -5
Medicinal plantsOne of the main reasons humans began cultivating plants, aside from nutrition, was for their healing properties. Archaeological evidence indicates the use of medicinal plants dating at least to the Paleolithic era (approx. 60,000 years ago) when prehistoric medicine incorporated plants, animal parts, and minerals. Written evidence of herbal remedies dates back over 5,000 years, to the Sumerians, and a number of ancient cultures wrote about plants and their medical uses in books called herbals—notably the Ayurvedic texts of India and works of traditional Chinese medicine. Many modern pharmaceuticals have a long history of use as herbal remedies, including opium, aspirin (extracted from willow bark and spiraea), digitalis, and quinine. Furthermore, the World Health Organization estimates that 80 percent of the population of some Asian and African countries still rely on herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care, due to the prohibitive cost of medicine and the ease of gathering and growing medicinal herbs. Exhibit A: Genus Impatiens (Jewelweed, Touch-Me-Not, Balsam, Parrot Flower, Impatiens) – as requested by MrsLangdonAlger
Origin: widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and the tropics Features: Some species are annual plants and produce flowers from early summer until the first frost, while perennial species, found in milder climates, can flower all year. Regardless of their lifespan, the largest impatiens grow up to about 2 meters (about 7 ft) tall, but most are less than half as tall. The upperside of the leaves have a thick, shiny, water-repellent coating that gives them a greasy feel. On the underside, tiny air bubbles are trapped over and under the leaf surface, giving them a silvery sheen that becomes pronounced when they are held under water. The flowers in most species are made up of a shoe- or horn-shaped spur containing nectar surrounded by smaller petals. The angle of the nectar spur is very important in the pollination of the flower and in determining the most efficient pollinator. Impatiens is rather closely related to the carnivorous plant families Roridulaceae and Sarraceniaceae. Peculiar stalked glands found on their flower sepals secrete mucus and might be related to the structures from which the prey-catching and -digesting glands of these carnivorous plants evolved. The Latin name Impatiens means "impatient" or "intolerant" and refers to the explosive release of fruits, which burst at the slightest touch as a means of scattering the seeds. Fun Facts:- North American impatiens have been used as herbal remedies for the treatment of bee stings, insect bites, and stinging nettle rashes. They are also used after poison ivy contact to prevent a rash from developing. Impatiens contain 2-methoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone, an anti-inflammatory and fungicide naphthoquinone that is an active ingredient in some formulations of Preparation H.
- Certain jewelweeds, including the garden jewelweed, contain the naphthoquinone lawsone, a dye that is also found in the hair coloring and skin coloring agent henna. In ancient China, impatiens petals mashed with rose petals, orchid petals, and alum were used as nail color by leaving the mixture on the nails for some hours to color them pink or reddish. In Korea, the flowers are used to produce an orange nail varnish.
- Different parts of the I. balsamina are used as traditional remedies for disease and skin afflictions across Asia. In Korean folk medicine, this species is used as a medicine called bongseonhwa dae (봉선화대) for the treatment of constipation and gastritis. The Chinese used the plant to treat those bitten by snakes or who ingested poisonous fish. The Vietnamese wash their hair with an extract of the plant to stimulate hair growth. The Okinawan folk song "Tinsagu nu Hana" and the 1956 Korean film Touch-Me-Not (Bongseonhwa in Korean) are both named for the flower.
   Exhibit B: Papaver somniferum (Opium poppy)
Origin: The native range of opium poppy is probably the Eastern Mediterranean, but extensive cultivation and introduction of the species throughout Europe since ancient times have obscured its origin. Features: It is the species of flowering plant from which opium and poppy seeds are derived and is a valuable ornamental plant, grown in gardens. Poppies grow to about 100 cm (2 ft) and the grayish-green stem and leaves are sparsely covered with coarse hairs. The flowers are up to 12 cm diameter, normally with four white, mauve or red petals, sometimes with dark markings at the base. Flower color among cultivars may vary. All parts of the plant exude white latex when wounded. A few of the varieties and cultivars, notably the cultivars "Norman" and "Przemko", have low morphine content (less than 1%), and much higher concentrations of other alkaloids. Most varieties, however, including those most popular for ornamental use or seed production, have a higher morphine content, with the average content being 10%. Fun Facts:- The opium poppy is, as its name indicates, the root source of all opiates. Incisions are made on the green seed pods, the latex which oozes from the incisions is collected, and dried to produce "raw opium". Poppy straw is the dried mature plant except the seeds, harvested by mowing. Opiates such as laudanum, morphine, heroin, codeine, and oxycodone are extracted from both the opium and the straw. Australia (Tasmania), Turkey and India are the major producers of poppy for medicinal purposes and poppy-based drugs.
- Use of the opium poppy predates written history. The Mediterranean region contains the earliest archaeological evidence of human use; the oldest known seeds date back to more than 5000 BCE in the Neolithic age with purposes such as food, anesthetics, and ritual. Evidence from ancient Greece indicate that opium was consumed in several ways, including inhalation of vapors, suppositories, medical poultices, and as a combination with hemlock for suicide. The Sumerian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Indian, Minoan, Greek, Roman, Persian and Arab Empires all made widespread use of opium, which was the most potent form of pain relief then available, allowing ancient surgeons to perform prolonged surgical procedures. Opium was also used for treating asthma, stomach illnesses, and bad eyesight.
- Widespread medical use of unprocessed opium continued through the American Civil War before giving way to morphine and its successors, which could be injected at a precisely controlled dosage. During this time of popularity, users called opium "God's Own Medicine." One reason for the increase in opiate consumption in the United States during the 19th century was the prescribing and dispensing of legal opiates by physicians and pharmacists to women with "female complaints" (mostly to relieve menstrual pain and hysteria). Sigmund Freud was a user of opium, which contributed to his psychoanalysis theories of dreams relating to deep rooted issues in one's reality. Because opiates were viewed as more humane than punishment or restraint, they were often used to treat the mentally ill. Between 150,000 and 200,000 opiate addicts lived in the United States in the late 19th century and between two-thirds and three-quarters of these addicts were women.
- Poppy seeds from P. somniferum are an important food item and the source of poppyseed oil, an edible oil that has many uses. The seeds contain very low levels of opiates and the oil extracted from them contains even less. In most of Central Europe, poppy seed is commonly used for traditional pastries and cakes. It is legal to grow poppies in all of these countries, though Germany requires a license. Canada forbids possessing, seeking or obtaining opium poppy, its preparations, derivatives, alkaloids and salts, although an exception is made for poppy seeds. In the United Arab Emirates cultivation of the opium poppy is illegal, as is possession of poppy seeds. At least one man has been imprisoned for possessing poppy seeds obtained from a bread roll. The law of poppy cultivation in the United States is somewhat ambiguous. The reason for the ambiguity is because the Opium Poppy Control Act of 1942 (now repealed) stated that any opium poppy should be declared illegal, even if the farmers were issued a state permit. This led to the Poppy Rebellion, and to the Narcotics Bureau arresting anyone planting opium poppies and forcing the destruction of poppy fields of anyone who defied the prohibition of poppy cultivation. Though the press of those days favored the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the state of California supported the farmers who grew opium poppies for their seeds for use in foods such as poppyseed muffins. Today, this area of U.S. law has remained vague and remains somewhat controversial.
- Once known as the "common garden poppy", live plants and seeds of the opium poppy are widely sold by seed companies and nurseries in most of the western world, including the United States. Poppies are sought after by gardeners for the vivid coloration of the blooms, attractive stems and seed pods, the hardiness and reliability of the poppy plants, the exotic chocolate-vegetal fragrance note of some cultivars, and the ease of growing the plants from purchased flats of seedlings or by direct sowing of the seed. Despite their classification as controlled substances, during the summer, opium poppies can be seen flowering in gardens throughout North America and Europe, and displays are found in public botanical and museum gardens such as United States Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden, and North Carolina Botanical Garden.
- What may be the most well known literary use of the poppy occurs both in L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and in MGM's classic 1939 film based on the novel, when Dorothy and her companions fall asleep in a field of poppies on their way to Emerald City. In Baum's other Oz books, Oz's ruler, Princess Ozma, is often shown wearing poppies in her hair as decoration.
The Greek gods Hypnos (Sleep), Nyx (Night), and Thanatos (Death) were depicted wreathed in poppies or holding them. Poppies also frequently adorned statues of Apollo, Asklepios, Pluto, Demeter, Aphrodite, Kybele and Isis, symbolizing nocturnal oblivion.
Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822), one of the first and most famous literary accounts of opium addiction written from the point of view of an addict, details the pleasures and dangers of the drug. De Quincey writes about the great English Romantic poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), whose "Kubla Khan" is also widely considered to be a poem of the opium experience. Coleridge began using opium in 1791 after developing jaundice and rheumatic fever, and became a full addict after a severe attack of the disease in 1801, requiring 80–100 drops of laudanum daily.
The French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz used opium for inspiration, subsequently producing his Symphonie Fantastique. In this work, a young artist overdoses on opium and experiences a series of visions of his unrequited love.
In The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) by Alexandre Dumas, père, the Count is assuaged by an edible form of opium, and his experience with it is depicted vividly.
In Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), the character Passepartout is lured into an opium den by the detective Fix, which causes him to become separated from Phileas Fogg, his employer.
Edgar Allan Poe presents opium in a more disturbing context in his short story, "Ligeia" (1838), in which the narrator, deeply distraught about the loss of his beloved, takes solace in the drug until he "had become a bounden slave in the trammels of opium", unable to distinguish fantasy from reality after taking immoderate doses.
Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Lotus-Eaters" (1832), reflects the generally favorable British attitude toward the drug. Opium features in the opening paragraphs of Charles Dickens' serial, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870). The same is true in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short story, "The Man with the Twisted Lip" (1891).
The other best-known literary reference to opium is Karl Marx's metaphor in his "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's 'Philosophy of Right'," wherein he refers to religion as "the opium of the people." (This phrase is more commonly quoted as "the opiate of the masses.")
In The Good Earth (1931) by Pearl S. Buck, Wang Lung, the protagonist, gets his troublesome uncle and aunt addicted to opium in order to keep them out of his hair.
William S. Burroughs autobiographically describes the use of opium and its derivatives.
Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy is a fictionalized account of opium production in nineteenth century India and the English East India Company's opium trade with China.
Milk of the Poppy is widely used in George R. R. Martin's novel and TV show Game of Thrones as a medical agent to ease pain.
Eric Detzer's autobiography, Poppies: Odyssey of an Opium Eater (1986), was later made into a film called The Opium Eater. The story explores how Detzer would go about acquiring dried opium poppy pods from flower shops and wild gardens in the Pacific Northwest to feed his opium addiction.
   
Exhibit C: Genus Ephedra (Mormon Tea, Indian Tea)
Origin: Various species of ephedra are widespread in many lands, native to southwestern North America, southern Europe, northern Africa, southwest and central Asia, northern China, and western South America. Features: In temperate climates, most ephedra species grow as flowering shrubs on shores or in sandy soils with direct sun exposure. The alkaloids ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are active constituents of E. sinica and other members of the genus. Fun Facts: - Pollen of Ephedra spp. was found in the Shanidar IV burial site in Iraq, which led to the suggestion that its use as a medicinal plant dates to over 60,000 years ago. Several species belonging to the genus Ephedra have traditionally been used for a variety of medicinal purposes, and are a possible candidate for the Soma plant of Indo-Iranian religion.
- Native Americans and Mormon pioneers drank a tea brewed from other ephedra species, called "Mormon tea" and "Indian tea". E. californica was used by the indigenous peoples of California as a medicinal plant, culinary ingredient, and for making tools. Tribal people using it included the Kumeyaay—Diegueño and Kawaiisu of present day Southern California.
- Ephedrine in its natural form, known as má huáng (麻黄) in traditional Chinese medicine, has been documented in China since the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) as an anti-asthmatic and stimulant. In 1885, the chemical synthesis of ephedrine was first accomplished by Japanese organic chemist Nagai Nagayoshi based on his research on traditional Japanese and Chinese herbal medicines. The industrial manufacture of ephedrine in China began in the 1920s, when Merck began marketing and selling the drug as ephetonin. Ephedrine exports between China and the West grew from 4 to 216 tonnes between 1926 and 1928.
- The pure alkaloid ephedrine was a popular and effective medicine for asthma, especially because it can be given by mouth unlike adrenaline. It has been recently used in street drug and nutritional supplements using methamphetamine extracted from Asian ephedra. However, ephedrine products have been banned in U.S. since 1994 for causing serious adverse effects, such as headache, insomnia, stroke, arrhythmias, myocardial infarction, psychosis, heart palpitations, cardiac arrest and even death.
- Ephedra is widely used by athletes as a performance-enhancing drug, despite a lack of evidence that it improves athletic performance. In the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the Argentine footballer Diego Armando Maradona tested positive for ephedrine. The Japanese motorcycle racer Noriyuki Haga tested positive for ephedrine in 2000, being disqualified from two races and banned from two more as a result. The National Football League banned players from using ephedra as a dietary supplement in 2001 after the death of Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Korey Stringer. Nonetheless, ephedra remains widely used by athletes; a 2006 survey of collegiate hockey players found that nearly half had used ephedra believing it enhanced their athletic performance.
- Ephedra has been used as a weight-loss aid, sometimes in combination with aspirin and caffeine. Some studies in regulated and supervised environments have shown that ephedra is effective for marginal short-term weight loss (0.9 kg/month more than the placebo), although it was untested whether such weight loss is maintained. However, several reports have documented a number of adverse events attributable to unregulated ephedra supplements.
See Also: Echinacea, Prunella vulgaris, Nigella sativa
|
|
|
|
Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Aug 1, 2016 7:15:24 GMT -5
Yay! I loved learning more about jewelweed. And I'm such a dork that I still can't see pictures of them without going "awwww" out loud. They really do look like little mice.
|
|
|
|
Post by haysoos on Aug 3, 2016 10:49:00 GMT -5
There have been some questions regarding the Shanidar 4 burial site. There is some evidence to suggest that rather than flowers placed on the buried individual as a funeral ritual, the flowers might be the result of burrowing rodents (jirds) provisioning a chamber in later years that just happened to be above the buried body. However, in addition to Ephedra, there was also pollen for yarrow, cornflower, ragwort, hollyhock and St. Barnaby's thistle - all of which have medicinal uses. So either the jirds somehow preferentially chose to provision medicinal plants (which as far as I know, there is no evidence of them doing elsewhere), or there may indeed be more to the burial than it first seems.
Ephedra remains are also used in many other palaeontological sites. A lot of critters eat and/or store it, and it's tough enough to preserve well. Bits, pieces, and pollen of different Ephedra species are found regularly in packrat middens, Shasta ground sloth poo piles and hyrax droppings. These have been used to reconstruct past climates, showing when various areas have become arid or wetter during the various glacial and inter-glacial periods.
The fossil pollen of another species of medicinal plant has another interesting paleo-archaeological connection. The appearance of Cannabis pollen in the UK at about 6000 years ago is thought to be a strong indicator of the arrival of Neolithic cultures and technology (including plant cultivation) to the island.
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Aug 3, 2016 11:19:45 GMT -5
There have been some questions regarding the Shanidar 4 burial site. There is some evidence to suggest that rather than flowers placed on the buried individual as a funeral ritual, the flowers might be the result of burrowing rodents (jirds) provisioning a chamber in later years that just happened to be above the buried body. However, in addition to Ephedra, there was also pollen for yarrow, cornflower, ragwort, hollyhock and St. Barnaby's thistle - all of which have medicinal uses. So either the jirds somehow preferentially chose to provision medicinal plants (which as far as I know, there is no evidence of them doing elsewhere), or there may indeed be more to the burial than it first seems. Ephedra remains are also used in many other palaeontological sites. A lot of critters eat and/or store it, and it's tough enough to preserve well. Bits, pieces, and pollen of different Ephedra species are found regularly in packrat middens, Shasta ground sloth poo piles and hyrax droppings. These have been used to reconstruct past climates, showing when various areas have become arid or wetter during the various glacial and inter-glacial periods. The fossil pollen of another species of medicinal plant has another interesting paleo-archaeological connection. The appearance of Cannabis pollen in the UK at about 6000 years ago is thought to be a strong indicator of the arrival of Neolithic cultures and technology (including plant cultivation) to the island. Super-interesting, haysoos! I look forward to your take on my next entry - on hallucinogenic plants ;-) |
|
|
|
Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Aug 3, 2016 11:50:04 GMT -5
I had to look up the fruit-bursting:
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Aug 6, 2016 15:29:19 GMT -5
Today's enrichment lesson: Zoopharmacognosy! Zoopharmacognosy is a behavior in which non-human animals apparently self-medicate by selecting and ingesting or topically applying plants, soils, insects, and psychoactive drugs to prevent or reduce the harmful effects of pathogens and toxins. The term derives from Greek roots zoo ("animal"), pharma ("drug"), and gnosy ("knowing"). The methods by which animals self-medicate vary, but can be classified according to function as prophylactic (preventative, before infection or poisoning) or therapeutic (after infection, to combat the pathogen or poisoning). The behavior is believed to have widespread adaptive significance. For example: - Great apes often consume plants that have no nutritional values but which have beneficial effects on gut acidity or combat intestinal parasitic infection. Parasite infection drops noticeably after chimpanzees chew leaves of pith (Vernonia amyddalina), which have anti-parasitic activity against schistosoma, plasmodium and Leishmania. Chimpanzees don't consume this plant on a regular basis, but when they do eat it, it is often in small amounts by individuals that appear ill.
- African elephants apparently self-medicate to induce birth by chewing on the leaves of a particular tree from the family Boraginaceae; Kenyan women brew a tea from this tree to induce childbirth.
- North American brown bears make a paste of Osha roots (Ligusticum porteri) and saliva and rub it through their fur to repel insects or soothe bites. This plant, locally known as "bear root", contains 105 active compounds, such as coumarins that may repel insects when topically applied. Navajo Indians are said to have learned to use this root medicinally from the bear for treating stomach aches and infections.
- Some birds select nesting material rich in anti-microbial agents that may protect themselves and their young from harmful infestations or infections. European starlings preferentially select and line their nests with wild carrot (Daucus carota); chicks from nests lined with this have greater levels of hemoglobin compared to those from nests which are not, although there is no difference in the weight or feather development of the chicks. Laboratory studies show that wild carrot substantially reduces the emergence of the instars of mites. House sparrows have been observed to line their nests with materials from the neem tree (Azadirachta indica) but change to quinine-rich leaves of the Krishnachua tree (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) during an outbreak of malaria; quinine controls the symptoms of malaria.
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Aug 15, 2016 0:07:51 GMT -5
Hallucinogenic Plants Drugs, drugs, and more drugs! Hallucinogenic substances naturally occur in mushrooms, cacti and a variety of other plants. Numerous cultures worldwide have endorsed the use of hallucinogens in medicine, religion and recreation to varying extents, while some cultures have regulated or outright prohibited their use. In most developed countries today, the possession of many hallucinogens, even those found commonly in nature, is considered a crime punishable by fines, imprisonment or even death. The common types of hallucinogens are psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants. “Psychedelic” is commonly applied to any drug with perception-altering effects such as LSD and other ergotamine derivatives, DMT and other tryptamines including the alkaloids of Psilocybin spp., mescaline and other phenethylamines. Dissociatives produce a sense of detachment from the surrounding environment and deliriants, as their name implies, induce a state of delirium in the user, characterized by extreme confusion and inability to control one's actions. Historically, hallucinogens have been commonly used in religious or shamanic rituals. In this context they are referred to as entheogens, and they are used to facilitate healing, divination, communication with spirits, and coming-of-age ceremonies. Evidence exists for the use of entheogens in prehistoric times and in numerous ancient cultures, including the Rus', Ancient Egyptian, Mycenaean, Ancient Greek, Vedic, Maya, Inca and Aztec cultures. Western medicine did not focus its attention on hallucinogens until initial studies of the constituents of the peyote cactus in the late 19th century. Starting in 1927 with Kurt Beringer's Der Meskalinrausch (The Mescaline Intoxication), more intensive effort was focused on studies of psychoactive plants. Around the same time, Louis Lewin published his extensive survey of psychoactive plants, Phantastica (1928). So find yourself a trip sitter as we open the doors of perception with these hallucinogenic plants… Exhibit A: Lophophora williamsii (Peyote)
Origin: Peyote is native to Mexico and southwestern Texas. It is found primarily in the Chihuahuan desert and in the states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí among scrub, especially where there is limestone. Features: Peyote is a small, spineless cactus with psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. It flowers from March through May, and sometimes as late as September. The flowers are pink, with anthers that respond to external stimuli. The blue-green, yellow-green or sometimes reddish green shoots are mostly flattened spheres with sunken shoot tips. They can reach heights of from 2 to 7 cm (0.79 to 2.76 in) and diameters of 4 to 12 cm (1.6 to 4.7 in). There are often significant, vertical ribs consisting of low and rounded or hump-like bumps or buttons topped with a tuft of soft, yellowish or whitish woolly hairs; spines are absent. The buttons are generally chewed, or boiled in water to produce a psychoactive tea. Peyote is extremely bitter and most people are nauseated before they feel the onset of the psychoactive effects. Fun Facts: - From earliest recorded time, peyote has been used by indigenous peoples, such as the Huichol of northern Mexico and by various Native American tribes, native to or relocated to the Southern Plains states of present-day Oklahoma and Texas. The Huichol religion consists of four principal deities: Corn, Blue Deer, Peyote, and the Eagle, all descended from their Sun God, "Tao Jreeku". Scholars have suggested that peyote is the soul of their religious culture and a visionary sacrament that opens a pathway to the other deities. Under the auspices of what came to be known as the Native American Church in the 19th century, American Indians in more widespread regions to the north began to use peyote in religious practices, as part of a revival of native spirituality. Its members refer to peyote as "the sacred medicine", and use it to combat spiritual, physical, and other social ills. Concerned about the drug's psychoactive effects, between the 1880s and 1930s, U.S. authorities attempted to ban Native American religious rituals involving peyote, including the Ghost Dance.
Peyote songs are a form of Native American music, now most often performed as part of the Native American Church. They are typically accompanied by a rattle and water drum, and are used in a ceremonial aspect during the sacramental taking of peyote. Jim Pepper, who came from a Kaw and Creek family, used a peyote song he learned from his grandfather as the basis for the 1969 popular song "Witchi Tai To", which has since gone on to become a jazz and pop standard.
- Many authors, especially those of the Beat Generation, wrote about their experiences with peyote, or were otherwise influenced by the plant. Ken Kesey, while working as a night watchman at a psychiatric ward, was peyote-inspired to write his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. "'Peyote... inspired my chief narrator, because it was after choking down eight of the little cactus plants that I wrote the first three pages.' Allen Ginsberg's poem, "Howl", was partly inspired by his use of peyote on October 17, 1954 in his apartment at 755 Pine Street in San Francisco, when he had a vision of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel and the Medical Arts buildings being transformed into the ancient Phoenician god Moloch.
- In the 1970s, the early writings of Carlos Castaneda sparked a resurgence of interest in using peyote as a psychoactive drug.
- Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson described peyote usage in his auto-biographical novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. A peyote button is also used on the Gonzo symbol.
- In the 1996 animated film Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, when the title characters are lost and dying of dehydration in the desert, Beavis partially consumes a nearby peyote button while under the assumption that all cacti contain water. Seconds later, he begins to hallucinate White Zombie imagery.
- In PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC versions of Grand Theft Auto V, peyote plants are featured as an easter egg in which taking peyote will turn players into various animals in form of hallucination.
  Exhibit B: Bryonia alba, Genus Mandragora (Mandrake) Origin: The genus is native to the Mediterranean, but found across Europe and into Northern Iran Features: A mandrake is the root of a plant, historically derived either from plants of the genus Mandragora found in the Mediterranean region, or from other species, such as Bryonia alba, the English mandrake, which have similar properties. The plants from which the root is obtained are also called "mandrakes". Mediterranean mandrakes are perennial herbaceous plants with ovate leaves arranged in a rosette, a thick upright root, often branched, and bell-shaped flowers followed by yellow or orange berries. They are very variable perennial herbaceous plants with long thick roots (often branched) and almost no stem. The leaves are borne in a basal rosette, and are very variable in size and shape, with a maximum length of 45 cm (18 in). They are usually either elliptical in shape or wider towards the end, with varying degrees of hairiness. Fun Facts: - Because mandrakes contain deliriant hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids and the shape of their roots often resembles human figures, they have been associated with a variety of superstitious practices throughout history. They have long been used in magic rituals, today also in contemporary pagan traditions such as Wicca and Odinism. In the past, mandrake was often made into amulets which were believed to bring good fortune, cure sterility, etc. In one superstition, people who pull up this root will be condemned to hell, and the mandrake root would scream as it was pulled from the ground, killing anyone who heard it. Therefore, in the past, people have tied the roots to the bodies of animals and then used these animals to pull the roots from the soil.
- The root is hallucinogenic and narcotic. In sufficient quantities, it induces a state of unconsciousness and was used as an anaesthetic for surgery in ancient times. Juice from the finely grated root was applied externally to relieve rheumatic pains. It was also used internally to treat melancholy, convulsions, and mania. When taken internally in large doses, however, it is said to excite delirium and madness.
- The following is taken from Jean-Baptiste Pitois' The History and Practice of Magic: “Would you like to make a Mandragora, as powerful as the homunculus (little man in a bottle) so praised by Paracelsus? Then find a root of the plant called bryony. Take it out of the ground on a Monday (the day of the moon), a little time after the vernal equinox. Cut off the ends of the root and bury it at night in some country churchyard in a dead man's grave. For 30 days, water it with cow's milk in which three bats have been drowned. When the 31st day arrives, take out the root in the middle of the night and dry it in an oven heated with branches of verbena; then wrap it up in a piece of a dead man's winding-sheet and carry it with you everywhere.”
- In Genesis 30:14, Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob and Leah, finds mandrake in a field. Rachel, Jacob's infertile second wife and Leah's sister, is desirous of the דודאיםand barters with Leah for them. The trade offered by Rachel is for Leah to spend that night in Jacob's bed in exchange for Leah's דודאים. Leah gives away the plant to her barren sister, but soon after this (Genesis 30:14–22), Leah, who had previously had four sons but had been infertile for a long while, became pregnant once more and in time gave birth to two more sons, Issachar and Zebulun, and a daughter, Dinah. Only years after this episode of her asking for the mandrakes did Rachel manage to become pregnant. The final verses of Chapter 7 of Song of Songs (Song of Songs 7:13–14), are: Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves. / The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved."
Exhibit C: Salvia divinorum (Salvia, Ska María Pastora, Yerba de la Pastora, Seer's Sage)
Origin: Its native habitat is in cloud forest in the isolated Sierra Mazateca of Oaxaca, Mexico, where it grows in shady and moist locations. S. divinorum was first documented in 1939, but it was many years before botanists could identify the plant due to Mazatec secrecy about the growing sites. Features: The plant grows to over a meter high, has hollow square stems, large leaves, and occasional white flowers with violet sepals. S. divinorum produces few viable seeds even when it does flower—no seeds have ever been observed on plants in the wild. For an unknown reason, pollen fertility is also comparatively reduced. However, the plant's square stems break easily and tend to trail on the ground, rooting easily at the nodes and internodes. This propagation solely by cloning suggests that S. divinorum is either a hybrid of unknown parentage or that long-term cultivation and selection have produced an inbred species. By mass, the compound salvinorin A synthesized in the plant’s leaves "is the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogen." Salvinorin A's potency should not be confused with toxicity. Rodents chronically exposed to dosages many times greater than those to which humans are exposed show no signs of organ damage. Studies also indicate that Salvia is not addictive and produces virtually no hangover or after-effects. Fun Facts: - Mazatec shamans have a long and continuous tradition of religious use of S. divinorum, using it to facilitate visionary states of consciousness during spiritual healing sessions. Most of the plant's local common names allude to the Mazatecs' post-Columbian belief that the plant is an incarnation of the Virgin Mary, with its ritual use also invoking that relationship. Ritual use traditionally involves being in a quiet place after ingestion of the leaf—the Maztec shamans say that "La Maria (S. divinorum) speaks with a quiet voice."
- It is also used remedially at lower dosages as a diuretic, and to treat ailments including diarrhea, anemia, headaches, rheumatism, and a semi-magical disease known as panzón de borrego, or a swollen belly (literally, "lamb belly")
- Gordon Wasson tentatively postulated that the plant could be the mythological pipiltzintzintli, the "Noble Prince" of the Aztec codices. The identity of another mysterious Aztec entheogen, namely that of poyomatli, has also been suggested as being S. divinorum.
- S. divinorum was the subject of the first use of YouTube within drug-behavioral research when scientists at San Diego State University rated randomly selected videos of salvia users to study observed impairment.Their findings corroborate reports that the most profound effects of smoking salvia appear almost immediately and last about eight minutes. Effects include temporary speech and coordination loss. A survey of salvia users found that 38% described the effects as unique in comparison to other methods of altering consciousness. 23% said the effects were like yoga, meditation or trance
- Results from a small study by an assistant professor at the University of Iowa indicate that it may have potential as an analgesic and as a therapeutic tool for treating drug addictions and a range of diseases including Alzheimer's, depression, schizophrenia, chronic pain and even AIDS or HIV.
- Though medical experts, as well as accident and emergency rooms, have not been reporting cases that suggest particular salvia-related health concerns, and police have not been reporting it as a significant issue with regard to public order offences, S. divinorum has attracted negative attention from the media and some lawmakers. Due to the difficulty of enforcing a ban on a plant that propagates so easily, salvia remains legal in most countries with local legislation to control its use and sale.
Origin: Psilocybin mushrooms have likely been used since prehistoric times and may have been depicted in rock art and pre-Columbian historical materials in Mesoamerica. Features: Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include Copelandia, Galerina, Gymnopilus, Inocybe, Mycena, Panaeolus, Pholiotina, Pluteus, and Psilocybe. Over 100 species are classified in the genus Psilocybe. Generally, Shrooms are mushrooms that contain the psychedelic compounds psilocybin and psilocin. In general, psilocybin-containing species are dark-spored, gilled mushrooms that grow in meadows and woods of the subtropics and tropics, usually in soils rich in humus and plant debris. Psilocybin mushrooms occur on all continents, but the majority of species are found in subtropical humid forests. Psilocybe species commonly found in the tropics include P. cubensis and P. subcubensis. P. semilanceata—considered by Guzmán to be the world's most widely distributed psilocybin mushroom—is found in Europe, North America, Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand, but is entirely absent from Mexico. Psilocybin and psilocin create short-term increases in tolerance of users, thus making it difficult to abuse them because the more often they are taken within a short period of time, the weaker the resultant effects are. Effects can include euphoria, altered thinking processes, closed and open-eye visuals, synesthesia, an altered sense of time and spiritual experiences. Fun Facts:
- A Psilocybe species was known to the Aztecs asteonanácatl (literally "divine mushroom") and were reportedly served at the coronation of the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II in 1502. Aztecs and Mazatecs referred to psilocybin mushrooms as genius mushrooms, divinatory mushrooms, and wondrous mushrooms, when translated into English. After the Spanish conquest, Catholic missionaries campaigned against the cultural tradition of the Aztecs, dismissing the Aztecs as idolaters, and the use of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, like other pre-Christian traditions, were quickly suppressed. The Spanish believed the mushroom allowed the Aztecs and others to communicate with devils. In converting people to Catholicism, the Spanish pushed for a switch from teonanácatl to the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist.
- The first mention of hallucinogenic mushrooms in European medicinal literature appeared in the London Medical and Physical Journal in 1799: a man had served Psilocybe semilanceata mushrooms that he had picked for breakfast in London's Green Park to his family. The doctor who treated them later described how the youngest child "was attacked with fits of immoderate laughter, nor could the threats of his father or mother refrain him."
- In 1955, Valentina and R. Gordon Wasson became the first known Caucasians to actively participate in an indigenous mushroom ceremony. The Wassons did much to publicize their discovery, even publishing an article on their experiences in Life in 1957. Inspired by the Wassons' article, Timothy Leary traveled to Mexico to experience psilocybin mushrooms firsthand. Upon returning to Harvard in 1960, he and Richard Alpert started the Harvard Psilocybin Project, promoting psychological and religious study of psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs. After Leary and Alpert were dismissed by Harvard in 1963, they turned their attention toward promoting the psychedelic experience to the nascent hippie counterculture.
 
|
|
wrath of kong
TI Forumite
It was like that when I got here.
Posts: 188
|
Post by wrath of kong on Aug 15, 2016 3:59:24 GMT -5
^^^ Now we're talkin.
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Aug 21, 2016 19:54:19 GMT -5
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Aug 29, 2016 1:29:28 GMT -5
Mutant plants
The first time most of us heard the term ‘mutant’ was through X-Men, but I bet the second time was in biology class and it involved corn. A mutation is a heritable, sudden change in the structure of a gene, which has no relation to the individual’s ancestry. The change can occur spontaneously or can be the result of exposure to ultraviolet radiation or chemicals. In 1901, Hugo de Vries coined the term mutation to describe changes in the hereditary material of evening primrose ( Oenothera). From 1930 to 2014, more than 3200 mutagenic plant varietals have been released that have been derived either as direct mutants (70%) or from their progeny (30%). Crop plants account for 75% of released mutagenic species with the remaining 25% ornamentals or decorative plants. Mutation breeding is commonly used to produce traits in crops such as larger seeds, new colors, or sweeter fruits, that either cannot be found in nature or have been lost during evolution. After WWII, there was a concerted effort to find 'peaceful' uses for atomic energy. One of the ideas was to bombard plants with radiation and produce lots of mutations, some of which, it was hoped, would lead to plants that bore more heavily or were disease or cold-resistant or just had unusual colors. The experiments were mostly conducted in giant gamma gardens on the grounds of national laboratories in the US but also in Europe and countries of the former USSR. So let’s play God as we consider some famous plant mutations: Exhibit A: Zea mays (Corn, Maize)
Origin: Most historians believe maize was first domesticated by indigenous peoples in either the Tehuacan Valley or Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Maize is the domesticated variant of teosinte; although the two plants have dissimilar appearance, maize having a single tall stalk with multiple leaves and teosinte being a short, bushy plant, the difference between the two is largely controlled by differences in just two genes. Features: The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, and sweet corn. Before they were domesticated, maize plants only grew small, 25 mm (1 in) long corn cobs, and only one per plant. Many centuries of artificial selection by the indigenous people of the Americas resulted in the development of maize plants capable of growing several cobs per plant that were usually several centimeters/inches long each. The maize plant is often 3 m (10 ft) in height, though some natural strains can grow 12 m (39 ft). Ears develop above a few of the leaves in the midsection of the plant, between the stem and leaf sheath, elongating by ~3 mm/day. Female inflorescences, tightly enveloped by several layers of ear leaves are commonly called husks. Certain varieties of maize have been bred to produce many additional developed ears. These are the source of the "baby corn" used as a vegetable in Asian cuisine. The apex of the stem ends in the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers. Elongated stigmas, called silks, emerge from the whorl of husk leaves at the end of the ear. They are often pale yellow and 18 cm (7 in) in length, like tufts of hair in appearance. At the end of each is a carpel, which may develop into a "kernel" if fertilized by a pollen grain. They are of various colors: blackish, bluish-gray, purple, green, red, white and yellow. Fun Facts:
- Maize is an important model organism for genetics and developmental biology, starting with Barbara McClintock, who used knob markers to validate her transposon theory of "jumping genes", for which she won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Medicine. The Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center, funded by the USDA Agricultural Research Service and located in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a stock center of maize mutants. The total collection has nearly 80,000 samples.
- Maize is central to Mexican food. Virtually every dish in Mexican cuisine uses maize. In the form of grain or cornmeal, maize is the main ingredient of tortillas, tamales, pozole, atole and all the dishes based on them, like tacos, quesadillas, chilaquiles, enchiladas, tostadas and many more. In Mexico even a fungus of maize, known as huitlacoche is considered a delicacy.
- Sugar-rich varieties called sweet corn are usually grown for human consumption as kernels, while field corn varieties are used for animal feed, various corn-based human food uses (including grinding into cornmeal or masa, pressing into corn oil, and fermentation and distillation into alcoholic beverages like bourbon whiskey), and as chemical feedstocks. Some notable uses: In Europe, China, Korea, Japan and India, corn kernals are often used as a pizza topping or in salads. When corn is mixed with Lima beans it is called Succotash. If left to dry on the plant, sweet corn kernels may be taken off the cob and cooked in oil where, unlike popcorn, they expand to about double the original kernel size and are often called corn nuts. Maize meal is made into a thick porridge in many cultures: from the polenta of Italy, the angu of Brazil, the mămăligă of Romania, to cornmeal mush in the US (and hominy grits in the South) or the food called mealie pap in South Africa and sadza, nshima and ugali in other parts of Africa.
- A well-known architectural use is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, which uses cobs and ears of colored maize to implement a mural design that is recycled annually. The idea of a corn maze or maize maze was introduced by the American Maze Company who created a maze in Pennsylvania in 1993. The rapid growth of a field of maize allows a maze to be laid out using GPS at the start of a growing season and for the maize to grow tall enough to obstruct a visitor's line of sight by the start of the summer.
- When maize was first introduced into farming systems other than those used by traditional native-American peoples, it was generally welcomed with enthusiasm for its productivity. However, a widespread problem of malnutrition soon arose wherever maize was introduced as a staple food. This was a mystery, since these types of malnutrition were not normally seen among the indigenous Americans, for whom maize was the principal staple food. It was eventually discovered that the indigenous Americans had learned to soak maize in alkali-water—made with ashes and lime (calcium oxide) since at least 1200–1500 BC by Mesoamericans and North Americans—which liberates the B-vitamin niacin, the lack of which was the underlying cause of the condition known as pellagra. In the late 19th century, pellagra reached epidemic proportions in parts of the southern US, as medical researchers debated two theories for its origin: the deficiency theory (which was eventually shown to be true) said that pellagra was due to a deficiency of some nutrient, and the germ theory said that pellagra was caused by a germ transmitted by stable flies. A third theory, promoted by the eugenicist Charles Davenport, held that people only contracted pellagra if they were susceptible to it due to certain "constitutional, inheritable" traits of the affected individual. Once alkali processing and dietary variety were understood and applied, pellagra disappeared in the developed world. The development of high lysine maize and the promotion of a more balanced diet have also contributed to its demise. Pellagra still exists today in food-poor areas and refugee camps where people survive on donated maize.
  Exhibit B: Citrus × paradise (Grapefruit)
Origin: Grapefruit is a hybrid originating in Barbados as an accidental cross between two introduced species, sweet orange ( C. sinesis) and pomelo or shaddock ( C. maxima), both of which were introduced from Asia in the seventeenth century. When found, it was named the “forbidden fruit” and it has also been misidentified as pomelo. Features: Grapefruits grow from an evergreen subtropical citrus tree around 5–6 meters (16–20 ft) tall, although they can reach 13–15 m (43–49 ft). The leaves are glossy dark green, long, and thin. It produces 5 cm (2 in) white four-petaled flowers. The fruit is yellow-orange skinned and generally an oblate spheroid in shape; it ranges in diameter from 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in). The flesh is segmented and acidic, varying in color depending on the cultivars, which include white, pink and red pulps of varying sweetness (generally, the redder varieties are sweeter). Fun Facts:- One story of the fruit's origins is that a certain "Captain Shaddock" brought pomelo seeds to Jamaica and bred the first fruit. However, it probably originated as a naturally occurring hybrid between the two plants some time after they had been introduced. The grapefruit was known as the shaddock or shattuck until the 19th century. Its current name alludes to clusters of the fruit on the tree, which often appear similar to grapes. The hybrid fruit, then called "the forbidden fruit", was first documented in 1750 by a Welshman, Rev. Griffith Hughes, who described specimens from Barbados in The Natural History of Barbados. Currently, the grapefruit is said to be one of the "Seven Wonders of Barbados
- The grapefruit was brought to Florida by Count Odet Philippe in 1823 in what is now known as Safety Harbor. Further crosses have produced the tangelo (1905), the Minneola tangelo (1931), and the oroblanco (1984). The pink grapefruit was first discovered in 1906. Botanically, grapefruit was not distinguished from the pomelo until the 1830s, when it was given the name Citrus paradisi. Its true origins were not determined until the 1940s. This led to the official name being altered to Citrus × paradisi, the "×" identifying its hybrid origin.
- The 1929 Ruby Red patent came after the discovery of a red grapefruit growing on a pink variety. Starting with the Ruby Red, grapefruit become a symbolic fruit of Texas, where white “inferior” grapefruit were eliminated and only red grapefruit were grown for decades. Using radiation to trigger mutations, new varieties were developed to retain the red tones which typically faded to pink. The Star Ruby is the darkest of the red varieties. Developed from an irradiated Hudson grapefruit, it has found limited commercial success because it is more difficult to grow than other varieties.
- Grapefruit and grapefruit juice have been found to interact with numerous drugs in many cases resulting in adverse effects. This happens in two ways. One is that grapefruit can block an enzyme which metabolizes medication. If the drug is not metabolized, then the level of the drug in the blood can become too high leading to an adverse effect. The other effect is that grapefruit can block the absorption of drugs in the intestine. If the drug is not absorbed, then not enough of it is in the blood to have a therapeutic effect.
- Grapefruit is a rich source (>20% of the Daily Value, DV in a 100 gram serving) of vitamin C, contains the fiberpectin, and the pink and red hues contain the beneficial antioxidant lycopene. Studies have shown grapefruit helps lower cholesterol,and there is evidence that the seeds have antioxidant properties. Grapefruit seed extract (GSE) has been shown to have strong antimicrobial properties against fungi. Grapefruit forms a core part of the "grapefruit diet", the theory being that the fruit's low glycemic index is able to help the body's metabolism burn fat.
   Exhibit C: Prunus persica (Peach, Nectarine)
Origin: It is native to the region of Northwest China between the Tarim Basin and the north slopes of the Kunlun Shan mountains, where it was first domesticated and cultivated. The species name persica refers to its widespread cultivation in Persia, from whence it was transplanted to Europe. Features: Prunus persica grows to 4–10 m (13–33 ft) tall and 6 in. in diameter. The single, large seed is red-brown, oval shaped, approximately 1.3–2 cm long, and is surrounded by a wood-like husk. Peaches, along with cherries, plums and apricots, are stone fruits (drupes). Most cultivars require 500 hours of chilling around 0 to 10 °C (32 to 50 °F). During the chilling period, key chemical reactions occur but the plant appears dormant. Once the chilling period is fulfilled, the plant enters a second type of dormancy, the quiescence period. During quiescence, buds break and grow when sufficient warm weather favorable to growth is accumulated. Peach and nectarines are the same species, even though they are regarded commercially as different fruits. In contrast to peaches, whose fruits present the characteristic fuzz on the skin, nectarines are characterized by the absence of fruit-skin trichomes (fuzz-less fruit); genetic studies suggest nectarines are produced due to a recessive allele, whereas peaches are produced from a dominant allele for fuzzy skin. Nectarines are often erroneously believed to be a crossbreed between peaches and plums. As with peaches, nectarines can be white or yellow, and clingstone or freestone. On average, nectarines are slightly smaller and sweeter than peaches, but with much overlap. The lack of skin fuzz can make nectarine skins appear more reddish than those of peaches, contributing to the fruit's plum-like appearance. The lack of down on nectarines' skin also means their skin is more easily bruised than peaches. Fun Facts:- Peaches are symbolic in many cultural traditions, such as in art, paintings and folk tales such as Peaches of Immortality. The ancient Chinese believed the peach to possess more vitality than any other tree because their blossoms appear before leaves sprout. When early rulers of China visited their territories, they were preceded by sorcerers armed with peach rods to protect them from spectral evils. On New Year's Eve, local magistrates would cut peach wood branches and place them over their doors to protect against evil influences. It was in an orchard of flowering peach trees that Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei took an oath of brotherhood in the opening chapter of the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Another peach forest, “The Peach Blossom Spring” by poet Tao Yuanming is the setting of the favorite Chinese fable and a metaphor of utopias. A peach tree growing on a precipice was where the Taoist master Zhang Daoling tested his disciples. The Old Man of the South Pole, one of the deities of the Chinese folk religion fulu shou, is sometimes seen holding a large peach, representing long life and health. The term "bitten peach", first used by Legalist philosopher Han Fei in his work Han Feizi, became a byword for homosexuality. The book records the incident when courtier Mizi Xia bit into an especially delicious peach and gave the remainder to his lover, Duke Ling of Wei, as a gift so that he could taste it as well.
- Momotaro, one of Japan's most noble and semi-historical heroes, was born from within an enormous peach floating down a stream. Momotaro or "Peach Boy" went on to fight evil oni and face many adventures.
- Many famous artists have painted still life with peach fruits placed in prominence. Caravaggio, Vicenzo Campi, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Henri Jean Fantin-Latour, Severin Roesen, Peter Paul Rubens, Van Gogh are among the many influential artists who painted peaches and peach trees in various settings. Scholars suggest that many compositions are symbolic, some an effort to introduce realism. For example, Tresidder claims the artists of Renaissance symbolically used peach to represent heart, and a leaf attached to the fruit as the symbol for tongue, thereby implying speaking truth from one's heart; a ripe peach was also a symbol to imply a ripe state of good health. Caravaggio paintings introduce realism by painting peach leaves that are molted, discolored or in some cases have wormholes.
- Saturn peaches, Prunus persica var. platycarpa, also known as Donut (Doughnut) peaches, are a variety of peach with white flesh and a flattish, round shape. Their skin is yellow and red, and they are usually less fuzzy than ordinary peaches. Their flesh is also a lot firmer, sweeter and more fragrant than a regular peach. The inside of the peach is pale in appearance.
![]()  
|
|
|
|
Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Aug 29, 2016 2:18:32 GMT -5
1. We grew Indian corn in my yard, among 500 or so other things. You couldn't eat if off the cob, but you could make popcorn.
2. Until this moment, I was of the belief that nectarines were a hybrid of apricots and plums.
3. A lot of weird citrus mutations in the Caribbean, it's how we got Curaçao.
4. What was the psychedelic cactus from Crystal Fairy?
|
|
|
|
Post by ganews on Aug 29, 2016 12:46:46 GMT -5
Many times have I driven the I-85/95 corridor, and in South Carolina the Gaffney Big Peach is the most recognizable landmark. (Though I suppose one could also use Abbott Farms, seeing as the have about a million billboards over the 77 miles from Georgia to North Carolina.)  I have long referred to it as "the butty peach". Because that's what it looks like, a giant butt mooning the interstate forever. Colossus of the South. |
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Aug 29, 2016 15:14:40 GMT -5
1. We grew Indian corn in my yard, among 500 or so other things. You couldn't eat if off the cob, but you could make popcorn. 2. Until this moment, I was of the belief that nectarines were a hybrid of apricots and plums. 3. A lot of weird citrus mutations in the Caribbean, it's how we got Curaçao. 4. What was the psychedelic cactus from Crystal Fairy?I did not know about Curaçao! However, Wikipedia tells me that the psychedelic cactus is Echinopsis pachanoi. |
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Sept 3, 2016 23:33:23 GMT -5
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Sept 12, 2016 1:24:30 GMT -5
post delayed on account of a family emergency...hopefully not too serious...
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Sept 12, 2016 14:44:14 GMT -5
Rare/endangered plantsAs of July 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 3643 endangered plant species. Seventeen percent of all evaluated plant species are listed as endangered. For a species to be considered endangered by the IUCN it must meet certain quantitative criteria which are designed to classify taxa facing "a very high risk of extinction". An even higher risk is faced by critically endangered species, which meet the quantitative criteria for endangered species. Critically endangered plants are listed separately. There are 6127 plant species which are endangered or critically endangered. For some of the common causes of endangerment an extinction, consider the cases below: Exhibit A: Phlox hirsute (Yreka phlox, hairy phlox) – as requested by FrohmanOrigin: the serpentine soils of Siskiyou County, California Features: It is a small flowering plant that grows to a height of up to six inches, with thick hairy stems at the base. In April through June, they become covered by small pink or purple flowers. Yreka phlox often grows near another more common species of phlox, Phlox speciosa, which it resembles, but the latter species has deep notches in its flower petals that are not present in Yreka phlox. Although individuals can produce hundreds of flowers, approximately 80% of flowers fail to develop into a fruit. Fun Facts: - It is the official city flower of Yreka, California, after which it is named. There are four known locations near or in Yreka where populations have been sighted.
- The first recorded specimen of Yreka phlox was discovered by Edward Lee Greene in 1876. Greene was the priest at St. Laurence's Episcopal Church in Yreka (since renamed as St. Mark's) from 1876 to 1877, when he made the discovery; he later became the first botanist at the University of California, Berkeley.
- Because Yreka phlox is only known to grow in a few locations near Yreka, it is endangered by land use plans that threaten those locations, as well as by other factors stemming from the increased urbanization of the Yreka area, such as off-road vehicle use and the encroachment of non-native species. A recovery plan was drafted by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2006 and was dedicated to the memory of Larry G. Bacon, the city attorney of Yreka from 1970 to 2002, who had been a leader of local efforts to protect the species.
 Exhibit B: Family Orchidaceae (Orchids)
Origin: Orchidaceae are cosmopolitan, occurring in almost every habitat apart from glaciers. The world's richest diversity of orchid genera and species is found in the tropics, but they are also found above the Arctic Circle and in southern Patagonia. An extinct species of stingless bee, Proplebeia dominicana, was found trapped in Miocene amber from about 15-20 million years ago carrying pollen of a previously unknown orchid, Meliorchis caribea, on its wings. This find is the first evidence of fossilized orchids to date and shows insects were active pollinators of orchids then. Genetic sequencing indicates orchids may have arisen earlier, 76 to 84 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. Features: Orchids are easily distinguished from other plants, as they share some very evident shared derived characteristics, or "apomorphies". Among these are: bilateral symmetry of the flower (zygomorphism), highly modified petals, fused stamens and carpels, and extremely small seeds. A majority of orchids are perennial epiphytes, which grow anchored to trees or shrubs in the tropics and subtropics. Some species grow on rocks or very rocky soil. Some orchids lack chlorophyll, so are unable to photosynthesize. Instead, these species obtain energy and nutrients by parasitizing soil fungi through the formation of orchid mycorrhizas. Fun Facts:
- The type genus (i.e. the genus after which the family is named) is Orchis. The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek ὄρχις (órkhis), literally meaning "testicle", because of the shape of the twin tubers in some species of Orchis.
- Orchids of all types have been sought by collectors of both species and hybrids, establishing many hundreds of societies and clubs worldwide. "Orchidelirium" is the name given to the Victorian era of flower madness when collecting and discovering orchids reached extraordinarily high levels. Wealthy orchid fanatics of the 19th century sent explorers and collectors to almost every part of the world in search of new varieties of orchids. In 1818, William John Swainson was collecting plants in Rio de Janeiro. He sent a box of tropical plants he had acquired to London. As a packing material he used orchids, which he believed were parasitic plants. Surprisingly, one of the orchids bloomed on arrival, and Londoners were astonished by the unusual shape and colors of the flower. That single flower triggered "orchid fever", which resulted in many deaths in pursuit of the plants. About half of the orchid plants sent to Europe did not survive the trip. The demand grew, the plants became more and more expensive, and the profession of orchid hunter was created. Orchid hunters faced tropical diseases, wild animals and poisonous snakes, floods, native indigenous people, and often fierce competition from each other. In 1901, eight orchid hunters went to look for rare orchids in the Philippines. One of the hunters was eaten by a tiger, another had oil spilled on him and was burned alive, and five others vanished completely. The man who survived the ordeal collected 7,000 orchid specimens. Another group of orchid hunters in Papua New Guinea were captured and held hostage. Two members of the party were beheaded before Indonesian troops came to their rescue. Colombia is said to be one of the best places to hunt for orchids, but it also used to be one of the hardest places to survive the hunt. William Arnold drowned in the fast and wild Orinoco River while on a collecting expedition; David Bowman died from dysentery; and yellow fever killed Gustavo Wallis in the Andean mountains. Competition between the hunters was intense. William Arnold got into a confrontation with another orchid hunter which almost ended up in a duel. When Arnold wrote about this to his employer, he was ordered to follow the other man, collect the same specimens he did, and try to urinate on the other man's collection in order to kill his orchids. Orchid hunters who survived their ordeals came home with incredible stories. They claimed that cannibals on the Solomon Islands tortured their human sacrifices with the most beautiful blooming orchids placed around them so that the victims were able to see the color of the flowers growing richer from their own blood. Fosterman, who was hunting for orchids in Brazil, described his adventure in the "village of the demon flowers". He claimed that the orchids his party found there were the most beautiful he had ever seen, but he said that the flowers had a very bad smell, an odor that literally was strong enough to kill people. His men circled this village and saw abundant orchids everywhere, but because the smell was so deadly, the flowers were simply impossible to reach, like a lovely mirage. Modern orchid hunting is not without its dangers. Tom Hart Dyke, a plant hunter who follows the tradition of the Victorian and Edwardian orchid hunters, was held in 2000 by kidnappers thought to be FARC guerillas in the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia, while hunting for rare orchids. He and his travel companion, Paul Winder, were held captive for nine months and threatened with death. Hart Dyke kept his morale up by creating a design for a garden containing plants collected on his trips, laid out in the shape of a world map, the plants being positioned according to the respective continents of their origin.
- The Shenzhen Nongke Orchid blooms once every 4 to 5 years and takes its name from the university at which it was developed. Scientists spent 8 years creating the delicate bloom which fetched a staggering £160,000 at auction in 2005. It remains the most expensive flower ever sold. Aside from its beauty, it is also said to have a delicate taste.
- Drakaea is a genus of 10 species in the plant family Orchidaceae commonly known as hammer orchids. All ten species only occur in the south-west of Western Australia. Hammer orchids are characterized by an insectoid labellum that is attached to a narrow, hinged stem, which holds it aloft. The stem can only hinge backwards, where the broadly winged column carries the pollen and stigma. Each species of hammer orchid is pollinated by a specific species of thynnid wasp. Thynnid wasps are unusual in that the female is flightless and mating occurs when the male carries a female away to a source of food. The labellum of the orchid resembles a female thynnid wasp in shape, colour and scent. Insect pollination involving sexual attraction is common in orchids but the interaction between the male thynnid wasp and the hammer orchid is unique in that it involves the insect trying to fly away with a part of the flower, thinking that it has attached itself to a mate.
- Cypripedium calceolus, the lady's-slipper orchid, was formerly a reasonably widespread plant across northern England, particularly the limestone area of the Yorkshire Dales. By the late 20th century, it had declined to just a single plant. In 2010, the Daily Mail reported that the last remaining plant had been given 24 police protection from thieves, following two attempts to uproot and take cuttings, which can fetch up to to £5,000. Growing at a protected site on a golf course for the last 100 years, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981, it is illegal even to touch the plant without a special license and anyone caught stealing it could face six months in jail. While the virtual extinction of the lady's-slipper orchid from its historical range in Britain is often blamed on uprooting by gardeners and botanists, its preferred habitat also shrank markedly with human clearance of woodland from the limestone landscape, and the grazing of sheep would have finished it off. A reintroduction program for the lady’s-slipper orchid is now in place.
- Epipogium aphyllum, the ghost orchid (not to be confused with the American ghost orchid, Dendrophylax lindenii) is a hardy orchid lacking chlorophyll. It is famous for its unpredictable appearance; in many localities it has been seen just once. It is found in beech, oak, pine and spruce forests on base-rich soils. It is a rare and critically endangered plant in habitat, and is believed to be extinct throughout much of its former range. The plants are protected in many locales, and removing the plants from habitat or disturbing the plants, even for scientific study, can be a very serious matter in many jurisdictions. The plants defy cultivation outside of laboratory conditions, as they require not only specific fungal symbionts, but also specific host trees with which these mushroom species form mycorrhizal relationships.
- Dendrophylax lindenii, the ghost orchid (a common name also used for Epipogium aphyllum) is a perennial epiphyte native to Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas. The precise locations of these orchids are kept secret to prevent poachers from continuing to take them from their natural environment, (99% of the time, a wild Ghost Orchid plant dies in captivity anyway…). There is one exception—a public boardwalk through the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary where thousands of visitors have been able to view the orchid from a safe distance. Part of its mystery is in its appearance. The plant has no leaves — only roots — and when it blooms, the flower seems to float, glowing white in mid-air. As a night-fragrant orchid, people wondered what kind of creature might be its pollinator. Now you can see video of the giant sphinx moth – the only one known to have a long enough proboscis to reach the nectar. The plant plays a pivotal role in the non-fiction book The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean and the movie based on the book, Adaptation. The ghost orchid also inspired the fiction novel, Ghost Orchid by D. K. Christi.
    Exhibit C: Zizania texana (Texas Wild Rice)
Origin: It is endemic to Texas, where it is found only on the upper San Marcos River in Hays County. Features: This grass, a member of the same genus as commercially sold wild rice, is an aquatic plant that grows in the water with only its stem tips rising above the surface. It grows 1 to 2 meters long but the stems have been known to reach five meters in length. The ribbon-like leaves are up to a meter in length.
Fun Facts: - This plant is limited to a single site on the first two miles of the San Marcos River in Texas. There are 140 clumps of stems in this population, covering about 1200 square meters. There is also an introduced population at Spring Lake at the San Marcos Springs and a number of specimens are kept in an enclosure on the Texas State University campus. The natural habitat of the grass is the clear water of the San Marcos River, which is fed by springs originating in the Edwards Aquifer. This plant was once locally common in the area, growing thick enough to become a nuisance as recently as the 1930s. It has been reduced to its rare status because the Edwards Aquifer has been drained of its water for use in agriculture and other industries, lowering the flow on San Marcos River.
- The rare plant is also threatened by recreational activities on the river, and by the nutria, or river rat, an introduced mammal that feeds on plant stems.
- The plant can grow by cloning and sometimes forms mats of cloned stems. However, it rarely accomplishes successful sexual reproduction. Pollen is released for a short time each day, typically only between 2 and 4 am. Within a few minutes the pollen loses its viability and it becomes nonfunctional within one hour. Because the pollen is carried on the wind, the inflorescence must rise above the surface of the water; the stem cannot be broken or submerged. Pollen generally moves less than one meter from its parent inflorescence, so plants must be close together to reproduce and cannot be isolated. Today the plant is rare and the population is fragmented, making it difficult for the pollen to reach a receptive flower. The male flowers of the grass do not pollinate the female flowers on the same inflorescence because they do not release pollen at the same time the female flowers are receptive.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Sept 12, 2016 15:28:01 GMT -5
Whenever someone orchids the first thing that comes to mind is a conversation I had with someone on the Big Island of Hawai‘i where he casually complaining about how he’d have to periodically clear the orchids from his drains. Obviously not the super-rare/common sort but orchid is so linked to “expensive” in my mind that my mouth went agape.
Orchid is also, incidentally, probably the only flower I’d ever eaten. During my first year of college I met up with my best friend from high school and his roommate, an exchange student from Japan. We thought we’d take him to a nice English tea service and it was…very nice. To the point where we started wondering if it was too nice for our 18-year old full-time student wallets. When the final dessert came we just about freaked out—lemon cake with edible orchid.
|
|
moimoi
AV Clubber
Posts: 5,090
|
Post by moimoi on Sept 17, 2016 9:50:22 GMT -5
Today, I give you plants so rare, they don't even exist! Here's Mental Floss's roundup of legendary plant-animal hybrids like the The Vegetable Lamb and the Waq Waq Tree. Here's Wikipedia's comprehensive list of fictional plants from works of fiction, including those in the graphic below.  |
|
