The Tree of Joy

The Indian Date Palm Phoenix Sylvestris grows in all sorts of inhospitable places like this vacant plot near my home. It is a handsome tree, beloved of bees and birds.The orange-red fruits are a great attraction for parrots and mynahs. Many years ago, it was a familiar sight to see tall old Sylvesters with a clay pot tied to the top. The clay pot was to collect the sweet sap of the tree, which is fermented and made into Palm wine. The government put a ban on making palm wine in an attempt to make villagers stop drinking, but the villagers started drinking brewery wine, filling the coffers of the liquor barons. The ban is lifted now.

The unfermented juice of the tree, called Neera , is a sweet, whitish liquid, full of vitamins. The fermented juice is the Palm wine or Toddy. It is drawn from the tree by making a nick on the tree and tying a pot to it. Sap will collect in the pot, which is removed in the morning.

In Bengal, the juice is boiled to make mollasses called Patali Gur, which is a great delicacy. The mollasses is very expensive , and is used to make special sweets like Payesh.

Palmyra, a cousin of the Sylvester, has large leaves. Sacred ancient texts of Hinduism and Buddhism were written on the leaves of this tree.

Hide and Seek Plants

Since I live in the tropics, there are flowers through the year. But some of the flowers like their winter rest. The Resurrection Plant(top) is one of them. It goes to sleep during winter and hides itself so effectively that you have to mark the pot to know where it is. It miraculously comes back to life in summer.

The beautiful Evening Bells, Chrysothemis pulchella is another plant which plays hide -and- seek. It has already started to pack up, although 'winter' starts here in November.

The Gloxinia(below) is another plant which goes into hiding once the blooming is over. Mine are blooming happily now.

Gloxinia and Chrysothemis belong to the Gesneriaceae family, while the Resurrection Plant is a ginger.

Festival Flowers for Floral Friday

Yesterday, the people of Kerala, the state next to ours, celebrated Onam, the festival of flowers. They make flower carpets at the entrances of their homes to welcome their legendary king Mahabali, who , they believe, visits them every year on this day, from his abode in the

nether worlds. These floral carpets were made by the tiny tots in the Kindergarten section of my school.They have used rose petals, chrysanthemum and leaves to make this floral carpet.

Rose, marigold, dahlia and leaves are used here.

Chrysanthemum and rose petals have been used in this spiral design.

The children enjoyed making these floral patterns on the floor and dancing the traditional Kerala boat dance.

Some Wild Flowers

This large yellow flower is not exactly a wild flower, but the flower of a pumpkin vine which was growing wild in a vacant lot.

The blue flowers of the Convolvulus gladden the heart every morning when I go to work. This is the flowering season for them and they are growing in all the vacant sites . The flowers close by 10 a.m. They close as soon as the pollination is complete so that no more energy is wasted . A lesson in economy for us.

The Convolvulus is one of the few blue wild flowers of the tropics.

Pepper, the King of Spices

Pepper is the oldest spice known to humans. It is mentioned in Sanskrit texts written in 1000B.C.The name Pepper comes from the Sanskrit name. Pippali. It is the spice which made ancient European powers like Rome and Greece carry on trade with India. It was a medium of exchange. Originally from India, pepper is now grown in most of the tropical regions of the world.

Pepper is a vine, unlike cinnamon. I have made my pepper vines twine round my teak trees, but they are still small. These pictures are from my friend's garden. The berries are still green, and in December they will all turn orange red.The black pepper we use is the seed of the mature berry. The green berries are also used to make delicious pickles.

Wild pepper is very common in the rain forests of the Western Ghats. Besides extensive culinary uses, pepper also has medicinal uses. It is good for coughs and colds. It is also used in aroma therapy.

Deception of Orchids

The Red Crucifix orchid at the top has formations which look like the crucifix. It has two colours, the red and yellow one like the one on top , and a deeper red one. The flowers are bright and long lasting. Many times I mistook the flowers for the flowers of the Butterfly Weed Asclepia(below), from a distance. It was only when I read the wonderful article 'Love and Lies' by Michael Pollan in the National Georaphic magazine of September2009 yesterday, that I understood that the resemblance was not serendipity,but deliberate.

The orchids want the pollinators to come to them. Since they have neither scent nor nectar to offer, they resort to deception! Butterflies which love asclepias descend on the orchid, thinking them to be their favourite flowers.

The Feared Friend

Yesterday, I wanted to get some curry leaves for the curry I was making. I went to get some from the garden, when I saw this guy through the mesh door. I grabbed my camera and quietly opened the mesh door and took this shot. He was staring intently at something in my neighbour's garden and didn't hear me. But something made him sense my presence, because he immediately withdrew in a dignified manner and disappeared.
Although snakes are feared, most of them are non poisonous, like this Indian Rat Snake. They are friends of the garden because they keep the rats and bandicoots in check. The Indian Rat Snake,Ptyas mucosa is a tree climbing, non poisonous snake which hunts during the day. It eats rats, birds and other small animals, though frogs are its favourite.
A few days ago my neighbours saw two snakes dancing in the empty lot further down, both the snakes twining and leaping skywards. The dance went on for almost half an hour. The dance is not a mating dance as many suppose, but a dance for the control of territory between two males!
As for growing snake-repellant plants, our fellow was surrounded by the Snake plant Sanseveria which did nothing to repel him.