February25_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Photos - After a trip along the irrigation canal in Vista Hermosa (El Rio Valley) I got a call to help out my freind and guide to do a little carpentry work. We packed up the VW van and headed into the nearest village (Etla) which is about 5 miles away from the place I stay at in San Agustin. Along the way I point the camera out the window and fire off a few shots as we quickly move along Mexico Highway 190 - The few snap shots that didn't blur from the movement of the motor vehicle include what you see here... an Etla Repair shop that repairs, you guessed it, Volkswagons (frame left), a wooden shack with automobile parts (center), and an interesting Mexico equivalent of the corner store, called Betanzos Arbarretos (frame right). Notice the black water jucg on the top of the second storey roof? Water is pumped into it when there is enough city water pressure. Water is then siphoned off into the building's indoor plumbing.

Photos - The Lumber yard in Etla: Lumber is cut at the mill and shipped directly to outlets like this one. The lumber is then properly stacked (hopefully) and left to dry in rough state. No lumber is milled before it is stacked. Everything takes place after the lumber is purchased. A citizen wanting lumber goes to the depot, looks at what is available, pays for the board footage, then takes a paid invoice to the workers in the lumber yard who randomly pick up the boards, move it over to a planing mill, and make the wood useable in a carpentry sort of way. Of course many, most actually, are warped, much of the wood has ugly knots in it. And to top it off, the folks at the lumber depot get really pissed off when you want to pick the wood yourself. Fortunatly this day, I was able to pick out about half of the required lumber before they got too upset. Just try to apply warped boards to the side of a house in some kind of organized fashion.

Photos - Frames left and right: The planing mill is made in Mexico (Lutron C20 Planer Mill) so I'm sorry that I couldn't dig around to find anything out about the manufacturer. But that's the way it is about a lot of things down in Mexico; there isn't a lot of information available except from the folks themselves. I was houwever interesting to watch the two fellows milling the boards - they thought that I was a little funny photographing them doing thier job, but there wasn't a lot they could say because we bought the lumber and you have to be kind to your customers. Notice that there is no safety gear? I see that a lot in Mexic, the further away from the USA Border the more lax the safety issues are.

Center frame: A beautiful arrangement of leaves and flower spike of a Ricinus Communis (Castor Oil Plant). These plants grow everywhere, just like weeds.

The castor oil plant, Ricinus communis, is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It belongs to a monotypic genus, Ricinus, and subtribe, Ricininae. The evolution of castor and its relation to other species is currently being studied. Its seed is the castor bean which, despite its name, is not a true bean. Castor is indigenous to the southeastern Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa, and India, but is widespread throughout tropical regions (and widely grown elsewhere as an ornamental plant). Castor seed is the source of castor oil, which has a wide variety of uses. The seeds contain between 40% and 60% oil that is rich in triglycerides, mainly ricinolein. The seed contains ricin, a toxin, which is also present in lower concentrations throughout the plant. Another plant species, Fatsia japonica, is similar in appearance and is known as the false castor oil plant. Although monotypic, the castor oil plant can vary greatly in its growth habit and appearance. It is a fast-growing, suckering perennial shrub which can reach the size of a small tree (around 12 metres/39 feet), but it is not cold hardy.

The glossy leaves are 15–45 centimetres (5.9–18 in) long, long-stalked, alternate and palmate with 5–12 deep lobes with coarsely toothed segments. Their colour varies from dark green, sometimes with a reddish tinge, to dark reddish purple or bronze. The stems (and the spherical, spiny seed pods) also vary in pigmentation. The pods are more showy than the flowers. The flowers are borne in terminal panicle-like inflorescences of green monoecious flowers without petals. The male flowers are yellowish-green with prominent creamy stamens and are carried in ovoid spikes up to 15 centimetres (5.9 in) long; the female flowers, born at the tips of the spikes, have prominent red stigmas). The fruit is a spiny, greenish (to reddish purple) capsule containing large, oval, shiny, bean-like, highly poisonous seeds with variable brownish mottling. Castor seeds have a warty appendage called the caruncle, which is a type of elaiosome. The caruncle promotes the dispersal of the seed by ants (myrmecochory).

The name Ricinus is a Latin word for tick; the seed is so named because it has markings and a bump at the end which resemble certain ticks. The common name "castor oil" probably comes from its use as a replacement for castoreum, a perfume base made from the dried perineal glands of the beaver (castor in Latin). It has another common name, palm of Christ, or Palma Christi, that derives from castor oil's ability to heal wounds and cure ailments. Although castor is indigenous to the southeastern Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa, and India, today it is widespread throughout tropical regions. In areas with a suitable climate, castor establishes itself easily as an apparently "native" plant and can often be found on wasteland.

It is also used extensively as a decorative plant in parks and other public areas, particularly as a "dot plant" in traditional bedding schemes. If sown early, under glass, and kept at a temperature of around 20 °C (68 °F) until planted out, the castor oil plant can reach a height of 2–3 metres (6.6–9.8 ft) in a year. In areas prone to frost it is usually shorter, and grown as if it were an annual. However, it can grow well outdoors in cooler climates, at least in Southern England, and the leaves do not appear to suffer frost damage in sheltered spots, where it remains evergreen. It was used in Edwardian times in the parks of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Click here for photos of San Agustin Mexico for this day.