March09_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Photos - Frames left and center: On my way to the Grocery store to pick up a beer for the dinner meal I stopped by a scratching group of chickens that were roaming around free near the corner store. Gallus Gallus (Domestic Chicken) are quite friendly, but just about impossible to get too close to.

Frame right: Yucca Spp - Plants are hardier when grown on poor sandy soils. Established plants are very drought tolerant. Hardy to at least -15°c, this species is the most easily cultivated of the Yuccas, resisting snow, damp and atmospheric pollution. A very ornamental plant. Closely related to Y. gloriosa, and possibly a sterile hybrid. In the plants native environment, its flowers can only be pollinated by a certain species of moth. This moth cannot live in Britain and, if fruit and seed is required, hand pollination is necessary. This can be quite easily and successfully done using something like a small paint brush. Individual crowns are monocarpic, dying after flowering. However, the crown will usually produce a number of sideshoots before it dies and these will grow on to flower in later years. Plants in this genus are notably resistant to honey fungus. Members of this genus seem to be immune to the predations of rabbits. Pointed tip is not stiff and dangerous like other yuccas. Also unlike other yuccas it is not native to the desert. The roots contain saponins. Whilst saponins are quite toxic to people, they are poorly absorbed by the body and so tend to pass straight through. They are also destroyed by prolonged heat, such as slow baking in an oven. Saponins are found in many common foods such as beans. Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc. in order to stupefy or kill the fish.

Photos - The San Agustin Cemetery on top of the hill overlooking Etla Valley. This is a popular place during Day of the Dead celebrations around Halloween time every year. Villagers can be seen playing music, burning candles and celebrating the passing, or helping the dead to pass into the next life. In San Agustin, death is a big deal. Shrines are erected at roadsides and the cemetery sites are decorated with flowers and fancy stonework to honor the dead

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