Tag: Leu Gardens

Leaf of the Day: Of Myth and Monkey Tea

  By

From Sweet Osmanthus tea yesterday, to Monkey Picked Tea today. It sounds so exotic doesn’t it, and thinking of the dexterity of a monkey, perfectly possible? This particular tea plant at Leu Gardens is Camellia sinensis var assamica . It’s the wild or long leaf tea which grows taller and has longer leaves then the regular tea camellia, camellia sinensis. It can achieve 30 to 50 ft, so more a tree than a bush which accounts for the legend and handy marketing story of the monkey picking.


lovely packaging, but not sure from where as image was sent to me

There are different versions of the myth, one says a villager went to pick tea leaves in a mountain, and finding the most beautifully scented ones growing out of reach high on cliffs persuaded a monkey to pick the tea for him. Others say Monks in Anxi trained the monkeys to climb to the top of the tall wild tea bushes to pick the very finest upper leaves and buds.

This, from Kasora.com’s World of Tea tells more here


In 1793, writer Aeneaus Anderson, in the company of British ambassador Earl George Macartney, travelled to China in order, to find out, amongst other things, more about tea growing. The Chinese were guarded in giving out information.

“According to historian John C. Evans’ Tea in China: The History of China’s National Drink:
‘Questions not meant to be answered were met with blank, uncomprehending stares. Tea plantations spread out to the horizon on each side of the Imperial Canal but tea harvesting, processing, and even transportation were purposely kept from view. When information was volunteered, it had to be treated circumspectly.
Once a Chinese man spontaneously offered to explain how tea was picked. He told Anderson ‘Tea growers anger the monkeys living in the branches of the tea trees. Out of revenge, the monkeys tear off branches and throw them on the ground. In this way, tea harvesters only have to pick them up.‘”
Anderson truthfully admitted he had not witnessed the monkey-harvest himself although he nevertheless accepted the story as fact. All of Europe read Anderson’s book and the monkey tea-picking legend found its way to the West. This story had a particular appeal and fascination for the Victorians, no doubt due to the furor raised by Darwin’s theory of evolution.
For over a century, children’s schoolbooks contained the story, and several generations of adults were convinced that tea was actually picked by monkeys.

Mary Lou and Robert J. Heiss, specialty tea experts and writers of Teatrekker’s blog explore other possible reasons for the myth in their post Tieguanyin Anxi Monkey-Picked Tea as well as providing this lovely tea cup photo, complete with monkey

The involvement of the monkeys is still used to market teas. One supplier of Taiping Houkui Tea conjours up this analogy
“When brewed, the tea leaves, suspended or sunken, free themselves in the clear tender green water, like many a monkey vigorously stretching their neck and tails.”

Another supplier even goes as far as claiming that, despite the practice all but dying out, there is
“one small remote village where they still continue this remarkable tradition. No monkeys are harmed or mistreated in order for us to bring this rare brew to you!”

Well, it’s up to you if you believe it or not.. but why is there not one photograph or at least a well trodden tourist route to this remote village to see this wonder.. I can’t help but feel that if there were such a place, the dedicated tea enthusiasts would definitely have sought it out before now.
..its a shame in a way.

Empty Wild Tea pods, which would have held 3 seeds. Leu gardens March 2009

I am thinking of making a botanical plate of either tea or soapberries for the next course submission so this is a sketchbook page and a study of some pods of the Monkey Tea, in various stages of disintegration. I particularly like the tiny black filigree shard of the pod. It’s a mysterious little object in its own right and deserves a better and bigger painting.
______________________________________________________

Wild Tea

Leaf of the Day: The Sweetly Scented Garden

  By

“Sweet” is such a pretty word, applied to so many pleasing things, from flavours and scents to the very nature of things and even sometimes to us humans. Just now, as you walk though Leu Gardens, sweet scents follow you everywhere you go. Around every corner there is another subtle fragrance, different but so delightful, and the citrus garden is heavenly with the Valencia Orange and the Pink Lemon in full bloom. But sometimes the source of the scent is hard to track down. Hiding away, tucked in between leaves or carried high above your head are many pretty and sweet smelling little flowers, often with “sweet” in their name. My sketch today is of the Sweet Osmanthus but there are also:

The Sweet Almond Bush, Aloysia virgata,

the Sweet Viburnum, viburnum odoratissimum,

the Sweet Acacia, Acacia farnesiana,

and, cut back this year but still with enough perfume to scent the lakeside path is the Chinese Glory Bower Clerodendrum chinense.

Perhaps most surprising of all, is the exquisite scent of the Chinese Perfume Plant, Chinese Rice Flower, Mock Lemon, Aglaia odorata. It is really hard to believe that this tiny flower and quite nondescript little shrub can produce such strong scent. You would probably walk past it, looking for something much showier that would merit this heady perfume. It carries on blooming all year round and if I were to have just one scented shrub in my imaginary garden it would be this one. It’s evergreen too and would make a divine perfumed hedge.

But today I have sketched the Sweet Osmanthus, Osmanthus fragrans also known as Sweet Olive, Tea Olive or Fragrant Olive.
I grew the wonderful Winter Sweet Chimonanthus fragrans, in a sheltered spot in my little garden in England. I loved it most for the strange small flowers that appeared early in the year on bare stems. The little Osmanthus here reminds me of it, with its groups of tiny pretty scented flowers sometimes growing from the main stems.

The Sweet Osmanthus was introduced into Europe from China in the middle of 19th century by a French botanist Jean Marie Delavay. The word Osmanthus being derived from the Greek osma, meaning “fragrant”, and anthos, meaning “flower”.

It is so pretty and dainty and is native to China where it is the ‘city flower’ of Hangzhou.
This is from Top Tropicals here

Chinese monks planted these trees around Buddhist temples in the Manjuelong Valley which lies in the mountainous area. As time went on, the blossoming Osmanthus trees in the valley became an autumnal allure to Hangzhou residents. The valley is flanked by hills where springs are abundant and trees flourish naturally. The geographic advantages and monk’s heritage has made the valley a paradise of osmanthus trees. Now all households in the valley without exception have their own osmanthus groves. When dew is heavy at dawn, flowers will fall floating like a rain in a breeze.

Valued for its delicate aroma, some say like peaches or apricots, it is used as an additive to flavour teas and desserts. The flowers of Osmanthus range from white to orange to reddish, the very expensive perfume extract, Osmanthus absolute, is usually prepared from the gold-orange flowers.



Chinese stamps from an article by John C. Leffingwell. Ph.D about the perfume of osmanthus on the Leffingwell site

I have been thinking of all the other lovely sweet flowers in the UK too, meadow sweet, sweet violet, and the incomparable sweet pea. My father worked for a seed company in Lincolnshire and in the summer we would go to the trial grounds and pick armfuls of sweet peas that were growing in tall colour coded rows. I remember the colours shifting from yellows to creams to pinks to reds to dark crimsons and lilacs. They scented the house for days and days.

So here is a small watercolour sketch of a twiggy stem of the sweet little Sweet Osmanthus. The flowers survived in the fridge a couple of days, just long enough. I think this could be another to develop for the white flower series.
______________________________________________

Sweet Osmanthus

Leaf of the Day: Fishing with the Acacia

  By

I found quite a few other acacias in the Gardens last week, including the String Acacia, Acacia stenophylla, the Sweet Acacia, Acacia farnesiana, the Umbrella Thorn, Acacia tortillis, the Fever Tree, Acacia xanthophloea and this tall and ” leafy” Acacia holosericea.

This is a fascinating tree for so many reasons, not only does it (just like the soapberry) have fish stunning and soapy properties but parts of it are edible and it falls into the “when is a leaf not a leaf ” catagory.
The big sickle shaped “leaves” which make this tree so beautiful and densely shady are just modified stems, i.e. phyllodes. When young these leaves have a silky texture earning it the additional name of the Velvet Wattle.

“This is an acacia of northern Australia. useful species for fuelwood, charcoal, windbreaks and soil conservation. The hard dark brown heartwood can be turned into small decorative items. It splits easily, dries rapidly and makes an excellent fuel. Northern Australian Aboriginal people used it for many purposes; different parts of the plant were used to make bush soap, medicines, fish poison and spear shafts. The seeds can be ground into flour and used in cooking.”
from Grassland Species Website here

It’s interesting that a fish poisoning tree also has edible parts…

“Bush Tucker: Trials have been conducted in Africa by Australian aid agencies that have shown that the seeds of Acacia holosericea are a very nutritious and popular food. They have a high protein content – 17-25%. It is hoped to use the plant widely in revegetation schemes.
The seeds were roasted, boiled like lentils, or steamed with vegetables. Children particularly liked the nutty flavour of the roasted seeds.”
from ‘The Society for Growing Australian Plants’ here

The “soap” comes from the sticky green pods, which can be wetted and rubbed or crushed together produce a soapy lather.
There are pale yellow cylindrical flowers which appear in clusters, and give it yet another name the Candelabra Wattle


This photo was taken back in December, before I knew what this tree was. The flowers were nearly over so there should be pods developing very soon.


Until I started researching fish poisoning, I had no idea that it was so widespread or that so many plants could be utilised for fishing, but here is how to do it with the holosericea in Australia.
This is from the “Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola Multimedia Dictionary” site here, all about the Australian Aboriginal languages spoken in the central Cape York Peninsula Australia. It’s a fascinating site which describes the uses of natural resources as well as the language.

“With soapy tree, soapy wattle, Acacia holosericea, and the fish poison tree, Acacia ditricha and freshwater mangrove, gather the leaves and put them into a dilly bag. Rub the bag in the water until a soapy foam comes out. This stuns the fish in the waterhole and they float to the surface. They may then be collected and eaten.
There is a great deal of ritual surrounding this method of fish poisoning. For example, the men work and remain separated from the women and children. Also, since it may take several hours for the leaves to have their effect, it is usually left overnight or longer and the old men wait by the water in the morning. They sing out to signal that the waterhole is ready to be harvested, and go down to collect their fish first. Everyone else may go down after them.
An interviewee, Lofty Yam explains:
” They sing him, old paten. Watch everybody, not to catch any of them fish, they don’t like. . ..That feller still singing, watch everybody, not to take them fish before time, you know. Take ’em right time.”

The active ingredient in this acacia is “rotenone” an alkaloid toxin, luckily only toxic to cold-blooded creatures which stuns fish by impairing their oxygen consumption whereas the chemical in the soapberry fish poison is “saponin”.

For even more about fishing this way around the world see an interesting article “Fishing with Poisons” by Chuck Kritzon here from Primativeways.
I don’t really think I will be trying it in the lakes of Orlando. By the look of some of the waters I am surprised there any fish in there at all, but with all the city effluents and pollution they are probably immune to a bit of rotenone and who knows what effect it might have on the alligators.

The leaves may be silky when young but these recently fallen leaves are as tough as old boots with strong raised lateral veins. It was only when I had drawn them that I realised they looked rather like two washed up fish ..ahh..

_____________________________________________

Acacia Holsericea Leaves

Leaf of the Day: Two big trees, First Stages

  By

I decided yesterday that I have not really made enough drawings or paintings which celebrate the trees at the Gardens. I have drawn the leaves and pods but seldom really addressed the grander aspects. For the bigger subject, I feel that a bigger canvas, well larger than a 9 inch square sketch book, is required, so with two spare 3ft x 2ft canvases, I spent the weekend planning two tree paintings.
I have gone back to look at my sketches and two particular trees stand out, the huge live oaks, particularly the one which overhangs the path to the White Garden and the solitary pine which grows near the South Woods Pavilion. The main preoccupation in the live oak sketches, which go back to last April, seems to be the twisting branches and with the little pine tree it was the silhouette, at one time set against a stormy sky. So, after much deliberation about possible colour, orientation and composition, I have decided on two very simple paintings which focus on the patterns of the branch structures, and looking up rather than looking down which is what I am normally doing.

Live Oak Sketches

The Live Oak near the path to the White Garden

Lone Pine Sketches

So today I am as far as this, below (not a brilliant snap), two canvases at the initial stages. I generally like this stage .. it always hold promise. The low flying aircraft with the paint drip in the first one will be a bird eventually ! The problem with posting work on the the blog is that there is no real sense of image size. The sketches look disproportionately huge and the big paintings very small but these below are 3ft x 2ft..

Leaf of the day: Acacia Nilotica Seedpod

  By

Today is a pod from Acacia nilotica, subsp. tomentosa. Due to the clearing and replanting of the Arid Garden this tree is now more accessible and these lovely pods were scattered on the cleared ground, around the base of the tree. There are now many new and exciting plants in this area, yet more to explore and draw.
This is just one small corner of the Arid Garden. The Acacia nilotica is the twiggy little tree on the left.

There are so many acacias at Leu Gardens. I have only drawn a couple. The Bulls Horn Acacia .. (Ant’s home) and the Cat’s Claw acacia, here . This one will have a beautifully scented little yellow flowers and the young pods and leaves are important as animal fodder in Africa. It was an early source for gum arabic which is now more usually provided by another acacia, Acacia senegal. Where would watercolourists be without gum arabic? A question I will answer if I find an Acacia senegal.


Image from Aluka’s online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa here. (‘Aluka’, is derived from a Zulu word meaning ‘to weave’… nice, I thought.)


A very nice old botanical print of the acacia nilotica .. here called mimosa, from 1800 Wiki here.

There is so much to write about acacias with over 1300 species of worldwide. On my next visit to the Gardens I will see which other species they have.

The pods are velvety when young. This one I have drawn is older, but still had some soft furry patches. They are very pleasing things.

_________________________________________________________

Acacia Nilotica Seedpod


Watercolour on Arches HP, size 7″x 5″

Leaf of the Day: Back to the Bixa

  By

How I wish I could share with you the feel of these light and delicate as a powder puff, little bixa pods. The Lipstick Tree, Bixa orellana, (achiote, annatto) is my last revisiting of previous plants this week. It was another early favourite of mine and is a really delightful tree, both pretty and very useful. These bright, softly prickly pods give us the dye annatto which is used as a food and cosmetic colouring, notably in Red Leicester Cheese. I first wrote about it back in April last year, in the post “The Lipstick Tree Pod and Fake Blood” here .
Bixa orellana is native to southwestern Amazonia, having developed from Bixa excelsa, a forest tree and probably “domesticated” during the Paleolithic era. Colonists then introduced bixa to Africa, Asia, and Polynesia, where it was cultivated, more as a decorative tree than a useful one.


Pretty pink flowers, photo September 2008.


The Softly Prickly Pods, March 2009 (they were redder when slightly younger) .

The dye stuff ( Bixin) is in the tiny seeds which, when crushed, give this intense creamy russet colour. Annatto dye is made by crushing the seeds and soaking them in water. This is then allowed to evaporate and can be powdered or used as a colouring paste.
Indigenous Rainforest tribes used annatto seeds as a preferred colouring for foods, for body decoration, and as a “paint” for artifacts, manuscripts, and murals dating back to the ancient Mayan Indians. I also read that the body paint may well have provided sun protection as well as healthy tan, (hmm.. another possible cottage industry for me). The entire plant was employed for various medicinal uses, including the inevitable aphrodisiac, as an astringent, to treat skin problems and for almost every other malady known to man. But I have been thinking what a curious thing it is in some ways to colour food? The ancient Mayans associated the red colouring with sacrificial blood and religious significance but the whole psychology behind present day food colouring is interesting .. and for another post..

The pods are lined with a fine papery membrane and the seeds are held in two groups of 15 to 20 seeds. A newly opened pod contained a small amount of water which perhaps keeps the seeds moist… curious. I am also not sure what function this red colouring has for the dispersal of the seeds. Questions …questions….

I had made a pencil drawing of the open pod before, but as colour is really the signature of this little tree, a colour study was also needed. I was planning to produce my very own genuine annatto ink with which to execute a small and perfectly appropriate drawing but so far the seeds of 2 pods don’t seem to be quite enough. However my hands now look as though I have a serious nicotine habit, so perhaps the tanning lotion is not such a good idea.
______________________________________________________________

Lipstick Tree Pods and Seeds


Watercolour on Fabriano HP, size 10″ x 6 “

Leaf of the day: 50 (ish) Yaupon Holly Leaves

  By

I am revisiting a few plants this week to fill in some gaps for the exhibition. Today the Yaupon Holly, another favourite tree of mine. It’s the tree of the nauseating Black Tea ritual which I wrote about here, in the post “Yaupon Holly, and a liquor that sorts the Men from the Boys”. Even if your Latin is rusty, the botanical name, Ilex vomitoria, gives the game away. The blog post will be printed for the exhibition and I felt this important Florida native needed some better representation than the one pencil drawing I had made. The trees at Leu differ slightly but I found a nice sprig of the weeping variety to paint on Saturday. These elegant trees still have some berries and are really so pretty, with tiny leathery leaves, the very longest on this sprig is only 1 inch long. There are also even tinier white flowers. I have painted two but they are difficult to spot.

This branch is from a particularly attractive weeping tree at Leu which grows in the Arid Garden, taken back in early December. Until recent pruning, the berry laden-branches cascaded right down to the ground, arching and criss-crossing so elegantly. The Arid Garden is undergoing some reconstruction at the moment, ousting some non arid species for some more desert loving plants. It will be very interesting to see how it develops. The frogs will have had a shock as their overgrown home near around the pond has now been razed to the ground, but I am sure they will have found some other accommodating damp spot nearby.

I would definitely plant a Yaupon Holly if I had a garden. Not only are they very attractive (and can be used as a substitute for box as a hedge), but when times are hard and coffee expensive, a chew on the leaves will give you that necessary caffeine hit, so valued by the Timucua Indians. I have read that as well as being brewed for “black tea”, the plant was used as an hallucinogen to “evoke ecstasies” but also, confusingly, the bark was used to treat nightmares?
That seems contradictory to me but in the mysterious and sometimes dangerous world of ethnobotany all is possible.
_______________________________________________________

Yaupon Holly Sprig


Watercolour on Fabriano HP. 15″x9″

Leaf of the Day: More Soapberry..

  By

I am filling in the gaps for the show and needed another small soapberry painting. I think I am now cornering the market in Soapberry drawings. But I love this little tree so much. At the moment it is quietly poised for new growth but around the base of the tree are many tiny pretty seedlings. For more information about the wonderful soapberry, with which you can make jewellery, poison fish and wash your clothes, see my earlier posts here.

Recently I made these drawings for my good friend John, who in return will be drilling, polishing and stringing me some soapberries in a really professional way. Bartering drawings for beads; excellent! I will post the results on the blog. I am so delighted, I know they will look wonderful. I have tried to drill them myself with limited success and much bad language. They are very hard. No wonder they are called black pearls.

A trio of the seeds..

A delicate little seedling, and a tiny watercolour which I had done some time ago in the summer.

John also keeps a blog with wonderful photographs and observations called “Nunketest” recording the flora fauna and history of the Lake Nippennicket area. “Nunketest”, from the Wampanoag Native American word meaning “Lake of the Red Waters”. I tune in often to learn about more northern wildlife and to remind myself what snow looks like. 🙂
_____________________________________________________

The Soapberry again..

The new drawing.

Framed up with its companions

Leaf of the day: Dogwood, Bracts not Petals.

  By

“Stepping delicately out of the dark wood the startling loveliness of the dogwood in bloom makes each tree seem a presence, calling forth an exclamation of praise. On the almost naked branches the blossoms shine forth in long flat sprays..turning their pure faces up towards the sky” David Culross Peattie

The dogwood today outside the Garden House at Leu Gardens.

These dogwood flowers are much more interesting than they first appear and I brought a couple back from the gardens, to take a closer look. The structure of the flower is fascinating . In 1933, Anna Botsford Comstok in ” A Handbook of Nature Study” felt the same,

“The artistic eye loves the little notch at the tip of the bracts even before it has read in it the story of winter protection of which it is an evidence.The flowering Dogwood forms its flower buds during the summer and of course it must have winter protection. They are wrapped in 4 close-clasping purplish brown scales, one pair inside and one pair outside, both thick and well fitted to protect the bunch of tiny flower buds at their centre. But when spring comes these buds change their duties and by rapid growth become four beautiful white pinkish bracts which we call the dogwood flowers.”

A bud with two of the protective bracts beginning to open.

A bud unfolding further, the bracts still joined at the tip.

The individual flowers have four slender curled petals. There may be as many as twenty which open one by one. The open white bracts have the characteristic notch at the tip which gives them the pretty gathered-in shape. The flowers grow at the tips of the branches with new leaves developing just below.

On a gardening note, many believe that the best time to plant tender species, such as tomatoes, is following the “Dogwood Winter”, a cold spell that often comes in late spring. Native Americans used the blossoming dogwood as a sign to begin planting crops, and the early settlers used every part of this pretty and useful tree except “the rustle of its leaves.”

I drew the flower grasped firmly in the teeth of my small clamp, which somehow seemed appropriate for a Dogwood.

______________________________________________________

Dogwood Flower

Leaf of the Day: Dogwood

  By

Three lovely dogwoods, now in full bloom with dainty white flowers, greet you as you enter Leu Gardens. I missed the dogwoods last year, there was so much else to see, so I am determined to make some studies this year. It’s just so pretty and another white” flower” for my series. I did not realise that the white petals are not petals at all but bracts, the flowers are in fact tiny and yellow bunched together in the centre (similar to daisies).

There are some interesting possibilities about the origin of the name “Dogwood”. This is an excerpt from “Learn to Grow” Garden Guides here written by Dr. Gerald Klingaman

“The etymology of the word “dogwood,” used for our native C. florida, is not completely clear. One possibility is that it comes from the Middle English word “dag,” referring to a wooden spit made from a shrubby dogwood native to England. These spits were sold on the streets for cooking meat over an open flame.The word “dag” is itself an adaptation of “daggere,” or “dagger,” as we now know it. The Cornelian cherry was recognized for its hard, tough wood and was used for making pikes and maybe wooden daggers. Following this line of reasoning, dogwood is a corruption of the word “dag wood.”
The other explanation for the name is that leaves of the English Cornus were used to make a concoction to treat dog mange. A recipe is found in a 17th century herbal, so it’s possible that early English colonists saw the similarity between the plants and adapted the name.”

It seems that the Dog Rose’s name is also a misinterpretation from “Dag Rose” referring to the ferocious dagger like thorns.

Dogwood wood is very shockproof as well as very hard and at one time was useful for many small items such as chisel handles, golf club heads, rake teeth and machine bearings. When weaving was mechanised it was perfect for shuttles, which now had to withstand the high speed and constant wear of the big industrial looms.

From Philadelphia’s Workshop on the World site here H.Riehl & Son Textile Machinery, loom and shuttles.


Shuttles made of Dogwood and maple then impregnated with wax or clear shellac, these sold for $25-30 and were replaced “after having run round the clock for four years.”

I am going to the Gardens tomorrow and will find a flower to make a study of, and perhaps make a detailed drawing of the centre but for now a colour sketch from a pen and ink sketch I made the other day… so more dogwood tomorrow.
__________________________________________________________

Dogwood Sketches