Leaf of the Day: Tamarind Pod

Superstition and the power of suggestion are strange things. Once you know something it is hard to ‘unknow‘ it especially, if it is an unsettling fact.
The innocent Tamarind is an unprepossessing looking fruit…very. I don’t think I should repeat Susan’s robust and accurate description, rather, if it is unfamiliar to you, it looks like a big peanut shell covered in cocoa powder. The pod is brittle, and, not knowing anything about them, I wasn’t really ready for the soft sticky date like fruit inside. If I had known another name for the Tamarind was Indian Date I would perhaps have been prepared for this delicious experience. Inside the flesh are beautiful brown glossy hard-as-stones seeds which are encased in a slightly chewy membrane. You really have to watch your teeth! The most curious things are the fibrous net like strings which run along the length of the fruit, like some sort of life giving vein structure, which embeds itself in the fruit, it really does look like the surface of a brain or some alien pod. If you were just to pump some blood through these veins who knows what would happen.

But it really is delicious and is like a tangy date. This is an ancient fruit, known to the Egyptians and Greeks, it is a native of Africa and was introduced to India long ago where it found a happy and welcoming home, and is an important ingredient of many Indian dishes and Worcestershire sauce.

However, it has an associated superstition, which, once lodged in your mind would, I think prevent you naming a hotel or restaurant “The Tamarind Tree”, although there are quite a few. I presume the owners cannot be familiar with its reputation because the Tamarind tree, despite being a very useful and much loved tree is thought to be the haunt of dark spirits, the night spirits.
I quote from my copy of the lovely ” Flowering Trees and Shrubs in India, by D V Cowen.”

“Country people have a prejudice against sleeping under the Tamarinds because they say the trees exude unhealthy vapours. This is no doubt correct to a degree as the cloth of tents pitched under Tamarinds in wet weather becomes discoloured and rotten after a time and there is a legend concerning these acid exhalations..
A woman whose husband was about to set out on a voyage wished to ensure his early return. She consulted a medical man who told her she must advise her husband to sleep under a Tamarind tree every night of the outward journey and under a Nim tree every night of the homeward journey. This he agreed to do and as the Tamarind tree is reputed to exude unhealthy acid vapours so, before many days the unfortunate man found himself too sick to continue his travels . He returned back and the healing power of the Nim trees under which he then slept each night worked to such effect that by the time he reached home his sickness was cured.

This seems a canny bit of knowledge for us girls to have up our sleeves. So when your loved one is getting a bit of wanderlust or any other kind of wandering lust, and needs that weekend ‘alone’ in the Caribbean,suggest he tries the charms of the Tamarind Tree Hotel on Dominica. He may be back the very next day.
There are other versions of the story and many other superstitions regarding this tree, one very sweet one is that in Malaya the bark and fruit of the Tamarind are given to elephants to make them wise. Ahhh.

There are recipes galore on the Internet. I will be trying some because this is a really delicious (and cheap) fruit. The ones I bought were in a box and are the sweet Thai Tamarinds. Do try them if you can find them. I may even try my own version of Worcestershire Sauce.

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Tamarind Pod and Seeds

Leaf of the Day: The Ginger Pod Again.

I really wanted to draw this little pod in its new state. It has changed so much in the last week. It seems that the seeds inside have grown larger and are pushing outwards causing the pod to split in 3 places. Even since yesterday it has changed, the seeds are slightly bigger and less green. It is the pod of the shell ginger I had sketched a couple of times a few days ago here. The changes are interesting, the colour has gone from a brighter greeny orange to deeper orange and reds and of course the seeds pushing out have caused the shape to become more squashed. It’s fascinating. Sadly it fell off its stem which was pushed into some oasis so it had definitely lost some elegance, but it’s still lovely.

Another Friday has rushed round and I shall be taking some time off plants this weekend to return to some colour experiments and exercises. I have been trying to fit them in while doing everything else but as Fred Astaire said ‘somethin’s gotta give’. I enjoy colour and while the botanical illustration course is interesting it doesn’t allow at all for anything messy or experimental. The colour challenge with botanics is about seeing and matching colour as exactly as you can, and frankly I am getting in need of a bit of freedom so I will be doing some experiments this weekend. If the results are pleasing or even interesting I will post them. Many are not but such is the nature of experiments. Of course there may be a plant, seed pod, or leaf theme in there somewhere.
However, even if it is just coloured squares, as an artist, as long as you are actually doing something you have hope of progress. Many, including myself, would really rather just ‘imagine’ those leaps and strides we will make on our way to becoming the great artist we are doubtless destined to be, and go for a beer instead. There may be some fine displacement activity taking place this weekend too as I have to admit I got a bit of a taste for it on our last lazy weekend. The pool, the bar, the books, the DVD ‘s, general mooching … or the colour exercises. Hmmmm….right now the colour exercises are losing!
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Shell Ginger Pod 2

Leaf of the Day: Shell Ginger Seed Pod, and some Thunderstorm Advice

Today was the first day I have been caught in the rain. The weather changes in the blink of an eye here, one minute there is sun, the next it’s as black at night. Usually it rains after three but today at midday I was cycling for the last ten minutes in torrential rain, thunder and lightening, and trying to remember the thunderstorm advice which they give on the weather channel. One is to stay away from trees, which is quite hard in Winter Park, but if you happen to be in a wood to shelter under a small tree and if out in the open you should make yourself into a very small target by crouching down. I am already a pretty small target so being short does have one or two advantages then!
Before coming to Florida I had experienced torrential Central American rain which was the tail end of hurricane Katrina and, relatively gentle, European thunderstorms but having had one incident here with horizontal rain and a whirling demonic wind which tore through the open windows in the apartment and flattened everything in its path I take good heed of all advice and forecasts.
There is the 30/30 rule, which is to count the seconds between hearing the thunder and seeing the lightning. If it is 30 seconds or less, the lightning is close enough to be a threat so seeking shelter is very important. Also one should wait 30 minutes after the last lightening flash before venturing out as apparently half the deaths from lightening take place when you think the storm is over, it can strike up to 10 mile away from its source!

If you were ever to scoff at the time and trouble they go to here to ensure we are all informed, to the minute, about approaching storms, you should read about the devastation of Hurricane Charley which swept through Orlando in 2004…even Mouseland had to close!


Charley approaching downtown Orlando 2004 ..BBC website

There will never be another Hurricane “Charley” or “Katrina” because severe hurricanes have their names “retired”, their sombre associations and destruction consigned to memory. Other names get recycled. The naming of hurricanes is interesting. Pre 1953, hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint’s day on which they occurred but from 1953 the United States Nation’s weather services began using female names for storms. ( “hell hath no fury” I suppose) Only 25 years later did they try to redress the balance by bringing in men’s names. I am not sure who is next.. and we are not even half way through the season.

But back to gingers..there are many, many more gingers than I thought there were. I am beginning to be able to spot them now and they are everywhere. Today I was going to try to understand the classification but having spent a couple of hours now trying to find the definitive guide with no luck at all I realise it won’t be easy. Here are the main types, most of which I have seen and photographed at Leu.

Alpinas– Called the “shell” gingers due to the seashell like flowers. This one is Alpina zerumbet

Curcumas — these are known “hidden” gingers, as the flowers are tucked away in the leaves. This pretty one is called candy cane Curcuma rhabdota

Dichorisanda Not a true ginger but very similar. This is a the “Blue ginger”, Dichorisnada thyrsiflora

Elettarias — Known as Cardamon ginger. I have not seen one of these at the gardens yet.

Globbas — The dancing ladies, as I drew yesterday.

Hedychiums — Called “butterfly” gingers. This is the Luna moth ginger which I drew before and the orange pagoda shaped one is hedychium coccineum

Kaempferias— Called “peacock” gingers, pretty low lying plants with patterned leaves.

Zingibers— also known as cone gingers, including the beehive ginger Zingiber spectabile and the branch of the family containing the edible ginger Zingiber officialis.

The edible ginger is a much more modest plant but completely wonderful. Tomorrow more about ginger and gingerbread.

Another image from “gingersrus” ..great ginger site here !

They are all quite beautiful, and today I found this gorgeous little seed pod from the shell ginger.
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Shell Ginger Seed Pod

Leaf of the Day: The Ballistic Bauhinia Pod

While looking at the Bauhinia trees last week I noticed that the ground around one tree in particular was covered with many pieces of curled seed pod and little disc shaped seeds. I do like seed pods and so I brought a few bits and pieces back. Most of them were in separates halves but this one was complete albeit without its seeds. On returning to the apartment I left them in a bowl water to clean them up a bit and to get rid of a few unwelcome bugs. When I later retrieved them, my lovely curly pods had flattened out completely but, of course, as they gradually dried so they curled up again demonstrating very nicely the “ballistic” method of seed dispersal.

The long flattened seed pods of this bauhinia apparently have layers of woody fibres which are laid at an angle to the edges of the pod. As the pods ripen and dry, the fibres pull against each causing extreme tension until the pod fractures explosively from the tip down, causing the the two halves to corkscrew, firing the seeds off to find their fortune elsewhere.
In this ballistic method of seed dispersal, the bauhinia is something of a champion, the exploding pods able to throw the seeds as much as 50 feet.

Of course for a big tree like this bauhinia it makes sense to get your offspring as far away as possible so as not to compete for space and food.
I have friends who would really like to employ this effective technique to encourage some their long term, stay at home children out into the world!

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Bauhinia Pod