Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Nov. 4

Cold yet where you are? I've seen a brave Painted Lady Butterfly, and had a horde of starlings in the front yard. Seemed like the movie. A little too close to Halloween . . . .

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

From By-Tor:

Got these Lucy Glo apples for a pie because they were big and firm. Turns out they are bright red inside.

Came out great!

Never heard of them. They look fun. I've had crabapples and small apples streaked heavily with red, but not big ones like that! The ones I've had were for fresh eating, and they were good.

Wonder which climates the Lucy Glo trees like?

Anybody growing apples for pie? Making pie from fruit you grew?

Things people grow for us

Banana Cableway

Banana cableways are an important logistic component in plantations: how they are powered is actually an open choice.pic.twitter.com/QTfgKmkAwz

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 3, 2023

Nature

Weird, left-over Halloween thoughts about a root parasite, triggering stream-of-consciousness foray into details about relatives of the host plant:

Last week we featured carnivorous plants. This week we have a root parasite:

The bizarre floral appearance of Hydnora africana seems almost extraterrestrial, but in fact it is finely adapted for pollination in its arid habitat. This plant, resident of southern Africa only emerges from the soil to flower. After the fleshy petals open, the flower begins to emit an odor of rotting meat to attract its pollinators, carrion flies and beetles.

The unusual underground habit and lack of leaves may be explained by its mode of nutrition. Hydnora africana is a root holoparasite. Thus it has no need for sunlight to generate sugars, it has no chlorophyll and attains all nutrients and water from the roots of its shrubby host plant (in the background) Euphorbia mauritanica.

Here are some notes on the host plant of the parasitic plant above, from Africa:

Euphorbia mauritanica L. var. mauritanica

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Common names: yellow milk bush, golden spurge (Eng.), geelmelkbos, beesmelkbos, gifmelkbos, kaalmelkbos, kleinmelkbos (Afr.)

A tall succulent shrub with bright yellow flowers eminently suitable for a rock garden.

Description
Euphorbia mauritanica is a monoecious, spineless, much-branched succulent shrub, about 1.5 m high, with branches arising from a thick root stock. Branches are yellowish green, pencil-thin, cylindrical and smooth, with alternate leaf scars. This plant produces yellow cyathia (the term used for the inflorescence of euphorbias) that are in a compact group at the end of each young branch. The flowering period is in spring, between August and October. When the plant is injured, it produces milky sap at the cut.

Derivation of name and historical aspects The species name pertains to the Mauri tribe (after which the Moors were named) of the ancient country of Mauretania in North Africa. Dillenius in 1732 originally described the plant as Tithymallus aphyllis mauritaniae, the 'leafless Tithymallus from Mauritania '. When Linnaeus adopted this name he had little idea how inappropriate this name would be.

Ecology
Johan Booyeens photographed ants, bees, wasps and flies visiting a flowering specimen of this plant over a three hour period in at Kirstenbosch. He suggests that possibly because it is a generalist as regards pollination, this aids its success as a pioneer plant as it reproduces easily. It is also known to be fast growing.

This euphorbia is sometimes the host plant for Hydnora africana the parasitic plant commonly known as jakkalskos (jackal's food).

Jackal's food. Wonder if coyotes would like it? Here's the host plant growing in the USA, probably somewhere near or in San Francisco.

Notes from the San Francisco Bay Area:

Euphorbia mauritanica "Pencil Milkbush"

Grows quickly to about 2-3' tall and 4-6' wide with the best, densest habit occurring in full Sun. A true Winter bloomer, producing small, bright yellow flowers in clusters up to 1" across at the tip of each branch for a vibrant display during the dreariest of months. Needs little to no maintenance beyond occasional water. Provide good drainage and protect from frost.

So, it blooms in winter in some climates, I guess. Tall and skinny.

There are a lot of other euphorbias that are grown in the garden or as houseplants, including poinsettias and a wide variety of other plants from small annuals to tall trees. Some are often mistaken for cactus. Some are weeds. You might recognize Spotted Spurge from your lawn or sidewalk.

Animals generally don't like to eat euphorbias, which are poisonous, but keep the sap out of their eyes and your eyes. With some species, you may want to wear eye protection while working around the plants and wear gloves and/or wash your hands afterward. Some species are much more irritant than others. Spotted spurge (and maybe some close relatives) is a mild irritant, but gives some people a rash. Again, wash your hands before touching your eyes after working with it or other euphorbias.

Euphorbias are among the host plants for caterpillars of the Giant Leopard Moth. Other hosts include broccoli flowers and bitter, unripe vegetables.

The caterpillars look a lot like "wooly bear" caterpillars. "Though the caterpillars resemble woolly worms because of their hairy appearance, they are not harmful like the latter."

Be careful about touching hairy caterpillars. Even with types that are "not harmful", wash your hands before touching your eyes.

This Giant Leopard Caterpillar is rolled into a defensive position. They overwinter as caterpillars, and you may see them walking around, looking for a place to spend the winter, in the fall.

Back to Euphorbias:

Etymology

The common name "spurge" derives from the Middle English/Old French espurge ("to purge"), due to the use of the plant's sap as a purgative. The botanical name Euphorbia derives from Euphorbos, the Greek physician of King Juba II of Numidia and Mauretania (52-50 BC - 23 AD), who married the daughter of Anthony and Cleopatra.[12] Juba was a prolific writer on various subjects, including natural history. Euphorbos wrote that one of the cactus-like euphorbias (now called Euphorbia obtusifolia ssp. regis-jubae) was used as a powerful laxative.[12]

In 12 BC, Juba named this plant after his physician Euphorbos, as Augustus Caesar had dedicated a statue to the brother of Euphorbos, Antonius Musa, who was the personal physician of Augustus.[12] In 1753, botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus assigned the name Euphorbia to the entire genus in the physician's honor.

This video from North Carolina State University and Longwood Gardens includes lots of interesting information on a wide variety of euphorbias.

You can't say they're all the same!

NCSU also has much more detailed plant profiles for individual species, with growing tips and such.

Do you grow any euphorbias, either accidentally or on purpose?

More Nature

In the forests of South America, there are dragons

This is a baby dragon mantis (Stenophylla sp)pic.twitter.com/jsU9kxoNa7

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) November 3, 2023

"Meh" - Florida https://t.co/K5EvY7ZlAY

— NiedermeyersDeadHorse aka NDH (@NiedsG) November 4, 2023

life lessons from the garden

There are life lessons for all of us in this. pic.twitter.com/TyqEmZdNqC

— Katharine Birbalsingh (@Miss_Snuffy) November 2, 2023

A thread full of interesting information and photos of big trees

A woman admires the enormous size of a Sequoia tree in the 1950s. Giant Sequoias are a type of redwood that grows in the high-altitude Sierra Nevada mountains of California. While many of them can grow to be as massive as the one shown in the photo, in this particular case, it… pic.twitter.com/d8Y22sYuZI

— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) November 2, 2023

Puttering and Adventure

From Rodent:

Sorry I missed for this weeks garden thread. Although not gardening, the fall foliage photos at the link (I've attached a couple of them) from my current state of New Hampshire and home state of Vermont came up in my social media feed from the Photographers of New England group.

They were posted by Riad Morshed Rezaul with a caption of "I live in Montana. This is my first visit to Vermont and New Hampshire. October 14-15, 2023."

Thanks for the wonderful content. Always nice to take a break from the ever present and exhausting politics, war, and other bad things in the world.

Lovely photos:

Gardens of The Horde

Anything going on in your garden?

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, the address is:

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Oct. 28

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:25 PM

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