Queen of the night (7/20/2014)

A fairly suggestive name here for a cactus that might not look that appealing.  Actually a friend who had dinner at our place on day thought it would lash out and strangle him.  A lady at the yacht club told us she thought it was so ugly she let it die outside in the frost.  When the flower bud came out, friends actually posted a video from “Little shop of horrors” on my Facebook page.

All in good humor, and all were amazed when the flower opened last night.  The night blooming cereus, queen of the night, lady of the night, Epiphyllum oxypetalum, or whatever you like to call it is not the most beautiful plant, but when it blooms at night, it is absolutely stunning.  We were amazed to see a flower bud on our plant a few weeks ago.  In the past few years it always bloomed in spring, but let the truth be known, we kind of neglected it and I think we did not water it for four weeks or so.  The flower started opening around 7 o’clock and by 9 it was fully opened and filling the house up with this wonderful perfume.  The flower is only open one night and then falls off.

I knew the plant from Curacao where I grew up.  People cultivated this plant at home and the word epiphyllum reminds me that this plant is probably an epiphyte which are plants that need support and grow on other plants and over there they grew along tree trunks.  Famous epiphytes of course are some of the orchids.  I remember so well that everyone on the island was excited when they bloomed.  It often occurred that they all bloomed on the same time and people would be calling around asking their friends how many blooms they had that night. 

This is only the third time we have had this particular plant bloom in the 14 so years we had it, but it sure is an event to remember.  Below are three photos, one was taken around 6 in the evening the other at full bloom (at full bloom the flower was 9 inches or 22 cm across).  Enjoy, sorry I could not capture the smell.

 

 

 

 

Cup Plant (7/16/2014)

Our daughter bought this plant for us at a native plant sale in our area, and we had no idea what it was.  I am a botanist by training and have done a lot of wetland work in the past.  This definitively shows I have been away from playing with plants way too long; but after getting my plant identification books out, it was not difficult to identify this plant as a “cup plant” or Silphium perfoliatum. 

Cup plant is quite an interesting plant.  The plant’s leaves connect and form a cup around the stem which holds water that is used by birds and insects.  This of course makes me wonder about mosquitoes, but as my favorite quote of the week goes: “It is what it is.”  The web teaches me that the plant was used for human food (the young leaves seem to be ok, when cooked).  Furthermore, parts of the plant were used for medicinal purposes by some of the Indian tribes.  It appears to be able to treat everything from chest pain to asthma to liver disease to excessive menstruation.  Cup plant is high in various compounds that may have value as medicine.

Interestingly, the plant I studied for my Ph.D. research (broom snakeweed or Guiterrezia sarothrea) had some of the same medicinal properties.  I once read that the Native Americans used broom snakeweed (which has some of the same compounds as cup plants) for birth control (it causes abortions in livestock).

Plants hold a lot of secrets.  They have compounds and combination of compounds that can cure a person’s ailments or kill them.  They produce compounds that prevent other plants from growing nearby (also known as allelopathy or what I call chemical warfare between plants).  I have always had an interest in allelopathy and the field of ethnobotany.  As a Ph.D. student, I spent a week at Stanford discussing the intricacies of who owns certain plants and the chemicals in them.  The question was if a pharmaceutical company can patent a chemical in a plant that only grows in one country, or if they would need to pay royalty.  The same is the case if they found a medicinal use by studying a native tribe; would they have to pay royalty to the tribe from medicine they develop as a result of that study?  It is a fascinating subject and fun to think about it again. 

Anyway, it is also important to realize that when plants become rare, or go extinct we might lose some very important properties that we have not yet discovered.

Seaford (7/12/2014)

Friday and Saturday were the days for a “supermoon”, or the closest a full moon comes to the earth that year.  So naturally we had our evening coffee on the boat this Saturday evening play some music and gaze at the horizon for the moon.  Truthfully, it was spectacular but nothing you can capture with your measly cell phone camera with only has a digital zoom.  But of course I forgot my hotshot camera.

There were others at the marina, drinking beer/water and enjoying in conversation.  A few had ventured out to see it come up over the bay.  Moreover, I heard (after the fact) that there was actually a moonlight (sail) race that night as well.  Sailboat owners are an active bunch, and it is fun to be part of them. 

I really think sailboat owners represent a fairly good cross section of the population.  Yes, sailboats can be expensive; in particular new ones, but the members in our club range from conservative to liberal.  They needle each other so now and then, but the one thing they have in common is their love for being on the water.   Although, some of the guys openly admit that it is nice to be out of the house for a bit on the weekends to work on the boat.  Another thing in common is the love of nature; sailing in a sewage lagoon is no fun, and most if not all are committed to keeping the Bay clean.  This is very much like people from organizations like Ducks Unlimited.  Yes they are all duck hunters, but without good wetlands there would not be any ducks, so they are a driving force in wetland protection.

I think this all comes to show that persons with great differences in conviction and belief can work together to further a good cause.  While we live in a pluralistic society, it feels more and more like we live in a polarized society.  I sense a loss of civility, compassion, and empathy, whether it is in international politics and strife, or our national politics.  I find this very disturbing, and I’m not sure what I, as an individual, can do about it, except for trying to practice empathy myself and writing this blog.

Anyway, this is my rendition of a wonderful evening of watching the supermoon and thinking about things I see and learned this Sunday in the church I attend. 

Yorktown (7/10/2014)

I am on the wetland board of our county, and had a board meeting last night.  Being in Yorktown 15 minutes early I took a very brief walk in the downtown (down village) area, and shot this photograph.  It was not as crowded as I expected for a Thursday evening, there is usually an event called "Shagging on Riverwalk", but that was cancelled because of the rain.

Being on the wetland board is interesting.  We are one of the steps that any construction activity that is near the water need to go through for a permit.  It is always interesting and ranges from bulkheads, to riprap and all these other things.  Yesterday we dealt with one permit for the repair of a bulkhead and actually a violation.  I really feel good about these meeting.  We are not against development on or near the water, but we are protective of the environment and for sensible and environmentally sound development.  Yes there is always politics but as a board member you need to go through these things without a personal agenda.  I honestly try to leave that at home; although it seems that the board's decisions are often interpreted as motivated by politics and personal ideology.  York County is very political and it is amazing to be on the periphery of it all.

I guess this picture might be symbolic after what I just wrote.  No this is not a loose canon; it has been tight down with a chain!  It is located downtown, a great place to walk, with some reasonably good restaurants.  But you can see, it was quiet last night.

p.s. I entered this photo in a challenge ... I actually shot is for that purpose but waited if I could find a better one, so it's a bit late.

Fairfax (7/7/2014)

From the annals of the wacky.  When visiting all these exotic spaces in this great state of Virginia, I try to eat at local restaurants and avoid the chains.  Not that I have anything against particular chains (if you need me I can probably be found at the local Starbucks, and while traveling, Panera is a likely lunch stop); but why not experience the local cuisine. 

This week in Fairfax I had a chance to do just that and ate at a local Indian restaurant called the Bombay Bistro.  While I am usually a lamb vindaloo fanatic, I decided to go for something different and when for the tandori rockfish.  I took this photo after I took care of the poor animal (I'll be entering this fish into a photo challenge that I love to participate with).  The meal tasted great, the service was good, it was an overall very pleasant experience. 

We were teaching a stormwater class in Fairfax and the other days I spent with the team in more chain like restaurants, but then I am a bit more adventurous.  We had a good time, watching Germany win against Brazil and my team (Holland) loose against Argentina on the big screen.  Oh well.