Happy 2016 Veterans Day!
I’d like to extend my appreciation to all Veterans who have or are still serving our country. This includes multiple relatives of mine that serve or have served in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines!
While a cold but sunny and beautiful day outside, it’s a perfectly hot and humid inside for a conservatory of tropical plants. This morning, I met Como volunteer Maggie, a beautiful, warm and sociable lady. She has been a Como volunteer for over 16 years! She talked about the uniqueness of the Buddha's hand citrus tree fruit and how, when mature, the fruit looks like an open hand with outreaching fingers. In Chinese, Korean and Japanese, this fruit is called Buddha’s hand.
There is a light number of visitors here today. There are some beautiful cacao pods growing on the cacao tree which seemed to amaze some visitors but not others.
In the North Garden, there is a cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) and a carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua). What are the differences, you ask? Well, there some fundamental structural differences between the two trees.
Cacao trees, for example, are cauliflorous, meaning they produce flowers and fruit directly on the trunk, from the ground up and along the branches of the tree. Tiny, tiny insects fly from flower to flower, resulting in pollination and subsequent growth of the fruit – cacao pods – on the tree.
For carob trees, there are male carob trees, female carob trees and hermaphrodite carob trees. Male trees only produce flowers for pollination of the female trees and will never produce any carob pods. Female trees produce carob pods but to do so need the pollination from either a male flowering tree or a hermaphrodite flowering tree. Hermaphrodite trees produce both male and female flowers, so this tree can pollinate itself to produce carob pods but can also pollinate close female trees.
There are many, many differences in how the fruits are cultivated, harvested and processed to produce the cacao and carob sweetness that we enjoy around the world. There are also nutritional differences and economic differences to various communities. For fun and interesting facts about the differences between these two tree species, check out the links below!
For more information
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carob-versus-chocolate/
http://www.heathernicholds.com/nutrition/carob-vs-chocolate
https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/carob.html
http://kholistic.com/cacao-vs-carob/
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-and/climate-chocolate
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments?