Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Today at Como: Camel Thorn Tree - "Acacia erioloba"

Beautiful sunny day today with zero chance of rain. On my walk past the outdoor flamingo exhibit, occupied by a diversity of beautiful birds, I note many family groups walking around outside. Inside the Conservatory, however, as a testament to the attraction of most humans to sunshine, only a few souls can be seen. While cheery to have bright sunshine, the greenhouse heating effect in the Conservatory can mute that happy cheeriness. Perhaps the heat build-up in the Conservatory is sending some folks outside.
 
Sunken Garden
The Sunken Garden is looking particularly beautiful!

Inside the North Garden, many of the usual fruits can be seen on the long term greenery residents: star fruit, jack fruit, papaya, limes, oranges, guava, noni, Barbados cherry, cacao and others. I'm pleased to see some new plants that the staff have added, for example "Homalomena Emerald Gerr" and "Aji Chirel."

The Plant of the Day located in the North Garden is the Camel Thorn tree - "Acacia erioloba", and is also known as "Acacia giraffae" or Giraffe Thorn. This tree is a well known species in the Kalahari plains of such countries as Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. They grow as tall as 18 meters tall and have a large spreading canopy that produces food for animals, shade and animal shelter. 
Camel Thorn Tree - Note the thorns that
animals have to eat around.

In addition to benefiting wildlife, this tree provides useful and economic resources to people. For example, the dark, hard, insect-resistant wood is used for lumber, and is considered excellent for fuel and cooking purposes.

Abundant, nutritious pods develop from pollinated flowers and are sometimes used by local people to make hot coffee-like drinks, porridge, or to use as highly nutritional fodder for cattle.

Parts of the camel thorn tree have been used medicinely to treat diarrhea, coughs, colds, tuberculosis and nose-bleeds.

Camel thorn has protected status in South Africa.

For more information:

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Splashes of Color

Helping to reduce our current drought conditions while providing a cool and relaxing summer day, a mild but steady rain falls gently and silently outside. The increased relative humidity is undoubtedly greatly appreciated by the tropical plants in the conservatory. As a southern transplant, I am very appreciative of experiencing actual humidity in Minnesota!

Oriental Lily
With a large number of school groups, today’s visitor numbers are high and steady throughout the afternoon. Providing me the opportunity to observe human nature, I can easily see that the crowds around the North Garden koi pond are kids of all ages. Everyone likes to look at the koi! I often think that there are not enough places to sit around the North Garden koi pond. A relaxing serene spot like this would be a truly wonderful winter escape.

Every volunteer day, I enjoy searching the various plants to see what fruits are still out and what new ones have shown up. Today, I see new star fruit, jack fruit and cacao pods that I didn’t see last week. There are still bananas growing in the back on a blood banana plant. Too bad they are hidden so visitors can’t see them. They give me the chance, however, to interact with visitors in such a way that I can show them something that they otherwise would not have seen on their own.

Today I am particularly enamored by the oriental lily in the Sunken Garden and a beautiful yellow plant that staff have added inside the North Garden. Accomplishing the gardeners’ goal of placing such colorful beauties throughout the gardens, they provide a bright splash of color and beauty on this overcast and dreary day.