Manila is not a Vanilla – Plant of the Day: Manila Hemp

There was a wonderful brightness in the conservatory today.  The misters in the Fern Room were on when I walked through.  What a beautiful and serene feeling to be surrounded by mist in a room full of beautiful tropical ferns!  If you haven’t seen this room, you should come visit soon!

Vanilla planifola

Before the conservatory opened, I had a nice quiet walk around the conservatory which was very relaxing.  This is a beautiful way to start a morning!

The north garden conservatory seemed cooler than usual today.  As I walk around the north garden, I see that the vanilla orchid has a beautiful bloom.  That flower will not turn into a vanilla pod unless it is pollinated by hand. 

Musa textilis

I also see that the manila hemp plant (Musa textilis of the family Musaceae – banana family) has bloomed a beautiful purple inflorescence.

Walking out of the north garden and around the palm dome, I found a large collection of the conservatory’s orchid entries in the Minnesota Orchid Show last weekend. The fragance was as sweet as the sight of all of those beautiful orchids.  They are here for a very short time for public viewing.  Hopefully, some of these beautiful orchids might find their way to a spot in the conservatory for continued public viewing.

 

The big common fig that recently undergone pollarding is now sprouting new growth.  Growth will continue until the next years pruning.  

I met another conservatory volunteer today and spent much of today having interesting conversations with her as well as multiple Como visitors.

The plant of the day is the manila hemp plant, Musa textilis of the Order Zingiberales, Family Musaceae.

Manila hemp, also known as manilla, is not really hemp, it is a fiber material obtained from the  abacá plant, a relative of the banana plant. The plant name comes from the capital of the Philippines, a primary producer of abacá. 

This fiber material was once used primarily to make manila rope, but is now used to make many other products like manila envelopes, manila paper, hats, furniture and tea bags.  Currently, abacá is commercially grown in the Philippines, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

abacá fibers

Images from:

http://www.abacaphilippines.com/abaca.php?go=about&show=uses

For more information:

http://www.abacaphilippines.com/abaca.php?go=about

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacá

http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/fasern/manila/manila.htm

Plants, Pictures and Poinsettias - Plant of the Day: Bodhi Tree - Ficus religiosa

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - a peaceful day to honor a peaceful messenger.

The Como Conservatory Holiday Flower Show is still on and looking gorgeous with hundreds of poinsettias!  This show closes tomorrow, so I hope you've had a chance to see and take a few photos of this dazzling display of red!

Everything was quiet on my entry into the North Garden.  I could instantly see that the North Garden conservatory was brighter than it has been for awhile.  Walking around, I found the reasons why.

First, the massive fig tree (Ficus carica - the common fig) has been pruned using a pollarding process.  In this process, the leaves and major branches are cut back close to the main stems.  This encourages new growth closer down to the main stem.  This technique is used to prune trees that need to be kept short for some reason (like long-term growth in a greenhouse) or to prune trees away from areas (like from power lines or roof gutters).

The fig tree must have recently been pruned because all of its' leaves were missing.  Not to worry, though - new leaf growth will start showing soon.

In addition to the ficus pollarding, I could tell that many other plants had been pruned in some way.  Walking around, I found that the big leaf mahogany tree (Swietenia macrophylla) had been removed.  This removal has allowed a great deal of light to filter into the area that it occupied.

I was excited to find new fruits on the jackfruit (Arctocarpus heterophyllus), the Mandarin lime tree (Citrus x limonia), the papaya (Carica papaya - look up into the papaya plant to see the growing papayas) and the Tahitian gooseberry (Phyllanthus acidus).

The cacao pods are still growing on the chocolate tree (Theobroma cacao).  Now that the pods are getting big, other pods in the upper part of the tree are easier to distinguish from the leaves.

The plant of the day is the Bodhi (or Bo) tree (Ficus religiosa).  Native to Asia, these trees are popular ornamental trees in warmer climates and can also be grown as bonsai trees.  Siddhartha Gautama was said to be meditating beneath a bodhi tree when he became enlightened (and then became known as Buddha).

In addition to spiritual connections, this tree has additional socioeconomic uses.  Many parts of the tree have been used for medicinal purposes like inflammation, infectious disorders, asthma, diarrhea and epilepsy.


The association of this tree with peace and tolerance makes this the perfect plant of the day on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Peace to all.

Additional Information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhi_tree
http://wisdom-tree.com/
http://www.ebudhaindia.com/holy_sites/bodhi_tree.htm
http://www.ehow.com/info_8192341_bodhi-tree.html
http://www.bodhitree-cambridge.com/

Damanpreet Singh, Bikram Singh, Rajesh Kumar Goel, Traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of Ficus religiosa: A review, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Volume 134, Issue 3, 12 April 2011, Pages 565-583.

Plant of the Day: Vanilla planifola

The conservatory was quite crowded today!  I started talking to visitors almost immediately after I entered the Palm Dome which is on the way to the North Garden.  I talked with one nice gentlemen for about 20 minutes.  He mentioned that he had some familiarity with the plants in the North Garden, then proceeded to share some of his experiences in Belize, Central America and southern Louisiana.  He had some very interesting tales to tell.  These stories were nice to hear about as I enjoy hearing about visitors' experiences with plants, ecology and wildlife in various parts of the world.  I learn quite a bit from the visitors to the Conservatory.

At the entrance of the North Garden, the Ethiopian Banana plant continues to show its long inflorescence and bunch of bananas.

A vanilla orchid grows around the inside entrance to the North Garden.  Today, I saw what looks like the initiation of vanilla pods or perhaps initial growth of flowers.

Vanilla flavors are found in the fruit which results from pollination of vanilla flowers, one flower producing one fruit.  These flowers are hermaphroditic - they carry both the male (called anther) and female (called stigma) organs.  A membrane separates the two to keep the plant from self-pollinating.



Walking around the North Garden, I noticed the bright red inflorescence of the Red Ginger plant.  This inflorescence was leaning against the tall fig tree in the north part of the North Garden.  Several visitors mistook this to be a part of the fig tree but I pointed out the connection to the nearby Red Ginger stalks.

The chocolate tree is still growing the beautiful cacao pods.  I conversed for a while with several young women gathered around this tree.  They told me that they were planning to create a greenhouse with only "dessert" plants - the chocolate tree, the vanilla orchid and various other fruit and nut plants.  I thought they had interesting ideas, but thought to myself that they need to add the coffee plant!   I personally need a few cups to get me going in the morning.  In social situations, I might have a cup in the evening.  Blog readers - what do you think should be grown in a greenhouse dedicated to "dessert" plants?

The plant for the day is the Vanilla Orchid Vanilla planifolia - the second most expensive spice after saffron.  This spice is expensive because the plants have to be pollinated by hand, thus is labor intensive.  Natural pollination is rare, occurring in less than 1% of the flowers.  A pollinated flower can take up to nine months to produce a fully ripe pod.  To get vanilla extract, after pods are fermented, the pods are finely chopped and distilled in alchohol and water.  True vanilla extract is usually expensive, but imitation vanilla extract can be a less expensive alternative.

Additional information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla
http://www.kew.org/plants/orchids/vanilla.html
http://www.organic-vanilla.com/servlet/Page?template=a-farm
http://www.spicesherpa.com/spices/vanilla/
http://www.vanillapodsuk.com/all-about-vanilla-2-w.asp
http://vanilla.servolux.nl/vanilla_history.html