Cineraria |
I was glad to see that the Winter Flower Show is still
open. I enjoy walking through the Sunken Garden once
or twice during my volunteer hours. The
smells and the beautiful flowers are really beautiful to behold.
Jackfruit |
Cacao Chocolate Pod |
Cucumber Tree Flowers |
This fruit is a close relative with another North Garden
resident – the Star Fruit (Averrhoa
carambola) which grows near the front entrance of the North Garden. Next time you’re in to visit, you can see
that they have similar foliage.
On the cucumber tree, small, yellowish-green or purplish cauliflorous (producing
flowers from the main trunk or older branches) flowers, marked with
dark-red or purple, are borne in small, hairy panicles that emerge directly
from the trunk or some twigs. These can
occasionally be seen on the cucumber tree in the North Garden. Small clusters of fruits resembling small
cucumbers also grow on trunk and stems averaging two to three inches in length. If unripe, the fruit is bright green and
crispy. It turns yellowish as it ripens.
The fruit on the bilimbi is generally regarded as too acidic for eating raw. In Costa Rica, the
green, uncooked fruits can be prepared as a relish and served with rice and
beans, or with fish and meat. Ripe fruits are sometimes added to curries in the
Far East or used in place of mango to make chutney. The fruit is rich in
vitamin C. The fruit juice is popular for making beverages similar to lemonade.
In the Philippines, the leaves have been used as a paste on
itches, swelling, rheumatism, mumps or skin eruptions. Elsewhere, they have
been used for bites of poisonous creatures. A leaf extract has been reported to
be useful as an after-birth tonic, while the flower extract has been used for
thrush, cold, and cough. Malays use the
juice as eye drops and regard it as a magic curative.
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