PHEW. Hello Journal!
We finished moving! WEEE! Now just... unpacking... ugh. It took me three boxes just to find my New Directions Anthropology textbook. :(
I
found a weird plant I wanted to share with you. I use "found" loosely.
It was in the local Publix, but I've never seen it before. At first
glance I thought it might be some relation to the Poinsettia plant,
because the older leaves went from the Chlorophyll-A photosynthetic
leaves to a rich magenta-pink, just this side of red. (Go go
anthocyanins!) I must have looked weird as I dug at the base of the
plant to extract the title card. It didn't have a genus-species on it,
but only "Euphoria Hybrid". There was a small piece broken off (not by
me) so I took it with me.
I think I have found it online, though I misremembered the name. It's "Euphorbia". It is, in fact, hybridized with a Poinsettia. "Costafarms" calls it a "Pick Me Pink". It's delicate, can't be dried out or in direct sunlight, grows in our zone (10b) but requires monthly fertilizer (unless flowering). In other words, I'd kill it dead. Ah well.
It's being marketed as a Breast Cancer plant, the pot being all wrapped up in pink foil sporting pink ribbons. Talk about pinkwashing. Le sigh. Still. It's an interesting looking plant, and is pretty to look at. I wish I'd thought to ask what portion of the proceeds actually GO to Breast Cancer research... probably a big fat $0.00.
I also wanted to chat about Gold's Foreign Trees article. I found it very interesting, yet we breezed over in class in less than two minutes flat. Granted, we were a little bit behind, but, sneef.
The piece is written by an anthropologist who was
studying cultural constructions of the environment by examining rituals
associated with agriculture and herding in Ghatiyali, Rajasthan of South
Asia. Through interviews with the local people "environmental change
was inseparable from a web of concurrent transformations in politics,
technology, society, religion, family life, morality, and more".
Specifically, political changes accompanied by the introduction of a
prolific invasive tree is seen as, literally, the roots of evil. The
tree was planted by a post-monarchical government as a cheap hedging to
mark agricultural boundaries. The tree grows fast with little help, and
the herding animals eat the pods so it spreads fast. The people ended up
using it to stave off a firewood shortage, caused by anti-environmental
backlash after the death of the Environmentalist King (who is said to
have loved the wild boar more than his people). And yet...
The proliferation of this tree shares a timeline with the introduction of "modern" farming equipment and "English" fertlizers (that make plants grow big but have less taste), and "English" medicine (as addictive as the fertilizer)! Along with the thorny hated shrug, called "vilayati" for foreign (and often translated as English) came polyester and, seemingly, less modest style of dress. It's a serious case of "the good old days".
I find it VERY interesting because there is a local plant that is very similar, though unrelated. The vilayati is actually Mexican Mesquite, and the local plant is true Acacia. They See vilayati as useless, only good for burning, poisonous*, and similar bambul (Acacia) to be beautiful, have good wood for building and woodworking, and feel the vegetation is healthy for goats, etc. The work notes the thorns of the mesquite plant, but the Wikipedia notes that Acacia nilotica has thorns too, which is why it makes great fencing! Both trees have forage-food, wood, and hedges/environmental management listed as their uses. They are terribly similar, yet the foreign is hated and the nearly missing acacia is almost revered.
Granted, the invasive plant is invasive which causes a plethora of problems. It is interesting to know that the people feel even the shade of the vilayati is poisonous. They say nothing grows in the shade of its canopy, and thus the shade cannot give respite from the sun either. The leaves of mesquite (according to Dr. Gold) has germination inhibitors in the leaves! The 'shade' of the tree really IS poison! The leaves fall and degrade, the inhibitors permeate the soil, other seeds cannot germinate. GREAT strategy for the plant. Just plain nifty.
Anyway. The piece has several interview pieces from elderly citizens, and it's so very interesting to read them, and see how similar their arguments are...to each other and to people talking about just about ANYTHING that has come out after their reproductive prime. Notice, humans have a fondness for music they didn't like, shows they didn't watch, and fashions they didn't prescribe to, just because they were popular during the time they were consciously or unconsciously seeking a stable sexual mate. Just interesting.
I think I've started babbling. Time to wander off.
Goodnight blog!
We finished moving! WEEE! Now just... unpacking... ugh. It took me three boxes just to find my New Directions Anthropology textbook. :(
I think I have found it online, though I misremembered the name. It's "Euphorbia". It is, in fact, hybridized with a Poinsettia. "Costafarms" calls it a "Pick Me Pink". It's delicate, can't be dried out or in direct sunlight, grows in our zone (10b) but requires monthly fertilizer (unless flowering). In other words, I'd kill it dead. Ah well.
It's being marketed as a Breast Cancer plant, the pot being all wrapped up in pink foil sporting pink ribbons. Talk about pinkwashing. Le sigh. Still. It's an interesting looking plant, and is pretty to look at. I wish I'd thought to ask what portion of the proceeds actually GO to Breast Cancer research... probably a big fat $0.00.
I also wanted to chat about Gold's Foreign Trees article. I found it very interesting, yet we breezed over in class in less than two minutes flat. Granted, we were a little bit behind, but, sneef.
 |
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesquite |
The proliferation of this tree shares a timeline with the introduction of "modern" farming equipment and "English" fertlizers (that make plants grow big but have less taste), and "English" medicine (as addictive as the fertilizer)! Along with the thorny hated shrug, called "vilayati" for foreign (and often translated as English) came polyester and, seemingly, less modest style of dress. It's a serious case of "the good old days".
I find it VERY interesting because there is a local plant that is very similar, though unrelated. The vilayati is actually Mexican Mesquite, and the local plant is true Acacia. They See vilayati as useless, only good for burning, poisonous*, and similar bambul (Acacia) to be beautiful, have good wood for building and woodworking, and feel the vegetation is healthy for goats, etc. The work notes the thorns of the mesquite plant, but the Wikipedia notes that Acacia nilotica has thorns too, which is why it makes great fencing! Both trees have forage-food, wood, and hedges/environmental management listed as their uses. They are terribly similar, yet the foreign is hated and the nearly missing acacia is almost revered.
Granted, the invasive plant is invasive which causes a plethora of problems. It is interesting to know that the people feel even the shade of the vilayati is poisonous. They say nothing grows in the shade of its canopy, and thus the shade cannot give respite from the sun either. The leaves of mesquite (according to Dr. Gold) has germination inhibitors in the leaves! The 'shade' of the tree really IS poison! The leaves fall and degrade, the inhibitors permeate the soil, other seeds cannot germinate. GREAT strategy for the plant. Just plain nifty.
Anyway. The piece has several interview pieces from elderly citizens, and it's so very interesting to read them, and see how similar their arguments are...to each other and to people talking about just about ANYTHING that has come out after their reproductive prime. Notice, humans have a fondness for music they didn't like, shows they didn't watch, and fashions they didn't prescribe to, just because they were popular during the time they were consciously or unconsciously seeking a stable sexual mate. Just interesting.
I think I've started babbling. Time to wander off.
Goodnight blog!
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