This blog is for gardeners above, beyond, and below the surface. For those interested in botanical names, inventories, collection and else.

Not recommended for gardeners depending only on nurseries for the practice.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

UNCOMMON COMMON TREES IN OUR URBAN CONTEXT

T he monster fifty percent showing in the footer, Mangifera indica, is over 70 years old.  In our
old and recent past, people used to plant trees that not only would provide shade, but fruits also.


This lower income  vicinity has plenty of old fruit trees including, Artocarpus altilis of legendary fame brought to film in Moutiny on the Bounty.  It tells the story of the travels of this food staple for the British slaves in their territories in  America. 


But that is another story that perhaps you could research and write...later...


That other photo is an Anacardium occidentale with over 125 of age.  It is so big and wide I took a picture of the trunk to provide an idea of the magnificence of this specimen.


The differences between these two are many, but the important one for now is that I have seen maybe thousands of mango and breadfruit trees in every conceivable country side and urban contexts in Puerto Rico, USA, but only ONE, cashew, shared here.


The amount of dishes, deserts created with the fruit of the featuring trees in the Caribbean is wide. Unfortunately, each others creativity with gastronomy is mostly unknown for the general population of the English, Spanish, French and miscelaneous languages/cultures in the Caribbean.


It would be interesting to publish an inventory of every tree in every island with their botanical names and all their gastronomical possibilities. 

This type of botanical inventory would be helpful in many ways.  For example,
if there was any interest in sharing the information among the mentioned, better controls for disease and integrated pest management could be developed.


An inventory of adequate trees for the urban context is necessary. Down here  street trees are arbitrarily selected and planted foolishly by ignorant employees in the private and public sectors  creating multiple and costly problems.


Problems with aesthetics, height, shape, leaves, organic waste, sidewalks, paved surfaces and water pipes are visible in any town and city streets of Puerto Rico... A systematic inventory for the country side/urban context would be useful to all.  


that is that

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for contrasting quick & dirty trash trees with trees having aesthetic, functional and gastronomic value. Even for me, far from the tropics, it inspires me to list great urban trees for the high deserts. Which is odd, as a couple LA's and hort people here, even though arcticists, are doing that very thing as of yesterday.

    If only the tattooed, pop-culture-lovers so prevalent in the US would get that.

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  2. En esta ciudad, en camellones centrales han puesto tradescantias que la gente pisa y desaparecen pronto, porque no piensan que las personas tienen que cruzar las calles y menos no se preocupan por el diseño peatonal, entonces parece que nadie ha hecho ningún trabajo, pero que buenos son para cobrar. De no ser por los colonos que la mayoría tienen por lo menos un árbol, seguramente nuestra temperatura en tiempo de calor seria muy elevada.
    A propósito vivo en una colonia que tiene por nombre "los mangos", y esto es porque hay árboles de mango muy muy viejos. Y al pie de estos nacen nuevos ejemplares. Los ánimalitos y nosotros nos damos buenos banquetes.

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  3. I don't know how urban planners and town councils get away with it. In my little village some 300 000 euros have been spent on gardens and they are a disaster. In Spain, Valencia and Denia they are planting specimen Phoenix palms and we have an epidemic of picudo rojo. Are they stupid? or is somebody getting well paid? or do they just like causing problems?

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