BOTANICAL INVENTORY ONE HUNDRED CLUB

I have difficulty conceiving a collection/garden without the botanical 

identification of everything within reach.

The majority of this collection,

fortunately, is not from commercial nurseries.

Allium

Alocasia cucullata

Aglaonema Commutatum

Allamanda cathartica

Arashis hypogea

Amarilys

Anthurium

Asparagus sprengeri/meyeri

Aloe vera

Alternatera brasiliana

Asystacia gangetica

Andropogon citratum

Antigonon leptopus

Bryophylum pinnatum

Bauhinia monandra

Brunfelsia pausiflora

Barleria repens

Bouganvillea buttiana

Bixa orellana

Cestrum diurnum

Calathea loeseneri

Calledium hortulanum

Capsicum florescens

Carica papaya 

Citrus sinensis

Citrus aurantifolia

Clitoria ternatea

Costus malortanus

Chrysothemis pulchella

Coccoloba uvifera
Clerodendrum quadriculare ***
Clorophytum comosum ***

Clorophytum diurnum

Calliandra haemathocephala

Catharantus roseus

Cosmos sulphureous

Commelina elegans

Cuphea hyssopifolia

Crinum asiaticum

Centrosema pubescens

Datura stramonium
Dipteracanthus prostratus **

Dracaena marginata

Diffenbachia amoena

Daylilly
Duranta repens

Eucharis amazonica

Euphorbia tirucallis/pulcherrima

Epiphylum oxypetalum

Gardenia augusta

Guaicum officinale

Gloriosa rothschildiana

Hibiscus cannabinus

Hemerocallis

Hippobroma longiflora

Ixora

Ipomoea aegiptia/quamoclit

Jasminum undulatum

Lipia micromera
Hippeastrum reticulatum
Manihot esculenta
Merremia quinquefolia
Merremia umbelata
Murraya paniculata
Mirabilis siciliana
Malpighia glabra/coccigera
Myosotis
Neomarica caerulea
Nephrolepsis
Ochna thomasiana
Oxalis
Origanum vulgare
Phalaenopsis
Passiflora foetida/pallida l./edulis
Peperomia pellucida
Petroselinum crispum
Pandanus utilis
Pereskia bleo
Proiphys amboinensis
Pithelobium dulce
Pseuderantemum reticulatum
Pleomeles reflexa
Polyscia balfouriana/fruticosa
Plectantrus amboinicus
Pedilanthus thithymaloides/tuberose
Plumeria rubra/alba

Rosmarinus officinale
Ruellia officinale/brittoniana/
tuberosa
Sanseveria trifasciata/cylindrica
Scadoxus
Syngonium
Serpol tuymusser pyllum
Solanum lycopersicum 
Stigmaphyllon floribundum
Thilandsia
Thumbergia alata/erecta
Trimezia martinisencis
Tulbagia violacea


Turnera ulmifolia/diffusa/subulata
Tradescantia pallida/zebrina
Urena lobata
Wedelia trilobata
Zephirantes nelsoni/citrina/grandiflora
Zingiber officinalis
Zammia






 

To be continued...

My garden should become with time a point of reference to measure others.  But my intention is to leave a mark with some rigor in the history of horticultural trends in the island of

concrete/asphalt,

something lacking anywhere I look. 

** Rediscovered on 02/02/2011
*** Added on 03/16/2011
888

BOTANICAL FAMILIES SPECIES AND ORIGINS

The more I investigate the more irritating the situation becomes.  If you try to search anything under botanical inventories for Puerto Rico, nothing appears with/under, the figurative 'botanical' gardens anywhere in this territory of USA.

However, if you search under  New York Botanical Garden, then you will find useful historical, botanical information and illustrations to identify whatever it is you need to find out in your collection.

The tropical academicians on these backwaters, writing dense, unintelligible papers on water, soil, vegetation, flora/fauna in the web, make sure only the anointed and initiated, members of their primitive feudal guilds understand the absurd language concoctions they write for money, prestige, being known among the tribes.


I am sharing this inventory because no one else is. Botany should be accessible, not necessarily in the Sherlock Holmes or Phillip Marlowe like mysteries of unknown/endemic species,  these tropical cloak and dagger 'scientists' pretend it to be and remain. Screw them.

25 CHOSEN ONES

1.  Aglaonema commutatum
2.  Allamanda cathartica
3.  Alocasia cucullata
4.  Aloe vera
5.  Alternatera brasiliana
6.  Antigonun leptopus
7.  Asparagus densiflorum
8.  Asistacia gangetica
9.  Bauhinia monandra
10.  Bixa orellana
11.  Bouganvillea buttiana
12.  Brunfelsia pauciflora
13.  Calliandra haemathocephala
14.  Cataranthus roseus
15.  Cestrum diurnum
16.  Chrysothemis pulchella
17.   Clitoria ternatea
18.  Coccoloba uvifera
19.  Cosmos sulphereus
20.  Costus malortianus
21.  Cuphea hyssopifolia
22.  Dieffenbachia maculata
23.  Dracaena marginata
24.  Eucharis amazonica
25.  Euphorbia pulcherrima

The numbers below match those above with family and origin
Reference
Tropical Ornamentals
W. Arthur Whistler
Timber Press 2000 

1.   ARACEAE      S.E.  Asia

2.   APOCYNACEAE     S. America

3.   ARACEAE                 S.E. Asia

4.   AGAVACEAE            N. Africa

5.   AMARANTHACEAE   Brazil

6.   POLYGONAECEAE   Mexico

7.   LILIACEAE                   S. Africa

8.   ACANTHACEAE          India

9.   FABACEAE             Venezuela

10. BIXACEAE           West Indies

11. NYCTANACEAE  Brazil

12. SOLANACEAE     Brazil

13. FABACEAE        Brazil-Bolivia

14. APOCYNACEAE    MADAGASCAR

15. SOLANACEAE    C. America

16. GESNERIACEAE "        "

17. FABACEAE       T. America

18. POLYGONACEAE  T. America

19. ASTERIACEAE   Mexico

20. ZINGIBERACEAE  Costa Rica

21. LYTHACEAE       N.S.  America

22. Araceae               T. America

23. AGAVACEAE      Madagascar

24. AMARYLLIDACEAE Ecuador

25. EUPHORBIACEAE   Mexico

It is worth mentioning that number ten is a ONE and ONLY.  

Tropical America the winner with 4.
Brazil and Mexico even with 3.
North Africa, Madagascar and Central America tied with 2.


This inventory represent one quarter of the collection or twenty five percent, of those identified with botanical names.  The information tells whatever the reader would like to infer.

I declare to end, one thing, to pretend changing the botanical globalization taken place or the one centuries old, is a lame project.   In the case of Puerto Rico, no member of the fauna club will request identity papers to the vegetation providing a home and food.

The arguments presented by members of the biological/botanical claque of academicians for this or that are debatable.

If you practice gardening, the self sustainable type, do not depend on nurseries to increase your plant collection, knowing what is what will allow to solve any problems in the garden, during your life and that of your plants. 

Apago i me voy..

1.  

DUNE REFORESTATION IN PUERTO RICO

AS  usual, down this here mean concrete/asphalt usa territory, where its native and ilegally imported sad people will pass away of nothing, some
good willing feeble minded islanders, probably tripping on green fads under acid/amphetamines
or just unemployment and heat, created a group DUNES SAVIORS OF ISABELA, with adolescent indecent exposure in where else, feisbuk.

I a son of a beach if there is one, pondered about this act out of boredom.
Immediately inquiring about the botanical list of plants, ground covers, trees and bushes to be planted in such a humanitarian effort to save dunes in the locality mentioned or any where else if I may.

The jerks responded that another jerk ghost, some Papo Vives would provide the list.  The invisible one never did.

Six months later, your humble servant will provide the inventory list from a public document in my hands since 1980, when I started what would become a legendary effort in the shallow
gardening blog scene, three decades later.

Sporobolus virginicus 

Spartina paten

Ipomoea pre-caprae

Scaveola plumieri

Lippia nodiflora

Canavalia maritima

Sesuvium portulacastrum

Remirea maritima

Ipomoea stolonifera

Bidens pilosa

Chamaesyca buxifolia

Tephrosia cinerea

Cyperus planifolius

Sanseveria guianensis

Diodia maritima

Achyranthes indica

Wedelia trilobata

Pectis humifusa

Mollugo verticillata

Boerhavia diffusa

Emilia sanchifolia

Let the record show that I do not pretend that everyone move to New York to get a certificate in Commercial Horticulture Landscape Management as I did during 2000/02, in the New York Botanical Garden.

What I  expect is RESEARCH, when  I started on this adventure 1969, with my first letter published in a local newspaper, my views were not based on notions, study and research, just impressions based on a critical not fuck you, but focus.

DUNE RESTORATION IN PUERTO RICO

A manual for environmental managers

Ramon F. Martinez

Luis Encarnacion

Luz M. Cruz

Department of 007 Natural Resources

Government of Puerto Rico, USA.

1983

Apagad e iros

To Ricky Lopez in Aibonito
Arboles de Puerto Rico
Amigos del Bosque San Patricio
Sierra Club
Puertorriquenhos identificando
i no se que mierda nunca me acuerdo.


Por que las buenas intenciones de idiotas e ignorantes, siempre quedan,
se vuelven agua i sal.

I

SCENTS OF SMELL POST

T his inventory was previously posted in the evening post.   I will probably post again many of those lists, since that is part of the intention.  References from now on will be on request only.

Cestrum nocturnum

Crinum armericanum v. roustum

Crinum asiaticum *

Eucharis grandiflora *

Gardenia jasminoides *

Hedychiums, especially H. coronatium

Jasmines *

Murraya paniculata *

Osmanthus fragrans

Pancratium zeylanicum

Pandorea jasminoides

Passifloras **

Plumerias **

Polianthes tuberosa *

Stephanotis floribunda

Tabernamontana coronaria

Trachelospermum jasminoides

Zephyrantes chlorosolen

Most people with notions of botanical names are aware of the utility of research and investigation.  If you have a question about a disease, diagnose, propagation, planting, pruning and transplanting issues the answer is at your hand in the web.

I am not in the mode of asking others regarding situations in my zone 11,

concrete and salty micro climate.

* In my collection

** 3 varieties of each 

FOLLOW UP TO PREVIOUS ONE

S ome time ago I wasted my time trying to connect with some Vegetarian Priestess, Magha Garcia,
in related themes of agricultural, medicinal and cooking herbs.

She from the concrete/asphalt wild west in turn had some relation with some priest, a ghost if you ask me,
Papo Vives. Both created one of those still live blogs: yerbabruja.blogspot.com.  Your humble servant appears as a collaborator but the two scumbags have published 3 transcendental posts, in twenty four months. The only good thing in yerbabruja is my inventory of 2009!

Back in the studio, to our previous post regarding plants found in almost every home in Puerto Rico, before the nurseries for the feeble minded became custom and use, here is a list for those interested.

COOKING

Rosmarinus officinale

Origanum vulgare

Ocimun basilicum

Capsicum annuum/frutescens

Coriandrum sativum

Medicinal Department

Pepperomia pellucida

Petroselinum crispun

Aloe vera

Bryophylum pinatum

When I was a child, my mother kept some of these plants in our mostly concrete backyard.  I remember being cured with Aloe for burns and ear ache with Bryophylum. I was probably in third grade of elementary school.

In those days before liberation, women were useful at home, with many plants in the yard,  to cure more than one 

illness from body or spirit, internal or external.  Swapping and sharing all sort of plants, was very common in some segments of the population. After all, there was no money for doctors, or available hospitals within reach.  It was a skill, pertinent to families, society as a whole.

All that knowledge is gone and forgotten, underestimated, except for some people, enlightened ones, whose vegetarian, holistic ideas about nature cures are cult like, keeping to themselves as if they were the chosen ones.

Yours truly on the other hand, misanthropic and all does not see any difference between this gardening or that.  I cover the whole court with a clear view of the issues...There is too much human contact, computers are for learning, sharing, kicking butt, setting trends.

The Puerto Rico I grew up, is just memories, really vague, obscure, opaque.  Now, it is a day light nightmare daily.  Collecting, propagating and planting keeps me cheerful as I can.  And you can perceive. Bilingual laugh.

Apaga i vamonoh.

RABANO MATA DE AGUA GALLEGOS AMAPOLA

O nce upon a time there were no nurseries, since this isle, the concrete/asphalt one, is not the British ones.  Therefore, women mostly, were into plants, flowers, bushes and herbs.

Pride in the appearance, the rarity,
how useful were the plants was  part of it here, and anywhere.  I am not any different but it goes beyond.  My satisfaction comes out of the birds, reptiles, insects, common or rare as the previous post, beneficial or not. 

The names in Spanish are the common names used in Puerto Rico, USA of the following in the same order:
Diffenbachia, Pothos, Crotons and Hibiscus.

The second and fourth are worth commenting since one was found in glass vases indoors and the last, is are named Amapolas, however in the most of the world that term signifies Poppies. 


Perhaps there are many others such
as: oregano, recao, albahaca, aji, and medicinal ones also in demand in those days.  But that story is for some other time.


Let it suffice that gardens before the arrival of useless nurseries, tied to the first urban projects based on the cookie cut mold of Levitt and Sons, during the sixties, were created from seed exchanges, swapping and propagating at home.


I will have to write a post on propagation to kill two birds on these issues.


Final word.  A few months ago some idiot in gardenrant.com, referred to botanical names identifying whatever, as epitaphs on a tombstone.


My pen name will look wonderful. Here is Antigonum Cajan. The one and only. Trend Setter, kicking butts, humble as hell, dogmatic as no other,
with great noir sense of humor, impatient and intolerant with stupidity, an always aware of his limitations.


Left no disciples since the early misanthropic views got more intense as time went by.  The more misanthropic the better the collection and once in a while his writing, that bai di guay, went into the abominable third person, god knows why.


Apaga i vamonoh.

BIPALIUM KEWENSE FIRST TIME IN 5 DECADES

Antigonum (2010), mentioned this unusual insect on his blog two days ago, while on daily monitoring for insect damage, I noticed this thin 3 inches, slimy, elongated, flat, mostly brown, with the moves of a slug and a hammerhead, insect roaming on a wall in the north garden.

Since I was infected recently, it scare the hell out of your humble servant. Fortunately, there is the web, and some research skill.

Land Planarians or Arrowheads are their common name.  Considered beneficials in some circles, eating slugs and such, they also eat earthworms and each other. 


If interested go to:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/IN20600.pdf,
http://sites.acres.edu/group/backyardwisdom/LISTS/Posts/post.aspx?ID+29
or Galveston County Master
Gardeners: Beneficials in the Garden.


Time to go. Apagad e idnos.

THE NARDOS AZUCENAS MYSTERY SOLVED

A ll my life, probably since childhood, I have seen, smell NARDOS flowers cut.  They are sold in farmer markets and  by street peddlars.  Even today, there is a guy walking the streets of Santurce, with a bunch under his arm pit, selling this significant flowers in  the concrete/asphalt  isle culture.

For fifty years I knew this bulb, flowers as AZUCENAS.  Thanks to One Hundred Years of Solitude and Gabriel Garcia Marques from Colombia, the urge to investigate the mystery became imperative, since he mentions nardos more than once in his masterpiece opus. 


Nardos y Azucenas are mentioned in one of the best known boleros in  America, with the tittle " "Silencio".  Go to youtube with it, listen to the great version from Buena Vista Social Club.  Or any other.


There are localities in Havana and Pinar del Rio, Cuba named Azucena.  It was a popular name for women in the past.  Not anymore.

I relate the flower and the scent with botanicas, santeria and dead ones, but I do not have arguments to elaborate, it is just like that.  However, the historical popularity of these flowers with a fragrance somewhat close to  gardenias is remarkable.


One thing is pertinent. I have seen the 
Nardos, Polianthes tuberosa, in the ground, planted only TWICE, in fifty years. One, recently not far from our residence and a couple of years ago 
in Bayamon City.  I am propagating five. In the north, east and west sides in the  ground/pot to increase the possibilities of  success.


Azucena, Lilium sp. is the botanical name found when you search under that specific name often, not always.  I find the story really interesting and confusing.
It shows that common names are really a pain in the ass.  


The Polianthes tuberose, originally from Mexico, like many others, are appreciated in many places around the world.  In most places in America, they are called, known with two names, but the botanical leaves no doubt as to what really it is.


Naming our reality became a problem after Columbus arrived to these shores.
The trip was a result of Islam and its followers with the monopoly of spices
for the cooking, silk, jewelry and such.

Regarding vegetation, a lot of our native, endemic species have common names similar to those of Europe, just for their their appearance similarities. I may
go back to this subject in the future.


That is that. Apagad e idnos.




e.

BOTANY FOR OUTSIDERS GARDENING

F or quite some time I have noticed in gardenrant.com, an incredible amount of
writer/gardeners dealing with bulbs, bulb forcing, nurseries, quality/variety  of plants available, their cost and so on.

The exact same thing takes place all the time in Davesgarden.com. I am sick of it, therefore my duty is to denounce it and offer the only, possible solution to
these incapable/ignorant/lazy/complacent,  men and women spending valuable time buying plants in nurseries, following the trend impositions and 'new' plants, from these gaudy for profit  nurseries, without any sense, respect or interest in biodiversity, flora and faun

The wise gardener is able to propagate, to swap, exchange, collect interesting, healthy, appropriate for his/her soil, microclimate without any useless, silly market influences.

To be continued... 

I

BOTANICAL INVENTORY CIRCA 2002

I have been collecting, propagating and planting seriously for some time now.  This historical inventory, lacks rigor with the names as a whole, many are common.

This inventory is part of history. The  intention, is to set trends in terms of gardening installation practices and maintenance in Puerto Rico, USA, or the concrete/asphalt isle.

There are no blogs with this focus, at least, there were none in those years in the Caribbean.
The only similar blog in this respect was endemismotrasnochado.blogspot , and currently, antigonum cajan evening post.

But CBR will move more towards botanical names without the sterility,  Mandarin, useless academic register, ivory tower characteristic of universities
and botanical gardens of the world.  This unreachable register  found in every botanical publication available in the wild web is absurd. Botany does not have to be the linguistic labyrinth that all publications and institutions of higher education pretend it to be. That is that for now.

BOTANICAL INVENTORY

circa 2002/04

Bayamon, Puerto Rico

Asparagus

Alocasia cucullata

Areca

Aglaonema

Acalypha

Alpinia roja/variegada

Anacaguita

Anthurium

Allamanda

Bauhinia

Bromelias

Bambusa

Beaucarnia

Cariaquillo

Convulvulus

Cuphea

Coleus

Cordyline

Chinese violet

Croton

Coccolova uvifera

Cafe de la India

Clerodendron thomsonae

Clivia marginata

Cipres

Caesalpina

Carica papaya

Cassia

Crinum

Colocasia

Caledium

Cestrum diurnum

Dracaena marginata

Diffenbachia

Euphorbia

Episcia

Erithalis fruticosa

Ficus benjamina/pumila

Gardenia augusta

Garrapata

Helechos

Hibiscus

Heliconia

Hippeastrum

Hawortia

Hosta

Ixora

Ipomoea batata

Josefina

Jazmin

Mangle rojo/boton

Musa

Mezquite

Oxalis

Philodendron

Pandanus

Pothos

Portulaca

Plumeria acustifolia/lutea/rubra

Delonix regia

Ruelia

Rhoeo spathacea

Rauvolfia caffra

Sanseveria

Spider plant

Strelitzia reginae

Stapelia pulvinata 

Syngonium

Tibouchina orangensis

Turnera ulmifolia

Tradescantia pallida/zebrina

Terminalia catapa

Ucar 

 

During that time I was not yet the critical, abrasive, blunt critic I am now. That explains some plants, trees, palms, turf, trimmer, lawnmower, gas/oil in the picture then. 

I have changed and developed  views regarding the collection and horticultural, gardening practices in the Caribbean, not very different from the feeble minded ones in trend now or then in the concrete/asphalt isle, mostly in the urban context.

Setting trends is my goal, not groupies, recognition or agreement from the other side. I believe that action is demonstrated with the walking. I talk the walk and vice versa. Until then.