August 26, 2009
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Daily Botanical

Sweet Sorghum

Photo by Gayla Trail All Rights Reserved

I took this picture at the Montreal Botanical Gardens where to my delight they had a bed of cereal grains growing in the edible garden section. I love this place.

The name was too long to put in the title line so here it is: Sorghum bicolor gr. Saccharatum ‘Black African’.

The name gave me some clues to its usage and in looking it up I have discovered that it is indeed used to produce a sweetener called sorghum syrup. The stalks are sometimes made into ethanol.

The internet also tells me that it is believed that the crop was introduced into the Unites States by slaves who brought seeds with them from West Africa.

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August 19, 2009
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Daily Botanical Flowers

Pink Penis Flower

Photo by Gayla Trail All Rights Reserved

Photographed at Jardin Botanique de Montreal.

I’ve mentioned my cute little colloquial name for this plant before. The real name of this particular pink type is ‘Purple Plum’. The sign accompanying the plant also gave it the common name Tailflower.

They make it too easy.

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December 11, 2007
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Fall Seeds

Seedpods

seedpods_botanical.jpg

I took this photo back in October (Is it really very nearly the end of the year already?) on our trip to the Montreal Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, I can not recall which plant this is. I might have known what it was when I took the photo having more of the plant for context. And there is always the possibility that I might have known it based on a photo of the flowers rather than the seed pods. I have never been very good about keeping track of the plants I take photos of, relying on what I always think is a good memory only to realize later that I have no idea what the heck this thing is.

I’m excited about a plan to add a regular photo feature to the site in the New Year as a way for me to actually use some of the countless plant and garden photos I take during the growing season. I am especially excited about showing more of my film photography because that is actually where my heart is. It is a big part of my life (and my gardening life) but has never really felt like it had a home here. I’ve got to do a separate design for it since I want to be able to post those photos larger than 450 pixels wide hence the wait until after the New Year.

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