Two years ago I wrote about my disappointing experience eating fresh cacao in Cuba. Cacao (Theobroma cacao) is the tree that chocolate comes from. The fruit is a big pod that forms directly on the trunk and older growth of the tree. It kind of looks like a squash and smells like one too. Chocolate …
I’ve seen torch ginger (Etlingera elatior) flowers in floral shops and thought they were interesting, but it’s quite another thing to see the waxy flowers in amongst the massive leaves and stalks of a 20 foot plant. As our friend David pointed out, It’s amazing how much plant it takes to support the flowers.
At one time just about everyone in Dominica grew bananas. Stabilized market prices made it possible for farmers to etch out a humble prosperity growing and selling bananas for export to the UK. But Dominica’s small-scale banana farmers can no longer compete with the massive plantation output of Latin America’s big banana business. Between that …
One of these days I will sit down and put together a longer post about the giant granadilla (Passiflora quadrangularis), a passionfruit that is as large as a small melon! We were treated to one on our first night in St. Lucia and I have been thinking about it ever since and pondering when i …
In August 1979 a massive hurricane hit the small island of Dominica, devastating just about everything in its path including homes, roads, crops, trees, and even leaving mountaintops bare. Amazingly, in the wake of all of that destruction, the hurricane left behind a new plant, Spathoglottis plicata, an Asian ground orchid that can now be …
Can you believe the size of this thing? Me neither. I have not seen a euphorbia of this size before or since. This photo was taken at the Andromeda Botanic Gardens in Bathsheba, Barbados. Euphorbia make up a very large and diverse genus of plants, but because of the size I believe this plant may …
While in St. Lucia I was given a tour of Jade Mountain eco resort. I’ll save the interesting gardening and botanical design features for another day; however, take a look at this simple, yet elegant fencing or privacy screen idea. We found this in the parking lot of all places. When you’re the #1 resort …
My epic trip has come to an end and I’ve been back in the freezing north for a few days. Brrr…. It’s time now to begin processing the experience for myself as well as find a way to express on this site some of what I have learned and experienced. Boy did I learn a …
