Official Website of the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Gardens - Druid Hill Park Baltimore, MD

May

druid1860 — Fri, 10 May 2013 02:08:55 +0000

July – August 2012

druid1860 — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:18:32 +0000

Stepalia hirsute ‘Zebra’, Carrion Plant
Asclepiadaceae Family

Carrion is a unique desert plant. The dark maroon, star-shaped flowers immediately attract a visitor’s eye. The blooms’ balloon texture, burgundy color and scent mimic decomposing meat in order to attract fly and beetle pollinators. The leaves are soft cylinders with 4-angles and ridged edges. ‘Zebra’ has a striking greenish-maroon color.

Strelitzia reginae, Bird of Paradise
Strelitziaceae

Bird of Paradise is grown for its stunning flowers. The 4 foot tall flower stalk holds a long, horizontal, red-rimmed, beak-shaped bract. The 6” orange sepals with three blue fused petals look like the feathered head of an exotic bird. This plant blooms only after it is at least five years old. The root systems grow well when tightly enclosed and being pot-bound encourages blooming. This South African native is attractive to birds for nectar and water held in the bracts, and is popular in florist shops as an exotic cut flower.

Ananas bracteatus, Pineapple
Bromeliaceae

Pineapple gets its common name from the resemblance between its fruit and pine cones. Pineapples originated in South America and are cultivated in many tropical regions, including Hawaii. Pineapple bromeliads are short, stocky, herbaceous perennials which grow on the ground. The tough, waxy leaves are sword shaped with sharp toothed margins.

The flower stalk grows out of the center of the leaves and produces about 200 flowers. Individual fruits develop from each flower and then join together to create a pineapple fruit, a collection of fused fruits (a syncarp). Because pineapples are seedless and sterile, the plants are propagated from baby offsets or the coma, which is the tuft of leaf-like bracts on top of the pineapple fruit. Pineapples take 12-18 months to fruit from a rooted coma or offset. Pineapples are fairly easy to grow if they receive plentiful sunlight and regular moisture.

Psidium littorale, Strawberry Guava
Myrtaceae

Guava trees are native to Brazil and cultivated throughout Tropical Americas, SE Asia and Africa. The woody tropical trees have ornamental exfoliating bark and thick dark leaves. Guavas are often marketed as superfruits due to their high fiber, antioxidant, vitamin C, and vitamin A contents. Guavas’ phytonutrients (flavonoids) help modify the body’s response to allergens, viruses, and carcinogens. Common guavas have 4X the amount of vitamin C as a single orange. Guavas are consumed in juice drinks, desserts and sauces. Guavas have a high level of pectin, which make it a favorite fruit for preserves, jellies, and candies.

Carica papaya, Papaya

Caricaceae Family

Papayas originated in the tropics of America and were first cultivated in Mexico. The plants thrive in climates with temperatures above 60 F. Papaya trees grow up to 33 feet tall. Their trunks have attractive scars in a decorative spiral pattern from detached older leaf stems. The sweet smelling, small white flowers are clustered around the main stem in the leaf axils.

Papayas can also be grown in containers; the size of papaya fruits and leaf stem length are proportionate to size of the pot. Papaya plants can begin to fruit when they are 4 feet tall. Some cultivars are fast growing and can set fruit 10 months after planting.

Papaya fruits are a staple crop in much of the tropics. The fruit is ripe when the peel turns yellow. The sweet, soft, ripe flesh is either salmon/orange or yellow; it tastes like a cross between cantaloupe and watermelon. The ripe fruit is high in A carotenoids, vitamin C, and vitamin B.

Papayas have many uses. The unripe green fruit is popular in Asia for making curries and salads. The stem is used to made rope. Green fruit and the tree’s latex contain papain, a protease, which acts as a meat tenderizer.

Coffea arabica, Coffee

Rubiaceae Family

The coveted coffee bean starts as a star-shaped white flower with a sweet fragrance. The flowers grow in the leaf axils – where the leaves join the stem – on evergreen shrubs. The coffee beans start off green and ripen to red.

Coffee plantations primarily exist in Africa, Madagascar, South and Central America. In the United States, coffee can only be grown in Hawaii. It has long been thought that coffee is native to Ethiopia, but research is leading to the Sudan as the source of native coffee. Coffee is grown under shade trees in the legume family, which fix and enrich nitrogen in the soil. Traditional farms are being replaced with sun-tolerant selections for high-intensity production. The unshaded plantations cause a loss of habitat for migrating birds, low economic return, overproduction of lower grade coffee and job loss.

May – June 2012

druid1860 — Sun, 20 May 2012 04:57:45 +0000

Heliconia bihai ‘Island Yellow’, Firebird

Heliconiaceae Family

Firebird is a tropical herbaceous perennial from South America. Heliconias are clump-forming rhizomatous herbs with upright, unbranched stalks. After flowering, the stalk dies back and new shoots grow from the rhizome (polycarpic). There are about 250 species of Heliconias throughout the tropics. The variability is due to its broad habitat range, not due to hybridization because the species resists hybridization. It is closely related to bananas in the Musaceae family. The showy, exotic flowers are erect, pendent or spirally arranged inflorescences. Heliconia flowers make striking, long-lasting flower arrangements.

Musa sp. ‘Dwarf Cavendish’, Banana

Musaceae

The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. Because banana plants are tall (20-25 ft) and sturdy, they are often mistaken for trees. The main stem is correctly called a pseudostem and grows from a corm, like a crocus, which is a short, swollen underground storage stem.

Each pseudostem typically produces a single inflorescence, banana heart. The inflorescence has many bracts (modified leaves that look like petals) between rows of flowers. A single bunch of bananas grows on each pseudostem, which dies after fruiting. The plant produces offshoots from the base of the stem and they will mature into new fruiting plants. The banana fruits grow pointing up, not hanging down.

Ripe bananas fluoresce bright blue when exposed to ultraviolent light or black light. Chlorophyll degrades when the bananas ripen; turning from green to yellow. Banana plant leaves also glow blue, to a lesser extent, with uv light. Animals see light in the uv spectrum and are better able to detect ripe bananas in the night.

Sweet bananas and cooking bananas are a major staple food crop for people in tropical countries and consumed widely around the world. Bananas have high potassium content and help alleviate leg cramps and diarrhea. Ripe, soft, sweet, dessert bananas have less starch and higher sugar content. Cooking bananas or plantains are firmer and starchier.

March – April 2012

druid1860 — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:39:36 +0000

January – February 2012

druid1860 — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:52:46 +0000

Leptosperman scoparium, Myrtaceae Family

Tea Tree, Manuka, Jelly Bush

This small tree or large shrub was named Tea Tree after the ‘tea’ drink Captain Cook made from the tree’s fragrant leaves. The plant has anti-bacterial and anti-microbial benefits to humans and birds. Tea tree oil is found in pharmaceutical and bath products, such as shampoo and ointment.

Manuka honey is the most notable and expensive medicinal products from Tea Tree. It is darker and richer in flavor than clover honey and has greater anti-bacterial and anti-fungal benefits. Methylglyoxal compound gives the honey its healing properties. Try a teaspoon at night to help your sore throat.

Tea Tree wood is hard and tough, and it makes good tool handles. The sawdust from the tree is used to flavor smoked meat and fish.

The flowers are small (8-15mm diam) with 5 petals. Leaves are small (7-20mm) with prickly, grey leaves.

Dendrobium x Halaeki

Dendrobiums have canes which are tall, 6-12”, elongated, thick stems. There are two kinds of Dendrobiums, hard-caned and soft-caned. Hard-caned Dendrobiums have their leaves at the upper end or tip of the canes. These plants need bright light and like to be warm, but not baked. Soft-caned Dendrobiums have leaves along the length of the cane.

Clerodendrum quadriloculare, Verbenaceae Family

Starburst, Shooting Star

Starburst is accurately named for its stunning, showy, bursting flowers. It is a tropical and sub-tropical evergreen shrub 12-15’ tall, native to Asia. Starburst is a common ornamental plant in Florida. This February flowering show-stopper has large 8-12” flower heads. The foliage is dark green with a contrasting burgundy underside.

The genus Clerodendron has ethno-medical importance in Asian indigenous medical systems. Extracts of roots, leaves and stems are used for the treatment of typhoid, cancer, jaundice and syphilis.

Aloe rupestris, Asphodelaceae Family

Bottlebrush Aloe

The Bottlebrush Aloe stands tall above its neighboring aloe plants in the desert house. It is one of the fastest growing tree aloes and can reach a height of 9’. The botanical name Aloe rupestris means ‘growing in rocky places’.
Bottlebrush Aloe’s leaves are curved and grey/green with spectacular red marginal teeth. The bright orange flowers are upright and eye catching. The tubular orange flowers with bright red stamens grow from branched cylindrical racemes.