Monday, August 27, 2012

Lush Greens after the Rains

A month through our rainy season and green is happy everywhere. In our property, only the cemented roads are not green. The wild weeds are not yet blooming, but preparations for the blooms are happily developing. In a few weeks, blooms will be all over.

It definitely is also easier for animals to breath as more and more oxygen is produced by the lushly growing greens. I am so lucky our province is not really very far from the city where i worked, just a few hours on land will bring me home for a cleaner atmosphere for breathing. It is so wonderful to breath without hitches in the nose and throat. And this leads to a clearer mind,  wholesome ways, and wiser decisions, hopefully! Why do we usually get out of the concrete jungles for a taste of the forest or the beach during some breaks? That is to be away from the madding crowd, get that most sought after vacation, and breath well.

 Our property in the province is on an undulating topography. Our house was dug on a slanted hill with plants above us and others below us. This is the vertical drop wall behind our kitchen. This wall is composed of solid rocks, rough rocks, and some soil, parent materials undergoing rapid weathering. During the dry season, nothing is growing here, the bare rocks exposed. But come rainy season and the almost 2m wall comes back to life. Maybe of all the people in our household, I am the only one who loves this immensely. A lot of ferns, silaginella, mosses and a lot of mixed weeds are growing here.

Above are mostly maidenhair ferns starting to grow on another mossy phase of the wall.

a part of the front ground gets so soggy and had difficulty in draining 

 The small street a few meters from us luxuriantly grows the colonizing cogon, Imperata cylindrica, and the talahib, Saccharum  spontaneum   .

 This has not been this lush last year, but full sun exposure allows them to fully grow and invade. The shorter ones in front is the cogon, while the greener and taller  ones at the back is the talahib.

 At the end of the rainy season, this is fully blooming with white typical blooms of grasses, lovely against the blue sky and swaying with the breeze.

 The new leaves from my Cycas edentata, showing very luxuriant growth, as if fully keeping the blessings of the rains. New apical growths usually start after the first heavy rains.

New fruits are developing while the old ones are maturing. Fruits mature in more than one year. Not many fruits develop because I don't know of any male plant near us. I am actually unaware yet where the male inflorescence that fertilize them is located. The pollens are just serendipitously brought here by the wind. 

 Volunteer taro or Colocasia esculenta are growing profusely too. Last year they are mostly eaten by moths' larvae, seems like this time they are spared. But we have a lot of these clumps of taro in the property, so a lot are available for the moths.

This is a clump of the turmeric or yellow ginger, Curcuma longa. A lot of turmeric roots are sold in the market lately when it became famous as a very good herbal medicine even good for cancer patients, increase activity of the immune system, good antioxidants and much more. It is also used in commerce as the famous curry powder for cooking. However, i have not gotten roots from here, as i still buy my own turmeric powder.

Outdoor Wednesday: Click on the picture below to learn more...

11 comments:

  1. I agree that this greenery around your house is beautiful. It must be marvelous to see it coming back to life after the rains.

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  2. How green everything is!!! That grass sure does grow strong! I'd be afraid to go into it with all the critters roaming around. Hope it stays green around your place for awhile:)

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  3. I love the closeup photo of the Cycas leaves. Such a beautiful pattern is formed!

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  4. The Cycas closeup photo is fantastic!

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  5. Hi Andrea, I love to see the tropical plants and learn a bit about them. I didn't know what the turmeric plant looked like. It's wonderful to be able to get out of the city but how terrible that so many cities are being spoiled by air pollution.

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  6. Great photography of awesome plants ~ (A Creative Harbor)

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  7. Everything is so green there, it looks like a garden of Eden. Sad to get too much rain, but our area can use some. Nothing so green here.

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  8. Thanks for visiting my blog where I showed hyacinths and violas. Violas grow in our cool seasons and I shade mine. Hyacinth bulbs can be chilled for 10 weeks and then potted for one-time bloom.

    I looked back and saw that you have Duranta, one of my favorites for blue/purple. Do you also grow Clerodendrum ugandense, a lovely blue?

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    1. Hello NellJean, it really is true that the blues are cold colors and reds are warm. It is very seldom that we see blue colors here in our hot tropics, the blue Duranta is the most common. Yes Clerodendrum ugandense is growing here, although I don't have it in mine. I have the red Clerodendrum which volunteers in many places and in the wild.

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  9. love all your greens. :) I am bad at recognising plants names but I am familiar with some of them.

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  10. Now I see why you named your blog what you did..all that green lushness..great to see tumeric as a plant...I use the powder a lot in cooking

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