#Billbergia buchholtziii

[kevinscottgardens]

12-18 October 2020

This week we focused on winter protection; however, the incessant drizzle over three days hampered any attempt to gaffer tape the horticultural fleece or bubble wrap to the structures. I ended up building several structures and finally on Friday returned to them and put the finishing wrap on them. We are making great progress and Olivia and Al are doing a spectacular job making this year’s structures the best ever.

I’m very happy that Nell has given the go ahead to doing a full audit of the seed bank. Friday, I trained Mari on IrisBG so she can assist when there aren’t labels to print; Jess is going full steam ahead too.

Pictures this week are two of the best performers in the tropical corridor:

Plectranthus zuluensis

Billbergia buchholtziii

Plant ident by Jess

Asteraceae Cynara scolymus

Betulaceae Betula papyrifera

Cannabaceae Humulus lupulus 'Wye Northdown'

Celastraceae Euonymus alatus

Cornaceae Nyssa sylvatica

Lythraceae Punica granatum

Solanaceae Brugmansia sanguinea

Solanaceae Solanum betaceum

Solanaceae Solanum laciniatum

Vitaceae Vitis coignetiae

Christopher and Nicholas hosted a nice lunch Saturday in their garden for six. They made chilli with sides of cornbread and potato wedges. The food was delicious and the company was excellent. We finished off several bottles of wine too.

Sunday I mowed the lawn in Richmond, did some reading and of course my daily dose of French. I made a mushroom, onion, thyme quiche for lunch next week, my first quiche in ages!

Plant of the week

Malpighiaceae Malpighia glabra L.

common name(s) - Barbados cherry; español: escobillo synonym(s) - Bunchosia parvifolia S.Watson; Malpighia biflora Poir.; Malpighia fallax Salisb.; Malpighia glabra var. acuminata A. Juss.; Malpighia glabra var. antillana Urb. & Nied.; Malpighia glabra var. guatemalensis Nied.; Malpighia glabra var. lancifolia Nied.; Malpighia glabra subsp. undulata (A. Juss.) F.K. Mey.; Malpighia glabra var. undulata (A. Juss.) Nied.; Malpighia neumanniana A. Juss.; Malpighia oxycocca var. biflora (Poir.) Nied.; Malpighia punicifolia L.; Malpighia semeruco A.Juss.; Malpighia undulata A.Juss.; Malpighia uniflora Tussac conservation rating - Least Concern native to - Texas to Venezuela and Ecuador, Caribbean location - tropical corridor, accession _____ leaves - bright green, entire, flowers - pink with five petals, the size ten to twenty millimetres, grow three to five flowers in cluster habit - graceful evergreen shrub or small tree with spreading, more or less drooping branches on a short bole; usually to two or three metres tall, but can reach six metres habitat - temperate forests; rocky limestone, from sea level to 1,000 metres; thrives at elevations between sea level and 800 metres, can be found at elevations up to 1,700 metres pests - sandy soils carry an increasing risk of nematode infection; white tail deer sometimes eat the leaves and birds, raccoons and coyotes feed on the fruits disease - no information found hardiness - to 1ºC (H2) soil - rich, deep and well-drained; prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,300mm to 2,000mm, but tolerates 700mm to 2,400mm; tolerates seasonally dry periods sun - full sun propagation - require cross-pollination to ensure a good fruit set though germination is slow, with only five to fifty percent of the seed germinating; cuttings; layering; grafting pruning - damaged, dead, diseased, or to shape nomenclature - Malpighiaceae  - Malpighia - for Marcello Malpighi (1628-94) an Italian professor at Pisa; glabra - smooth, without hairs, bald NB - often been confused with the cultivated crop tree M. emarginata, but has a very different flower structure and is not the species cultivated commercially in Puerto Rico; plants have ornamental value and are very suitable for backyards and places where children play (to eat the fruits and to climb the trees); can produce two or three crops of fruit a year.

References, bibliography:

Aggie Horticulture [online] https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamentals/nativeshrubs/malpighiaglabra.htm [17 Oct 20]

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/131036549/155694459 [17 Oct 20]

Plant List, The [online] http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2504431 [17 Oct 20]

Plants of the World [online] http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:557048-1 [17 Oct 20]

Useful Tropical Plants [online] http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Malpighia+glabra [17 Oct 20]

SARS-CoVid-2 update (active cases only)