#reptan

[los-plantalones]

[ugletamaki]

Next up was a plant - Ajuga reptans ~

That's how elegant she is.

[dullard]

i tried some new foods for my isopods and im so excited to wake up i hope i see them eatnig

[yellowgnomeboots]

Ajuga reptans - Bugleweed

I've had this plant in the difficult garden* for a few years but this year it seems to be doing really well. It had been spreading vigourously but didn't look as healthy as it does right now. I did wonder whether it might be spreading too much and I'd need to pull it out, but it seems to be reaching a balance.

*no drainage in winter, dry in summer, between a hedge and a concrete path

Ajuga reptans - Bugleweed - European native - check status in other areas because its spreading nature and general survivability make it a good candidate for becoming a pest.

[silent-hill-radio-repairs]

A bit more from the shooting range!

[mezereons]

.

[dame-de-pique]

Hanna Resvoll-Holmsen - Ranunculus reptans 3/7-11

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Tuesday 27 August 2024

The entrance to Inverness Botanic Garden has recently been landscaped with a great plant association of Liatris spicata (button snakewort, dense blazing star, Kansas gayfeather) and Liatris spicata 'Alba' with a groundcover, beneath these upright perennials, of Ajuga reptans 'Burgundy Glow' (bugle). Both species grow best in moist but well–drained soil with Liatris spicata needing a sunny location.

Jill Raggett

[flowerishness]

What's blooming in the garden today? Well maybe it's time for another walk down the garden path. As regular visitors know, the house is up for sale and by next summer I expect to have a planter box on a balcony, and maybe a couple of houseplants for company. This is day three of my garden tour. I hope you're enjoying it. I know I am.

And I'm not done yet...

In order of appearance:

Rhododendron hybrida

Ajuga reptans (bugleweed)

 Symphytum x uplandicum (Russian comfrey)

Tellima grandiflora (fringecups)

Hyacinthoides non-scripta (common bluebell)

Rosa rugosa (rugosa rose)

Convallaria majalis (lily-of-the-valley)

[rat-detector]

Exploration Log 1

Creature: Reptans Ossa Minoris

A small scavenger insect native to the ruins. They have a short tube like appendage at the front of their heads for spitting an acidic bile. Their long spindly legs allow them to navigate the ruins with ease, stepping through rubble carefully as they traverse. These legs are able to fold in on themselves and tuck themselves close to the body to make itself more compact. They have an eye stalk that can collapse in on itself much like the legs. They get their name from their peculiar tendency to burrow into the bones of the long dead. They use their appendage to spray small streams of bile in pressurized bursts into various bones to hollow them out, slurping up the nutrients left by the bile. Once satisfied the creature will crawl into the bone and use its long spindly legs to pilot it around like a sort of shell, much like a hermit crab on earth. When threatened their limbs retreat within the bone to hide among the rest of the scattered bodies and bones within the ruins. It’s most common to see them within femurs or humerus bones, however some have taken to skulls due to their hollow nature, but these individuals are more vulnerable than others. Juveniles of the species will often use fingers when in early development and gradually swap from bone to bone until fully maturing.

[fatehbaz]

Hmm:

Regarding tenzu tablets:

Caption reads: "Ottoman drugs containing rhubarb, cinnamon, mastic gum, Chinese tumeric, amber, musk, balm of Gilead, Meccan myrrh, white pepper, opium, rose water, cast into moulds & inscribed with healing incantations, 16C". Credited with a link to Yasmine Seale, on social media.

Original linked source doesn't mention where these particular tablets/molds were created, kept, displayed, etc. But I wanted to learn more and found a kinda recent summary of tenzu which was published by Nil Sarı (head of History of Medicine and Ethics Department at Istanbul University's Cerrahpasha medical school, president of Health History and Museology Association), which was presented at a conference in 2016:

Nil Sarı. "The Special Pharmaceutical Tablet “Tenzu” in Ottoman Medicine.” 7th International Congress for History of Islamic Medicine, October 24-28, Fez, Morocco, 2016: 24-28.

An excerpt of the text:

In Ottoman Turkish tenzu (tensuh) means "very rare beautiful thing" or "a box containing a variety of fragrances." Tenzu was also said to be the name of a place in Hitay (Eastern Turkistan / Xinjiang) where a medicinal clay - the main ingredient of the tablet tenzu - was imported from. Tenzu was a kind of theriac said to be effective against various ailments. Different tenzu prescriptions are noted in the texts [...] of several medical manuscripts of the 17th and 18th centuries. These tenzu prescriptions were described by various physicians, e.g. the head physicians Salih bin Nasrullah and Nuh Efendi as well as Hayatizade Mustafa Feyzi and Shaban Shifai who were palace physicians of the period. The special pharmaceutical tablet/pastille named "tenzu kursu" was formed in various shapes, i.e. oval, round, or rectangular. A measured amount of the drug preparation was compressed and shaped in a special brass mold named "tenzu kalibi" in Turkish. [...]

Prayers and ornamentations are engraved on the metal molds [...]. The expressions Deva al kulub (Drug for the heart) and Shifa al marghoob (The desired, yearned healing) inscribed on molds reinforce spirituality. [...] Inscriptions around the center of the other flower shaped pattern are Ferd, Hayy, Kayyum and feehi shifaun lin-naas (wherein is healing for mankind, Surah an-Nahl, verse 69). [...] Al-Hayy and Al-Qayyum are often used together. Al-Hayy signifies "ever-lasting life", and Al-Qayyum "self-existing life". [...] Sihhat bad (Have a good health) and Afiyet bad (Have a good appetite) are inscribed. [...] A. Suheyl Unver and Hayri Sozen published several tenzu prescriptions in their book "Turk Farmakaloji Tarihi I.", in 1960. [...] Tenzu prescriptions are found in several medical manuscripts kept in the Topkapi Palace Library, Suleymaniye Library and Istanbul University Rare Books Library.

Clay is a main ingredient [...]. Tiyn-i Tenzu is an unknown red colored clay. However, Terra Sigillata (Tiyn-i mahtum / muhurlu toprak) and Armenian Clay (Kil ermeni) are found in the prescriptions. [...] There are also animal products in the compositions, i.e. ambergris (amber), bezoar (badzehr), kermes (kirmiz), musk (misk), raw silk (harir-i ham / ham ipek), [...] and burnt deer antler (yanmisgeyik boynuzu). There are a wide variety of herbal drugs in the compositions, i.e. Acorus calamus [...], Aloe vera (Sabir), [...] Anchusa offinalis (Lisan-i sevr cicegi), Artemisia absinthium [...], Bambusa arundinaceae [...], Chenopodium album [...], Cinnamon (Darcin), Citrus aurantium [...], Crocus sativus (Za'feran), Embellia ribes [...], Gummi mastix [...], Heliotropium arborsecens [...], Nardustachys jatamansi [...], Potentilla reptans [...], Pterocarpus santalinus [...], Red rose/Rosa gallica [...], Rheum officinale (Ravend), Rumez acetosellaseed [...], Ruta graveolens (Keci Sadefi/Sedef Otu), Terminalia citrina [...], Terminalia chebula [...], Tormentilla (Tormentila).

Shaping and storage of these drugs are explained alongside some of the tenzu prescriptions. According to a recipe, all ingredients are beaten very thin on a porphyry (onyx marble) [...]. Each dose wrapped in gold foil is anointed an amount of almond oil. It is pressed into the mold, dried in the shade and stored in wood boxes. [...] Drugs in tablet form was an old tradition. In general, the preparation is poured onto a tray. [...] After dried in the shade, orange leaves are put between them. Stored in colored glass containers, they're reused when needed, squashed with water and drunk as a syrup. Also, flat pills made of a drachma weight were retained on the tongue in the mouth [...]. Although drugs in tablet form were used throughout Ottoman history either as a pastille or to be converted into syrup, the tenzu tablet molds were designed for the Ottoman sultans and members of the dynasty to make special tablets decorated with calligraphy [...].

[End of excerpt.]

All of these images are cropped screenshots of the PDF scan of the printed "conference works"; the PDF was uploaded online by Nil Sarı.

[vandaliatraveler]

Update on the native wildflower shade garden . . .

Since my last post about the sharp-lobed hepatica several weeks ago, the wildflowers in the shade garden have made a significant push. All of the live plants I put in the ground last fall have made it through the winter, and many of the seeds I planted have germinated and sprouted. Quick survey:

Top: the spreading Jacob's ladder (Polemonium reptans) is mounding beautifully and positively dripping with violet-blue, bell-shaped flowers. The plant lures many pollinators, including bees, flies, butterflies, moths, and beetles. And that foliage is so lush and green . . .

Next one: woodland stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) has established itself in the nooks and crannies of one of my rock features and is getting ready to bloom.

Next two: although the sharp-lobed hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba) has nearly finished blooming, the real joy starts for me when the leathery, thrice-lobed leaves with their often deeply-variegated patterns begin to unfold. This is flat-out one of the most unique and gorgeous wildflowers of North America.

Next one: creeping woodland phlox (Phlox stolonifera) makes for an enchanting ground cover and will spread quite rapidly in the right conditions. I have strong feelings for all the native phlox species, but this one has stolen my heart. It's native to a narrow strip of the Appalachian Mountains from Georgia to Pennsylvania. In the spring around here, it absolutely lights up streambanks with its dainty pink to rose-colored flowers.

Next one: dwarf-crested iris (Iris cristata) is another lovely groundcover but beware - it spreads like wildfire. The lavender and yellow to orange-crested flowers are a treasure to behold from late April to early May. And its arrow-like foliage provides much-needed contrast in the garden.

Next: among the seeds I planted, the yellow pimpernel (Taenidia integerrima) is making the strongest push. The plant produces yellow-flowered umbels similar to golden Alexanders and is a high-value nectar source for many pollinators. It's also the host plant for the black swallowtail and Ozark swallowtail butterflies.

Next two: anyone who visits this Tumblr regularly needs no introduction to heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), my unofficial poster child for Appalachian spring. I simply would not have a native wildflower garden without it. One of my foamflowers is a hybrid (sugar and spice) cultivated for its deeply dissected leaves and intense variegation.

Last (but not least): my eastern red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) pretty much takes cares of itself - it's one of the best starter wildflowers for beginner gardeners, hardy and undemanding. But man, does it produce loads of beautiful red and yellow, bell-shaped flowers.

[seabeck]

Lepidozia reptans

[internetdruid]

🌱 ohoho plant time (also hope you're having a good day!)

Creeping Avens/Geum reptans

[followthebluebell]

Hi! I was wondering where you got your isopods from? I told my mom they can be kept as pets and now she's obsessed and wants me to put together a setup for her 😄

awww that's lovely!

I got my isopods from Reptanicals and have been pretty happy with them. They arrived nice and healthy and have stayed that way. They don't all breed true--- I've got a few wild types wandering around--- but I think that's just kind of fun.

I used clay balls for the drainage layer, covered that with a very fine mesh screen, and put soil on top with moss to help keep the humidity up. I forget where I got the enclosure itself but they're pretty cheap. You can use any plastic container, tbh. Mine is a reptizoo. I like it a lot but it has a slight flaw.

There's a tiny TINY gap in the bottom portion where baby isopods can potentially fall. At the time, I just made my false bottom high enough to cover this gap. I've seen other people fill this gap with silicone or glue to close it completely.

So far my isopods have eaten any plant I've tried to put in there except for some of the mosses XD They're not very picky. I basically just feed them scraps from whatever vegetables I've eaten that day (which has been a good motivation to keep my diet more rounded, tbh). They also get calcium. They REALLY like the food blend Reptanicals makes.

[semtituloh]

Via L'art et moi

L'art Émoi

un Geum reptans