Pollenatrix

Death of the front garden leaves British cities in peril of flooding

If you've lived in a big city for any length of time, you probably have witnessed the steady loss of green space that is under the control of private property owners. Perhaps your neighbours, frustrated with sharing a driveway between houses (hello, Toronto), are converting postage-sized front lawns to parking spaces. Or perhaps small neighbourhood post-war cottages are being torn down and replaced with monster-sized homes and miniature-sized lawns (Vancouver, that's you!). I've even seen front-lawns in inner city neighbourhoods completely paved over by lazy owners who obviously don't enjoy yard work.

Finally, the Brits are raising the alarm:

Death of the British front garden leaves cities in peril of flooding
Traditional lawns disappear under concrete to make parking spaces

Until now the trend has provoked anger on purely aesthetic terms. But government advisers are warning that the disappearance of the suburban front garden threatens millions with far more serious consequences and could ultimately help to bring Britain's major towns and cities to a grinding halt.

They say the loss of front lawns is exacerbating the threat of widespread flooding following thunderstorms similar to those of recent weeks. Updated advice from the Environment Agency urges home owners to 'resist laying concrete or Tarmac over the whole' of front gardens.

Front lawns provide a vital natural sponge for rainwater in urban areas. Without them, rain simply runs off driveways, increasing the likelihood of downpours overwhelming antiquated sewerage systems. The widespread flooding that followed the recent downpours, when millions of gallons of water were dumped on towns and cities in a few hours, offers a pointer to what will come...

The environmental concerns do not end there. The loss of sunlight-absorbing plants can intensify the 'heat island effect', making the centre of cities several degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside.

Swamp Tour

Here's a very cool video of a swamp tour in the florida everglades, in search of the "Ghost Orchid". A goofy biologist narrates... almost feels like you're right there!

Opium Poppies in the Garden?

Whoops. A flower grower in California was raided and busted for growing those kind of poppy plants. 19,000 opium poppy plants were seized.

"Daniel Campos swears he didn’t know that the poppy strain he was growing was illegal, the kind which contains the raw ingredient for opium, morphine and heroin. He was selling them as cut and dried flowers only, he said. They were one of the dozens of types of flowers he grows in San Martin and Watsonville."

Fortunately for him, the DEA believes him and has decided not to press charges.

Got any in your backyard? I wouldn't know either. There are apparently about 120 poppy varieties, and only one is illegal. It is papaver somniferum.

Poppies.org ( The Continuing Adventures of the World's Most Controversial Flower") says that "Papaver Somniferum seeds are a legal product in almost all countries, although it may not be legal to actually plant the seeds in your area."

You know, they look an awful lot like the poppies I used to have in my garden...

I'll leave with this rather provocative but very interesting article: Narcophobia and the Opium Myth

"The British government - and others including Canada and several US states - are re-evaluating their narcophobic views which took root a century and a half ago in China and led to the Opium Wars."

"As modern medicine developed, the new European medical associations sought moral authority and legal power by transforming opium from a European and Asian folk remedy into a controlled substance.

At the same time, narcophobia became an effective scapegoat for China's rulers. Opium was both the enemy within - morally depraved and physically weak addicts - and the enemy outside - conniving foreign powers bent on enslaving the country."

The article goes on to state: "Opium's impact on health has been dramatised. Medical evidence points to only one effect - mild constipation."

Getting Rid of the Box

Throw out your camera -- even your latest digital camera is now obsolete. The best pictures of flowers don't require a camera at all. Simply put it through a scanner...

Poisoned Trees in Vancouver, B.C.

Having lived in North Vancouver, B.C. for several years, I know first-hand how jealously people protect their "views". A elderly neighbour once told me that she snuck down to the local waterfront park one night and removed the bark around the perimeter of a very large Douglas Fir to try to kill it, because it was blocking her view, and the city had refused all demands to take the top off the tree. She thought I would be pleased with her because, being her neighbour, the tree partially blocked my view of the water as well.

Ugh. I've always felt badly that I didn't report that ignorant old bag. But she's not alone in her attitude, many a neighbourly war has been fought between those who love trees, and those who'd like them all reduced to the size of bonsai plants.

Case in point: This disturbing article from the Vancouver Courier.

A West Side woman says if mature trees aren't planted in place of the ones poisoned on Beach Avenue earlier this month, a dangerous precedent will be set.

"If whoever did this gets away with it, people will look at that and say 'Hey I can do that too,'" Adele Kowsewg said. "How would the city look if everyone just cut down trees to improve their view?"

Three of the five 30-year-old trees, two London planes and an oak, died after they were were injected with a powerful herbicide available only in the U.S. Police believe the poisoning was motivated by a resident wanting to clear the view of trees. Horrified at what happened, Kowsewg wants to start a fund to help the parks board replace the trees with others of the same size. She's willing to put up $100 and has already recruited a friend to throw in another $50.

"Darn it, no one should be able to get away with this," she said. "These were beautiful trees that gave shade to the public. They should have been left alone."

These folks need some help from PlantAmnesty ("PlantAmnesty’s mission is to end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs."). Here is an excellent article from their Web site, 5 Reasons to Stop Topping Trees.

The Great Canadian Couch Tour

I've finally finished my Grand Couch Tour photo album and it's now online.

Ya, I know that what you really want to see is pictures of Munich! I'm getting there. I couldn't cope until I got this load off my back.

And to add a touch of relevance to this post, the photo album does contain a picture of a native orchid that I spotted during a hike to Cheakamus Lake near Whistler, B.C. It was a hunch, really -- the plant was clearly saprophytic -- one that has no leaves and no clorophyll, so it can't make it's own food. It gets its nutrients through a symbiotic relationship with a subterranean mycorrhizal fungus. Anyway, it looked a lot like the coral root orchids I saw on the Bruce Peninsula.

close-up photo credit

I sent a photo to North American orchid expert David McAdoo, who very helpfully wrote back immediately with this reply:

You are right about the plant - it is an orchid. It is a coral root by the name of Corallorhiza mertensiana. If you got to the Bruce this year, you might have seen C. striata and/or C. maculata which are about the same size. There are 3 more - C. trifida (spring), C. wisterina (spring), and C. odontorhiza (fall) - but they are much smaller. We have one more in the south - C. bentleyi - that you don't have. It was only discovered and named about 5 years ago. That is all that there are in North America.

Another nice find during my tour was a breathtaking clump of bunchberry in bloom in the forest -- a entire meadow full of them. The forest floor was white with their starry blooms. I won't forget that sight.

Mans Dies After Ingesting Common Garden Plant

Oh man... here is a tragic story. The Toronto Star reports that a young man from Toronto was back home in Newfoundland for a short break from his promising acting career, when he died from eating a plant called Monkshood.

While home, Andre hooked up with friends and former classmates, taking a short boat trip on July 30 to Silver Fox Island.

While they explored the foliage, it's believed he ingested or came in contact with sap from the plant, his father said.

The group left the island for the mainland mid-afternoon. Then Andre took the boat by himself to nearby Fair Island, where the family had lived in the early 1960s.

There, Andre was to have dinner with his aunt at his father's cabin.

"He ate half his supper and said he didn't feel right. He said something wasn't right," Bill Noble related slowly, with obvious difficulty.

"His aunt called around 6 o'clock to say Andre was really sick and he had to go to hospital."

An ambulance was waiting on the wharf when Andre arrived after the 15-minute boat ride from Fair Island.

They planned to take him to the hospital in Brookfield, about 25 kilometres away but, by 7 p.m., Andre was dead.

Jack Strong, a Newfoundland horticulturist, said ingesting as little as five millilitres of monkshood sap can be deadly.

"Only five millilitres, that's a very small amount," he said. "Cases of poisoning have been reported when the leaves were mistaken for wild parsley, or the roots were mistaken for horseradish.

"And even if you're exposed externally, on the skin, a sufficient quantity can still cause poisoning. That's why if you do come in contact, you have to wash your hands quickly, or I'd be inclined to wear gloves.

"If the contact was accidental, it could be that the stem or leaf was broken and the sap came out and got into a cut, or even through the skin."

Monkshood, or Aconite, which resembles the delphinium, is actually a common plant in home perennial gardens. It is known by many common names including Wolfsbane, Leopard Bane, Tiger Bane, Dog's Bane, Friar's Cap, and Friar's Cowl, Garden Wolfbane, Helmet Flower, or Soldier's Cap.

In older times, it was used to poison meat to kill wolves; it was considered a key ingredient in a potion used to make witches fly; and Claudius I was assassinated by his physician, who slipped him some.

The leaves are easily mistaken for other edible wild plants, and there is a long record of accidental death by ingesting them. According to this very interesting Website:

Somewhere around 1840, two Catholic priests arrived to dinner with other guests of the Provost of Dingwall. A servant obtained a radish from the garden for the guests to use as garnish on their meat, in consequence of which three at the table died, including Father Angus Mackenzie, Father James Gordon, & Father Gordon's grand-nephew.

Aconite acts on the nervous system by first stimulating and later paralysing the nerves of pain, touch and temperature. Taken internally aconite acts on the circulation, the respiration and the nervous systems. It causes severe nausia, slows the pulse, caused the heart to beat erratically, and causes a dramatic fall in blood pressure. Death is usually caused by paralysis of the respitory system.

More information

Bees gettin' it on...

One of the reasons that orchids are so interesting is that they have some pretty interesting strategies for getting themselves pollinated, including playing some neat head games with bugs.

In Europe, there is a species of orchid growing wild that is called ophrys, and it uses a pretty heartless technique to attract pollinators -- a technique designed to waste the time of love-lorn wasps and bees: Pseudo-Copulation. These flowers are the ultimate sexual cheats of the floral kingdom.

Each species of ophrys woos a particular variety of bug, using pheromones and a bloom that looks remarkably like a hot little female. Eager and wily, the blooms come out at the same time that the males emerge in the spring, just before the females. The males do their rutting thing, and end up with pollen sacs stuck to their bodies -- at which point they figure out that they've been duped and fly off in a huff. Not even a snack of nectar for their troubles.

Being males, hormones cancel out all rational behaviour. The next time they come across a fancy little ophrys waving its bloom in the air, it's party time all over again. Thank you very much, the now-pollinated ophrys says to the bug, don't forget to close the door on your way out.

The funny thing is, some of the young and more inexperienced bees come to prefer the easy company of flowers than females of their own kind. It takes a seasoned and wise old bug to choose a real woman.

Check out Gunther's site for more cool pictures and information:

Bamboozled Bees
Hornswoggled Wasps

Phrag. Kovachii News Story

If you can stomach another article on the Phrag. Kovachii tale, this is one of the better media news stories I've seen on the subject:

World of intrigue revolves around tale of orchid-napping.

Race for the True Blue Rose

14 years of research.

27.8 million dollars

A cure for AIDS? Sub-Saharan diseases? Nope. We're talking about a brewery. A japanese brewery, Suntory, who -- according to their Web site -- '...is Japan's leading producer and distributor of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. We are also involved in pharmaceuticals, restaurant operation, sports, music and film, resort development, publishing, and information services.'

Oh yeah, and roses. Blue roses.

According to the Web site, Rugged Elegant Living ('Your Guide to Healthy, Adventuresome, Soulful Living!' -- through genetic manipulation?), Suntory has been working on this project with Australian biotec venture Calgene Pacific since 1990. On July 5, 2004 they announced:

Suntory successfully created the blue rose by implanting the gene that leads to the synthesis of blue pigment in pansies. The color of the new rose comes entirely from the pigment Delphinidin, which does not exist in natural roses. ...There are "bluish" roses on the market created through cross-breeding but the Sunroy rose is the first reported genuine blue rose.

Why would a brewer put all this effort into a developing a blue rose?

As a company in the food industry, we have developed businesses to enrich people’s lives. We have continued research and development activities for our flower operations because flowers adds flavors to people’s lives and help sustain spiritual health.

The flowers are expected to be available for purchase in 2007 or 2008.

Do gooders, my ass. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the estimated $64 million US share of the market annually that the elusive "blue" rose is expected to capture.

As though this story weren't bizarre enough, Britain's news giant The Telegraph announced back in late May that two biochemists conducting research into drugs for cancer and Alzheimer's in Tennessee discovered a liver enzyme that, when moved into a bacterium, would turn it blue.

Professor Peter Guengerich and Dr Elizabeth Gillam, part of a cabal of scientists heroically participating in the single-minded quest for a cure to the 20th century plague, had this to say:

We were aware that there were people in the world who had been interested in making coloured flowers, especially a blue rose, for a number of years.

Dr Gillam had the bright idea that we could capitalise on our discovery by moving the gene into plants - and produce a blue rose.

I suppose you can't separate the spiritual from the physical when it comes to good health. I think they all deserve a medal.