FAMILY MATTERS

FOUR years ago, when I started the writing, the garden collection lived in fiberglass pots. However, the essence had been around over five.  It triplicated in numbers. 

As time went by, we landed in a house seventy years old, with a quarter of the the sandy total space not covered by concrete.  Out of 15 species planted by the previous owner, perhaps 6 were adopted.


The best garden is not necessarily mine. Or what I am convinced by practice, study and experience it should be.  Urban versus country side determine often what one can do, having neighbors by the property lines or not is fundamental when deciding what to plant in Puerto Rico.


People will destroy whatever is considered a hindrance within their property without much debate. Leaves for example. Nine out of ten trees/bushes killed/destroyed/mutilated in the isle are guilty of....leaves falling.


Having written that lets get to the families in question.  The botanical inventory is not something I do just to be different. It is more. I believe this blog is a point of reference for curious people with the urge to know what is going on
here, or the Caribbean, in terms of garden/horticulture/agriculture development and practice.


That is why placing photos of pretty flowers with great care hiding the lawns is not tolerated in my headquarters.  After all, many people with nice gardens, love, enjoy, bull fighting, palms, lawns, bromeliads, and smoke, who cares?

I believe there is something weird about having two hundred species of the same thing, orchids, roses, crinums to name three. That is not a mirror of nature, but an aberration, excellent for the growth and development of pests of many types. 

The wise gardener works like an editor in reducing the whole, doing some substraction when necessary.

To show one, ten flowers from the garden constantly, except in photography blogs, is absurd. Dismembering the garden distorts, does not allow for evaluation of the installation.  Only when the watchful reader can see the evident interaction between us, Flora and Fauna he/she can pass judgment.

BETWEEN TRIOS AND QUINTETS

ACANTHACEAE

Pseuderantemum carruthersii/var carruthersii reticulatum

Asystacia gangetica

AMARYLLIDACEAE

Crinum asiaticum

Eucharis amazonica

Proiphys amboinensis

Scadoxus

APOCYNACEAE

Plumeria obtusa/rubra/rubra

lutea

CONVULVULACEAE

Ipomoea quamoclit/aegiptia/

batata

Merremia quinquefolia

  

EUPHORBIACEAE

Euphorbia pulcherrima/tirucalli/

neriifolia

Pedilanthus tithymaloides

FABACEAE

 Pithelobium dulce

Clitorea ternatea

Calliandra haemathocephalla

Bauhinia monandra

SOLANACEAE

Capsicum florescens

Datura stramonium

Cestrum diurnum

Brunfelsia pausiflorea

TURNERACEAE

Turnera/ulmiforme/diffusa/

subulata

Plants that one would never thought are related become familiar when doing this little exercise.  It is wise, and fun.

But is not guarantee of anything. Alberto Areces Mallea, Phd, could tell you one hundred things just from looking at the flower of species under his area of expertise, cacti. 

Yet, this ignorant fool regarding soil, soil analysis, inventory of flora and fauna, forest restoration protocol and procedure, destroyed 12 acres like stealing a candy from a child...Still fresh like nothing happened....

apaga i vamonoh.

Thanks to friends and foes

for the good wishes expressed

or kept quiet, during the holiday

season.

FLORA/FAUNA RULE

or mocking famous last words

from Floka Olivieri:

To die blogging is to live forever!