Funny traffic signs



by Ronny Welter

Carrion Plant, Starfish Flower (Stapelia grandiflora)


Photo by Ed at Mounts Botanical Garden

Happy Green frog


by Doug Wheller

Overview of working on a banana farm in Tully, Australia

North Queensland - Bananas farm work

Gros Michel

'Gros Michel' is the cultivar that dominated the international banana trade during the first part of the 20th century. In the late 1950s it was replaced with Cavendish cultivars because of its susceptibility to Fusarium wilt, which had landed in Central America in the 1890s. The wild species that contributed to its triploid genome is Musa acuminata, hence the shorthand AAA to describe its genome group. The Gros Michel subgroup is named after this cultivar.

'Gros Michel' entered the historical record in the 1830s when a French planter, Jean Pouyat, noticed the plant growing on the Caribbean island of Martinique3. Locally, it became known as the 'Martinique banana' or the 'Pouyat banana'. It spread through the Caribbean and beyond. By the 1890s, it was cultivated all along the Caribbean coast of Central America. By the turn of the 20th century Gros Michel made up the bilk of of the exports to the US. The cultivar was liked by producers because it didn’t require special care to grow and ship.

The first losses followed soon after Fusarium wilt was reported in Panama and Costa Rica in the 1890s (the strains that cause disease on Gros Michel would later become known as race 1). As the disease spread through Central America, only the availability of vast areas of virgin land prevented an early collapse of the industry. The opening of new land to make up for the abandoned plantations (estimated at more than 40,000 ha) allowed production to keep ahead of the disease. But as uninfected and accessible land became increasingly rare in the the mid-1950s, production costs in Central America soared.

Even though resistant cultivars had been identified as early as 1910, the export industry did not begin to replace the susceptible Gros Michel banana until the late 1950s. The change was motivated by the entry of Ecuador as a major banana exporter in the 1950s. To compete with the cheap Gros Michel from Ecuador, the infested soils of Central America were planted with resistant Cavendish cultivars. Gros Michel has not completely disappeared, however. It is still grown by smallholder farmers, in backyard gardens and mixed crop systems.
(Gros Michel | Promusa - Mobilizing banana science for sustainable livelihoods)





Photos by Ed at Mounts Botanical Garden

Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia humifusa)




Photos by Ed at Mounts Botanical Garden

Mysore


by Patrik M. Loeff

Nang Tani

Nang Tani (Thai: นางตานี; "Lady of Tani") is a female spirit of the Thai folklore. According to folk tradition this ghost appears as a young woman that haunts wild banana trees (Musa balbisiana), known as in Thai language as Kluai Tani (กล้วยตานี).

Nang Tani belongs to a type of female ghosts or fairies related to trees known generically as Nang Mai (นางไม้; "Lady of the Wood") in the Thai lore. There is a similar spirit in the Cambodian folklore, as well as in the Lao popular tradition.

Nang Tani may also be called Phi Tani (ผีตานี; "Ghost of Tani") or Phrai Tani (พรายตานี; "Nymph of Tani").

This ghost inhabits the clumps of wild banana trees and is popularly represented as a beautiful young woman wearing a green traditional Thai costume. Most of the time Phi Tani remains hidden, but she comes out of the tree and becomes visible especially on full moon nights. She has a greenish complexion, blending with the tree. She generally appears in a standing position and her feet don't touch the ground, but hover slightly above it. In some modern representations the lower part of her body is represented with an immaterial quality, her waist cloth ending in a kind of wisp emanating from the tree trunk. Nang Tani generally has a gentle disposition and may give food to passing Buddhist monks.

It is considered a bad omen to cut trees from the clump Tani inhabits. Offerings are made to her in the form of sweets, incense sticks and flowers. Often people also tie a length of colored satin cloth around the trunk of the banana tree believed to be haunted by her. The Kluai Tani type of banana trees do not belong to the cultivated varieties. Owing to their connection with ghosts, people prefer not to have them growing near their homes and they are not found within village compounds. However, clumps of this tree are found not far from inhabited areas, often at the outskirts of villages or at the edge of cultivated fields by the roadside. They look very much like average banana trees, but their fruits are not edible. Their leaves are commonly used in Thailand to wrap locally-produced sweets and the inflorescence for the treatment of ulcers in traditional medicine.

Legends of the Thai oral tradition say that this spirit may harm men, especially those who have wronged women, but it is mostly considered benevolent. Amulets featuring Nang Tani are popular and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some people tie lengths of colored silk around the trunks of the banana trees reputed to be haunted by Nang Tani.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nang_Tani


Nang Tani by Xavier Romero-Frias

Golden White-eye (Cleptornis marchei)


by Peter

Banana's Whisky



by Helen ST

Mongozo Banana Beer


by Victoria Reay

Titan Arums (Amorphophallus titanum)

Britain's biggest flower - the Titan arum at the Eden Project





Giant Corpse Flower bloom - time lapse from two views