Tag: Flora
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GIJA JUMULU
You’d be forgiven if you thought this huge boab tree (Adansonia gregorii) had lived in this spot overlooking Perth for many centuries. In fact, it’s only resided in the Western Australian Botanic Garden since 2008. No, boabs aren’t super-fast growing trees. The tree is in fact 750 years old and began its life 3200 kilometres to the north in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The tree had the misfortune of being right smack in the middle of the proposed Great Northern Highway. ‘No worries,’ said the folks at WA Botanic…
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MORE CAMERAS THAN TULIPS
It’s tulip time and the bulbs are blooming in full force in Holland Zuid. So Padma and I set out to cure our spring fever and travelled to the land of tulips over the weekend. Our destination was Keukenhof Garden, a 32-hectare garden dedicated to all bulby things growing in spring. We first drove around on arrival and walked amongst the farmers’ fields and found we arrived at a perfect transition time – the early blooming daffodils and hyacinths were still in full bloom and shared the colourful landscape with the…
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A STUMBLE WITH A VIEW
Padma and I went out for a late afternoon walk yesterday in the forest near our home. I was focusing on some distant views of Oberwinter with its Rhine backdrop and managed to get my feet tangled in the thick leaf litter. Clumsy as I am I took a roll and ended up on my back. Rather than jumping to my feet I lay there for a moment. Padma showed concern and thought I had hurt myself. But instead I was mesmerised by a tangle of trees looming over me –…
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JASMINE MEMORIES
Human beings have a remarkable ability to remember aromas. All of our senses can be connected with memories but perhaps none evoke nostalgia as much as smell. The olfactory bulb has easy access to a part of the brain known as the amygdala, which plays a role in evoking emotional memories. Yesterday I got a very, very heavy dose of nostalgia when I walked past the jasmine in our garden, which is in full bloom now that summer has arrived. It never fails … every time I get a whiff of…
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PASQUE FLOWERS FOR THE MINORITIES
‘For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.’ Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac When I was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point I took a nature literature class and read A Sand County Almanac. The book was written in 1949 by University of Wisconsin professor Aldo Leopold and became a pivot piece of literature in the environmental movement and helped pave the way so that I would…
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DANCING ‘SHROOMS
We’ve had a wet autumn, and mushrooms are popping up all over the yard. It reminds me of the times when I’d see wild mushrooms and salivate and go out and collect them. And it reminds me of the time when I almost wrote my obituary after eating mushrooms. During the summer of 1979, I was the park naturalist at Interstate State Park in St Croix Falls, Wisconsin. I had spent three summers as the naturalist, and I knew the Latin name of every tree, flower, fern and moss in the…
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Parque Nacional La Tigra
In November of 1985 and January of 1986, I travelled to Honduras on assignment for the Asociación Hondureña de Ecología. They asked me to document a variety of environmental issues. Parque Nacional La Tigra is Honduras’s first national park. I visited about five years after it was officially created to document its flora and fauna. The park is 25 kms north of Tegucigalpa and is 1,800 and 2,185 metres. I have very little recollection of the visit. I must have spent a couple of days there. I found a photo of…
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