Jade vines and Starbursts

My Jade Vine is flowering. This is an unexpected gift because this vine shares a trellis with my odontadenia macrantha. I bought the jade vine as a sapling about two years ago and never took it out of its bag. I placed it next to the trellis in the cool and promptly forgot about itWe noticed the first flower one week ago and since then we've had three blooms.
The colour is striking. My pictures do not do the flower justice, the colour is truly jade, a blue grey that I have not seen very often in nature. There is a translucence that it difficult to reproduce with the camera. It is an extraordinary hue that is completely different to all the other greens in the garden.
Strongylodon macrobotrys is the jade vine's show name. Each display is at least 18 inches long and, from what I have seen, the inflorescence lasts for approximately a week.
Each day, the flower sheds individual blooms and the ground below is littered with magical offerings that are striking in both colour and shape.
Each flower delicately etched and formed.
I feel very fortunate to be back in the garden. Everything has started to come into flower with the changing of the seasons. Even the cats are coming out to enjoy the scenery!Dry season, with its hot days and cool nights, brings out the best in my garden. I am lucky to have my Clerodendrun Quadriloculare (family Verbenaceae) in bloom as well. Commonly known as starburst or shooting Star or even glorybower, this rather nondescript plant transforms itself into a remarkable thing when in bloom. This is not a plant for the fainthearted. For the rest of the year, it is an aggressive, semi-hostile plant that vigorously walks and jumps. I have tried to control it by pulling out most of the suckers and treeing the existing shrubs.It does look like a starburst but I truly love the other name glorybower. There is something so magical about the name.
I now have a spectacular show of flowers displayed against the vivid mauve of the leaves. The flowers look as if they might be scented but they are not.
The clerodendrons are growing just below my petreas with their purple flowers.The two plants complement each other in a way that I could not have anticipated. This is a reminder that it's not always necessary to have complete control in a garden. Sometimes it's necessary to stand back and let things evolve naturally.
This is the shape that my new garden is taking. It is an entirely new space for me and, while there are very beautiful areas, it has been very daunting to re sculpt the whole space.
But with my jade vine in bloom, my starburst clerodendron jumping off the branches My coffee trees are in flower AND I'm happy to report that I saw the first bloom of my Amherstia nobilis. It's still too early to photograph but it should be ready in a few days.
The chutney garden is back on its way.

Monkey Pots

A few Saturdays before Christmas, my friend Jeannine and I came across a small crop of "monkey pots" for sale at the side of the road.

Locally known as Trinidad Brazil nut, they are in fact related to the conventional Brazil nut as they all belong to the lecythis family (Lecythidaceae) which also includes the cannonball tree (Couroupita guianensis). The pod-like capsule is heavy and solid rather like a custom made pot and it has a detachable cover which pops off when the nuts are ready. In our case we had to give it a little help and gently prised it open after about a week.

Inside the large "pot" are a series of nuts that line the sides of the pod. Each nut is nestled in place, stacked companionably against its neighbour.

Every nut is attached to an fatty appendage that is likely to provide sustenance once the seed has germinated.

Apparently monkeys are very fond of this nut and are known to reach in and remove the nuts which are similar to Brazil nuts. Hence the name "monkey pot". It is also known as paradise nut.


When a nut was peeled, this is what it looked like. We all tasted it, assuming that if the monkeys ate it without harm, we should be safe. It was quite bland and oily and not as "nutty" and crisp as the conventional Brazil nut. I'm not sure that I would eat it again because after running a search through Google, there seemed to be some data showing the potential for selenium poisoning. Hmmm. We are alive to tell the tale but I would not recommend randomly eating this nut without further research. But it is a fascinating pod to see. The way the nuts are packaged in this pod (complete with lid) is wonderful. I would really like to see the forest tree that grows these pods. I can only imagine that it would have to be enormous to support the weight of its extraordinary crop.

Winter

I was lucky to be in Cambridge MA for the big winter storm that swept through Boston on Wednesday. The storm was dramatic and beautiful. It is remarkable to see a landscape transformed so completely. I am just here for a week so I feel very fortunate to have witnessed a true winterscape. Coming from the tropics, it's wonderful to see nature in action in such a powerful way.
The winter dormancy is a fascinating thing to me. It is a reminder about the importance of hibernation. Tropical people are sometimes like our landscape - brightly coloured, flamboyant, and incessantly moving. The constant motion of the tropics means things grow quickly. The constant hothouse ambiance carrying us from one event to the other with very little time for rest and reflection.
With just two seasons do we take different lessons from the land? As beautiful as Trinidad is, I miss nature's lesson that a bud encased in ice will burst into bloom in spring.

Beaches in the afternoon and hatchlings

There are few things as relaxing as an afternoon beach walk. The magic hour is between 5.30 and 6.30pm. In the tropics, dusk is almost a memory when it arrives. We don't have a romantic hour of the gloaming; our dusk is accelerated but still very beautiful. The beach at Balandra is perfect for this type of walk. On this day the tide was right up and the beach full of driftwood, palm seeds, and water hyacinths that come from the Orinoco.

Ross and I spent the weekend at Grande Riviere, a small fishing village that is best known for attracting nesting leatherback turtles. The leatherback turtle (dermochelys coriacea) come up to lay their eggs all along the north and eastern coast of Trinidad. The map above shows the global distribution of leatherback's nesting sites with yellow circles representing minor nesting locations and red circles denoting major nesting sites. According to Wikipedia (from which I have taken the map above, click to go to page)"recent estimates of global nesting populations are that 26,000 to 43,000 nest annually, which is a dramatic decline from the 115,000 estimated in 1980. These declining numbers have energized efforts to rebuild the species which is critically endangered. The turtle have their favorite beaches and Grande Riviere attracts hundreds of mama leatherbacks during the laying season which opens in March and runs until June. Grande Riviere has become a haven for the leatherback as conservation efforts are stringently enforced during the season. This little fishing village is now known internationally as one of the best places to view these beautiful sea creatures making their way onto land to lay their eggs. In August, we are too late for the laying but we are just in time for the hatchlings.

Walking along the Grande Riviere beach we come across hundreds of white, abandoned eggs. We can only hope that most of the hatchlings make it. In an attempt to help the hatchlings' odds, hatchling "sentries" collect the hatchlings all day and keep them in cool, penned areas before supervising a controlled release. This works to protect the hatchlings from the dogs and vultures that sit patiently waiting for these delicate morsels to hatch. We were lucky to catch one lone hatchling on our walk and help him on his way.The hatchlings are born with a strong instinct for the water. They will immediately begin their determined and hurried path to the sea. Self preservation drives this for at this point they are very vulnerable to predators such as dogs, vultures and humans.

God speed turtle. May you have a long, long life.

Toco Lighthouse

No trip to Toco is complete without visiting the lighthouse that sits on the north eastern tip of Trinidad. This is the edge of the island that looks out towards the Atlantic. The terrain on this coast is rocky and scrubby. The black rocks that line the beaches look like ancient lava. It is an evocative landscape that has something of the otherworldly.

On the day that we visited, we met Clint, the lighthouse keeper. A local Toco boy, Clint loves his job.

After a stint at the Chacachacare lighthouse, being back in Toco is a breeze. He loves it even though people say it's haunted. Haunted? I ask. Haunted? Yes, he says. Twice I heard my name called. No one there.
What about Chacachacare? No ghosts there? I ask, certain that I am going to get an earful of paranormal antics. But no, apparently Toco's lighthouse is the one that's really haunted.

We all climb to the top of the lighthouse to see the surrounding views of the coastline.Down on the ground again, we came across a little Noni tree growing in the midst of stones and rocks. It's the first time that I've come across the Noni flower. Noni has many medicinal qualities attributed to its fruit but I never knew that it also offered up this delicate white flower.

On the rocks leading out to the sea, this spider suddenly appeared, climbing out of a crevice in the rock.

Flotsam and Seeds

Erle Rahaman-Noronha is serious about permaculture. He spends his time working on his farm, Wa Samaki, where he implements key permaculture practices but he also moves around the country documenting and sharing many of our unique flora and fauna characteristics.

Erle and friend, Rory O'Connor

I recently bought some heliconias and torch lilies from his farm Wa Samaki (located not far from Rory and Bunty's Ajoupa ) and was able to see first hand how Erle spends his days. We had met through Johnny Stollmeyer as the two work closely, providing education via lectures and workshops. Both men have become synonomous with the green shift that is slowly changing island paradigms.A visit to his website http://www.wasamakipermaculture.org/ gives an excellent overview of the permaculture vision.

I was fascinated by a recent Facebook post by Erle detailing a visit to the south coast of Trinidad. This is the second year that Erle, Johnny Stollmeyer and other permaculture enthusiasts have been to the area to collect seeds and identify the flotsam that washes up daily from Venezuela's Orinoco River. Erle agreed to answer some of my questions.

Johnny, Sherlond and Allan combing the coastline

The south coast is very beautiful with a completely different feel to the northern terrain. The beaches run for miles with splendid vistas that are quite unlike any others on the island.

During the rainy season, the Orinoco River can deliver any number of unique offerings.

CG - What are you looking for when you do a site visit like this one?

Erle - Anything new and interesting, both in seeds and photographs.

Timit Palm seeds and casing. They start off as the rough case with three seeds inside.

This was the second year that I did this trip so I was looking for seeds or plants that I didn't recognize from the previous year. I also like to pick up stuff that did well in our nursery from our previous trip that I may need more of.

Wild chataigne seed

Sometimes I may pick up stuff that I already have collected in Trinidad, just to get new genetic material to expand my gene pool on my farm.

Opened wild chataigne pod

A wild chataigne seedling just before it sprouts. This can be eaten raw.

CG- It was interesting to read the tags on the photos, what happens to these seeds when they make it across the Orinoco?

Erle-The majority of them will die! As most of them come the interior, ending up in the sea is a big shock on them. It depends from where along the Orinoco they come from and how long they have floated in the sea before they make landfall. The ones not adapted to this kind of dispersal will quickly soak up the salt water and die, the hardier varieties having thicker shells or skins may make it across alive. Sometimes if the Orinoco is in very heavy flood there is a thin layer of fresh/slightly salt water all the way across to Trinidad and the delicate seeds make it across alive. Tons of Timit palm seeds, some from as far away as the Amazon

A few of these then get tossed up onto the berm running along the beach or may wash into a freshwater swamp where they are not constantly being drenched with salt water and may germinate and grow but the chances of survival are slim. Coastal climates are very different from tropical rainforest.

Aquatic grass

CG - How much do our south coast eco-system depend on the Orinoco? And what are the threats to this unique area?

Low tide

Erle -From what I have read, the south coast ecosystems and most of Trinidad are really just an extension of the South American ecosystems. We used to be attached to South America at one time.
This is why Trinidad is blessed with such diversity compared to most of the other Caribbean islands. That being said, the southern ecosystems are unique in their own ways in that they have flora that you don't see anywhere else in Trinidad and that is probably because of things washing up and taking hold from the Orinoco. Probably the biggest threats to these areas are indiscriminate fires and development either for housing/industry or monocrop agriculture.

Newly opened seaside hibiscus

CG - How much wildlife makes it across?

Erle-I've heard stories of anacondas, tapirs and capybaras coming across on the floating islands. Most get killed by hunters when they reach. People have also told me that sometime freshwater aquarium fish like tetras make it across after heavy flooding. We found a zanji (freshwater eel) on the beach that was still alive. They can tolerate salt water for a few days.

The freshwater eel trail as the eel tried to get back to the sea. It had washed ashore on some of the plants. It would have eventually died in the salt water. We put him back in a fresh water pond

CG - Allan seems to be very knowledgeable about the names of seeds and plants - is there a data base in existence for these unusual seeds and aquatic grasses?

Erle - I think Allan is the data base. His knowledge has always amazed me. He will spend hours combing the beaches and knows the scientific names of almost everything that comes ashore. He's been doing this for over 20 years. Part of my own passion for these trips is to begin to collect some of this data even if it's just with my photos and to share it with everyone by posting it on our website (and FB).

CG - It is a beautiful landscape. What's it like to visit this part of Trinidad? Do you have a different sense of the island?

Erle - The landscape is very different, large coconut estates, huge swamps, small quiet fishing villages and beaches quite unlike those along the north coast. The pace of life is a lot slower. It is sad seeing all the dying coconut estates, but this is the inevitable result of mono crops and the rapid spread of disease with a constantly travelling human population. It's something that worked in the past but is no longer sustainable.

Coastline eroding

CG - What would you like people to know about permaculture and how it impacts on the future of small islands like Trinidad and Tobago.

Erle - Permaculture is about designing and building sustainable communities that don't have a detrimental impact on their ecosystems.

Interesting lady bug

It's about having the information and making decisions that will positively impact our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Its about providing all of our food, water and energy needs from within our country instead of being so heavily dependent on imports.
It provides most of the solutions that the global community is currently searching for and it can be done by everyone slowly moving outwards from their doorstep . It won't make big business rich because it makes us independent of them and so you don't hear much about it.
The current government is already saying money is tight, what happens in 10 years when our proven gas reserves run out..most communities that embrace permaculture now will reap the rewards then...

All images and information courtesy Erle Rahaman-Noronha. Thanks Erle!