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  • From: "Sage Austin | Eureka! Design" <eureka AT hctc.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Buttermilk legume answer for Bev's previous question
  • Date: Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:42:02 -0600

Yes, the Kentucky Coffee Tree /Gymnocladus dioicus /is a legume. It is very toxic to livestock so you'll want to be careful where you plant it if you get some seed started. I have never tasted coffee from it, but I've heard if you really love coffee you probably won't like it. Also, I drink a lot of coffee, so the toxicity of it would probably kill me in that quantity. LOL.

I've looked at the roots of bluebonnets under a microscope and they have these little nodes where the nitrogen-sugar transfer takes place in the symbiosis. Often you'll see Indian Paintbrush growing along side the bluebonnets here. The Paintbrushes are considered hemi-parasitic. They can live on their own, but do much better partnering with the bluebonnet to tap into the nitrogen. Currently, it's assumed the bluebonnet is getting nothing in return, that's why the Paintbrush is considered partially parasitic. (Of course, I secretly believe they are giving something in return that just hasn't been discovered yet).

I know I've mentioned it before, but you would enjoy The Lost Language of Plants by my teacher Stephen Harrod Buhner, as he explores the relationships plants have with each other, and with us. Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire is good for the plant-people connection.

Sometimes I post botanical stuff on my blog that is educational, I like that format because I can attach photos. The neatest thing to learn is differentiating plant families, because if you can figure out what family a plant is in that definitely narrows down the field for identification, and families are universal so even if you learn it somewhere else it will apply to the plants back home. Also, most of the best botany books don't have photos, you have to learn how to key out plants and most people are afraid to go there without a little instruction, however that sometimes is easier with a microscope, but a good hand lens will do.

I'm off to a workshop for a week, later you homesteaders!

--Sage
Way Out in Texas


EarthNSky wrote:
Sage Austin | Eureka! Design wrote:
Bev, I'm waaay behind on answering stuff.

Tis okay, so am I...

/
We had our second Healthy Harvest seminar today, and I talked about
how I start seeds and brought up this technique. I learned from one
of the attendees that supposedly you can mix buttermilk and lichen in
a blender and paint it on rocks to make it grow and "age" the rock.

Yes, I've done that a few times.

Legumes have many different flowers types, so it's not always easy to
recognize them. For instance, the fuzzy flowers of sensitive briar
or mimosa don't look at all like a sweet pea or lupine flower, which
don't look like an orchid tree (Bauhinia sp.). But one thing almost
all have in common is a joined stamen-filament. In other words, if
you dissect the flower, the stamens look like matches all attached at
the bottom instead of separate. We mostly recognize legumes by their
fruit, or pod. But some aren't as readily recognizable, for instance
the curled burr that comes off burr clover doesn't look like a pod.

--Sage

Sage, I know you are busy, but if you could just write a botany lesson-a
paragraph or so a week, and post it here, that would be cool. Is that
Kentucky coffee tree we were talking about before a legume? It has the
pods....

The other day I was reading about mycorrhiza and came across a
description of the nitrogen fixing process that legumes have. I swear,
sometimes plants seem like an alien life form. It truly is an amazing
ability for a plant to have, I think. I just started thinking about
evolution and adaption and how it was really cool that the plants
adapted to infertile soils by pulling nitrogen from the air..it is
really cool when you think about it, but then, the little things in life
impress me.

B







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