{"id":14354,"date":"2022-12-28T20:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-29T01:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/?p=14354"},"modified":"2023-01-23T20:28:51","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T01:28:51","slug":"palm-tree-gardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agaaga.khoolbrew.ca\/index.php\/2022\/12\/28\/palm-tree-gardens\/","title":{"rendered":"Palm Tree Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A 45 minute squiggly ride from home is Palm Tree Gardens. It was started as a hobby by Grenadian Lawrence Lambert, who collected plants on his travels and grew them on his 2-acre property. It is reputed to contain over 300 species of plants, and almost 40 types of palms. One fascinating thing was that the plants were recognizable as popular house or ornamental plants, but they are MASSIVE in their natural environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The colourful home and immaculate grounds were empty when we arrived, so I rang the bell to meet with our guide Shawndex.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Screw pine: it sends out its roots from 6 ft up to look for water. This is of the same family as pandan (used as flavourings in Malaysian food).
Photo by GPa.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bottle Palm: native to Mauritius Islands.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chinese Fan Palm: in Hong Kong, the fruit bats roost in their leaves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Spindle Palm: it always has a baby growing beside it for when the parent palm dies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Christmas Palm: known for its bright red (inedible) fruits in the winter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Traveller Palm: water collects where branches meet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fox Tail Palm: native to Australia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fan Palm: handy for shade or as an umbrella.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fishtail Palm: native to Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Closeup of Fishtail Palm: The seeds contain oxalic acid, which burn the skin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
These were the palms Shawndex told us about.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo by Felix.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cardboard Plant: another cycad. Cycads are also one of the oldest plant groups.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sago Palm: more related to a pine than a palm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Closeup of Sago Palm: tough woody fibres and thorns protect the seeds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
These are not palms but Cycads. Cycads produce mobile sperm cells, and these sperm cells are visible to the naked eye!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Rubber Tree: a type of fig tree.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
In the wild, they are epiphytes, which means they grow on other plants, sometimes strangling the tree they grow on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Jacob’s Coat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Corkscrew Croton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Goat Horn Croton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Crotons: popular colourful houseplants that are native to Malaysia and the Pacific. They can grow up to 20 feet in the wild.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The gardens kept a couple of pigs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Green Anole Lizard: while not chameleon, it does adopt the colourings of its environment (it’s normally bright green).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Our tour wasn’t all about plants. Shawndex also told us how he ended up as an employee for the gardens. He used to be a street kid and one day, he saw the elderly Mr. Lambert trying to move a large piece of wood, so he went to help. Mr. Lambert then had him help out with some simple jobs in the gardens and taught him about some of the plants. It turned out that Shawndex had a green thumb so Mr. Lambert expanded his responsibilities, and gave him articles about the plants. Shawndex studied those articles every night – it took him a year to learn about the plants in the gardens (latin and common names, uses, and history). He is now one of three full-time employees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Japanese Lantern Hibiscus: native of East Africa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bread-and-Cheese aka Begonia. Pretty, but toxic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Garlic Vine: so named because its leaves smell like garlic when crushed. It’s not related to edible garlic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hibiscus: the flower is edible, and is used in teas. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Snow-on-the-Mountain is a Christmas plant here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chinese Hat (aka Cup-and-Saucer) plant is native to the Himalayans.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pagoda Flower: part of the mint family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Egyptian Starflower: native to Yemen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Torch Ginger: entire plant is edible. Native to Thailand, Malaysia and New Guinea.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow: the flowers start out purple, on the second day, they fade to lavender, and on the third day, they turn white. Native to Brazilian rainforests.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Crown of Thorns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Of course, we learnt loads about various flowers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Spider Orchids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Vanilla: did you know it’s an orchid?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Poor Man’s Orchid: it’s a nightshade native to Chile, and every part of the plant is poisonous.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Orchids take 5-7 years to bloom after germination, so those orchids in the store could be decades old. They can live up to 100 years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Devil’s Ivy (Pothos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bird’s Nest Fern<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Crown of Thorns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Dumbcane Dieffenbachia amongst the Torch Ginger and Black Magic Callaloo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Spider Plants as a border.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Croton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Angel Wings (Caladium): used to treat boils, wounds, and ulcers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Water Lettuce: its leaves are covered with fine hairs that make them waterproof.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Oleander: this ornamental evergreen is extremely poisonous (one leaf can kill an adult).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Almost everywhere we looked, there were common houseplants or ornamentals.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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There are over 50 red-footed tortoises living at Palm Tree Gardens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Shawndex brought out a male and female.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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They eat broadleaf plants and fruit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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From a hiking tour in Greece, we had learnt that male tortoises are convex at the bottom to fit over the female tortoise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
We got to meet a couple of the garden’s red-footed tortoises. The critical difference between tortoises and turtles? Tortoises are terrestrial while turtles either live, or spend much of their time, in water.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Red Hot Cat’s Tail: native to Hawaii and Oceania. The kids had fun with this one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Of course, there were cacao trees. The Forasteros and Criollos are the original cacao varieties, and the Trinitarios is a mix of the two. The pods look very different.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The shell, pulp and beans of cacao are edible. Once the pod was cracked open, we sucked the pulp off the seed. It’s sweet and a bit tart. Very refreshing. It doesn’t taste at all like cocoa or chocolate (this requires processing of the seed).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The coolest plant we saw was the “Black Magic Callaloo” – left foreground. Its leaves are superhydrophobic (they repel water), making it a self-cleaning plant. The leaves have microscopic structures that hold the water droplets aloft from its surface, and as the water droplets roll away, they carry with it dirt and bacteria. See the video below for what this looks like. Callaloo, aka amaranth, taro, dasheen, is a staple in Grenada and many parts of the world. We ate a lot of callaloo during our two-week stay in Grenada.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fresh off the tree.
Photo by GPa.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Each of us got one – they were juicy and sweet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Starfruits are native to Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Shawndex picked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It looks like we’re heading into the jungle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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There’s an anthurium nursery and orchid nursery area at the rear of the property. These anthuriums were about 3 feet tall with giant leaves!! They sell plants to the locals.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Some young bananas (left) and two giant purple banana flowers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The young bananas eventually curve up towards the light.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
It takes a banana plant about 9 months to mature and produce bananas. Then the plant dies. Fortunately, before it dies, it puts out multiple pups (baby plants) at its base for more banana plants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Giant lemon grass.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Allspice leaves (left) and ginger (right) to flavour our dinner tonight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The pathways are lined with nutmeg shells, the Spice Isle’s “early warning detection system”. Check out the video below for how they sound.
Photo by GPa.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Plumbago aka”Earring Flower”: sticky hairs on the calyx enable kids to use them as earrings.
Photo by GPa.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Felix learning how to use Neil’s camera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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After the tour, Nolan pulled out his drone. Overhead shot of the entrance to the property. The screw pine (first plant Shawndex introduced) is on the right of the building in the bottom center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Shot of the area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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