Text 22189, 73 rader
Skriven 2007-11-02 21:01:34 av Barbara McNay (1:382/48)
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson
Ärende: BIRD, HAND 186 71102
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 >  -=> Quoting Barbara Mcnay to Glen Jamieson <=-

 >>> uncut.  Bamboo is
 >>> often used as a landscaping plant, as that lasts for years.
 >>  BM> Yes, until it flowers, I understand.  Then, I suppose, it just turns
 >>  BM> brown and remains until cut to make room for new seedlings.
 >> There are many kinds of bamboo.  I don't remember
 >> seeing any flowers on
 >> the stuff I have seen growing.  It just gets bigger

x >  BM> My understanding is that the bamboo worldwide flowers synchronously
 >  BM> after a long time, then dies.  I don't know whether this is all kinds
 >  BM> of bamboo flowering at once, or each kind in its turn, but I've
 >  BM> gathered that it's tough on pandas when it happens.

 > I looked it up on Grolier, and saw that it does
 > flower, and then dies.
 > This can take up to 100 years, which possibly explains
 > why I haven't
 > seen it happen.  (G)  There are thousands of species,
 > from tropical to
 > temperate to mountain environments.

100 years is a long time.  I wonder what it is that triggers the flowering
event.

 >> The two most widely useful plants are certainly the
 >> bamboo and the
 >> coconut palm.

 >  BM> Coconut fruit, oil, grubs.  What else?  Fibers?  Roof thatching?

 > Lots!  Construction timber and cooking utensils from
 > the stems, roof
 > thatching from the leaves, cooking oil from copra
 > (dried coconut meat),
 > soup bowls from half nuts, coconut cream for cooking
 > with fish and
 > vegetables, drinking liquid from the juice inside the
 > nut.   If the
 > growing shoot which later bears nuts is lacerated it
 > exudes a sweet
 > liquid which can be caught in lengths of bamboo.  This
 > can be used as a
 > nourishing drink for babies, dried to make sugar
 > lumps, or allowed to
 > ferment to make a pleasant alcoholic drink (tuba),
 > which in turn can be
 > allowed to ferment further to make vinegar or
 > distilled to make a nice,
 > coconutty flavoured spirit (lambanoag, in the
 > Philippines).  The dried
 > husks are used for fuel for cooking, and also as a
 > substitute for
 > toilet paper (ouch!).  In some places, like Vanuatu,

In this country, maize is and was commonly grown, and I am told that corncobs
were used.  Not so scratchy as coconut husks, I'm sure.

 > the nuts attract
 > the coconut crabs, which are excellent eating.

What is it about the nuts that attracts the crabs?  The husk, or can they chew
their way into the nut?

 > Just remember never to sit under a coconut palm, as
 > they can drop ripe
 > nuts without warning, and they can kill.

I've read of this before and it sounds like good advice.

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 * Origin: T E X A S ! (1:382/48)