My goya has ruptured, spilling it's seeds all over the infertile concrete.

Posted by bastish at 02:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This morning took some more portraits of my friend and neighbor,goya - trying to get it right. He seems to be getting bigger every day and soon he will be my lunch.

Posted by bastish at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kingdom: Plantae � Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta � Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta � Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta � Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida � Dicotyledons
Subclass: Dilleniidae �
Order: Violales �
Family: Cucurbitaceae � Cucumber family
Genus: Momordica L. � momordica
Species: Momordica charantia L. � balsampear

Via Tropilab

Common name: ampalaya, pomme de merveille, pomo balsamo, balsamini longa, muop dang, tsuru reishi, bittergourd, bitter melon, balsam pear, sopropo, arsorossie, ku gua foo, pare, peria, karela, balsamina, balsamapfel, mara.
Family: cucurbitaceae (gourd family).

Also known as Chinese bitter melon; this tropical vine is a tender perennial.
The fruit is edible when harvested green and cooked. The taste is bitter.

Bitter melon has twice the potassium of bananas and is also rich in vitamin A and C.

Pare is a monoecious climber with dark green, deeply lobed leaves with hairs on it. The dioecious flowers are yellow and the fruits are oblong and lumpy with a light green to greenish-white, waxy skin.

After posting my mystery plant photos two days ago, I felt... incomplete. Not only did I still not know exactly what the plant was (although I knew it was goya and, as Bill commented on my previous post, I knew it was in the cucurbit family, I didn't know the specific variation), but I was also disappointed with the photos. It turns out that my Gallery software is giving them a mysterious yellow tint when it resizes them. To see what I mean, click on any of the photos and you will see that the original larger version has a pretty luminescent green color.

Anyway, to satisfy my perfectionistish desire to get it right -and don't ask me why I need to know the exact scientific name, because I have no reason- after posting my post I spent more time searching for the plant on the web and I went out again yesterday to get more photos. (these photos today still suffer from the Gallery yellowing effect. I think I may have to start resizing them in Photoshop instead)

After some further searching, I thought I had found it when all the linguistic evidence also suggested that this is bitter melon which a few sites equated with the Japanese common names nigauri, tsurureishi, and goya (the Okinawan name, and also the name I knew it by from it's use in Okinawan cooking).

I was almost thrown off when I did a further search came up with these photos, which look nothing like the plant crawling up our staircase, nor the goya sold in the local supermarket. I was especially thrown by image #5. Of course, a closer look at this sketch indicates that maybe the scary looking orange thing is the female gourd of the plant. Or as Rain Tree indicates, maybe it is just what happens if you don't pick the goya soon enough.

The young fruit is emerald green, turning to orange-yellow when ripe. At maturity, the fruit splits into three irregular valves that curl backwards and release numerous reddish-brown or white seeds encased in scarlet arils.

This plant seems to have quite a history not only in Okinawan culture, but also as a medicinal plant around the world.

Via: Rain Tree (very informative)

Medicinally, the plant has a long history of use by the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. A leaf tea is used for diabetes, to expel intestinal gas, to promote menstruation, and as an antiviral for measles, hepatitis, and feverish conditions. It is used topically for sores, wounds, and infections and internally and externally for worms and parasites.

In Brazilian herbal medicine, bitter melon is used for tumors, wounds, rheumatism, malaria, vaginal discharge, inflammation, menstrual problems, diabetes, colic, fevers, worms. It is also used to induce abortions and as an aphrodisiac. It is prepared into a topical remedy for the skin to treat vaginitis, hemorrhoids, scabies, itchy rashes, eczema, leprosy and other skin problems. In Mexico, the entire plant is used for diabetes and dysentery; the root is a reputed aphrodisiac. In Peruvian herbal medicine, the leaf or aerial parts of the plant are used to treat measles, malaria, and all types of inflammation. In Nicaragua, the leaf is commonly used for stomach pain, diabetes, fevers, colds, coughs, headaches, malaria, skin complaints, menstrual disorders, aches and pains, hypertension, infections, and as an aid in childbirth.

It's not just people in the jungle who believe this has some medicinal value either, modern scientists are researching it's use with HIV patients.

Also via Tropilab

Bitter melon seems to be supportive in HIV, several proteins (such as alpha - and beta momocharin) have HIV inhibitory effects in vitro. However, they are not cytotoxic.

Map 30 is a specific protein in bitter melon, that is useful in treating HIV infection.

The juice of this plant appears to be abortifacient.

In traditional Chinese medicine the vegetable is used as an appetite stimulant and as a treatment for gastrointestinal infection and against cancer (breast).
Peria is also hypoglycemic (blood sugar - lowering effects).

It has been proven to increase the number of beta cells (those which produce insulin) in the pancreas and is natural support for diabetics.

There is even more in depth info about the specific chemistry here. Thanks to my recent biology text-book review I can now understand a little of what they are talking about. I'm soooo dang smart. Too smart maybe.

And what do I have to add to the vast knowledge found on the web about Momordica Charantia L.?

I love goya in a veggie stir-fry, or occasionally with an egg over rice for breakfast, but I am anxious to try goya juice and goya soaked in brown sugar as mentioned at Wonder Okinawa.

If you live in Tokyo you can, of course, get goya at your local aoyasan or, if you don't feel confident in your ability to cook it, you can probably find it at one of the many Okinawan restaurants.

More photos of goya, photos of Momordica Charantia L, and photos of bitter melon. (of course they are all the same thing, but this is just for google juice.)

Posted by bastish at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I have already broken my rule about taking any more photos until I have processed all the photos I have from Sweden and Malaysia. I just couldn't resist. This plant from my neighbor's yard has been growing up our staircase and changing every day. I broke my rule in order to capture these current stage which may not be available until next summer.

Unlike my previous two plant posts, I have nothing to say about this one besides telling you that it smells (when you break a piece off) and tastes dang good. Until a few days ago, I had no idea what it was, but then we noticed a clearly recognizable fruit? vegetable? (I wont know for sure until my next self-study text-book arrives). It is obvious what it is now... as far as the generic name used at the grocery store, but I have no plant identifier book, and have not been able to find the scientific name online. So, to tell you the truth, I don't really know what this plant is, nor anything about it other than how it tastes in a certain type of cooking popular here in Japan.

So, I offer a prize to anyone who can tell me what this is. There are more photos of it here, but I have hidden the pictures that make it too obvious.

This brings up a different issue. I am looking for a good plant identification book, preferably in English, but a really great one in Japanese about plants found in Japan would be OK too. I want illustrations, not photos. The books with photos are all too hard to see. The illustrations can show the plant, the seed, cross sections, close-ups of the leaves, etc... That's what I want. When I was in Sweden I was using a great book but I didn't even know how great it was until I started looking for books in English or Japanese.

I have seen the Makino Illustrated Plant Book, which appears to be the best in Japan, but even that leaves me empty. In some cases, when I look up a certain plant which I know has a number of varieties, it only has an illustration of one of them. What about the others that are slight variants? Obviously I don't know enough to really use that in-depth info now, but I don't want to spend money on a book that I will grow out of.

In other news, Tomoe is off climbing Fuji with her co-workers so I am home alone. Ooooo to think of all the mischief I can get into. Too bad I am boring. Instead of having a big party, I sit home taking pictures of plants, listening to NPR, and studying Japanese.

Why am I such a Looser?

Posted by bastish at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's been a while since I proclaimed my new project -to post photos of the plants I am learning about here. I have not forgotten. In fact, I remember all too well. I have taken way to many photos and just can't seem to find the time to sort through them. Then there is also the problem that flowers don't really last that long and plants are always changing. The plant I may have taken a photo of last week looks totally different today, so what photos do I post? It seems that the most thorough method would be to take photos of each plant all year long, and then post them in a way that documents their life. But if I had the patience for that I would be painting instead of taking photos anyway.

Well, just to show that I have not forgotten, I have spent some time today both taking pictures of a plant (the flowers are long gone), editing, and POSTING them.

Dear reader, please meet Aquilegia vulgaris (Columbine).

I have yet to find a really great plant site that tells me everything I want to know about each plant, such as "can i eat it?", "can it be used for medicine?", "what other uses are there?", "what role does this plant play in it's local ecosystem?" So, for now, I just google their names and read as many sites as I can. So all I know about this one is that it is part of the buttercup family, which I hear is poison, so I am glad I didn't eat it today. Yet, none of the other sites I have found writing about this plant mention any nasty poison attributes.

One site seems to indicate that it can be used to regulate the female menstrual cycle.

The USDA site shows where it fits in in the kingdom, subkingdom, superdivision, division...family, genus, species.
. That's interesting I guess.

Henriette's Herbal Homepage says:

Aquilegia. Aquilegia vulgaris, L. Columbine.�A perennial herbaceous plant of the Fam. Ranunculaceae, indigenous to Europe, but cultivated in our gardens. At one time considered diuretic and diaphoretic, columbine is not at present used in practical medicine. For further information concerning this drug, see U. S. D., 19th ed., p. 1394.

One thing that is clear is that this is native to Europe, but is also found in the US now, having escaped from someone's garden. Dot Flowers lists the states in which it can be found.

Many more photos of Aquilegia vulgaris.

Posted by bastish at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the things I wanted to do this summer was to take a survival training course. The point of this was less about learning how to survive in an emergency situation, and more about learning how to make use of the resources available around me. Much of the resources around me (at least here in Sweden) are plants, meaning that a big part of such training would include learning what plants I can eat or put to some other use.

Being the driven, self-motivated, get-up-and-get-go type of guy that I am, I couldn't just sit around and wait for the survival class to start in order to learn about the plants, so I have been asking everyone I meet who seems to know about plants, and cracking open the plant book (in Swedish) to start identifying the plants I see around me. The more I read, the more I have found that basically everything is OK to eat. This is quite boring from a "survival" standpoint, but very exciting from a "use what is available" standpoint. It's also great fun tasting all the different plants without fear. Thus, what started as an attempt to learn which plants are edible, has blossomed into a brand-new geek fascination.

Since learning if it is edible is no longer fun, I have turned to learning to identify them, which is fun. It's almost like learning a new language... seeing a plant I now "know" is like hearing someone use a word or grammatical structure I have just learned in Swedish. It's so much more interesting to walk through a field now that I can recognize many of the plants... I notice so much more, see things I would never have seen before when they were all just weeds and flowers.

While there is little chance that I will ever remember the actual names of any of the plants, it is easier to remember what other plants are in the same family, what environment it would be found in, how it tastes, etc... On way I have been "teaching" myself, is by drawing (maybe one day painting) the plant, looking it up in the Swedish language plant book, and translating whatever it says about it. It takes a long time, but it's fun.

I was searching around on the web to learn the English or Japanese names of the plants and found that there are really no good web-sites out there with appealing photos of these plants. My niche! And so I present to you the first entry in my "i can recognize this plant" catalogue.

Please sit back and enjoy this visual tour of Geranium robertianum, or "Herb-Robert geranium". (The Swedish name, Stinknava, is much more interesting -alluding to the oder which the plant gives off). Since I really have no way to write about these plants as an authority, I will just rip off some text from various plant sites. As I don't even fully understand what they are talking about half the time, I am, for now, more interested in simply providing appealing photos.

from: Oregon State University: Weed Management In Nursery Crops Herb-Robert geranium prefers shady, moist areas. �It grows in a small clump about 12 inches high and wide.

Foliage and stems are very pubescent. � Foliage is deeply dissected, though the leaves are not typical of other geraniums (dovefoot and Carolina geranium) in this family.

Both stems and foliage have a strong and nauseating smell (in my opinion). �The smell is not disgusting like rotten eggs, but it is more of a strong chemical smell. �It's difficult to describe the scent, but I despise it and try to avoid it.

Flowers usually occur in pairs.

Flower sepals are very pubescent with long hairs, similar to leaves and stems.

Flowers have 5 petals, 10 stamens, and 1 style (thus the flowers are perfect). Petals are pink to magenta, with white streaks.

As far as other uses for this plant, besides whatever role it plays in the ecosystem (which I really wish I could find some information on), it doesn't seem to have many. Maybe the scent is a warning, and if that's not enough, Jo sampled some from the weed buffet I presented at a recent dinner party and she says it felt like a razor-blade sliced across her tongue. I did not have the same experience, but it does not taste good at all.

If you enjoy Geranium robertianum, check back later this month for Geranium columbinum L (longstalk cranesbill) which I stumbled across today!

Posted by bastish at 06:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)