Catching The Rain

What did Siebold ever do for us?

Well, according to the FT Magazine article, Defining Moment - Japanese knotweed invades Britain, he was the person responsible for introducing Japanese knotweed to the British Isles, way back on 9 August 1850.

Mind you, he also got up to some fairly dodgy dealings in its native Japan. Perhaps as some sort of atonement he then gave them the piano, but I think he was dead before the magnitude of introducing one of Britain’s most pernicious weeds was realised.

More baobab press coverage

It’s nice to see the baobab story getting so much coverage, and even nicer to see that the editorial and factual quality of the articles, such as the new one on the BBC site (First taste of a magical fruit) is improving in leaps and bounds!

It reminds me of a book I was asked to proof for botanical accuracy, Miriam Moss’s enchanting children’s title This is the Tree.

Shock report from the BBC: New exotic fruit to hit UK shops

The BBC is reporting that a New exotic fruit [is] to hit UK shops. New? What’s new about the baobab? Africa’s ‘upside down tree’. Well it’s certainly not a new species. It’s certainly not a new use. What appears to define this as ‘new’ is that the EU has just approved it.

What a sad world it is that something that has been used in it’s native countries for centuries can only be sold when it has been approved by bureaucrats sitting in an office in Brussels (or wherever they are - I can only assume it’s not even Nairobi, let alone out in Kenya’s beautiful countryside where these majestic trees can be found).

Something for the weekend sir?

As a regular to Portobello Road market I am attracted by the range of goods you’re likely to be offered, representing different cultures, different origins, and of course different uses. But to be honest I’m not sure that I’ve ever come across anything there from Uganda, and almost certainly nothing derived from a Ugandan tree, but I think I’d be particularly alarmed, indeed perhaps a little offended, if I was offered Uganda’s sex tree.

I’ve even been to Kampala and nearby Entebe Botanic Garden, and don’t recall anyone asking me if I wanted “something for the weekend, sir?”. In fact the only thing I remember was the presence of millions of spiders on the shores of Lake Victoria. To achieve such numbers, I wonder what they’d been eating?

Grow your own Viagra

The Independant ran a fascinating article on Sunday: Grow-your-own Viagra craze hits Britains garden centres

Thankfully I’m not one to need to follow their advice (too much info?!), but this has to be one of the best botanical news stories I’ve read for ages.

It’s always nice to see the wonderful and varied properties of plants,

a plant widely available in garden centres has the same effect on men as Viagra

it was discovered by an allotment holder

The latest gardening craze was triggered by a discovery by a 55-year-old furniture restorer, Michael Ford, on his allotment. He was always experimenting with drinks made from different plants and one day he tried an infusion from his winter-flowering heather. He said: “The effect was almost immediate. I had to stay in my potting shed for an hour or so before I could decently walk down the street.

and the effect was validated by a botanic garden

Botanist Alan Bennell said: “This first surfaced when East European chemists reported finding a Viagra-type chemical in the floral tissues of winter-flowering heaths. They were able to isolate measurable amounts of material that is an analogue of the active principle in Viagra.

The only thing that spoilt the story was the date of publication - 1 April!

When is a knotweed a weed?

The Daily Mail is today reporting “Attack of the super weed hits Olympics” and suggesting that clearing 10 acres of this pesky little plant could cost £70 million.  They go on to say:

Surveyors have discovered that the aggressive weed has taken over 10 acres of the proposed sites for the velodrome and aquatic centre in Stratford.

I wonder how much that surveyor (oh, sorry, surveyors - it took more than one of them!) was being paid to identify it, when someone with the most basic of botanical skills would have known what it is.  And given the suggestion that its presence on the site is some new discovery, just when did it magically appear?

Specialists can charge up to £40,000 to clear only six square yards of ground affected by the weed, which has been called the most invasive plant in Britain.

The logic in the assumption that this means it will be £70m to clear the lot is beyond me.  Answers on a postcard please….