Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Aztecs Trees and Gardens and Medicinal Plants

By Liliana Usvat

Tenochtitlan was a garden city, and the Aztecs/Mexica, in Jacques Soustelle’s words ‘had a positive passion for flowers’. This may hardly be surprising given that 1 in 10 of all the 250,000 species of plants in the world are found in Mexico - and half of these are ‘endemic’ to the country (only to be found in Mexico). 

The importance of flowers in ancient Mexico, representing as they did life, death, gods, creation, humans, language, song and art, friendship, stateliness, warrior captives, war itself, sky, earth... and an important calendar sign. Flowers accompanied humans from conception and birth to death and burial: clearly the flower was ‘one of the basic elements in the art of pre-Hispanic language - like the quetzal feather and the jade bead, it was the essence of something “precious”.

’The name for garden in general was xochitla, literally flower place; a variant being xoxochitla, a place of many flowers. A walled garden was xochitepanyo. The pleasure garden of the ruling class was designated as xochitecpancalli, the palace of flowers. The humble garden of the Indian was and is a xochichinancalli, flower place enclosed by a fence made of cane or reeds.’

Creating and developing a garden was a well respected pastime for the Aztec/Mexica élite, highly organised with teams of professional gardeners - who linked their expert knowledge of plants to the sacred calendar - and made possible by the accumulated wealth of the Aztec state. Writing of one of the many palaces that so astounded the Spanish with its beauty, Susan Toby Evans explains some of the ‘nitty-gritty’ behind the scenes:
 
 Labour crews performing tribute obligations built the place, dug the ponds, plastered them, brought the stone and timbers and plants - all of this magnificence was paid for by the Aztec empire. And the design... reveals how Aztec [rulers] were kept in contact with affairs of state - canals brought canoes directly to the palaces... just as limousines and helicopters today ferry executive officers of business and government from one important meeting to another.

So highly developed and regulated was the art of gardening that strict laws preventing commoners from growing (or picking) certain flowers helped the nobility to display their rank and privileges in a direct (and colourful) way...

Whilst the Spanish constantly only used one word - ‘rose’ - to describe any large, colourful flower, Mexica horticulturalists had already developed an entire scientific system for plant names, combining terms that referred to a plant’s key characteristics (appearance, colour, habitat, medicinal properties etc.) Phil Clark lists the following examples:-
• Aquatic - at(l)
• Medicinal - patli
• Herb - xihuitl
• Edible quilitl
• Shrub quatzin
• Tree quahuitl
• Spiny huiztli
• Flower-bearing xochitl
• Fruit-bearing:
- acid fruits xocotl
- sweet, fleshy fruits zapotla

It’s a sad fact today that not a single Aztec garden plan remains, and we’re left, ironically, with the - in some cases quite detailed - descriptions written by the Spanish conquerors before they ravaged what must have been a truly beautiful landscape.

Moctezuma II kept three pleasure gardens - at his Tenochtitlan palace, as part of the cypress park and hanging gardens at Chapultepec, and at Iztapalapa. In his second letter to Charles V, in 1520, Cortés described the palace garden of Cuitlahuac (Moctezuma’s brother) at Iztapalapa in glowing terms:-

There are... very refreshing gardens with many trees and sweet-scented flowers, bathing places of fresh water, well constructed and having steps leading down to the bottom. [There was also] a large orchard near the house overlooked by a high terrace with many beautiful corridors and rooms. Within the orchard is a great square pool of fresh water, very well constructed, with sides of handsome masonry, around which runs a walk with a well-laid pavement of tiles, so wide that four persons can walk abreast on it, and 400 paces square, making in all 1,600 paces. On the other side of this promenade toward the wall of the garden are hedges of lattice work made of cane, behind which are all sorts of plantations of trees and aromatic herbs. The pool contains many fish and different kinds of waterfowl.

The hilltop gardens of the poet-king Netzahualcóyotl of Texcoco at Tetzcotzinco proved legendary, and were later to inspire the not-to-be-outdone Mexica ruler Moctezuma I to create the ‘botanical’ gardens at Huaxtepec. The native chronicler Ixtlilxochitl (himself descended from Netzahualcóyotl) gave a rich description .
These parks and gardens were adorned with rich and sumptuously ornamented alcazars (summerhouses) with their fountains, their irrigation channels, their canals, their lakes and their bathing-places and wonderful mazes, where he had had a great variety of flowers planted and trees of all kinds, foreign and brought from distant parts... and the water intended for the fountains, pools and channels for watering the flowers and trees in this park came from its spring: to bring it, it had been necessary to build strong, high, cemented walls of unbelievable size, going from one mountain to the other with an aqueduct on top which came out at the highest part of the park.

Whenever the ruler claimed special (rare) plants in tribute, they were brought to the Aztec capital ‘in great quantities, with the earth still about the roots, wrapped in fine cloth’ - along with specialists in their upkeep - and were then ‘taken to Huaxtepec and planted around the springs’, according to the Spanish chronicler Diego Durán. The plantings were accompanied by ritual ceremonies that included bloodletting and the sacrifice of large numbers of quail to Xochiquetzal, the Mexica flower deity


By the time the Spanish came on the scene, the gardens had spread over 7 miles in circumference and held some 2,000 species of herbs, shrubs and trees. Cortés claimed these were the ‘finest, pleasantest and largest’ gardens he had ever seen:-

A very pretty rivulet [stream] with high banks ran through it from one end to the other. For the distance of two shots from a crossbow there were arbors [shady spots] and refreshing gardens and an infinite number of different kinds of fruit trees; many herbs and sweet-scented flowers. It certainly filled one with admiration to see the grandeur and exquisite beauty of this entire orchard.

All this was more than just an exotic display of conspicuous consumption: the medicinal plants grown at Huaxtepec were key to a huge trade in what today we might call ‘health products’ (follow the ‘Four Hundred Flowers’ link below to our Aztec Health section) - an Aztec industry whose importance was recognised by the Spanish: Huaxtepec was visited by the great natural historian Francisco Hernández, sent by the Spanish king to document the resources and to obtain valuable plants. 
 
Several great historians, including William Prescott and Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, have claimed that the Aztecs developed the world’s first botanical gardens or ‘places designed to display an encyclopedic array of plants’ (Toby Evans). It remains highly likely that Europe’s earliest botanical gardens, created in Italy in the 1540s, were inspired by the great Mexica pleasure gardens that blew the Spanish away with their beauty... 

The Aztecs had developed a highly sophisticated system of medicine, in which these medicinal and useful herbs played a vital part (Burns and Arroo 2005). We know this because, in the wake of the Conquistadors, scholars travelled to the Americas to record the knowledge of the indigenous people in the form of codices and other documents. We can also see traces of traditional uses of herbs in the contemporary use of medicinal plants by Mexican communities.

The codices - Medicinal Uses of Plants

Of the surviving post-Conquest documents, one of the most attractive is probably the Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis – also known variously as the Aztec Herbal, the Badianus Manuscript, or the Codex Barberini (de la Cruz 2000). It was written in 1552 by a young Aztec doctor, Martin de la Cruz “taught by no formal reasonings, but educated by experiments only”, and describes a number of ailments suffered by the Aztec people, together with their recommended treatments – some of which seem a little bizarre, it must be said. 
A more detailed study is found in Friar Sahagún’s 16th Century General History of the Things of New Spain(de Sahagun 1963). This treatise of Aztec daily life – known as the Florentine Codex – contains a book titled “Earthly Things”, of which a large section is devoted to the medicinal herbs. Sahagúns’ text is considered to present a more authentic picture of genuine Aztec medicine than de la Cruz’ Aztec Herbal, because the latter had perhaps been “contaminated” by Spanish influences. We also have Hernandez’ Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus, covering over a thousand medicinal plants, and described in detail in Professor Ortiz de Montallano’s introduction to this section.

Together, these documents describe a number of plants that are well known to us today as foodstuffs – vanilla, tomato, and guava, for example – and others that we know as ornamental flowers, such as types of magnolia and frangipani. The books give us botanical descriptions of the plants, details of how the Aztecs prepared them, and tell us which ailments were treated with them.  
Hot and cold
Like Europeans of the time, Aztecs believed that plants were “hot” or “cold”, and could be used to correct excess heat or cold in the body. Excess cold in the body was concomitant with the retention of water, and cold/watery illnesses like gout ( coacihuiztli, which literally translates as “the stiffening of the serpent”) would be remedied with the application of a hot herb. 

(Yauhtli)
Interestingly, many of the hot herbs, such as yauhtli (Tagetes lucida), act as diuretics, removing excess water from the body. Yauhtli was frequently used together with the hot herb iztauhyatl (Artemisia mexicana)

  (Artemisia mexicana)

, the leaves of which were ground in water and drunk. Conversely the root of the Tlalmizquitl (Prosopis juliflora, the mesquite tree)


( Prosopis juliflora)

 is “required by him whose body is very hot...it is the proper drink to cool his body”. 

Sweet-smelling flowers – the Aztec word for flower is ‘xochitl’ - were considered to be medicinal. De la Cruz describes an attractive remedy for the relief of fatigue, requiring eloxochitl (Magnolia dealbata), 

Magnolia dealbata


izquixochitl (Bourreria humilis)


, cacaloxochitl (Plumeria mexicana,


(Plumeria mexicana),
 a frangipani described as being of “exceeding beauty”) and mecaxochitl(Vanilla planifolia). 


  mecaxochitl(Vanilla planifolia)
Together with a few other “sweet summer flowers”, a fragrant water is made which will give “gladiatorial strength to the body” of the patient who bathes in it.  

Given as treatments for digestive troubles are the cotztomatl (Physalis costomatl - incidentally the Aztec word “tomatl” is the root of our “tomato”) 

  cotztomatl (Physalis costomatl)

; mecaxochitl, “for internal ailments”; memeya (a Euphorbia),

  Euphorbia

 good for “one whose abdomen goes resounding”; and the cococxiuitl (Bocconia frutescens),

  cococxiuitl (Bocconia frutescens)

 used for constipation. Apparently the latter cannot be eaten or drunk, but must be inserted in, shall we say, the other end of the alimentary canal. Sahagún’s informant warned, “It burns like chilli”. Fortunately he added that “not much is required”, for which the patient must have been grateful.

For the ever-present gout the Aztec herbalist applied picietl (Nicotiana rustica, a wild tobacco)



 – also good for relieving tiredness.
Respiratory illnesses don’t appear all that frequently in the Aztec literature, but recommended for a chesty cough is the Tlaquequetzal (Achillea millefolium, or yarrow).
  Tlaquequetzal (Achillea millefolium, or yarrow)

The activities of the Aztec warriors kept the healers busy. For “him who is pierced by an arrow”, the leaves and bark of the waxy chapolxiuitl (Pedilanthus pavonis) 

  Pedilanthus pavonis


are applied to the wound, as it a preparation of zayolitzcan (Buddleia americana).

  Buddleja americana
 The combination of agave sap and salt is a very regular occurrence in wound remedies - agave sap, when mixed with salt, forms a solution that kills bacteria by dehydrating them. 

Need a tonic? Try this recipe. Take the sap of the yellow-leafed maguey (Agave atrovirens), and cook it together with some yellow chilli and tomato juice, and ten gourd seeds. Take after eating.
After that you may need some Aztec toothpaste. Take the root of the tlatlauhcapatli (Geranium carolinianum), 

  (Geranium carolinianum)

together with some salt and chilli, and make a paste. Rub the paste into your teeth, if you dare. 

And for a mouthwash, try an infusion of iztauhyatl (Artemisia mexicana).

Monday, March 24, 2014

Baobab Tree - Protector of the African Continent Fight Diabetis

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 163-365


Baobab is the common name of a genus of trees (Adansonia). There are eight species, six native to Madagascar, and one each to mainland Africa and Australia.

Viewed by the native population as their symbol of the African Continent and as their Protector, the Baobab is of high importance for humans and animals as it provides them with food and medicine. In traditional African medicine, the Baobab is used to help treat fever, diarrhea, dysentery, malaria, smallpox, and inflammation. 
 
The Baobab Tree is also known as the “Tree of Life”, “The Chemist Tree” and “The Monkey Bread Tree”. The scientific name is Adansonia Digitata. It is a deciduous tree that can reach 30 meters or 90 feet in height and 15 meters or 45 feet in diameter. The swollen, short, bottle shaped trunk can store up to 30,000 gallons of water during the dry season, which serves as water storage for the villages. The Baobab Tree can live up to 5000 years and is protected from fire due to its spongy wood.

Known as 'The Tree of Life', the baobab is an icon of the African savannah; a symbol of life and positivity in a landscape where little else can thrive. The Baobab trees are also known as an upside down bottles or monkey bread trees. 
 
Two magnificent baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) with possibly the widest tree-trunks to be found in the Caribbean grow in Barbados!  The largest can be seen in our Queen's Park in Bridgetown. To give an example of the size of this tree of great distinction, it takes 15 adults joining with outstretched arms to cover its circumference.

This tree is estimated as being over one thousand years old! It is thought that a seed floated from Ginea, West Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to the shores of Barbados and eventually grew into this magnificent tree. 

 
The other grand specimen can be found on the Warrens Road in St.Michael, where the inscription on the wooden plaque reads:  Boabab Tree (Adansonia digitata)

 
 One of the two mature trees in Barbados. This remarkable tree of girth 44.5 ft (13.6m) is believed to have been brought from Guinea, Africa around 1738 making it over 250 years old. Its jug-shaped trunk is ideally suited for storing water, an ideal adaption in the dry savannah
regions of its native Africa.

Another larger Baobab tree of girth 51.5 ft (18.5m) is located in Queen's Park, Bridgetown. 

 
Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Miami has a Baobab tree. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is a 83-acre (34 ha) botanic garden, with extensive collections of rare tropical plants including palms, cycads, flowering trees and vines. It is located in metropolitan Miami, just south of Coral Gables, Florida, United States.

Currently, Fairchild supports some 22,800 catalogued plants that comprise more than 3,400 species—a phenomenal increase from the 1939 inventory of 692 plants and 243 species. Fairchild’s palm and cycad collection are among the greatest in the world.

Stories about Baobab
 
The folklore surrounding these trees are truly amazing, one tale tells of God accidentally planting the tree upside down, there fore when a Baobab tree dies it spontaneously catches fire, apparently the event of a baobab tree catching fire has some credible witnesses, that describes this as a wondrous and completely unbelievable thing to witness.

Uses

  • The leaves are used as condiments and medicines. The fruit, called "monkey bread", is edible, and full of Vitamin C. The fruit has a velvety shell and is about the size of a coconut, weighing about 1.44 kilograms (3.2 lb). It has a somewhat acidic flavour, described as 'somewhere between grapefruit, pear, and vanilla'
  •  The tree bears fruit once a year, which is harvested by the local population. The fruit contains naturally dehydrated fruit pulp, which is then mechanically separated from the fiber and seeds. The leaves and seeds provide botanical extracts used in a variety of industries. The seed endocarp has naturally occurring Omega 3, 6 and 9. 
  • The tree can store hundreds of litres of water, which is an adaptation to the harsh drought conditions of its environment. The tree may be tapped in dry periods.
  • These seed are considered refreshing to suck and when boiled or soaked in water they make a refreshing lemony flavored drink. 
  • Some natives believe that drinking the water that the seeds were soaked in would protect them from crocodiles.
 
Medicinal Uses

Baobab tree is also known as the “Tree of Life” due to its nutrition facts. New reports have shown that the ingredients in African baobab tree and its fruit cover vitamins and nutrients including riboflavin, niacin and vitamins C, A, D and E. This makes baobab enjoy a high reputation for its benefits.
 
In traditional African medicine, baobab fruit is used to treat a number of illnesses including
  • asthma - the leave is boiled and the water that is left after the boiling is done can be taken is small dosages to cure asthma, coughs and other chest related ailments
  •  fever, 
  • diarrhea, 
  • malaria and 
  • smallpox
  • In addition, practitioners of traditional African medicine often use baobab fruit to curb inflammation.
Baobab fruit can

  • help slow the aging process and
  •  protect against major illnesses like heart disease and 
  • cancer. 
  • diabet Prized in Africa for centuries for its health-boosting properties, the fruit from the ancient baobab tree is an extremely rich source of polyphenals, known to be beneficial in reducing the glycaemic response - the rate at which sugar is released into the bloodstream. 
 
  • The Baobab Essence has been very useful for pain, for example back pain or pain caused by arthritis, again having almost instantaneous results.
  • The flower essence also help to heal flesh wounds
  • Many people have reported that the Baobab has good (miraculous in a few cases) effects in pain, especially for the back and related to arthritis.
  • The edible oil in baobab can also be applied to the skin for beauty purposes.
  • The residue that remains after processing oil is mixed with coconut oil and used for making soap.  the soap helps to fight skin diseases, such as acne, sunburn, eczema and rashes.  
  • Baobab fruits are vital to encourage probiotic organisms to survive and thrive in the human gut. The soluble fiber, being a non-digestible food ingredient, stimulates the growth and activity of bacteria in the digestive system, which are beneficial to the health of the body.
  • Rich in iron, high in potassium and containing vital blood clotting ingredients it can even help support the circulatory system whilst the high-fibre content benefits the digestive system
Life Span

The trees are long-lived, but just how long is disputed. The owners of Sunland Farm in Limpopo, South Africa have built a pub called "The Big Baobab Pub" inside the hollow trunk of the 22 metres (72 ft) high tree. The tree is 47 m (155 ft) in circumference, and is said to have been carbon dated at over 6,000 years old.

Propagation from Seeds

Typically soaking baobab seed in hot water for 24 hour. After they have been soaked they will then need to be dried for another day or so before planting. The germination rate for baobab seeds can be low, slow and sporadic so sow two to three times the amount of seed required to ensure you get enough stock. Be aware that it can take 3-4 months from your first Baobab seedling to germinate until your last one pokes its head above the compost.

It is imperative that you use a very well-drained growing medium. You can use a standard seed compost - such as John Innes 'Seed and Cutting' but you will need to mix in an equal part of horticultural grit or perlite to improve the drainage further.


In order to germinate the baobab seeds the soil temperature will need to be kept at between 15 and 19 degrees Celsius, so unless you are blessed with these temperature naturally you will need to keep your compost - presumably held in a seed tray - in a heated propagator.

Planting seed approximately 1/2 in. deep in the compost and water well using warm water. The seeds can now be moved to a sunny position. Considering the baobabs natural environment, they will need as much light as possible.

Make sure that winter temperatures do not drop below 10 degrees Celsius. If this is likely then the Baobab will need to be brought in under temperature controlled protection such as the sunniest room in the house or a heated greenhouse.


Thursday, March 20, 2014

Parks and Conservation Ares

By Liliana Usvat

Blog 162 -365

Wetlands control flooding, reduce erosion, purify our water and provide food and homes for fish, birds and wildlife.

Here are some wild life that you can see in Ontario while walking at a small distance from populated areas.

 

 Trumpet Swan
 Their breeding habitat is large shallow ponds, undisturbed lakes, pristine wetlands and wide slow rivers, and marshes in northwestern and central North America, with the largest numbers of breeding pairs found in Alaska. They come in the summer close to my house.

They prefer nesting sites with enough space for them to have enough surface water for them to take off, as well as accessible food, shallow, unpolluted water, and little or no human disturbance.
The Trumpeter Swan is the largest extant species of waterfowl. Adults usually measure 138–165 cm (54–65 in) long, though large males can range up to 180 cm (71 in) or more. 


Great Blue Heron
The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America.

Notable features of Great Blue Herons include slaty flight feathers, red-brown thighs, and a paired red-brown and black stripe up the flanks; the neck is rusty-gray, with black and white streaking down the front; the head is paler, with a nearly white face, and a pair of black plumes running from just above the eye to the back of the head. 

The primary food for Great Blue Heron is small fish, though it is also known to opportunistically feed on a wide range of shrimp, crabs, aquatic insects, rodents and other small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and small birds. Primary prey is variable based on availability and abundance.

This species usually breeds in colonies, in trees close to lakes or other wetlands. Adults generally return to the colony site after winter from December (in warmer climes such as California and Florida) to March (in cooler areas such as Canada). Usually colonies include only Great Blue Herons though sometimes they nest alongside other species of herons.
 Canadian Goose

The ubiquitous Canada goose is one of the best known birds in North America. It is found in every contiguous U.S. state and Canadian province at one time of the year or another. Canada geese are adaptable to many habitats.
 Trumpet Swan - this bird is at Makenzie Marsh in Aurora Ontario Canada.
Two years ago there were 2 birds last year 2013 we were visited by 5 birds. There is a real show to see them on the lake people are coming and taking picture of them the kids are watching and sometime feeding them with bread.

These birds feed while swimming, sometimes up-ending or dabbling to reach submerged food. The diet is almost entirely aquatic plants. They will eat both the leaves and stems of submerged and emergent vegetation. They will also dig into muddy substrate underwater to extract roots and tubers. In winter, they may also eat grasses and grains in fields.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Trumpeter Swan was hunted heavily, both as game and a source of feathers. This species is also unusually sensitive to lead poisoning while young. These birds once bred in North America from northwestern Indiana west to Oregon in the U.S., and in Canada from James Bay to the Yukon, and they migrated as far south as Texas and southern California. The trumpeter was rare or extinct in most of the United States by the early twentieth century. Many thousands survived in the core range in Canada and Alaska, however, where populations have since rebounded.
 Turtles - these are small turtles that are taking a sun bath. They allow people to take picture of them. When scared they hide in the water.
 Ducks
 Turtle and ducks


Beaver The beaver (genus Castor) is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. They are the second-largest rodent in the world.Beavers are known for their natural trait of building dams on rivers and streams, and building their homes (known as "lodges") in the resulting pond.

The above pictures were taken in 30 minutes at noon. The Park restoration projects in Ontario created a healthy environment for these wild birds and animals to live in the proximity of the populated areas. The existence of them show that the water is clean and the air is not polluted. A lot of people take picture of these birds and animals while taking a walk in Aurora Ontario Canada.

Provincial parks and conservation reserves support the economy by boosting tourism. They are also important for scientific research, environmental monitoring and outdoor education.  Most importantly, they ensure that future generations will enjoy and benefit from the province’s rich natural and cultural heritage.