Soursop / Guyabano (Annona muricata Linnaeus)

169-365

To reduce fever, a tea made from Soursop leaves can be taken internally. Leaves added to bathing water has the same effect. The crushed fresh leaves can be applied on skin eruptions to promote healing. A poultice of young Soursop leaves is applied on the skin to alleviate rheumatism and other skin infections like eczema. The tea has also been used as a wet compress on swollen feet and other inflammations. The juice of the fruit can be taken orally as a remedy for urethritis, haematuria and liver ailments.

Other uses: A thick tea can be used to kill bedbugs and head lice. Mixing pulverizing Soursop seeds with soap & water is an effective spray against caterpillars, armyworms and leafhoppers on plants.

Guiana Chestnut Tree Medicinal Uses

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 166-365
(Guiana Chestnut Tree - at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden Miami Florida, USA)

Pachira aquatica is a tropical wetland tree of the mallow family Malvaceae, native to Central and South America where it grows in swamps. It is known by the common names Malabar chestnut, Guiana chestnut, provision tree, saba nut, monguba (Brazil), pumpo (Guatemala) and is commercially sold under the names money tree and money plant. 

 

It is very often called Money Tree and is one of the feng-shui plants. It is supposed to be the plant that will bring good luck and money into your home. 

 

It has five leaves on each branch, symbolizing the 5 fundamental Feng Shui elements : Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth. Often they are grown as a clump of 5 intertwined trees.

 

Before modern medicine developed laboratory drugs, our ancestors all over the world used herbs and weeds for health. In many parts of the world today, they are the only treatment available and sometimes work better than manufactured drugs. Many plants exhibit the "Doctrine of Signatures" which is a concept that there is some physical characteristic about a plant that signals what it could be used for on the physical body.

The genus name is derived from a language spoken in Guyana. The species name is Latin for "aquatic". It is classified in the subfamily Bombacoideae of the family Malvaceae. Previously it was assigned to Bombacaceae.

Pachira aquatica in fruit.
The fruit, a nut is of a brownish colour and can measure up to 12 inches (300 mm) in length and 2.5 inches (64 mm) in diameter. Seeds grow within until such time as the nut bursts, sending the seeds forth and propagating. The nut is edible and often eaten raw or roasted, with a flavor similar to a European chestnut; it may also be ground and made as a hot drink. The fruit is not eaten.
 
The name "money tree" seems to refer to a story of its origin, where a poor man prayed for money, found this "odd" plant, took it home as an omen, and made money selling plants grown from its seeds.

Medicinal Uses

Provision Tree bark is highly regarded as a blood tonic. A tea made by boiling its bark is used to help anemia, low blood pressure, fatigue and to generally build strength. 

TIME OF YEAR

 Flowers late fall or early winter, fruits in the spring

ENVIRONMENT: 

Does best in areas of periodic flood, or if water heavily often. It does not like dry wind, may endure temperatures briefly down to 28F.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: 

Seeds edible when the pod cracks open, raw or cooked or ground into flour. Seeds raw taste similar to peanuts. Roasted or fried they taste similar to chestnuts.  Young leaves and flowers edible cooked, usually by boiling.

Reforestation

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 165-365

Common techniques currently used for afforestation in the Mediterranean basin consider the pre-existing vegetation (mainly shrubs) as a source of competition for trees, and consequently it is generally eliminated before planting. This is a wrong method.

It has been demonstrated that woody plants can facilitate the establishment of understory seedlings in environments that, like the Mediterranean area, are characterized by a pronounced dry season. the usefulness of shrubs as nurse plants for afforestation of two native conifers, Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine) and Pinus nigra Arnold (black pine).

Two-year-old seedlings were planted in four microhabitats: (1) open interspaces without vegetation (which is the usual method used in afforestation programs), (2) under individuals of Salvia lavandulifolia,

  Salvia lavandulifolia

 (3) under the north side of spiny shrubs, and (4) under the south side of spiny shrubs. Pine survival
   Pine

was remarkably higher when planted under individuals of the shrub S. lavandulifolia (54.8% for Scots pine,

  (Scots pine)

81.9% for black pine) compared with open areas (21.5% for Scots pine, 56.8% for black pine

   black pine

; p < 0.05).

The survival of both pines was also higher when planted on the north side of spiny shrubs, although the survival on the south side was similar to that found in open areas. 

Pine growth was not inhibited when planted in association with shrubs. This pattern appears to result from the combination of abiotic conditions imposed by the presence of a nurse shrub, which leads to improvement in seedling water status and therefore reduced summer mortality by drought.

The results show that the use of shrubs as nurse plants is a technique that offers both economic and ecological advantages, in terms of savings in labor and plant material and reduced and even negligible impact on the pre-existing vegetation.

Here is a video of forest  destruction and a tentative of forestation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpGBB190BPE&feature=player_embedded