Showing posts with label Plant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plant. Show all posts

Thursday 17 March 2016

Butcher’s Broom, The Fruits Grow on its leaves



The mysterious and rarely seen Butcher’s Broom, or Ruscus aculeatus, is a low-growing permanent shrub with hard, erect, stems and very rigid leaves that lay off in a sharp spine. Thus, from the center of the leaves grow small greenish-white flowers that flourish in early spring and grow into red berries in autumn. The minute red berries are attached directly to the leaves by a short stem, making it a very bizarre looking plant. Butcher’s Broom belongs to Liliaceae family and has the height between 60 cm to 90cm max. 

Therefore, the Butcher’s broom is not breaking any rules of the plant kingdom, because what appear to be leaves are really modified stems called “cladodes” that have been compressed to not only look like leaves but serve their function as well. Hence, Butcher’s broom is extensively distributed, from Iran to the Mediterranean and the southern United States. Butchers Broom has a long history of use in herbal medicine traditions as a diuretic and blood vessel toner. They have also been used for over two thousand years as laxative and diuretic and use to cure various ailments such as hemorrhoids, varicose veins, itching, deobstruent, aperient, and swelling. 

The plant young shoots are also eaten like those of asparagus. So, the stiff twigs were once bundled together and used by butchers to save their cutting boards clean, from which came its public English name: butcher’s broom. It is also recognized by others names such as “Knee Holly”, because of its knee height, “Jew's Myrtle”, for its use during the Feast of Tabernacles, “Sweet Broom” and “Pettigree”, although its meaning is not clear. Furthermore “Butcher's Broom” is very hardy, thriving in almost any soil or situation, and is frequently planted in shrubberies or edges of woods, on account of its remaining green after the deciduous trees have shed their leaves.

Moreover, to extracts of butcher’s broom have been used throughout the ages, but the medicinal use of this plant did not become common until the last century. Therefore, research in the 1950s specified that butcher's broom could induce constriction of veins, because of which it is still widely used for treating definite circulatory diseases. It also covers an alkaloid which inhibits the passing of sodium ions across the cell membrane and thus is an effective anti-arrhythmic substance. Also, Butcher’s broom is widely planted in gardens and its berries used as decorations purpose. The primary related species phytochemical in the similarly named Scotch broom Cytisus scoparius is sparteine, a cardiac depressant - use with great caution.

Thursday 25 September 2014

Wine Glass Vine (Ceropegia)

Ceropegia is a genus of plants within the family Apocynaceae, native to Africa, southern Asia, and Australia. It was named by Carl Linnaeus.

Friday 22 August 2014

Streptocarpus or Cape Primrose

  Streptocarpus The Common Name of This plant is "Cape Primrose" because it comes from the cape of good hope in South Aarica. S

Friday 20 June 2014

Boabab "Tree of Life"

Boabab: Also known as the "tree of life", Baobab trees, found in Africa and India, can live for several thousand years. They have little wood fiber, but can store large quantities of water.

Sunday 9 February 2014

Stemonitis Axifera



Stemonitis axifera is a species of slime mold, and its fruits in clusters on dead wood, and has distinguishing tall reddish-brown sporangia, supported on slender stalks. This species was first described as Trichia axifera by Jean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard in 1791. Thomas Huston MacBride transferred it to the genus Stemonitis in 1889. Stemonitis fasciculata and Stemonitis smithii are synonyms. It requires almost 20 hours finishing making its fruit bodies. Out of this 8 hours are required for induction of the sporangia and the development of the stalk and the columella, 6 hours more for the sporocarps to yield pigment and mature, and an additional 6 hours the spores are discharged. The slime mold grows on decaying wood when the fruit bodies contain of milky white sporangia, they are a favored food source for Philomycus slugs.