The Big, Bad Book of Botany

by Michael Largo

  Like an exquisite, pensive sculpture, the juniper tree is much beloved, as well as hardy and resistant to blight. Its most common enemies are leaf miners, scale insects, bark beetles, caterpillars, mites, and aphids.

  Bonsai Juniper

  Because of its beauty, Chinese juniper is often used as a decorative bonsai plant, the Shimpaku being the most commonly cultivated variety. As such, it is used both as an individual potted tree and planted in a group. The most famous individual bonsai is the 250-year-old miniature in England’s Birmingham Botanical Gardens, known as the Omiya tree, after the city of that name in Japan. One of the most appreciated group bonsai, or forest-setting bonsai, is Goshin, a display located at the U.S. National Arboretum. That miniature forest took root in 1948 and contains eleven junipers. Bonsai is a Japanese word derived from the Chinese penzai, meaning tray planting. When certain plants are pruned to stay diminutive, they provide minimalistic elegance and give botanical life to the famous Zen saying “an ocean in a drop of water.”

  COCA

  Erythroxylum coca

  Of Coke and Coke

  The contentious coca plant is a tropical shrub, or a blackthorn bush, originating from western parts of South America and belonging to the family Erythroxylaceae. Known best for its vivid green leaves, oval, thin, and opaque—and the source of the infamous psychoactive alkaloid cocaine—Erythroxylum coca has straight branches and can grow up to 6 feet tall. Coca flowers are small and posted in small clusters with short stalks; the corolla has five white-yellowish petals; the anthers have a heartlike shape, while the pistil has three carpels inside an ovary with three chambers. In the later phase of growth, red berries appear to replace the flowers.

  Where It Grows

  Coca grows best in damp, hot environments, such as forest clearings. However, cultivators prefer leaves grown in drier areas, mostly on the sides of hills, which help the plant produce more potent alkaloids. When brittle enough to break manually, the leaves are ready for picking. Rather than a single harvest, coca leaves can be picked throughout a single plant’s life span, which can range from two to a whopping forty years. Typically, farmers will only harvest the newest leaves, allowing the older ones to remain, ensuring the plant can continue to produce food. Coca grows fast, providing multiple opportunities in quick succession to gather new leaves. The first and richest batches of fresh foliage usually appear in March, after the tropical rains; the second harvest from the same plant occurs again in June, and a third occurs in October or November. The leaves are called matu when first harvested, at which point growers dry them in the sun, spread them about in thin layers, and pack them into sacks.

  Coca seeds sow best in small plots during December or January. These plots, or almacigas, provide important shelter from the sun. When the young plants grow to 6 inches tall, they are placed in their final planting holes, called aspi, or possibly (if the ground is level) into furrows, or uachos, designed to keep the plot free of any invasive weeds.

  There are two main species of cultivated coca, each with two varieties. The Erythroxylum coca has variations, Erythroxylum coca var. coca, also known as Huánuco or Bolivian coca, and Erythroxylum coca var. ipadu, known as Amazonian coca. The former is grown on the eastern Andes of Bolivia and Peru, in tropical, humid mountain forests, while the other variety is grown across the Colombian and Peruvian sections of the Amazon Basin.

  A Longtime Favorite

  Historical evidence indicates that natives of coca-growing regions used the leaves regularly. Analysis of mummies nearly three thousand years old found coca in their stomachs. The chewing of coca leaves, along with limes, was once a popular way to boost stamina. Coca also found use as an anesthetic in some cultures. The Incas considered it a divine plant, and all levels of society chewed it regularly, if not daily.

  Coca was introduced to Europe during the sixteenth century but it never gained widespread popularity until the nineteenth century, when coca tonics, medicines, and even a coca wine arrived to popular embrace. The original formula for the soda Coca-Cola actually contained cocaine. It was removed in 1903 when public outcries for antinarcotic legislation began. The creators did not want the soda brand to come under controversy. The real Pandora’s box of narcotic abuse, which would come to define the plant’s reputation, had been opened in 1859 by Albert Niemann, who first isolated the main alkaloid of coca, which he named cocaine. The rest of the story is well-known, namely its swift rise as a popular and publicly consumed narcotic from the 1880s until 1920, when it was banned in the United States. However, nowadays, some governments in South America—Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela, for example—have taken to defending more traditional uses of the coca plant, from tea to toothpaste. A few years ago, the Bolivian president Evo Morales publicly chewed coca leaves, campaigning to rehabilitate the plant’s battered image.

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  Medical Benefits of Coca

  Coca is known as a very effective remedy to combat altitude sickness, and is a noted analgesic for rheumatism, headaches, sores, and wounds. It is also traditionally used for broken bones (it has a high calcium content) and during operations on the nose, and is used as a localized anesthetic. Coca improves blood vessel function and can slow or stop a bleeding wound—even its seeds work well to curb nosebleeds. Some Latin American natives reportedly use coca as a cure for asthma, malaria, and ulcers, to prevent bowel laxity, to improve digestion, and last but certainly not least, as an aphrodisiac. Its obvious addictiveness notwithstanding, most of coca’s wide-ranging medical benefits have been confirmed by modern science.

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  COCONUT

  Cocos nucifera

  A Heavenly Archetype

  If there were a contest to name the most amazing tree on the planet, it’s likely that this beautiful plant would rank high, not only because of its appearance, which has an arching, wind-sculpted grace, and for its spectacular fruits, but also for the sheer life-sustaining force it provides for humans and animals.

  The coconut belongs to the palm family of Arecaceae. It has a slender trunk that grows on average more than 60 feet in height. Its only leaves appear at the crown, and consist of featherlike, 12-foot-long fronds of intense green. Its hard, brown, and hairy-looking seed is round, ellipsoidal, or ovoid. It is interesting that botanically, the coconut is considered a drupe, not a nut, while the term coconut refers to the entire tree, including seeds and fruits. Its name comes from sixteenth-century Spanish and Portuguese explorers; coco means “skull” or “head”—three small holes in the shells of the seeds (actually germination pores) give them the appearance of a human face. However, it was Marco Polo in 1280 who first described coconut trees, having seen them in Sumatra during his travels.

  Like other drupe fruits, the coconut seed consists of three layers: exocarp, or husk; mesocarp, composed of a fiber named coir that boasts many commercial and traditional uses; and endocarp—the core of the fruit surrounding the seeds. A mature coconut fruit can weigh up to one and a half pounds. One tree can produce thousands of coconuts during its average life span of seventy years. The coconut palm is generally classified into two types: the tall, which can give 75 to 100 fruits per year if planted on fertile soil, and the dwarf, which usually gives about 30 fruits. Usually, it takes around 6,000 mature fruits to produce one ton of copra, which is the kernel or dried meat of the coconut.

  Coconut needs sandy soil, abundant sunlight, regular rains, constant temperature above 55 degrees Fahrenheit (the optimum temperature being 80 degrees), and humidity above 70 to 80 percent. Tropical and subtropical coastlines are ideal for coconut growth, since ocean currents will naturally dispense its seeds. This marks another spectacular characteristic of this tree—its seeds float!

  Commercially cultivated seedlings take four to ten months to be tall enough to transplant to their final fields, where the palms are placed about 30 feet apart. After five to six years, the tree finally starts bearing coconuts, though it will not reach peak productivity until fifteen years old. Yields can
last for fifty years, and sometimes longer. The copra meat is the prime target for harvest, used to produce coconut oil, one of the most valuable (not to mention healthy) vegetable oils in the world. Mixed with water, the copra makes coconut milk, a great substitution for cow’s milk. Indonesia and the Philippines lead the world in copra production, but it is also one of the South Pacific’s most exported products.

  The inflorescence of Cocos nucifera is monoecious; female flowers are significantly larger than male ones. It flowers constantly, with some types of coconuts cross-pollinating, while some of the dwarf varieties self-pollinate.

  What Else Is Coconut Good For?

  Coconuts contain a lot more water than most fruits, and it can be consumed immediately or used in other recipes. Coconut “meat,” or the white, pithy part of the interior of the seed, is also very popular in certain diets. The coconut water is used for oil production, mixed with the hard shell’s charcoal and the fibrous husk’s coir. Many use coconut milk and oil, which are considered healthy alternatives to dairy and other vegetable products, for frying and cooking, and the oil is often used in soaps and cosmetics. Traditionally, the leaves and husks are a fiber for making garments and parts of tools. In some cultures, coconut even has a kind of religious significance.

  COFFEE

  Coffea

  And Now, a Coffee Break!

  Although many believe coffee has been consumed since ancient times, the first documented evidence that coffee was prepared as a beverage similar to what we drink today dates to the fifteenth century. The monks at a Sufi monastery in Yemen wrote recipes for brewing and instantly praised the first hot cup of coffee as a gift from Allah. The whirling dervish sect of the Sufis also blessed it as something that helped them to keep dancing and whirling, giving them a boost of energy after longer periods of dancing and worship. By the sixteenth century, the Sufis’ praise of coffee helped make it a common drink in Arabia, Persia, Turkey, and North Africa. It took longer to take hold as a fashionable beverage in Europe, but was considered a medicine in 1583, when German physician Leonhard Rauwolf described it after his trip to the Near East: “It is useful for illness,” he wrote, “among all; particularly those of the stomach.”

  The coffee plant originated in Ethiopia, which to this day produces some of the best coffee beans in the world. There are as many as 150 coffee species grouped in the family Rubicae. Among botanists, coffee plants are divided into two main groups: Coffea arabica, which represents about 80 percent of the world’s coffee production, and Coffea canephora, with about 20 percent. Today, various species of coffee are grown in more than seventy countries. The best yields are from regions around the tropical belt, such as Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, in climates similar to where it originated. Although many believe coffee is native to Brazil, it was not introduced to that country until 1727. Brazil now leads the world as the largest coffee producer.

  Coffee grows as a small tree or vigorous bush, up to 10 to 12 feet high. It likes high elevations, though it is intolerant of freezing weather conditions. New coffee plants take three to five years after planting to produce their first fruit. Once they do, the plants keep producing beans for fifty to sixty years. Certain plants are reported to have lived for more than a hundred years before ceasing bean production. The plant blooms a highly scented white flower, which after fertilization takes nine months for its fruit to ripen. The fruit looks about the size of a cherry and comes in red or purple. In each there are two seeds, or coffee beans.

  The spread of coffee did meet some resistance. Muslim countries embraced it, and so it was considered a “Muslim drink” and not for Christians to imbibe. Not until Pope Clement VIII proclaimed it a “Christian beverage” was the prohibition against drinking it revoked. The first coffeehouse opened in Italy in 1645 and many such shops sprang up throughout Europe. They were often sponsored and encouraged by the Dutch East India Company, which began large-scale importation of coffee from Ceylon and Java. The British East India Company made coffee popular in England. They promoted the famous Queen’s Lane Coffee House, established in 1654 and still in existence today. France was first introduced to coffee in 1657, followed by Austria and Poland in 1683. After the Battle of Vienna, soldiers captured beans from defeated Turks and quickly found the drink appealing. Coffee was introduced to North America during the colonial period but it didn’t achieve the same popularity as in Europe. The demand for the drink, however, increased during the Revolutionary War as a result of the reduced import of tea due to the British blockage of that commodity. Teahouses were seen as traitorous and loyal to the Crown, especially after the Boston Tea Party. Coffee then became the best strong beverage suitable for Americans. Now 54 percent of Americans have at least one cup per day, with 68 percent drinking it within the first hour of waking up.

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  Java or Coffee

  The word coffee comes from the Italian caffè, which is derived from the Ottoman Turks, who called it kahve. Just as there is disagreement among coffee lovers as to which beans make the best coffee, linguists are also in dispute. Arab linguists claim coffee derives from the word qaha, meaning “to have no appetite,” as coffee was considered a beverage able to dull hunger. Others call it java, from the island where it was harvested, or kaffa, from a region in the Middle East noted for producing quality beans.

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  CORN

  Zea Mays

  Popping Through the Ages

  Corn is a cereal grain belonging to the genus Gramineae in the Maydeae family of grasses and is related to sugarcane and sorghum. Domesticated and cultivated at least eight thousand years ago and modified from its most likely ancestor, a tall wild grass called Balsas teosinte, corn still grows naturally in the central Balsas River valley of Mexico. Native Americans carefully chose the best grains or seeds, slowly improving the crop until it became what we know today. The Aztecs, in particular, vastly improved corn’s nutritional value through a process called nixtamalization, which involved soaking the kernels in wood ash, limestone, and crushed seashells. Nowadays there are numerous hybrids and genetically modified versions of the plant, though corn first became a popular and important food commodity due to its natural resilience and ability to adapt to varying soils, lengths of seasons, and water conditions.

  Whence It Came

  There’s solid archeological proof that corn spread north and south of its axis in Central America, even serving as a form of currency for natives on both American continents, as well as an important trading item. When the Viking explorer Thorwald wintered in Vinland in 1002, he reported seeing “wodden cribs for corn.” Soon after Christopher Columbus related to Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella his brother’s encounters with dense agricultural societies and cornfields 18 miles long, the crop was transported to Europe. Natives called it by its Haitian name, marisi, or the Arawak mahizi, literally meaning “that which sustains life.” The word mahiz eventually led to maize. Corn is an Anglo-Saxon word that was used to describe many grains.

  We Don’t Need Help

  Corn is an annual plant that grows in temperate and tropical climates on dry fertile soil. It needs full sun exposure and must have a sufficient quantity of water (again, dependent on the strain and environmental conditions). In one growing season, most varieties produce a stalk anywhere from 2 to 20 feet in height. The seed heads, or ears, grow for the purpose of becoming seedpods, and sprout from the middle of the stalk above its leaves. The female ears are called husks and have elongated stigmata called silks. The male tassels bloom at the top of the stalk and release pollen that falls in the wind, to be captured by the female silks. Each tassel produces 25 million pollen grains and is a sure way to beat the statistical odds of pollination, thus achieving total self-sufficiency.

  Once fertilized, the ears grow into cobs, which are filled with kernels, or seeds. Technically, the kernels are the plants’ fruit, even if we consider them a vegetable grain. The corn harvest begins when the silks turn brown and cobs are full
with grain.

  A Long List of Uses

  It’s nearly impossible not to come into contact with some form of corn on a daily basis. There are more than four thousand different uses of the plant, which is instrumental to the production of cereal, cooking oil, syrup, ethanol fuel, fireworks, soap, detergents, chewing gum, potato chips, peanut butter, baby food, paint, whiskey (including bourbon), tortillas, popcorn, and so on. In medicine, corn is used in antibiotics, vitamins, and in acid preparations. Corn oil is rich with vitamin E and linoleic acid, and a starch that makes it an ideal ingredient for baking and adding to meat products, pudding, creams, and sauces. Once a waving stalk on the prehistoric shore of a river, corn is now a cornerstone of many multibillion-dollar industries.

  CORPSE FLOWER

  Amorphophallus titanum

  The Giant and His Odor

  Sometimes the experience of merely reading about a plant is nothing compared to seeing it in person. A corpse flower is one such specimen—glimpsing it is a wonder, but just don’t get too close when you look at it, as its odor is equally spectacular. As its name indicates, the corpse flower stinks like a dead mammal! Its native Sumatran name is bunga bangkai; bunga means flower and bangkai is translated as “corpse,” “carrion,” or “cadaver.” The first part of its scientific name is a combination of two Greek words: amorphous means “shapeless” and phallus means—you know what—and titanum means “giant.” This is one scientific name that describes its organism perfectly.

  The corpse flower is a species endemic to equatorial rain forests in Sumatra, part of the Rafflesia genus from the same region. However, botanical gardens and private collectors worldwide keep them for their hugeness and for their shocking and renowned stench. The inflorescence of this giant flower can reach up to 9 feet and possesses a gentle spadix of flowers surrounded by a spathe, similar to a big petal. On the outside, the spathe is green, and inside it is a dark burgundy color. The amazing spadix is hollow, shaped more like a big loaf of French bread than a phallus, but it doesn’t take much imagination to see the comparison. On the lower part of the plant, the spadix bears two circles of tiny flowers, of which the upper ones are male flowers, while the lower ones are intense red-orange carpels.