Independent gardening advice for real gardens, balconies and windowsills.
A growing reference library of gardening terms, techniques and climate concepts explained in plain language.
This belongs to the cinchona family, and produces the fruit called genipap or marmalade box. It is about the size of an orange, and has an agreeable flavor. The juice of the fruit yields a bluish-blac...
A pretty Brazilian palm; the leaves are used for thatching huts, and other parts of the plant are utilized.
A plant of the buckthorn family, known in Jamaica as Chaw-Stick, on account of its thin branches being chewed as an agreeable stomachic. Tooth brushes are made by cutting pieces of the stem to conveni...
The silk oak tree of Australia; a tree that attains a large size, and is remarkable for the graceful beauty of its foliage.
This Indian tree represents a genus of plants of considerable economic value. This particular species yields a profusion of small red fruits which are used for flavoring drinks, having a pleasant acid...
The anchovy pear of Jamaica. The fruit is pickled and eaten like the mango, having a similar taste.
The wood of this tree is called Lignum Vitae. A resin, called gum guaiacum, exudes from the stem, and is otherwise obtained from the wood by artificial means. It is of a greenish-brown color, with a b...
This plant is nearly allied to the chocolate-nut tree, and yields fruits that abound in mucilage, as also does the bark of the young shoots. The mucilage is given out in water, and has been used as a...
The peach palm of Venezuela. The fruits are borne in large drooping bunches, and their fleshy outer portion contains starchy matter, which forms a portion of the food of the natives. They are cooked a...