1 through 7 December 2019
The day after our Thanksgiving feast, Jody, Steve and I headed to Susie’s for our first Christmas party of the season. It was 1 December after all. We had a fun afternoon decorating Susie’s Christmas tree, nibbles, bubbles and singing carols.
This has been a very productive week. I finally chose my costume for my fancy dress Christmas party with friends in Lyon next weekend. I found my secret Santa gift for next week. I wrote and printed my annual Christmas letter, now I need to address all those envelopes! I met with Arabella and will be continuing to work on updating her database of her arboretum. I really enjoy this work and am happy to proceed to the next stage of the very big data cleansing exercise.
Leaves are almost finished falling - finally. It was another wet and windy week, which helped bring the last ones down. The snowdrops are finally starting to send up their leaves, and a few are in flower, including Galanthus 'Faringdon Double'.
Friday was the annual Christmas lunch with the florilegium. As usual a huge spread was provided and the gardeners were very grateful.
I pulled together this week’s ident:
Apocynaceae Vinca difformis
Buxaceae Buxus balearica
Buxaceae Sarcococca saligna
Hymenophyllaceae Trichomanes speciosum
Liliaceae Danae racemosa
Monimiaceae Peumus boldus
Onagraceae Fuchsia microphylla
Plantaginaceae Veronica salicifolia (syn. Plantaginaceae Hebe salicifolia)
Polypodiaceae Microsorum diversifolium (syn. Phymatosorus pustulatus subsp. pustulatus)
Rubiaceae Coprosma robusta
Plant of the week
Monimiaceae Peumus boldus Molina
common name(s) - boldu, boldo synonym(s) - Boldea boldus (Molina) Looser; B. fragrans (Pers.) Endl.; Boldu boldus (Molina) Lyons; B. chilanum Nees; B. chilensis Schult. & Schult.f.; Laurus belloto Miers ex Nees; L. lingui Bridges ex Nees; Peumus fragrans Pers.; Ruizia fragrans Ruiz & Pav. conservation rating - Least Concern native to - Chile location - medicinal Oceania, accession _____ leaves - have a lemon-camphor aroma; brittle, opposite, petiolate, elliptic, whole; the surface is rough flowers - white to yellow; late summer; dioecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but only one sex is to be found on any one plant so both male and female plants must be grown if seed is required); fruits, which appear between December and February, are very tasty, nutritious, small, green, edible spheres habit - evergreen tree growing to 6m at a slow rate; rounded cup, very branched, with dense glaucous or green foliage habitat - dry sunny slopes in lightly wooded forest below 1,000m; together with litre, quillay, peumo, bollén and other indigenous plants, it is a characteristic component of the sclerophyllous forest pests - none found disease - none found hardiness - to -5ºC (H3) soil - light or medium, acidic, well-drained sun - full sun propagation - seed; semi-ripe cuttings in summer pruning - damaged, dead, diseased nomenclature - Monimiaceae - Mascarene islands vernacular name; Peumus - from peumo, the Mapuche name for the plant; boldus - for Spanish botanist Baltasar Manuel Boldo (c. 1766-99) NB - monotypic; leaves contain a toxic alkaloid; its volatile oil is one of the most toxic oils; excessive doses have caused irritation of the kidneys and genitourinary tract and a massive overdose can cause paralysis; fruit - raw or cooked - is sweet and aromatic with an agreeable flavour; fruit is up to 20mm in diameter; leaves and bark are used as a condiment; traditional remedy used by the Araucanian Indians of Chile as a tonic. The plant stimulates liver activity and bile flow and is chiefly valued as a remedy for gallstones and liver or gallbladder pain; bark is a source of tannin and is also used as a dye; deliciously fragrant essential oil is obtained from the leaves; dried and powdered leaves are scattered amongst clothes to sweeten them and repel insects; small fruits are dried and used as beads in necklaces; when warmed by the body or the sun they release the scent of cinnamon; wood is used for making charcoal
References, bibliography:
Botanical [online] https://www.botanical-online.com/en/medicinal-plants/boldo-peumus-boldus-plant [7 Dec 19]
Chile Flora [online] http://chileflora.com/Florachilena/FloraEnglish/HighResPages/EH0045.htm [7 Dec 19]
Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5
IUCN [online] https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/135682641/135698438 [7 Dec 19]
Plant List, The [online] http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2547762 [7 Dec 19]
Plants of the World [online] http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:191376-2 [7 Dec 19]
Plants for a Future [online] https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Peumus+boldus [7 Dec 19]
Useful Tropical Plants [online] http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Peumus+boldus [7 Dec 19]
Wikipedia [online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boldo [7 Dec 19]
