By Any Name!

  Since I posted a list of "odd facts" about the gardenia flower, I thought it would be only proper to do the same about the mimosa flower.  The two are blooming at the moment here on the Bayou making the hillside a regular fashion show of pink and white.  My sweet granddaughter would be loving this if she was here!

  Odd fact....mimosa trees have bipinnate leaves made up of small, oblong leaflets.  These leaflets close up at night and reopen when the morning sun hits them.

  Odd fact....these leaves can also sense movement.  Scientists believe that the closing is a way of repelling annoying insects.

  Odd fact....mimosas produce flowerheads that contain many flowers that have a soft fluffy appearance.  This fluffiness is do to the long hot pink stamens!

  Odd fact...the dried seed pods rattled by the wind can sometimes fool a person into thinking a rattlesnake is nearby.

  Odd fact....mimosa is a highly invasive plant that is nigh on impossible to kill.  If you do not remove all pieces of root, the tree will just sprout up again and will have several trunks to replace the one. Mimosa is a great tree to use for "sustainable" firewood.  It is fast growing and multiplies quickly.

  Odd fact....mimosa pudica, the scientific name, means shy or bashful plant and is due to the leaf folding habit.

  Odd fact...and perhaps the oddest of the bunch....what we call mimosas here on the Coast are not mimosas at all.  We have albizias (also spelled albezias or albizzias)  It is a beautiful tree with flower similar to mimosa and the "odd facts" still apply to this tree as well! Almost anyway...the name one, of course, does not apply!  Now, go figure!

What's for supper?

The rabbits sure must be hungry this winter!  Even though we have not had any snow coverage or even any heavy frost for that matter, the rabbits have taken to gnawing tree bark. They are stripping the bark from the Mimosa saplings instead of raiding the mustard and turnip greens in the garden. I find this a bit strange since there is still plenty of greenery for them to munch.  Perhaps there is more "stick to your ribs" nutrition in bark versus the empty calories in a salad.  This is all fine by me as we have far too many Mimosa saplings growing on the hillside.  Plus!  Their abstaining from the garden greens means there will be more for us to enjoy!

Mimosa (Albezia) is one of those ever-present trees here.  These trees will reproduce with great rapidity from seeds, cuttings and roots. I recall hearing years ago how during lean times, farmers would harvest Mimosa bark and saplings to grind as fodder for their farm animals.  It seems that this was sometimes mixed with the sugarcane tops as a nutritious feed for livestock.  Raising sugarcane was quite common on the Coast years ago.  Late fall, saw the folks here making syrup in long outdoor evaporators or cookers. (Another great tale from the family archives!)  The cane was pressed to extract the juice then the long cooking process took place.  The leftover cane roughage and Mimosa bark (and saplings) was put through a grinder to make feed for the livestock.

The rabbits around the hillside are definitely on the right track by munching the Mimosa bark.  It is supposedly quite good for them!  The gnaw marks on the saplings run from a bout an inch up from the ground to about three feet in height.  The younger, more limber trees are stripped even further as they can be bent for easy access.  Sometimes the entire sapling is gnawed off or the stripping can be so extreme that it kills the tree. That is something that I do not have to worry about with the Mimosa trees, however.  I have come to the conclusion that it is virtually impossible to kill these trees!  Michael and I have cut them down with the lawnmower, chopped them out with the ax and dug them out with the shovel only to have them spring back in just a few weeks.  The rabbit damage to the Mimosas can do nothing but help our landscaping in the long run!  Eat, Little Rabbits, eat!  (Just stay clear of my garden greens!)

More Healing Plants!

A year ago, my son and sweet daughter-in-law sent me a ginger root so I could perhaps get a start of a new type. This was supposedly one that makes red flowers, I only had the white. I happily planted the root in a large flower pot so I could keep it separate from the other. I was elated to receive the root since I use so much ginger in cooking and for herbal remedies. The red-flowering type is supposed to be stronger than the white, so I was eager to try to grow this plant! For an entire year, the roots sat in the dirt and did nothing...not sprout..not rot..nothing, just sat. I had given up on the root ever doing anything. "Dumb root." I thought, "This thing is not going to ever do anything." My youngest son told me to have patience..leave it be. Well, now something has happened in that pot. There is something growing..I am not sure if it is the ginger root or some stray plant but there it is growing wild and free! I am wondering if this is the ginger or if by some chance, I stuck another plant in the same pot..I have been known to do that! Anyway, whatever is growing in the pot is getting rather large. It does not even remotely resemble the other ginger. Those have tall leaves that sort of remind me of Canna Lilies..this has small, heart shaped leaves that flare out from the base like a hand. I know there are many types of ginger and this very well could be one. I guess I will just have to wait and see if it blooms before I will know for sure..or I could just pull off a piece of the root and take a sniff!

Down the hill near the marsh edge, the Sawtooth Palmettos are blooming! This palmetto is one of the "fan" palms that grows wild all along the Coast. There are several large clumps of the palmetto growing wild around the property. The blooms are large clusters of yellowish gold and these will later produce "dates". This fruit is the same that is purported to have many medical uses. I have always been curious as to the taste of this fruit but have never had the courage to just grab one and pop it in my mouth. For that matter I doubt that I will ever see any ripen as the critters around here have a tendency to eat any and everything that even remotely resembles a food source! Maybe I should stick a large cage over one of the blooms just to see if I can safekeep one "date".

While we are on the subject of healing plants..both the ginger and palmetto fall in this category..I learned something quite remarkable the other day! It seems that the Old South favorite, Mimosa..is not mimosa after all! This beloved tree is not what it seems! The actual name is Albizia! AND..it is a "healing" plant as well. It, too, is purported to have medicinal qualities! In some herbal manuals it is said to help relieve respiratory problems due to allergies and also can be used topically to relieve allergic reactions to different plants such as the nettle. The bark, flower, fruit and leaves are all used in herbal remedies. Hmm, I wonder if this might be a treatment for poison ivy and sumac?? I really need to experiment with that a bit! And all this time, I just thought this tree was just another pretty flower!

It is amazing to me just how many healing plants there are right in our own backyards. It almost seems that for every ailment there is a natural cure. Backyard or bayou remedies!