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Post by philagardener on Jun 11, 2014 18:58:04 GMT -5
And second, whatever the plant it that makes up unknown pot #1 (the stuff I keep finding in the lentils) is now in flower. Still have no clue what it is, but it is quite pretty (pretty enough, in fact, I may move any seed of it from the pot and that I get in future bags to the front of the yard, where the wildflower garden is)  Maybe a wild cornflower or related Centaurea? Do you know the country of origin? |
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Post by blueadzuki on Jun 11, 2014 19:26:57 GMT -5
India, I would assume.
Looking from the distance I took the photo from , I would have said cornflower as well. Only problem is; it isn't set up like a cornflower, or indeed like any standard aster. It's a little hard to see, but there are no disc and ray florets. Each of those purple things is in fact a complete and (botanically) perfect flower, with 4 (maybe 5) petals of it's own (fused into a corolla) separate stamens and separate pistils. In fact, based on the flower shape, I think it's probably somewhere in the Verbenecae (the verbena family)
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Post by blueadzuki on Jul 4, 2014 16:28:03 GMT -5
Not a lot to report. I did some senna yeasterday, but there really wasn't anything of account in it.
Rice beans are pretty fallow as well. Not only does waht is in season now not have the things I actually can use, this years crop is so fallow it has almost nothing at ALL. it's so pure, I've decided it's only worth buying any if I see sometihng that day in that bin (no "buy a little and see what I get") There are traces of such classics as spurred butterfly pea and horse tamarind and traces of a fairly pretty golden mung bean, but only in the tiniest of amounts. And the off colors are so low that I fully expect that by next years crop, flat red really WILL be all there is.
The one find I CAN mention occured in a bag of large Chinese soybeans I got. normally I stay away from "dulls" (my term for the larger, far more common, black soybean strain sold in Chinatown, since it's seed coats are dull black unlike the old kind, which was shiny black/graphite) as I think the "shinies" taste better when I try and cook with them and, when plant time comes around in the spring, they grow worse for me too (the shinies don't grow great, but at least SOME of them grow (even if half turn into vines) the dulls don't.) But it happened that the previos week I had found a bag of that brand with a non black seed I though migh be worth experimenting with, and wanted to check the other bags of that brand before they all sold out (the store had only three, and as I had not seen that brand before, I thought it might be a minor one that if it sold out, I would never see again. I was wrong (THAT STORE only had 3 more bags, but that brand is also carried by the H-mart chain, and they have PLENTY of it) I found no more clear "odd" beans a few have rings but that really is nothing to get excited about (there are soybeans that have rings on their seedcoats as a trait, like agate and those two Zeedman gave me, but that kind of a ring can also mean "soybean that did not fully ripen before it dried, so it isn't neccecarily a transmittable trait.)
But there WAS one surpise wating in that lot. While going through one of the bags, I found what I took to be a soybean that had been completely devoured by rot and mold (it happens) Idly I broke it with my fingernail, to see if I could at least tell if it was yellow or green inside (i'm trying to split the blacks into two strains, one of one, one of the other) It was then I got two surpises, one the things very clearly was not a soybean as inside was a pit and two, whatever it is, it smelled. Not like rot or mold (like one would expect from a spoiled seed) but rather like some sort of spice. Actually it smelled a lot like sichuan pepper (except it can't be that, as sichuan pepper seed is a LOT smaller than a soybean and doesn't have a pit) So whatever it is assuming I can get it to grow, it may be useful as an aromatic (given the size of the pit, I'm assuming shrub or tree or woody vine, so I'll need to prep carefully before I try to grow it.)
Oh and the prickly thing in the pot has now flowered and revealed itself to indeed be some sort of thistle (though a fairly small flowered one given how big the leaf rosette is. the flower is only about wild burdock size)
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Post by blueadzuki on Jul 17, 2014 9:17:00 GMT -5
Harvested the first of the thistle's seed heads. Not really sure what kind of thistle it is. Desot appear to be the one I thought (with the half shiny, half textured seeds) this one seems to be the seed that was coated with muck when I found it, so much I though it was a dirt clod. Now I know HOW it got so much gunk on it. Whatever kind of thistle it is, it has a seecoat and surrounding hairs that are really sticky, like glue or resin sticky. At this point, I am actually unsure IF I can get the seeds seperated; the stuff is that sticky.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jul 24, 2014 16:00:25 GMT -5
Bit of Bad news (mostly for blackox, but techically for anyone growing cowpeas, I assume) The company that packaged that "Healthy Bean" mix I was getting the mottled eye cowpeas from has altered it's formula, and the mottled eyes have been replaced by a larger black eyed cowpea. I managed to find 5 "old" bags today, so I have a bit of a backup stock but I doubt I will be able to take that "I can always get more" view anymore.Theoreticically, come January when I start prowling Flushing again (where they are two other H-Marts I know of) I may find some more old stock (though I think the stuff sells readily enough to make that unlikely six months from now) Maybe I'll be lucky and it's a seasonal thing (i.e. they'll go back to the mottled eye later. But I'm not holding my breath.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jul 29, 2014 13:50:20 GMT -5
And another weirdo weed in the mixed pot. The thing with the paddle shaped leaves just put out a flower; a TINY purple one. In fact apart from the microscopic size (and the fact that the thing does not appear to be any sort of vine, the flower looks sort of like something from out of the Lycium (wolfberry/goji berry)family
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Post by steev on Jul 29, 2014 22:02:18 GMT -5
I must remember to set out early enough, the next time I go to Holly's (it's a traffic issue, damned congested freeways)), to cruise the groceries in Fremont (Little Asia Minor!); I should also cruise lower University Ave (Little India/Pakistan) in Berkeley. There is a Somali/Ethiopian/Eritrian presence on a stretch of Telegraph Ave, in Oakland.
California has long drawn people of very diverse cultures, no small reason why our economy is so robust; population-wise, it's a land-race state, and the SF Bay Area is ground-zero for many of these impacts, to our profit; yee-ha!
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Post by kevin8715 on Jul 29, 2014 23:39:22 GMT -5
Hmm.. I also enjoy seed hunts. Some of my most recent finds are two kinds of taro, sprouting jicama, multi colored quinoa etc. Though I don't now how these will do in my climate. Quinoa does pretty good. The tubers need an extremely long season that is only in the deep south. My climate could probably support them perfectly if spring night temperatures were a tad higher.Will report later.
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Post by blueadzuki on Aug 16, 2014 20:08:59 GMT -5
More bad news, I went over the bridge last Tuesday and it looks like I was right, the lentils have switched as well; so no more vetch. Got last two "old" bags they had. In other news, two new "what are they's" in the unknown pot The one I though was some sort of wolfberry (it isn't it makes little nutlets, not berries)  and then this flowered only this morning  |
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Post by blueadzuki on Aug 24, 2014 17:22:01 GMT -5
Update
Whatever the pink star flowered things is, it's second flower is open.
The first one is developing a fruit. I was sort of afraid it would not, as the flower was pretty messed up by the time it reclosed (evidently, whatever it is, it's petals are delicious to something around here.
With the developing fruit visible I now at least know which of the seeds I planted this is (even if I still have no clue of its actual botanical identity. The fruit seems to be a fleshy column with long curved "elephant's toenails" running around it, which are probably the seeds. Based on their shape I think this must be the thing I find from time to time in the horse gram; the one with one side of the seedcoat very smooth and shiny (the outer side, it seems)usually sort of greyish with darker grey markings, and the other side brown and deeply ridged and pitted (presumably the inner side). Thugh that confuses things even more since, based on their appearance, I thought those seeds were from something in the daisy family, and there is NO WAY something with a flower like that could be a daisy member!
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Post by flowerweaver on Aug 25, 2014 18:38:12 GMT -5
The second one looks like some kind of ground cherry nightshade.
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Post by blueadzuki on Aug 25, 2014 19:47:51 GMT -5
I agree the flower is similar, but the seeds are not; I know of no nightshade whose fruit is not a berry of some description, and this very clearly has it's large seeds on the OUSIDE of the receptacle. Plus nightshades usually aren't so linear in construction; they tend to branch more.
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Post by steev on Aug 25, 2014 20:21:19 GMT -5
True, but I agree with flowerweaver; my first impression was eggplant, from the leaves; not claiming any actuality, only first impression.
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Post by philagardener on Aug 25, 2014 20:31:51 GMT -5
If the petals were a bit more rounded, there are similarities with some strains of Hyoscyamus alba. Was there only one bud (thinking a scorpioid cyme would be diagnostic)?
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Post by blueadzuki on Aug 26, 2014 6:02:52 GMT -5
Well there's actually three buds by now (or as it stand currently, one developing fruit, one open flower and one bud) but the flowers do show up singly (i.e. not in a cyme).
When the fruit finishes up; I'll take a photo of that too. The bracts close back in while it develops; so there's really nothing to see without pulling them back and I'd need three hands to do that; which I wont have again until Saturday when dad is off work (those are his fingers in the picture, not mine).
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