紫色洋金花

今天我穿著我的紫色洋金花(Datura metel)的萬聖節裝扮上了一整天的課。念過植物學的人看得出來我是某種茄科植物。有些人猜錯，以為我是牽牛花(這個是另外一科的)。

Ethnobotany的老師愛死我的裝扮了。她猜是Brugmansia(木曼陀羅)，我說不是，但非常接近了！經我一番提示，Brugmansia花往下開，什麼往上開？她終於猜對了。

植物分類學教授一看到我就說，"You are a Datura."　呵，薑還是老的辣！不過聽說今年只有兩個學生（包括我）萬聖節裝扮成植物，大家怎麼這麼不給教授面子？

兔子還敢吃嗎？

這是我以前留下來的和最近種的花：從一年級陪我到現在的和平百合，去年種的非洲菫、red prayer和lipstick plant，今年種的新幾內亞鳳仙、菊花、變葉草、香菜、和泰國辣椒。

 

兔子不吃番茄樹，因為有微毒性。番茄苗本來好好的，最近快死了，不知是生病還是前一陣子天天下雨被淹死了？讓我心疼不已。家附近野兔、松鼠多，不停地破壞我的小花園。先是謀殺了常春藤，今天早上我又氣急敗壞地發現泰國辣椒半顆不見了。難道兔子不覺得辣嗎？和平百合、鳳仙、和其他的植物也不時慘遭毒手，這些鼠輩好像就算不吃，也喜歡把葉子啃幾口，拉扯到地上，或是亂挖盆栽裡的培養土。

我決定把菊花送給Madison Children's Museum，不然那一盆永遠都沒機會長大，一長葉子就被兔子吃掉。我今天去市場抱了一個曼陀羅花(Datura)回來。市場也有賣白花，這一個是淡紫花復辦，還有古怪的香味。跟台灣花是向下垂的品種不一樣，它的花是向上長的。

希望這棵可以長大，開很多花，最好還結一些種子讓我留下來。還敢吃？毒死你，要不然就享受Datura有名的精神錯亂幻覺吧！

Yew

Finally found the trees that grow those cute red fruits (aril) are called yew, genus Taxus.

They are very poisonous - the leaves can kill the cattle and horses that eat the plants, but the fruits are harmless to birds and allow them to be eaten and dispersed. I wonder if humans can eat the fruits too.

My Garden

Here are some photos of how my garden currently looks.

Those purple and orange flowers are varieties of what are called "mums" in markets. The leftmost yellow flower is a variety of black-eyed suzy. The rightmost is a kind of aster.

 The black-eyed suzy is not doing very well. It's too dry. (And its flowers get eaten too.) The soil is very dense and clayey - no matter how much I water, water just seems to run-off instead of going into the soil.

 At least the mums seem good. I think I caught what's destroying my plants! You can see that all the pansies' flowers disappeared and their leaves were plucked. I was so angry to see a hare running away from the flower bed when it saw me. Okay, I've some "pest" problem here. I probably need to experiment what kinds of plants fit here the most.

 Those are my herbs! Herbs seem to like here. The person who sold them said most herbs like the temperate climate and grow in the drier and sunnier side.

 Rosemary and basil.

 Thyme and cilantro.

Mint. I probably need to wait a long time for them to grow to the usable amount?

Planting Around

I got my Then & Now self-portrait back! However the sad news is A Hero of Sustainable Agriculture (portrait of Prof. K) is lost. I'm so sad that I can't send it as a gift to Prof. K. I also found my Hotel Red texture collage, but it initially had a black border and it looks as somebody has ripped and took the border away.

I was going to watch The Avengers with a friend, but she stood me up and watched Packers football game instead, so I went to the movie alone.

Except watching movie and doing some homework readings, I was planting flowers around this afternoon. Everyone passed by seemed to appreciate the pretty flowers. I also bought two varieties of chili pepper plants and young plants of 5 kinds of herb (thyme, rosemary, mint, cilantro, and basil). I planted the herbs outdoor and kept the chili indoor. I've heard the herbs are perennial: they die in the winter but the roots would survive into the next year. I hope they grow strong and more and more so I'd have a large supply of chili peppers and fresh herbs for my kitchen!