Aroid Extravaganza --- On the rare side

[Dypsisdean]

Here are 30 pics of some nice aroids that many of you may have never seen before --- in a slideshow format. As a teaser, here are a couple of the slides. In the first slide for scale, and owner of the garden and aroid collection, is Jerry Andersen.

Don't forget there's a full screen option in the control bar.
AROID EXTRAVAGANZA

 

[Palmmermaid]

Wow! Great shots of some of my favorite eye candy! I think aroids scream tropical, even more so than palms.

Thanks for the great shots.

 

[Dypsisdean]

You're right Kitty. Palms and aroids go together like...........choose your analogy.

It is an amazingly large category of plants, and many new species are still being discovered, along with some fantastic hybrids being developed.

I should try and put the names on those in the slideshow.

 

[Peter]

Great photos as usual Dean-thanks!

 

[Shon]

Just awesome Jerry and Dean. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jeff Searle]

Dean,

This ranks right up there with my palms and crotons. I love this family of plants. Thanks for the great pictures.


Jeff

 

[ariscott]

Isn't it nice when you have canopies?? I am still establishing mine so I can plant my shade stuff... Although, my collection is nowhere near as nice

Regards, Ari

 

[Dypsisdean]

You're right Ari,

Canopies are what make a garden complete, and there is really no short cut, unless you are fortunate enough to have an established forest. And even then, a lot of times the trees are not the right kind.

I think canopy and mulch are the two indispensable aspects to a garden most often forgotten. Between the two, they probably cut your water usage by at least half. And along with protection from sun, heat, cold, and wind, the canopy also helps add to any mulch with dropped leaves, while keeping weeds down, adding nutrients, and amending the soil. Where I live, it is said 40% of the water the falls on the ground comes from the dew dripping from the forest canopy at night.

And I haven't even begun to talk about the plain beauty of overhead canopy along with the birds and other wildlife it attracts.

 

[amazondk]

This is th canopy I am striving for in part of my project.

 

[Dypsisdean]

Don,

just go ahead and tell us that's your canopy, We would never know the difference.

But seriously, I'm sure you can get canopy faster than anybody on Earth down where you are.

 

[FRITO]

great pics, mother nature provides such a great diversity, I love all plants!

 

[amazondk]

Dean,

I don´t know if a canopy can be created faster or not, but if you do nothing one appears in not too long. I was over at my country place yesterday appreaciating the canopy in the hot dry Amazonian summer. It has hardly rained for the past two months and things are really dry. And, the sun on the equator is brutal this time of year. About a third of my place is medium age secondary growth, I would say around 10 to 15 years. The trees in this forest eventually will be taken over by primary species which are much larger and will shade the secondary trees out. This stage of forest succession creates the conditions for these trees to grow. I am enhancing this by opening up the vegetation and planting primary forest trees. There are a few primary trees already growing there such as cumaru, diptrex odorata. Palms make are an important part of forest canopies here with Euterpe precatoria, oenocarpus bacaba, attalea maripa being the main emergent species. I have a lot of Astrocaryum aculeatum in the forest and in the open as well. Since the place has been cut and burned so much they have done quite well. The place where I have the hammock hung is toward the top of the hill that looks down at the Mauritia grove at the stream bed.

I tied up my hammock to a few trees and had a nice nap and then just hung out and enjoyed my little forest.

dk

 

[amazondk]

Here is another shot of where the hammock was hung. I have opened up a lot the understory over the past few months. I hired a guy that lives in the village to do this. He is a lot more competent at machete work than I am. He did kill a few poisonous snakes while at it, better him than me. Around here you do have pay attention to where you step in the leaves. The second picture of the Mauritia grove is somewhat further down the slope. This picture was taken about a month ago when the water was at it´s highest. I did not take a picture from this angle yesterday. But, there is no water there now. What I intend on doing is making a little pool there by digging out a pool and lining it with wood, first class water resistant hardwood, and then piping in the stream channel. This will over course be flooded for a part of the year, but the rest of the year it will be great. The water from the stream is nice an cool. This type of pool is common here in the region, and is known as a banho, or bath. The little palms to the right of the hammock are E. precatorias. The previous owner planted a bunch of them by burying seeds in the ground. I am leaving them grouped as they will look nice. Now that I have opened up the canopy a bit they are growing fast. Also, as the breeze blew the trees the leaves fell a lot raining down mulch. The dry season is when a lot of trees shed their leaves. The palms along the water edge and some in the water are, Astrocaryum acaule. They naturally grow in the area in this environment.

There is also a picture of a little andiroba tree (Carapa guianensis) which is a cousin of big leaf mahogany. This tree is a primary forest tree that grows normally somewhat close to water. It has a nut which is an important source of oil for medicinal uses. I am going to plant a few more of them. I will be putting in more understory palms as well. As you can see in the above post here are already some bactris growing and a few others I have not identified yet. The picture with the fruit on the trunk is a goiaba de anta, tapir guava, (I think this is Bellucia dichotoma). Needless to say they have fruit for tapirs, amoung other local animals and birds.

dk

 

[Dypsisdean]

Now we're talking. Great photos Don. It's not often enough that I get to view photos from a area more tropical and exotic than here. I hardly recognize anything, it is so different than anything I am accustomed to.

I'll tell you one thing I am not envious of....... I enjoy the peace of mind I have tromping around the forest here knowing there isn't a snake for thousands of miles.

I notice you don't seem too concerned about bugs while lounging. There must be some around. ???

 

[amazondk]

Dean,

You are right about the snake part. Although they are an important part of the ecosystem they are something to be aware of. But, they are part of the place and I respect them as such. By keeping the underbrush down they may appear from time to time, but are not normally too much of a problem. As to bugs the main bothersome one is a little fly that sometimes makes noise in your ears and is kind of annoying. But, these do not bite. There are some mosquitos, but not many. The areas around the black water rivers like the Negro have very few mosquitos. That does not mean that there is no malaria though. Malaria is endemic along the Negro River, even in Manaus. The vector for the disease is only around at sun up and sun down though and not in large populations. It is not at a problem at Paricatuba for the most part. At night there are virtually no bothersome insects. From time to time we get these noseeum type biting micro flies which also are a bother. But, at my place I have rarely had a problem with them. I rarely use insect repellant as it is mostly not needed. I do get some little monkeys called macaco de cheiro moving through the trees at times as well. And, I love the mauritia grove.

Speaking of aroids here are some pictures of some growing in the mauritia grove down by the river. I need to get more growing in my forest area. All I need to do is go to a more aged forest area and they quite abundant.

The tree with the philodendrons was fruiting and I could not resist taking some pictures. I did not notice at the time that the picture included some beautiful leaves of a local tabebuia that grows in the flooded forest of the Negro River called a tarumã. I love tabebuia leaves. In fact the last picture here is one of the best ones I think I have taken for a while.

As to tropical, I guess it is hard to ge much more tropical than where I live. What I love about my little forest area is that it already comes with great raw material. And, all I have to do is put in enhancements. Amazonia is an incredible place, and one of the best parts of it is the Negro River, and my yard.

dk