Thursday, January 7, 2010

Cruciferae Cabbage

With me food comes first this is one of the most popular of the vegetables in Egypt
The cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne (Capitata Group) of the Family Brassicaceae (or Cruciferae), and is used here in Egypt in many dishes . If you say cromp the arabic word for cabbage they think of a spicy rice filled cabbage leaf rolled into a sausage shape and eaten during the festivals such as Ramadan.vary rare do they just boil it and have it as a plain cabbage vegetable with a meal. personaly I like to boil it then I can use the water to Make gravy but then I am Welsh and like to make a Sunday roast
even if its Just for my own culinary delight, the cabbage that grows here even the smallest would win prizes in any horticultural show for their size alone.


This plant grows everywhere on the flooded banks of the Nile and needs 6 litre of water a day
to survive.



Can you name the blooms, some I know like the first one is the flower of the seed head of the ladies finger. there are 3 different blooms for the ladies fingers.



two more flowers of the Ladies finger plant,

The flower in this is a late afternoon shot of the first open pink flower
that was taken at 8.00 on a different angle as I had to hold the flower head into the morning sun to show the stamen

flower and seed of the ladies finger.


Ornamental palm tree

Posted by Picasa



Posted by Picasa



The flower head in Macro


Posted by Picasa









This banana flower was taken in the shade with flash.
Henna tree


Young Doum palm tree.



These plants grow wild in the Islamic University
gardens , Nasr city Cairo,



Posted by Picasa


July the dates outside my balcony are almost ready
The weight of the dates have bent all the lower branches
Usually the lower branches are cut each season ,
the tree in may
Posted by Picasa





I know the names of the trees like the first is
the hibiscus flower and the other 3 are Accasia
but what the veriety is i do not know I really will
have to find a book on the plants of egypt,



Jacaranda mimosifolia.





Posted by Picasa


varieties of Morning glory
.The wild morning glory (Convolvulaceae family) and grows everywhere



the flower and bud of the pomigranite


The food that is grown for the animals is a
variety of clover they call it Hashish.
this clover is a ground cover veriety even the flower
is different from the normal clover.
After much serfing and the lies being told yet again by the egyptians.
the tree I was told was a ficus benghalensis. It is the , Bignoniaceae, sausage tree.
http://nilelife.blogspot.com/2009/07/rare-tree-in-luxor.html
I was in Cairo zoo 7/8/09 almost every tree in the park had its I d tag removed with the exeption of the tree I wanted, so I took a photo of the tag and tree, it is quite rare but the Luxor agriculture guys were adament this was the ficus benghalensis ( Banyon tree)
Kigelia africana, Bignoniaceae, sausage tree. Notice the large, showy flowers, the 5-lobed calyx and corolla, and the didynamous stamens. The corollas are leathery, which resists shredding by the clawed wings of bats that visit and pollinate this species in its native habitat in tropical west Africa. The flowers and the large, sausage-like indehiscent fruits that develop from them hang on long stems below and away from the limbs of the tree. Although not edible, the fruits are used in Africa as an external medication.http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/FACULTY/CARR/bignoni.htm

The ficus benghalensis tree is seen alover the place there is an avenue of this tree along the Nile cornish near the British embassy" Ok" its similar but all the ficus has fruit in between the leaves on the stem. that is why I went to the bother of finding out what this tree was in Luxor.


Posted by Picasa









Posted by Picasa

Clover




These are what I initially went to get a photo of .and ended up with more suprises, a good day, and a nice walk back to my flat

One of the small flowers in the garden


another different type of grass

Posted by PicasaThis acasia has pea type flowers
Ladies fingers, this plant is grown all the year round
Green peppers another all year plant

Posted by PicasaThe fig tree Figs here grow to the size of a plum
Guava tree growing under the bridge and a favourite tree of the little bee eater as it atracts a lot of bees
the henna tree fruit is almost ready
Another species of cacti, and produces green mango shape fruit , not edible.
Posted by Picasa


The flower of the lufer plant. with a common ant on the petal




Posted by Picasa

The flower of the Banana tree each petal once open show the new bananas
there can be ten petals to form a bunch or stem of bananas.

This flower was growing in the corner of a field near a water outlet




4 kinds of date trees on my doorstep





More plants on http://nilelife.blogspot.com/2009/08/plants-in-egypt.html
There are so many blooms out, strange thing is there is no fragrance to them
The Hibiscus flower.










httpBougainvillea://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougainvillea

is said to have been discovered in 1768 in Brazil. It has thorny shrubby vines that grow from 1 – 12 meters tall. The blooms that we know are not true flowers but papery bracts that surround the cluster of three small white tubular flowers and there is no mention of it growing in Egypt, but it does and in abundance.








one of the flower heads from the blossom on the next photo.




The rose nursery

This was a real treat to see, and on my birthday, only seen these before in the cut flower shops.

Do not have a clue what these plants are So I will call them the Egret heads.

After seeing the first plant 2 days previously I went further afield on my daily walk .
and came across on open nursery first I noticed the bright red Iris type flowers
the nice thing here in Egypt is that no one minds if I go in the fields, I always walk on the raised paths so do not disturb anything that is growing in the fields. often get someone thinking I am there to give them money. but thats the Egyptian this country Egypt would be great if there was no Egyptians living here,

Posted by Picasa


The oblong sunflower


Hollyhocks ( Alcea family) grow wild here


The lufer with flower. this is a looks like a cucumber in its early stage.

The melon plant flower





Posted by Picasa

Posted by Picasa


New Cacti being planted around Luxor this is the garden outside the new Tourist information office. the rail station half in view
The banana flower under a canopy of the tree , I am holding one of the petals of the flower. Harvesting the bananas by wheelbarrow, these are put in a store shed for a week if they are for local consumption most of the islands bananas are taken direct to Cairo by road. as are its other crops Mango ,lemons Oranges, guavas and tangerines.

After all the sigtings of this bloom i now find its the lufer plant and I have been seeing it in different stages first the fruit looks like a Cucumber then it swells up once the gourd is dead and dried the outer crust is taken off leaving the lufer.

This is a climbing weed the flower is so small I had to photo it in macro. many of the weeds here have such pretty flowers but we only see them on close inspection.

This creeper climbs to the top of the new trees then its flowers pendulum over the branches back down to the floor the spiders then make webs that makes the whole plant look like one big web.

This grasshopper is bigger than the little corn bunting.
http://egyptswildlife2.blogspot.com/2009/11/corn-bunting.html
These reeds are about 4 meters tall

Tangerine tree

This plant is grown for its herbal remedies so I have been told ?
the flowers are quite pretty. there are several species in Egypt










The Datura plant is everywhere the scrub land is left alone.
I had several varieties growing in my home in Wales,
http://www.saguaro-juniper.com/i_and_i/flowers/datura/datura.html





Posted by Picasa
I love the greens on the Acacia tree the new growth looks so fresh.


The seeds of this plant stick to my clothes if I brush up against it.
This is the plant that the tiny butterflies are always on.

Plants in the Cairo University grounds




do not fancy climbing this tree.



One of the weeds here.

The fig tree this tree gets no wind to blow the dust from its leaves,
the green is its new growth.





The flower if the watermelon plant
Rosmary flower head and the flower in Macro.


This is a close up of one of the wild plants .(weeds)

The gardens near Luxor station have had a new Cacti plant theme






A field of new clover next to the reed bed

An open seed head of the tahini plant
Posted by Picasa

No comments:

Post a Comment