The Natural World

[Gottard]

Latest post of the previous page:

Home (on Como hills) on 6th Jan. 2009



Home, view from the back window on 6th Jan. 2009

[Lifelinking]

Some lovely pics there Peneasy, and I liked the post about the Weka Duncolm. The sky in motion link was fab Alan, thank you for that. Nice to see that this thread keeps slowly chuntering along.

[xman]

The view from here. yes right here, where I'm sitting.



And better still, from Pinecone Burk Park, just an hour awway, where I went for a September canoe trip getaway in 2007.



Recognise the same double peak? We dropped teh canoe in the river and after paddling for 15 minutes we were isolated. BC really is the best place on earth. Well, at least one of them.

X

[Lifelinking]

It looks fantastic xman,


L

[Alan C.]

Bump.
Foula looks like it's turned into an iceberg, and is going to float away (for them that don't know, some hardy folk live on that lump of rock.)

[Paolo]

BC really is the best place on earth. Well, at least one of them.

I think I may well agree Xman. We spent our 'honeymoon' on Saltspring Island and it was stunning. We spent 10 days turning over rocks on the beaches looking for chitons, whilst bald eagles soared overhead. Incredible.

[getreal]

Gosh, Alan C. That's a truly stunning photo.

[Lifelinking]

agreed, cool photo Alan.

Link to Foula Heritage Site http://www.foulaheritage.org.uk/

[Alan C.]

That's a great link Lifey, thanks.

The five hills rise steeply into Foula’s jagged silhouette and drop sharply to the sea on the west side in the highest sheer sea cliffs in Britain. The Nort Bank and Wester Hoevdi are around 700 ft and the highest cliff the Kame is 1220 ft.

It really narks me when the "media" refer to beachy head (a piddling 500ft) as the highest cliffs in Britain.

[Alan C.]

A picture from the Hubble, awsome or what?

This image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope is the latest view of an expanding halo of light around a distant star

[Alan H]

Wow!

[Lifelinking]

Wow indeed!

You can see images of distant galaxies, and help in a major project to classify them here https://www.galaxyzoo.org/

[Maria Mac]

At first glance I thought it was a picture of a developing fetus still in the womb.

[Lemonade Lily]

Been enjoying the pictures on this thread - thanks to all. In return, here is small contribution from down my lane. The leaves of Arum maculatum (Lords and Ladies) are coming up now and look just perfect. Not one to add to spring salads mind you (note please Mr Antony Worrall Thompson). Culpeper (English Physician 1652) writes a delightful sentence about what he calls 'Cuckoo pint' or 'Wake Robin'
Authors have left large Commendation of this herb you see, but for my part I have neither spoken with Dr Reason, nor Dr Experience about it
Lady Lily

[Lifelinking]

Not one to add to spring salads mind you

is it harmful or particularly unpleasant to taste (or both) Lemonade Lily?

[Alan C.]

Not sure if it's poisonous Lifelinking, but I believe a high proportion of people have allergic reactions to even just handling it.
Lily?

It's also known as Devils and Angels

[Alan C.]

This is our (very modest) waterfall, loads of lichens and other interesting stuff can be found along the path leading up to it.
Burn of Lunket.

[Paolo]

Not one to add to spring salads mind you

is it harmful or particularly unpleasant to taste (or both) Lemonade Lily?

It is poisonous particularly the berries - it contains oxalic acid which is not fatal but can trigger problems with the gut and kidneys. The roots can be eaten if properly prepared though.

[Lemonade Lily]

On Arum maculatum ..........

Recent paper on chemical ecology says (Ed: raphides are calcium oxalate needles BTW): "The acrid and irritating taste of leaves of Arum maculatum or other raphide-containing plants is not caused chemically, as often stated, but mechanically, a result of injury by raphide needles. All plant materials containing raphides remain untouched by slugs and snails"
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/12/4541.full.pdf+html

Apparently the root was once baked and powdered to make Portland arrowroot (MAFF, Poisonous Plants, 1984) for laundry work but was very irritating to hands so use abandoned.

Slugs and snails very wise. Avoid roots and shoots as whole plant contains calcium oxalate/oxalic acid.

Lily

[Paolo]

That's very interesting, according to Diseases of Sheep By Ian D. Aitken the bitter taste is due to dimethyl-oligosulphides. I'm not quite sure how a mechanical action can trigger a taste reaction, since taste is by definition a form of chemoreception. I fully understand how the raphides would cause irritation however. Spinach also contains raphides as well as rhubarb and stinging nettles, but boiling denatures these so surely it would also work on the Lords and Ladies? The leaves are part of the diet in some parts of the world - Turkey for instance (Dogan, et al. 2004. Economic Botany 58(4):684-690), which suggests that they must be edible if not palatable.

[Lemonade Lily]

Maybe they were just talking about those wise molluscs?

I cannot access the Economic Botany article (I lie - I just found it via another route!) but also found a wee reference to Arum maculatum being used as food in Iran. http://www.academicjournals.org/AJFS/PD ... oumand.pdf. No specifics on how it is prepared mind. Plants for a Future database also says it is used as a food (the root...and adds a caution on toxicity). Well, well. Clearly anything which blisters hands of laundresses might be expected to have a not too pleasant effect on the GIT.

Of course you can eat anything you like really - any plant, any fungi - it is just that some of them you only get to eat once.

Outside their rather dubious culinary role, the pollination ecology of the Arum's alone is reason for taking an interest in them.