All-time favorite vegetation

[giraffe]

Joshua trees are at the top of my list...



and so are baobabs.

[Lalitree]

Oh my god, those baobabs are rocking my world! Those are so cool.

[Bernard]

Rhubarb! Strange, wicked, delicious.

I expected to see these, the dreamy baobabs of my chldhood:
http://www.geocities.com/stipe74/baobab.gif

[terror firma]

venus fly traps for all-out badassery:


mangroves for their knowing their roots:


wheat for its generosity:


..and the sumatran giant stink flower, for getting it all wrong but still coming out on top:

[Marie]

A dear friend of mine from South Africa, whom I worked with this summer, really liked drawing me pictures of Baobab trees, because words just didn't convey the neat-o-ness clearly enough.  I would try to be patronizing and draw him pictures of dogwood, but they aren't nearly as impressive.

I'm partial to pretty much all vegetation that grew in my backyard when I was a kid.  Overgrown junipers, holly trees (not bushes) and half acre fields of phlox.  And Japanese maple trees, those are wicked good for climbing.  I always founds newts on ours.

[Lalitree]

I just got a plant catalog today from which you can order your own giant stink flower for only $70:

http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/Detail/01775.html
(this nursery rocks, by the way; it's ~30 minutes from my house and they have amazing stuff)

[davy]

banyan trees

[Steve]

A tree in my front yard.  never really learned what kind it was but as kids we loved throwing the little spikey things that grow on it.

[Lalitree]

Sweetgum?

http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/sweetgum.htm

[Steve]

thanks! : )  we always just called the seeds "monkey balls"

[SPACERACE]

I just got a plant catalog today from which you can order your own giant stink flower for only $70:

How bad does it really smell, anyway?

[jebreject]

weeping willow

[william]

we always just called the seeds "monkey balls"

 no no no, that's all wrong. says here that they're

called "gumballs" by children

just what kind of 'kids' were you? and i'm warning you now, it better not have been the goat kind...

[Marie]

A tree in my front yard. never really learned what kind it was but as kids we loved throwing the little spikey things that grow on it.

It looked like a chestnut tree to me (I was completely unaware of this Monkey Balls tree's existence) and I experienced a moment of unease because my sister liked to throw the spiny chestnut things at my hair, at which point they would become hopelessly tangled and I would run away crying.  I don't believe I've ever eaten a chestnut, because the experience traumatized me so thoroughly.

[Andrew_TSKS]

i had a chestnut for the first time in paris over the weekend. they're really not bad--my girlfriend (who may be my EX-girlfriend by the end of the week, but this is a bad topic, so let's not go on with it) said they taste like mashed potatoes, and she wasn't far off.

[terror firma]

we had a sweet gum in my front yard too. small, light, and spikey - perfect projectile weapons for childhood warfare. we called them "ichi balls"

[cold before sunrise]

why did my response hop up and go off on it's own? werd.

weeping willow is amazing because it's like magic. you can use it to expand your collection of plants endlessly for free, as a rooting agent. just cut a handful thin branches into two inch lengths and simmer over low heat, allow to cool, then soak the ends of cuttings in the liquid. (information courtesy of the vintage rose society, who used it to re-establish the giant citrus rose population in north america. smells like happy.)

[terror firma]

hey lalitree, if we take up an lptj collection and raise $70, will you buy a giant stink flower? you can either keep it in your garden (which would be funny) or plant it in an ememy's yard (also funny).

[swilkes]

I was thinking a $70 stink flower would be a perfect Valentine's Day gift, either for an soon-to-be ex you wanna give a good send-off to, or to your the love of your life who shares the same deep love of scatological humor as you do.

There's a pretty plant called the wilkesiana that I saw once at Kew Gardens, UK, which was not named after anyone in my family, but we're proud anyway:



For vegetables, I'll go for the Armenian Yard Long Cucumber:
(Picture too big to post, but worth a look)

[Lalitree]

why did my response hop up and go off on it's own? werd.

Probably because you hit "new topic" rather than "post reply". Happens sometimes.

[Lalitree]

hey lalitree, if we take up an lptj collection and raise $70, will you buy a giant stink flower? you can either keep it in your garden (which would be funny) or plant it in an ememy's yard (also funny).

HA, well, I think it takes lots of super-attentive care to make one of those things bloom, and even then they only do it once every 100 years or something like that.

[robOt]

number one: Maple "Helicoper" Seeds.


number two: Fruit-bearing Bonsai (mi-momo).


number three: the Walking Stick. (honorable mention??)



::robOt::

[peacocks]

has anyone else heard how sunflowers neutralize soil that has been contaminated with radiation from nuclear bombs?  maybe it was a dream I had but it just suddenly popped into my head when I read the topic of the thread.  anyway sunflowers and daisies.

[jebreject]

[TheNames]

: : : BUMP : : :

This is still pretty much my favorite thread.