300 year old Food forest in Vietnamese Suburb
Geoff lawton discovers a 300 Year old Garden tended by a Vietnamese family for 28 generations.
I love this Clip because i too search out old suburbs and where i always find the most interesting plants and emergent ecologies.
Old soils built up layer by layer from gardening and human activity, with Domestic plants and animals that have thrived over centuries of climatic variation. In Australia this situation is easy to find but like everywhere becoming a more and more scarce resource as cities intensify and modernize.
Old Public gardens are also very valuable for the Permaculture designer as they provide not only the tried and tested propagation material to start new gardens, but also the knowledge of what mature plants look like, their accumulated community of associated plants, wildlife and soil biota.
Finding an ancient Oak or mulberry, or in the tropics a 100 year old Mango tree allows you to study what each tree does to the soil in which it grows and the plant nutrients, deep profile soil carbon qualities, or surface O-Horizon "duff" or the allellotoxins that species may bioaccumulate. A native example i recall from Fremantle is the community that forms about rottnest Island Pines (Callitris preissii), whoe duff and possibly allelotoxins create a habitat that allows the growth of a Pellitory herb, which in turn is the sol food source of the Blue skipper Butterfly. We do not yet know what range of special habitats exotic species are creating that will foster unique niches for increased biodiversity, although we have evidence that Old Moneterey/Radiata Pine groves provide a rich habitat for rare native Ferns, Mosses and terrestrial orchids. These habitats then also support the species that depend on these plants. The importance of Mature pines to endangered Black cockatoos is well known, and Urban Mango trees are well utilised by endangered fruit bats and local bird species.
Old trees in mature urban settings allow study of how exotic plants integrate into the ecology and how they interact with native species and provide valuable habitat. What kinds of lichen,moss, algae, vascular epiphytes and fungi adapt to its bark? What invertebrate diversity lurks among the canopy, on the bark and in the rootzone? What structural diversity does it provides for nesting or feeding Birds, Mammals or reptiles, and what epiphytes like to settle. And to humans what are the properties for Ammenity planning? Shade? longevity? root stability, spread and invasiveness?. Without this evidence a designer cannot design systems that are truly sustainable.Without real examples to survey and quantify we remain in the dark working with a very rudimentary theory based approach to Urban ecosystem design.
These old gardens are of immense value, not only because we are working with species that do not occur naturally together, being separated by geographic boundaries, but also because many of our most valuable cultivated species are becoming very rare or are already extinct in truly wild settings. Wild Apples in Afghanistan or Wild Vanilla in mexico are on the verge of disappearing before we know how their original ecosystems worked.
Showing posts with label food forest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food forest. Show all posts
Monday, September 6, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Elements of a food forest
Elements a food forest
A food forest is an increasingly common term that has taken hold in alternative gardening circles, however it describes a very old concept. It describes complex Agro-forests, forests created by humans, intentionally, primarily for satisfying human needs, which approximate the structure and function of a natural forest.
The formal study of these systems is relatively new even though examples of traditional food forests are found throughout the Americas, Africa, South and East Asia and the pacific. Each one has its own structure and species composition dependent on local ecological conditions, tastes and availability of planting materials.
Food forests have a multifaceted value to environment and society, their strength lies in their ability to sustainably protect the land, while also providing multiple nutritional and economic options for the owner with very low input level of materials and labour. Food forests are also not just about food, they also provide Shelter, Fuel, medicine, forage and game. They can provide Aromatic oils and resins, timber and craft goods for sale. They also provide a range of ecosystem services such as soaking up nutrient and microbial pollution, retaining and building stable soils, humidifying, rehydrating and cooling landscapes. They have great conservation value in their ability to provide habitat for many wild and semi wild species, especially birds,most especially when they provide islands of sanctuary in a sea of fields or farms.
They also create a very livable landscape mosaic when interspersed with wetlands and grasslands. As a species we enjoy a wide variety of foodstuffs and goods that are found in multiple habitat types so it is useful for us to live on the edges of 2 or more habitats. One of the most habitable areas of all is near these anthropogenic food forests.
Establishing a piece of viable human habitat is not a difficult thing. You are already doing it when you live on a piece of land and return any domestic waste to the site.As in amongst what we call waste are seeds and other propagules just waiting for an opportunity, waiting to be left in a rubbish pile where they may find enriched soil conditions and germinate. Many of these plants are dispersed by large animals in their wild habitat. Animals eat the fruit along with other fruit and herbage and deposit neat piles of fecal micro-enrichment far from the parent tree. Our relatives, the great apes, are major seed dispersal agents and probably played a role in the selection and evolution of the tasty fruits across Asia and Africa today, some biologists suspect that the reason for the lack of tasty tropical fruits in Australian rainforests is a lack of primates.
With the selective force of many animals flocking to a particular tasty tree, and then spreading its progeny all through the forest in radiating seed shadows, repeated year after year, generation after generation it is not surprising that fruits have been fashioned to be bright, colourful large and sweet, just like Primates prefer. Our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, have been studied for their effects on seed dispersal in their native habitat. Some seeds are swallowed whole, and deposited later, while others are suck free of pulp and the remaining Wadge, a compressed lump of skin, fibre, pulp and seed (Goodall 1986), is dropped or hurled back into the forest. Studies on the germination rates of seeds from these Wadge parcels showed germination and survival rates greater or equal to defecated seed, and much higher than seed in fruit left close to the parent tree. Think about that next time you are spitting pips from a Watermelon or Mandarin! We are not so different.
Humans don’t swallow so many fruit seeds anymore, we even specialize in breeding fruit with fewer or no seeds! And when we do eat seeds, unavoidably, we flush them to sea or bury them in great underground anaerobic vats (Septic tanks).What we do, increasingly, is compost. Composting is a sanitary means of disposing of all manner of organic wastes and recycling them back into soil food. In theory thermocomposting sees the materials auto-generate heat as the microbes metabolize foodstuffs, this activity raises the temperature up above 60C and self pasteurizes the pile. It basically cooks any pathogens, insects, seeds and other items and renders the mix unattractive to vermin. The heat kills many seeds and this is the kind of compost you would put on your annual garden beds. The other more common compost, often by neglect more than intention, is more of a repository bin for scraps. They are better covered above to exclude vermin, but open to the earth below to allow free movement of earthworms, slaters and other benign decomposers to and from the pile. It is in these piles that we might throw fruit pulp and pits, non weedy leaf and trim, gnawed dog bones, ash from a barbecue or fireplace, and all sorts of other things that don’t attract flies, or bears!This enrichment supplements the natural succession of the area around Human by concentrating plant nutrients, and by seeding directly with our preferred fruits!
This system has been going on for millennia. This kind of open backyard tip where the chooks and the dogs eat the scraps and all thats left ends up in a big old heap may be as old as gardening itself. Studies on plant domestication suggest that these midden gardens were important sites for domestication of tree crops. Bringing seeds from distant places and discarding the seeds in fertile ground created opportunities for hybridization of distant relatives. This process continues today especially among people living adjacent to forests and harvesting wild foods. Building a food forest involves tickling the systems of forest repair by first understanding and observing what happens when we do nothing.
Weeds will blow in, grass will grow rank and be overtopped by weedy shrubs and legume trees. After a few years a low canopy may form and the edge of the new forest may be a tangle of vines, and shrubs with small bird dispersed fruits.
Under the establishing canopy partially shade tolerant bird dispersed species will sprout. These will shoot up and overtake the scrubby layer and form a higher canopy. They will fruit and in turn attract more birds which will take and deposit more seed.
In time perhaps larger wildlife will bring in large seeded species that are quite shade tolerant, these will slowly establish and wait for a small gap in the canopy to make a push for dominance.
We can do this too, the difference being control and speed. Control of species composition, control of speed of formation, and control of lifespan before the forest is reopened to a new cycle of rebirth.
Of the thousands of species of direct use to people, and the thousands more that support desirable wildlife or play important roles in the ecosystem we can learn to select and build artificial forests of extremely high utility.
For ecosystem stability it is hypothesized that a mere 15 species is necessary to stabilize and ecosystem, however not all species are created equal in terms of importance. So it is important for use to understand the concept of functional groups within ecosystems if we desire to create them.
I’ll be focusing on some of these in separate articles as we go along, they will include Nitrogen fixing plants, Fungi, Decomposers, Plants that bio-accumulate minerals from deep in the soil strata, Pollinators, Grazers, Predators, Pathogens and Parasites, Weeds and Disturbers.
We have a lot of reading to do ourselves and I realize the terms used are not perhaps what ecologists use, however they are the functional groups we work with.
A food forest is an increasingly common term that has taken hold in alternative gardening circles, however it describes a very old concept. It describes complex Agro-forests, forests created by humans, intentionally, primarily for satisfying human needs, which approximate the structure and function of a natural forest.
The formal study of these systems is relatively new even though examples of traditional food forests are found throughout the Americas, Africa, South and East Asia and the pacific. Each one has its own structure and species composition dependent on local ecological conditions, tastes and availability of planting materials.
Food forests have a multifaceted value to environment and society, their strength lies in their ability to sustainably protect the land, while also providing multiple nutritional and economic options for the owner with very low input level of materials and labour. Food forests are also not just about food, they also provide Shelter, Fuel, medicine, forage and game. They can provide Aromatic oils and resins, timber and craft goods for sale. They also provide a range of ecosystem services such as soaking up nutrient and microbial pollution, retaining and building stable soils, humidifying, rehydrating and cooling landscapes. They have great conservation value in their ability to provide habitat for many wild and semi wild species, especially birds,most especially when they provide islands of sanctuary in a sea of fields or farms.
They also create a very livable landscape mosaic when interspersed with wetlands and grasslands. As a species we enjoy a wide variety of foodstuffs and goods that are found in multiple habitat types so it is useful for us to live on the edges of 2 or more habitats. One of the most habitable areas of all is near these anthropogenic food forests.
Establishing a piece of viable human habitat is not a difficult thing. You are already doing it when you live on a piece of land and return any domestic waste to the site.As in amongst what we call waste are seeds and other propagules just waiting for an opportunity, waiting to be left in a rubbish pile where they may find enriched soil conditions and germinate. Many of these plants are dispersed by large animals in their wild habitat. Animals eat the fruit along with other fruit and herbage and deposit neat piles of fecal micro-enrichment far from the parent tree. Our relatives, the great apes, are major seed dispersal agents and probably played a role in the selection and evolution of the tasty fruits across Asia and Africa today, some biologists suspect that the reason for the lack of tasty tropical fruits in Australian rainforests is a lack of primates.
With the selective force of many animals flocking to a particular tasty tree, and then spreading its progeny all through the forest in radiating seed shadows, repeated year after year, generation after generation it is not surprising that fruits have been fashioned to be bright, colourful large and sweet, just like Primates prefer. Our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, have been studied for their effects on seed dispersal in their native habitat. Some seeds are swallowed whole, and deposited later, while others are suck free of pulp and the remaining Wadge, a compressed lump of skin, fibre, pulp and seed (Goodall 1986), is dropped or hurled back into the forest. Studies on the germination rates of seeds from these Wadge parcels showed germination and survival rates greater or equal to defecated seed, and much higher than seed in fruit left close to the parent tree. Think about that next time you are spitting pips from a Watermelon or Mandarin! We are not so different.
Humans don’t swallow so many fruit seeds anymore, we even specialize in breeding fruit with fewer or no seeds! And when we do eat seeds, unavoidably, we flush them to sea or bury them in great underground anaerobic vats (Septic tanks).What we do, increasingly, is compost. Composting is a sanitary means of disposing of all manner of organic wastes and recycling them back into soil food. In theory thermocomposting sees the materials auto-generate heat as the microbes metabolize foodstuffs, this activity raises the temperature up above 60C and self pasteurizes the pile. It basically cooks any pathogens, insects, seeds and other items and renders the mix unattractive to vermin. The heat kills many seeds and this is the kind of compost you would put on your annual garden beds. The other more common compost, often by neglect more than intention, is more of a repository bin for scraps. They are better covered above to exclude vermin, but open to the earth below to allow free movement of earthworms, slaters and other benign decomposers to and from the pile. It is in these piles that we might throw fruit pulp and pits, non weedy leaf and trim, gnawed dog bones, ash from a barbecue or fireplace, and all sorts of other things that don’t attract flies, or bears!This enrichment supplements the natural succession of the area around Human by concentrating plant nutrients, and by seeding directly with our preferred fruits!
This system has been going on for millennia. This kind of open backyard tip where the chooks and the dogs eat the scraps and all thats left ends up in a big old heap may be as old as gardening itself. Studies on plant domestication suggest that these midden gardens were important sites for domestication of tree crops. Bringing seeds from distant places and discarding the seeds in fertile ground created opportunities for hybridization of distant relatives. This process continues today especially among people living adjacent to forests and harvesting wild foods. Building a food forest involves tickling the systems of forest repair by first understanding and observing what happens when we do nothing.
Weeds will blow in, grass will grow rank and be overtopped by weedy shrubs and legume trees. After a few years a low canopy may form and the edge of the new forest may be a tangle of vines, and shrubs with small bird dispersed fruits.
Under the establishing canopy partially shade tolerant bird dispersed species will sprout. These will shoot up and overtake the scrubby layer and form a higher canopy. They will fruit and in turn attract more birds which will take and deposit more seed.
In time perhaps larger wildlife will bring in large seeded species that are quite shade tolerant, these will slowly establish and wait for a small gap in the canopy to make a push for dominance.
We can do this too, the difference being control and speed. Control of species composition, control of speed of formation, and control of lifespan before the forest is reopened to a new cycle of rebirth.
Of the thousands of species of direct use to people, and the thousands more that support desirable wildlife or play important roles in the ecosystem we can learn to select and build artificial forests of extremely high utility.
For ecosystem stability it is hypothesized that a mere 15 species is necessary to stabilize and ecosystem, however not all species are created equal in terms of importance. So it is important for use to understand the concept of functional groups within ecosystems if we desire to create them.
I’ll be focusing on some of these in separate articles as we go along, they will include Nitrogen fixing plants, Fungi, Decomposers, Plants that bio-accumulate minerals from deep in the soil strata, Pollinators, Grazers, Predators, Pathogens and Parasites, Weeds and Disturbers.
We have a lot of reading to do ourselves and I realize the terms used are not perhaps what ecologists use, however they are the functional groups we work with.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
seed savers
Left from 12 'o clock;
Dolichos lablab, Pongamia pinnata, Crotalaria, Dolichos lablab cv Koala, African cowpea, Dolichos lablab cv Rongai, Crotalaria, Phasoleus lunatus cv Madagascar bean, Dolichos lablab cv. hyacinth bean, Eneterolobium cyclocarpum, Mucuna pruriens var utilis, Acacia auriculiformis, Samanea saman - Rain tree;
Pigeon Pea.
Biodiversity comes in many forms, one of the most beautiful are seeds and among the seeds the legumes stand out in their array of shapes, textures and colours.
Like vegetal jewels, cool and shiny they can fascinate the collector
They also have some real applications
Dolichos bean, also known as a seven year bean, hyacinth bean, lablab and many other names is a vigorous tropical and subtropical bean from the old world.
Its used as both human food, as animal fodder and for soil improvement. Cultivar ‘Koala’ was bred as a high protein replacement crop for soybean, yielding up to 2 tons per ha of beans.
http://www.tropicalforages.info/key/Forages/Media/Html/Lablab_purpureus.htm
Cv. Rongai is anolder variety that creates masses of Nitrogen to beef up tired soils as well as a high protein fodder crow for cattle
The black seeded hyacinth bean, possibly cv. Highworth, is a vegetable crop in Asia where the young beans are added to stir fries. In remote areas and places that are cash poor, just one such a bean vine would make a significant contribution to family needs. With increasing prices for soybean due to industrial uses, poor people in Indonesia cannot afford to make tempeh with soy. Studies have shown that lab lab can be substituted and can also be grown by the villagers themselves reducing dependence on imports.
In terms of establishing semi-wild food forests all cultivars have a role in establishment, in gaps and on the edges where a fast growing sunlight demanding vine can take hold.
The Mucuna bean is similar, also known as cow itch, velvet bean or cow hage. It is also a very vigorous bean used for soil improvement and in some cases for human food and medicine
In Honduras it has been used as an interplant with Maize where its nitrogen fixing ability and biomass accumulation makes it possible to build organic rich soils and maintain maize yields for many years, even on slopes.
http://www.tropag-fieldtrip.cornell.edu/Thurston_TA/pslashmulch.html
The bean itself is rich in Levo-dopa, up to 6%, which is used to treat parkinsons disease. L-dopa is the precursor of the neurotransmitter Dopamine, which does many things including helping coordinate fine motor skills, but also things like libido and mental motivation.
Mucuna bean meals are sold for Body builders as well as people feeling flagged by modern life. In Indian Ayurvedic tradition it is known as Kawanch and used to treat problems such as erectile dysfunction. Seeds are ‘mitigated’ before use by boiling in milk and removing the outer seed and embryo. The bean meal is then dried and powdered, the milk is considered toxic and thrown away.
The effects of the bean have been reported as increased vigour and sense of well being, increased sexual arousal and libido, stimulation of growth hormones. In general it has an anabolic activity (growth and musclemass increasing). In some cases a side effect of ‘hypergrowth of the penis’ has been reported LOL J.
The vine itself is also interesting with analysis of its leaves and stems showing the presence of hallucinogenic tryptamines, albeit in small amounts. The compound Dimethyltyptamine or DMT is present, a compound used by South American Ayahuasqueros in their psychotropic beverage Yage, Hoasca or Ayahuasca. There is a potential danger in attempting to use this vine in such a way as the L-dopa and other compounds may interact negatively with the addition of a Monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOi), without which the hallucinogenic compounds are inactive and rapidly metabolized by the digestive system.
Some reports say smoking the leaf has been used as a cannabis substitute. We haven’t tried it so cannot verify. However smoking anything is probably not good for lung health so we don’t recommend it.
The vine is an annual in most subtropical climates ,but may defoliate and reshoot the following spring in the tropics. We have found it very useful for soil building as a companion to fruiting vines. Planted with a passionfruit or granadilla it covers the trellis and improves the soil, yielding a crop of beans in the dry season. By year 2 the passionfruit has scrambled over the trellis using the soil fertility shed by the bean in the dry season, and now the fruit vine dominates the relationship. Its been a very successful exercise in time stacking.
It really is a magic bean! This white seeded form has no irritating hairs on the pods, as do other cultivars.
The Madagascar bean or perennial Lima bean (Phasoleus lunatus) is another tropical backyard wonder. Also living several years it produces masses of tasty lima beans great for salads and soups. Les vigorous than the other beans, but making a great compainion on trellis with vines like Dragon fruit or Pitaya (Hylocereus and selenicereus fruits).
There are several forms of this bean which has been domesticated for several millennia. It was apparently domesticated twice, once in Mexico which yields the smaller sieva bean, and again in Peru which gives us these larger beans. There are few types available in Australia unfortunately, we have located only two.
Lima beans have to be soaked and cooked to remove toxins before eating.
Cowpeas don’t need as much pretreatment and are a tasty bean. This one pictured is an African variety but you will also find in shops beans labelled as product of china that are mostly white, with a black eye, or spot where the embryo is. You can also find a bean in Indonesia called Kacang merah, which is a red cowpea, and we also have seed of a tan variety known as crowder peas from the southern USA.
The cowpea is a marvel crop. Hardy to heat and drought and quite productive. They do well as a forage crop, or a vegetable garden crop.
There is a related variety Vigna unguicullata var sesquipedalis better known as the yard long bean or snake bean. This is bred in asia as a vegetable crop, but there is no reason a backyard breeder couldn’t cross the two and breed a climbing dry bean producer.
Crotalaria species are not edible, in fact they contain toxic alkaloids that harm the liver if directly consumed or consumed via milk contaminated with herbage. What they do do very well however is enhance degraded soils. They fix lots of nitrogen and carbon in their tissues and can be used as mulch, they also trap and eat nematodes, which can seriously harm numerous vegetables and fruit trees especially on sandy soils with low organic matter.
http://webapp.ciat.cgiar.org/downloads/pdf/leaflet_crotalaria.pdf
And now we have the trees...
Pongamia pinnata is known as a biodiesel tree. This species native from India all the way to northern Australia is now being grown for its oil rich seed. It can be grown on soils not suitable for cropping and being native provides some familiar habitat.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/branching-out-into-biodiesel/story-e6freqmx-1111115307987
Samanea saman, the rain tree, is probably my favourite tree in the world. It is a giant, with its broad canopy , and strong trunk and branches. It produces sugar rich pods good as animal fodder that taste like molasses, Its timber is like Walnut, it is cyclone resistant, produces fine honey, and is just beautiful.
One exceptionally large old tree in Venezuela covers and area of 3/4 acre, >3000m2
"During his 1799-1804 travels in the Americas, Alexander von Humboldt encountered a giant Saman tree near Maracay (Venezuela). He measured the circumference of the parasol-shaped crown at 576 ft (about 180.8 m[3]), its diameter at around 190 ft (about 59.6 m), on a trunk at 9 ft (about 2.8 m) in diameter and reaching just 60 ft (nearly 19 m) in height. Humboldt mentioned that the tree was reported to have changed little since the Spanish colonization of Venezuela; he estimated the Saman to be as old as the famous Canary Islands Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco) of Icod de los Vinos on Tenerife.[4]
The tree, called Samán del Guère (transcribed Zamang del Guayre by von Humboldt) still stands today and is a Venezuelan national treasure. Just like the dragon tree on Tenerife, the age of the Saman in Venezuela is rather indeterminate. As von Humboldt's report makes clear, according to local tradition it would be older than 500 years today, which is rather outstanding by the genus' standards. It is certain however than the tree is quite more than 200 years old today."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albizia_saman
Dolichos lablab, Pongamia pinnata, Crotalaria, Dolichos lablab cv Koala, African cowpea, Dolichos lablab cv Rongai, Crotalaria, Phasoleus lunatus cv Madagascar bean, Dolichos lablab cv. hyacinth bean, Eneterolobium cyclocarpum, Mucuna pruriens var utilis, Acacia auriculiformis, Samanea saman - Rain tree;
Biodiversity comes in many forms, one of the most beautiful are seeds and among the seeds the legumes stand out in their array of shapes, textures and colours.
Like vegetal jewels, cool and shiny they can fascinate the collector
They also have some real applications
Dolichos bean, also known as a seven year bean, hyacinth bean, lablab and many other names is a vigorous tropical and subtropical bean from the old world.
Its used as both human food, as animal fodder and for soil improvement. Cultivar ‘Koala’ was bred as a high protein replacement crop for soybean, yielding up to 2 tons per ha of beans.
http://www.tropicalforages.info/key/Forages/Media/Html/Lablab_purpureus.htm
Cv. Rongai is anolder variety that creates masses of Nitrogen to beef up tired soils as well as a high protein fodder crow for cattle
The black seeded hyacinth bean, possibly cv. Highworth, is a vegetable crop in Asia where the young beans are added to stir fries. In remote areas and places that are cash poor, just one such a bean vine would make a significant contribution to family needs. With increasing prices for soybean due to industrial uses, poor people in Indonesia cannot afford to make tempeh with soy. Studies have shown that lab lab can be substituted and can also be grown by the villagers themselves reducing dependence on imports.
In terms of establishing semi-wild food forests all cultivars have a role in establishment, in gaps and on the edges where a fast growing sunlight demanding vine can take hold.
The Mucuna bean is similar, also known as cow itch, velvet bean or cow hage. It is also a very vigorous bean used for soil improvement and in some cases for human food and medicine
In Honduras it has been used as an interplant with Maize where its nitrogen fixing ability and biomass accumulation makes it possible to build organic rich soils and maintain maize yields for many years, even on slopes.
http://www.tropag-fieldtrip.cornell.edu/Thurston_TA/pslashmulch.html
The bean itself is rich in Levo-dopa, up to 6%, which is used to treat parkinsons disease. L-dopa is the precursor of the neurotransmitter Dopamine, which does many things including helping coordinate fine motor skills, but also things like libido and mental motivation.
Mucuna bean meals are sold for Body builders as well as people feeling flagged by modern life. In Indian Ayurvedic tradition it is known as Kawanch and used to treat problems such as erectile dysfunction. Seeds are ‘mitigated’ before use by boiling in milk and removing the outer seed and embryo. The bean meal is then dried and powdered, the milk is considered toxic and thrown away.
The effects of the bean have been reported as increased vigour and sense of well being, increased sexual arousal and libido, stimulation of growth hormones. In general it has an anabolic activity (growth and musclemass increasing). In some cases a side effect of ‘hypergrowth of the penis’ has been reported LOL J.
The vine itself is also interesting with analysis of its leaves and stems showing the presence of hallucinogenic tryptamines, albeit in small amounts. The compound Dimethyltyptamine or DMT is present, a compound used by South American Ayahuasqueros in their psychotropic beverage Yage, Hoasca or Ayahuasca. There is a potential danger in attempting to use this vine in such a way as the L-dopa and other compounds may interact negatively with the addition of a Monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOi), without which the hallucinogenic compounds are inactive and rapidly metabolized by the digestive system.
Some reports say smoking the leaf has been used as a cannabis substitute. We haven’t tried it so cannot verify. However smoking anything is probably not good for lung health so we don’t recommend it.
The vine is an annual in most subtropical climates ,but may defoliate and reshoot the following spring in the tropics. We have found it very useful for soil building as a companion to fruiting vines. Planted with a passionfruit or granadilla it covers the trellis and improves the soil, yielding a crop of beans in the dry season. By year 2 the passionfruit has scrambled over the trellis using the soil fertility shed by the bean in the dry season, and now the fruit vine dominates the relationship. Its been a very successful exercise in time stacking.
It really is a magic bean! This white seeded form has no irritating hairs on the pods, as do other cultivars.
The Madagascar bean or perennial Lima bean (Phasoleus lunatus) is another tropical backyard wonder. Also living several years it produces masses of tasty lima beans great for salads and soups. Les vigorous than the other beans, but making a great compainion on trellis with vines like Dragon fruit or Pitaya (Hylocereus and selenicereus fruits).
There are several forms of this bean which has been domesticated for several millennia. It was apparently domesticated twice, once in Mexico which yields the smaller sieva bean, and again in Peru which gives us these larger beans. There are few types available in Australia unfortunately, we have located only two.
Lima beans have to be soaked and cooked to remove toxins before eating.
Cowpeas don’t need as much pretreatment and are a tasty bean. This one pictured is an African variety but you will also find in shops beans labelled as product of china that are mostly white, with a black eye, or spot where the embryo is. You can also find a bean in Indonesia called Kacang merah, which is a red cowpea, and we also have seed of a tan variety known as crowder peas from the southern USA.
The cowpea is a marvel crop. Hardy to heat and drought and quite productive. They do well as a forage crop, or a vegetable garden crop.
There is a related variety Vigna unguicullata var sesquipedalis better known as the yard long bean or snake bean. This is bred in asia as a vegetable crop, but there is no reason a backyard breeder couldn’t cross the two and breed a climbing dry bean producer.
Crotalaria species are not edible, in fact they contain toxic alkaloids that harm the liver if directly consumed or consumed via milk contaminated with herbage. What they do do very well however is enhance degraded soils. They fix lots of nitrogen and carbon in their tissues and can be used as mulch, they also trap and eat nematodes, which can seriously harm numerous vegetables and fruit trees especially on sandy soils with low organic matter.
http://webapp.ciat.cgiar.org/downloads/pdf/leaflet_crotalaria.pdf
And now we have the trees...
Pongamia pinnata is known as a biodiesel tree. This species native from India all the way to northern Australia is now being grown for its oil rich seed. It can be grown on soils not suitable for cropping and being native provides some familiar habitat.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/branching-out-into-biodiesel/story-e6freqmx-1111115307987
Samanea saman, the rain tree, is probably my favourite tree in the world. It is a giant, with its broad canopy , and strong trunk and branches. It produces sugar rich pods good as animal fodder that taste like molasses, Its timber is like Walnut, it is cyclone resistant, produces fine honey, and is just beautiful.
One exceptionally large old tree in Venezuela covers and area of 3/4 acre, >3000m2
"During his 1799-1804 travels in the Americas, Alexander von Humboldt encountered a giant Saman tree near Maracay (Venezuela). He measured the circumference of the parasol-shaped crown at 576 ft (about 180.8 m[3]), its diameter at around 190 ft (about 59.6 m), on a trunk at 9 ft (about 2.8 m) in diameter and reaching just 60 ft (nearly 19 m) in height. Humboldt mentioned that the tree was reported to have changed little since the Spanish colonization of Venezuela; he estimated the Saman to be as old as the famous Canary Islands Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco) of Icod de los Vinos on Tenerife.[4]
The tree, called Samán del Guère (transcribed Zamang del Guayre by von Humboldt) still stands today and is a Venezuelan national treasure. Just like the dragon tree on Tenerife, the age of the Saman in Venezuela is rather indeterminate. As von Humboldt's report makes clear, according to local tradition it would be older than 500 years today, which is rather outstanding by the genus' standards. It is certain however than the tree is quite more than 200 years old today."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albizia_saman
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