10 July 2023
To steal from the Marine Corps mantra, once a botanist, always a botanist. I managed a 1.5 mile walk this morning and was struck by how much is in bloom and in fruit in the neighborhood. There really isn’t anything like a change of seasons in south Florida. It’s like the insulated sippy cup I bought while on a trip to Texas and New Mexico with my cousin Jo that had “Four Seasons of Texas: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, Christmas” in text on the cup.
It gets a little confusing for someone who grew up in Mississippi for most of their life when trees down here shed their leaves in the spring or summer and oranges, lemons, and grapefruit taste best in the “winter” months. It was particularly confusing to me since most of my botanical training was lower coastal plain of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Delta region, and the foothills of the Appalachians of northeast Mississippi. My expertise did not extend into subtropical Florida and I was totally lost botanically when I moved down here (and pretty much still am).
If you read my blog about the mango that hangs over into my yard, you know it’s in leaf drop now and all the mangoes are off the tree by the middle of June. On my walk this morning there was a mango in the prime for its fruit. Different varieties of the mango produce mature fruit at different times. We are still in the height of mango season in July from other varieties.
What struck me about the vegetation here is what exotic flowers and fruits we have.
My former neighbor Frank planted his yard with lots of exotic trees. One such tree is still there, the sapodilla tree also known as chicle.
It’s native to southern Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The ripe fruit is said to have a sweet, malt-like flavor. Like the unripe persimmon, the unripened fruit is astringent and puckers the mouth.
Wikipedia says the compounds extracted from leaves show anti-diabetic, antioxidant and cholesterol lowering effects in lab animals. Maybe I need to steal some fruit from the tree!
The leaves and stems of the fruit and the trunk of the tree secrete a white latex called chicle which is used in the commercial making chewing gum. You get the latex for commercial uses like you do natural latex rubber from rubber trees.
My Mississippi history teacher, Mr. J.C. Johnson, used to tell me about sweet gum trees (Liquidambar styraciflua) in the southern U.S. He said as a boy they would gash a sweet gum tree to get the sap and use it like chewing gum. They would pass it around so everyone got a chew and if you were the last one, it would crumble in your mouth after too many chews. I suspect they also all came down with colds at the same time.
I tried chewing some sap one time and I think it’s a guaranteed way to pull fillings out of you teeth. I don’t recommend it. Think of the stickiest candy you can think of and double that for sweet gum sap.
So, since once a botanist… I’ll probably start introducing blog readers to some of the neighborhood plants every day. If botany is not your thing, simply skip over that part.
No diarrhea last night. My appetite is better. I still can’t eat anything like a full meal but it’s better than it was. Even though you are not supposed to eat fresh fruit with diarrhea, I crave it this time of the year. Besides, watermelon helps rehydrate you. There is so much contradictory in medicine – like don’t eat fresh fruit with diarrhea but stay hydrated. Thursday is fast approaching and I need to get a few things done before I go under the knife/scapel.
Stay tuned!