Intriguing Plants – Weeds and Flowers
Our front and back lawn at Alafua is a jungle with some
rather obnoxious grasses which at the same time have their own beauty.
PHOTO of Kyllinga polyphylla
Kyllinga
polyphylla or Navua sedge belongs to Cyperaceae
(Sedge Family) and is native to tropical Africa. It spreads via underground
rhizhomes and is considered a pest in cattle pastures because cattle do not eat
them and they displace other grasses that cattle do eat.
PHOTO of Kyllinga polyphylla
Their subglobous flower-heads do
look interesting, especially with the leaf-like bracts radiating out and could
possibly be used in flower arrangements by the more daring. However, in a lawn
they are tedious to eradicate since you basically need to dig the rhizomes out
(unless you are into herbicide which I am not all that fond of). Alternatively
you could go for the long slow death of covering the affected spots with
something like black plastic, old roofing iron or anything that will ensure that the spot gets no sunlight
and the plants die out.
PHOTO of Kyllinga polyphylla with Spathoglottis plicata
Trust me digging them out is the
fastest and surest method barring herbicides of course but without the hassle
of dealing with herbicides and the potential problems / dangers of handling,
using let alone storing them not to mention having to get a permit to buy,
store and use them. (See below for additional information on this). And on top
of that there are the potential rather unpleasant side effects of using
pesticides like paraquat. I have included a few links below to recent medical
studies on this for those who may be interested in reading more.
PHOTO of Kyllinga polyphylla
At the moment we have a huge
problem with this grass at Alafua as the back lawn is 75-80% covered in it while
a large section of the front lawn 45-50% is also covered with it.
I dug a whole bunch of them out of
the bed of Zepheranthes rosea (Pink
Rain lilies) a while ago. Now I am trying to decide how to deal with them. As
interesting as the flowers do look especially with macro photography they
really ruin the lawn turning it into a thick jungle ... which admittedly the
kittens absolutely love prowling and prancing and bounding through like a bunch
of psychotic miniature Sabre toothed tigers high on cat nip.
Maybe I can arrange for an area to be kept for them to practice their stalking and hunting skills in.
PHOTO of Kyllinga nemoralis
Here is Kyllinga
nemoralis a close relative to Kyllinga
polyphylla as you can see. It is known as kili’o’opu in Hawaii
and mo’u’upo’o in Tahiti. I have not found any other common names.
PHOTO of Cyperus rotondus
Text Cyperus rotondus
also belonging to Cyperaceae (or Sedge
Family). It is known as nut sedge (English); kili’o’opu (Hawaiian); mumuta
(Samoan) and pakopako (Tongan). I cannot see anyone including it in a flower
arrangement even though the flowers do look interesting in a Macro photograph.
PHOTO of Oxalis corniculata
I posted a macro photo of this
before in which I referred to it as clover whereas in fact it is actually Oxalis corniculata or wood sorrel
(English); ‘ihi’ai (Hawaiian); kihikihi (Tongan). It belongs to Family
Oxalidaceae (Wood-sorrel Family).
An interesting fact about this
plant is that according to Whistler (1994) it is used in traditional Polynesian
medicine to treat infants however he does not specify what aliments it is used
for. I assume he covers that in his book on traditional medicines (which I do
not have).
PHOTO of Oxalis corniculata
Interestingly the species in the Oxalis Genus are often refered to as
“False Shamrocks” so my mistaking it for clover is not that grave an error
since apparently many people do that too. Still I a kind of disappointed that
it is NOT clover.
PHOTO of purple variety (To Be Added)
Here is another plant which I also
thought was a type of clover and now think might be a species in the Oxalis
genus. I am not sure if it might be Oxalis
corniculata or not. I have a feeling that it is not. It is not
shown in Whistler’s “Wayside Plants of the Islands” which I found
surprising since it is pretty authoritative. Maybe it is one he missed or a new
introduction since he compiled it.
PHOTO of vineta
This little beauty is no doubt
familiar to those who grew up in the islands and used to collect and eat the
tiny bitter fruit we called vineta / vigeka (perhaps from vinegar due to the
bitter vinegar taste?). Yes we used to eat all sorts of weird things as
children. From picking certain hibiscus flowers and sucking the nectar out to
driving the adults mad by picking the half ripe mangos and then eating them
with salt or salt and curry powder. I still do not understand why THEY did not
just do the same since I still occasionally will eat a mango like that.
In any case the flowers although
miniscule look quite enchanting with the aid of Macro photography.
PHOTO of vineta
I have not yet tracked down what it's binomial (scientific) name is or what it's other vernacular names are.
Taxonomy
Family Cyperaceae
Genus Kyllinga
Kyllinga
polyphylla or Navua sedge belongs to Cyperaceae (Sedge Family)
Kyllinga
nemoralis a
Genus Cyperus
Cyperus
rotondus also
Family Oxalidaceae
Oxalis
corniculata wood sorrel Family Oxalidaceae
Paraquat (dipyridylium)
Yes you need a permit to buy
herbicides here in Samoa. I’m not sure if this applies to all of herbicides and
pesticides of just the herbicides like Paraquat. The primary reason for this is
to restrict access to paraquat by potential suicide vicitims.
Death by Paraquat poisoning was
for a long time one of the most common methods of suicide in Samoa. The Health
department tried for many years to have to banned but due to its widespread use
and efficacy as a weed killer this was resisted. In fact efforts to ban or
restrict access and use was on an international level due to its use as a
suicide agent among developing nations.
There were several reasons for
this. First of all it is highly toxic (1 teaspoon being leathal), 2. There is
no antidote 3. It is easily available and 4. It is relatively cheap. One of the
worst things about paraquat poisoning is that it is a slow and horribly painful
death. It was also a common method used to poison dogs by thieves targeting
neighbourhoods.
Eventually government decided to
control its use. Now to be able to buy paraquat (if I recall correctly) you
need a permit which also requires you to have a safe place in which to keep it
locked up. Inspections are made to verify that you are actually keeping it
locked up and I think that there are even penalties if anyone uses paraquat in
your control to commit suicide.
According to statistics gathered
so far the regulations have had an impact in reducing suicides overall.
However, it is still the primary cause of death by suicide and after an initial
drop.
However, perhaps people may start
to reconsider using paraquat once they hear about several studies over the last
few years which show a clear link between paraquat and Parkinson's
disease. The worst part of this being that it is not just users who have a
higher (3x) chance of getting Parkinsons but anyone who has lived or worked in
areas where paraquat has been used.
Here are some additional resources
on this topic for those interested.
Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by
Vincent Albert Vermeulen is
licensed under a
Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at
http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at
http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.
Additional
information:
As I said I will be posting the photographs of the statues on another
blog which will cover “A blog about art, sculpture, food, history, culture,
literature among other things. Basically this blog will be a catch all for
other topics that I cannot logically cover in my existing blogs:
·
Flora and
Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening,
conservation and environmental matters)
·
The Blood
of Souls (language,
translation and etymology)
·
Whiskers on
Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general)
References
Whistler, W. Arthur, “Wayside Plants of the Islands. A Guide
to the Lowland Flora of the Pacific Islands including Hawai’i Samoa Tonga
Tahiti Fiji Guam Belau”, Isle Botanica, Honolulu, 1995.
ISBN
0-9645426-0-9
