Categories
Herbs & Plants

Psidium cattleianum littorale

Botanical Name: Psidium cattleianum littorale
Family: Myrtaceae
Subfamily: Myrtoideae
Genus: Psidium
Species: P. cattleyanum
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Myrtales

Synonyms: Psidium cattleianum lucidum. P. lucidum

Common Name:Yellow Strawberry Guava

Habitat : Psidium cattleianum littorale is native to coastal areas of Eastern Brazil. The strawberry guava is now a weed in many parts of the tropics where it has quickly adapted to a variety of climates. There are major infestations on Hawaii and many Caribbean islands. In tropical climates, the strawberry guava is most often found growing at higher elevations, where the mean temperature is much cooler.

Description:
Psidium cattleianum littorale is a small evergreen bush or tree to 20-25ft, although often much smaller. The frilly white flowers are often borne a couple of times a year, concentrated during warmer months. It is frost tender. It is in leaf 12-Jan It is in flower in May. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs)….…CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES
Cultivation :
Requires a well-drained sandy loam with leafmold. Not very hardy in Britain, it is best grown in a greenhouse but it can tolerate short-lived light frosts   and therefore might succeed outdoors in the mildest areas of the country. Sometimes cultivated for its edible fruit.

Propagation :
Seed – sow spring in a warm greenhouse. When large enough to handle, prick out the seedlings into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter. If trying the plants outdoors, plant them out in the summer and give them some protection from winter cold for at least their first two winters. Cuttings of half-ripe wood, July/August in a frame.
Edible Uses :
Edible Parts: Fruit.

Fruit – raw or cooked. Sweet and aromatic. An agreeable acid-sweet flavour. High in pectin, the fruits are good for mixing with high-acid, low-pectin fruits for making jellies etc. This species has a superior flavour to P. littorale longipes. The fruit is about 4cm in diameter.
Medicinal Uses:
None known

Other Uses : Grown as a hedge in warm temperate climates
Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psidium_cattleyanum
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Psidium+cattleianum+littorale
http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/content/yellow-strawberry-guava.htm

Categories
Featured

Ten Reasons to Buy Local Food

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Brenton Johnson, an organic farmer and owner of Johnson’s Backyard Garden, came up with this list of top 10 reasons to buy local food, based on his philosophy to live in harmony with the land.

1. Locally grown food tastes better. Food grown in your own community is usually picked within the past day or two. It’s crisp, sweet, and loaded with flavor. Produce flown or trucked in is much older. Several studies have shown that the average distance food travels from farm to plate is 1,500 miles.2. Local produce is better for you. Fresh produce loses nutrients quickly. Locally grown food, purchased soon after harvest, retains its nutrients.

3. Local food preserves genetic diversity. In the modern industrial agricultural system, varieties are chosen for their ability to ripen simultaneously and withstand harvesting equipment. Only a handful of varieties of fruits and vegetables meet those rigorous demands, so there is little genetic diversity in the plants grown. Local farms, in contrast, grow a huge number of varieties to provide a long season of harvest, an array of eye-catching colors, and the best flavors.4. Local food is GMO-free. Although biotechnology companies have been trying to commercialize genetically modified fruits and vegetables, they are currently licensing them only to large factory-style farms. Local farmers don’t have access to genetically modified seed, and most of them wouldn’t use it even if they could.

5. Local food supports local farm families. With fewer than 1 million Americans now listing farming as their primary occupation, farmers are a vanishing breed. Local farmers who sell direct to consumers cut out the middle man and get full retail price for their crops.

6. Local food builds a stronger community. When you buy direct from the farmer, you are re-establishing a time-honored connection between the eater and the grower.

7. Local food preserves open space. As the value of direct-marketed fruits and vegetables increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely. The rural landscape will survive only as long as farms are financially viable.

8. Local food helps to keep your taxes in check. Farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, whereas suburban development costs more than it generates in taxes.

9. Local food supports a clean environment and benefits wildlife. A well-managed family farm is a place where the resources of fertile soil and clean water are valued. Good stewards of the land grow cover crops to prevent erosion and replace nutrients used by their crops. Cover crops also capture carbon emissions and help combat global warming.

10. Local food is about the future. By supporting local farmers today, you can help ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow, so that future generations will have access to nourishing, flavorful, and abundant food.

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Categories
Environmental Pollution

Danger to Earth from warming

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A group of US scientists have warned that a UN panel on climate change underestimated the scale of sea-level increases this century resulting from global warming, the Independent reported on Tuesday.

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The six scientists cautioned that the Earth is in “imminent peril” in a 29-page article published in the July 15 issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. “Recent greenhouse gas emissions place the Earth perilously close to dramatic climate change that could run out of control, with great dangers for humans and other creatures,” wrote the group led by James Hansen, the director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

They predict in their paper, “Climate change and trace gases” that sea levels may rise by several metres by 2100, according to the Independent. That compares to a forecast from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in a February report that predicts sea levels increasing between 18 and 59 centimetres. They also implicitly criticise the UN IPCC for underestimating the scale of sea-level rises this century as a result of melting glaciers and polar ice sheets.

The other scientists involved in the paper were Makiko Sato, Pushker Kharecha and Gary Russell, also of the Goddard Institute, David Lea of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Mark Siddall of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York.

They say that the Earth today stands in imminent peril and nothing short of a planetary rescue will save it from the environmental cataclysm of dangerous climate change.

The six scientists from some of the leading scientific institutions in the United States have issued what amounts to an unambiguous warning to the world: civilisation itself is threatened by global warming.

They describe in detail why they believe that humanity can no longer afford to ignore the “gravest threat” of climate change.

Source:The Times Of India

Categories
WHY CORNER

Why do we perspire?

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Sweating is a natural phenomenon that occurs so that our body temperature remains constant. When the heat is on and we perspire, we might feel that all that sweat hardly does any good to us. On the contrary, it does help in reducing our body temperature to a great extent.

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The hypothalamus (a small cone-shaped structure in the brain) regulates homeostasis, that is, it regulates the areas for thirst, hunger, body temperature, water balance and blood pressure.

Our bodies use approximately 2,500 calories of our daily intake to generate energy through a process called oxidation, commonly termed as burning of food. The process generates a considerable amount of heat, which the body cannot tolerate. The hypothalamus initiates the dilation of the blood vessels (vasodilatation) in the skin to release the excess heat. This prompts the release of sweat from the pores on the skin. There are approximately two million sweat glands in our body. Sweat itself is made up of different elements, the most common of them being water and sodium, otherwise known as salt.

Perspiration emerges on the surface of the skin in the form of tiny, microscopic droplets, which quickly evaporate and cool the body to its normal temperature. Sweat evaporates at a slower rate in humid climate than otherwise. With less sweat evaporating from the body surface, it makes it difficult for us to bear the heat.

Hence, although at times embarrassing, sweating has an important role to play in our survival.

Source: The Telegraph (Kolkata,India)

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