2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
While vacationing in resorts located in the tropics, you should be very careful when getting to know new types of plants. Many tropical plants, with their picturesqueness, attract not only the eyes of a person, but also give rise to a desire to touch the leaves, flowers, or even taste outwardly pretty fruits. But, quite understandable curiosity of a person who learns a new world for him, can turn into a very deplorable life experience. It is especially important to warn curious children about this
It happened on the Thai island of Phangan, whose flora is rich and diverse. Returning somehow from the beach in a new way, I saw a lonely low tree (see the main photo) with leaves typical of tropical plants. These were tough, oblong-oval leaves with a sharp nose. At first glance, similar leaves grow on all trees and shrubs of the island, and therefore, it is not always possible for a European who is accustomed to completely different types of vegetation to identify a plant on which there are no flowers or fruits.
However, with a certain similarity of the leaves of the tree with the leaves of other plants, they looked somehow different, forcing you to stop and take a closer look at them.
First, the leaves of one tree were different from each other. Some of them showed uneven edges and a spotted color of the leaf plate, as in the photo above, but there were also leaves of an ideal oval shape with a sharp nose. The surface of such leaves was monotonous green, on which white veins were clearly distinguished. These leaves can be seen in the last photo.
Secondly, on all leaves, regardless of their color, a whitish bloom was observed, as if someone had powdered large tropical leaves after another shower. More precisely, it is a thin waxy coating that protects the leaves from tropical showers. Heavenly streams of water easily slide off such a surface, without causing injury to the leaves.
Shield-shaped inflorescences are crowned with tree branches. I mistook the central part of the flower for a fruit that I really wanted to taste. But, as it turned out, it was not a berry, but a "crown" rising from the center of the flower, in which the stamens are located. The "crown" of each flower is surrounded by five pointed sepals or petals, which touch each other at the base without overlapping each other. The rather unusual shape of the flower is confusing, inclining to think that in front of you is a corymbose brush with fruits. The flowers are also covered with a waxy coating. This is how the inflorescence of a tropical plant of the genus Kalotropis (lat. Calotropis), more precisely, one of the species of the genus - Kalotropis gigantea (lat. Calotropis gigantea), which I met on my way through Thailand, looks like:
Kalotropis flowers are durable, which allows Thais to use them in floral arrangements. Giant calotropis is a fairly popular tropical plant. The last queen of Hawaii, named Liliuokalani (1838-02-09 - 1917-11-11) wore garlands around her neck, into which Kalotropis flowers were woven, considered one of the symbols of power. Lord Shiva also loved the flowers of this plant, and therefore adherents of the Hindu religion decorate them with festive garlands, and the plant itself is often found on the territory of Indian temples. In Cambodia, Kalotropis flowers are used to decorate funeral sarcophagi and urns.
Strong fiber is made from Kalotropis, used for the production of sewing threads, ropes, fishing nets and even carpets.
Kalotropis gigantea is a very effective fungicide with which it successfully fights fungal plant diseases. Extracts from the roots, stems and leaves of the plant promote better germination and give vigor to the emergence of many crops.
Milky latex flows along the stem of the tree, but I found out about this later, from the Internet. It contains fatty acids, cardiac glycosides, and calcium oxalate (or, more clearly, calcium oxalate). This latex composition has been used since ancient times by the aborigines of the tropical lands as a poison for hunting and combat arrows and spears. Pharmacists use the constituents of latex to make heart medications. However, excessive doses can cause cardiac arrhythmias, which can be fatal. Therefore, one should be careful to communicate with Kalotropis.
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