Naturalist Newsletter: Maya Cucumbers/ Oct 17

[Rob]

JIM CONRAD’S NATURALIST NEWSLETTER
Issued from Hacienda Chichén beside the Maya ruin of
Chichén Itzá in the central Yucatán, MÉXICO

October 17, 2010

*****

"MAYA CUCUMBERS"
Often I've mentioned that the Maya plant their own
locally developed seeds. Several months ago
Don Philomeno spread numerous broad banana-tree leaves
over a large garden area and planted inside the
carpeted area several hills of cucumber. The banana
leaves kept weeds from coming up and provided a clean
surface for cucumbers to develop on. His crop reached
is peak about a month ago and he harvested several
bushels of cucumbers.

They were unlike any cucumber I'd ever seen. Everyone
called them "pepinos," which means "cucumbers," so I
called them that, too, though I fully expected that
once I studied the matter they might turn out to be some
kind of squash. You can see what one looks like at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/101017cc.jpg

That's a small one. Most of Don Philomeno's cucumbers
were about two feet long (60 cm). He stopped watering
them a while back, so now the leaves are drying up and
just small fruits are forming. Sometimes up North if
you overlook a regular cucumber in the garden it gets
large and yellowish like these, but the Northern ones
aren't ribbed longitudinally as these are. It's the
ribs and lengths that distinguish our fruits.

But, are they really a cucumbers? One reason I wonder is
because the Cucumber plant genus, Cucumis, arose in and
is native to the Old World. But the squashes, genus
Cucurbita -- with some species such as Zucchini looking
cucumberish -- are American. Wouldn't any cucumber
developed by the Maya be from an American genus? Two
indications that our plants are Old World Cucumbers are
seen at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/101017cd.jpg

The first Cucumber Family fieldmark in the picture is
the tendril, which is simple instead of branched. The
vines of squashes and pumpkins bear branched tendrils
while cucumbers bear unbranched or simple ones.

The second fieldmark for cucumber vines is the
corolla, which is divided for more than half its total
length. Squash and pumpkin flowers are more shallowly
lobed. For comparison you can see a squash flower at
http://www.backyardnature.net/fl_sqwsh.htm

The main proofs that it's really a cucumber, however,
become apparent when you cut a fruit open, as shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/101017ce.jpg

Not only does it look cucumbery but it tastes, smells
and feels cucumbery.

But, it's not really a cucumber...

At this point you might be interested in visiting a
web page showing several fruits known as cucumbers.
It's at http://solanaseeds.netfirms.com/cucumbers.html

Within the Squash/Cucumber Family, the genus Cucumis
is home to both cucumbers and muskmelons. Regular
cucumbers are Cucumis sativus, while muskmelons are
Cucumis melo. It looks like our "Maya Cucumber" is,
or is a derivation of, what often is known as the
Armenian Cucumber, CUCUMIS MELO var. FLEXUOSUS. In
other words, our "Maya Cucumber," despite its look,
taste, odor and Spanish name, is much closer related
to muskmelons than to regular garden cucumbers.

Don Philomeno's cucumber tends to be a bit shorter and
thicker than those in most pictures of Armenian
Cucumbers I find on the Internet, plus the ribs are
farther apart and less prominent. Also our cucumbers
don't grow as long and slender as Armenian Cucumbers,
which also are called Snake Cucumbers, sometimes do.
I'm guessing that Armenian Cucumbers were introduced
into the Maya area soon after the Conquest, but during
the last 500 years the variety has been altered by the
Maya as they selected for plants best able to survive
here.

Sometimes Armenian Cucumber seeds can be bought from
companies specializing in selling heirloom seeds. I
read that Armenian Cucumbers date back at least to
the fifteenth century, when they were introduced into
Italy from Armenia.

Here's the most important point about our "Maya
Cucumber." Don Philomeno's cucumber vines -- planted
during the rainy season like mine -- produced a
bounty, while my North American garden-type vines
succumbed to insects, nematodes and fungal diseases
long before they ever produced.

*****

MEXICAN OREGANO
Visitors to the garden usually regard a rather plain
looking, much branched, six-ft-high (1.8m) shrub as
one of the most interesting plants there. That's
because we call it Orégano, its crushed leaves give
off the oregano smell, only stronger, and the leaves
are used in the kitchen just as oregano would be used.
You can see Edgar of the kitchen staff, recruited as a
measuring stick on his way from picking squash for
Chef Cime, standing next to the unspectacular bush at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/101017ln.jpg

But, anyone who knows the Oregano plant up North --
often also called Marjoram -- knows that that plant,
Origanum vulgare of the Mint Family, only grows a bit
over two feet high (60cm). The robust shrub next to
Edgar, despite its odor, use and the name we give it,
certainly isn't what Northerners call Oregano. So,
what is it? You can have a closer look at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/101017lo.jpg

The leaves look minty and are opposite as they are in
the Mint Family, but the stems aren't square in cross
section. Let's take a closer look at the tiny flowers
at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/101017lp.jpg

We saw little dog-faced flowers similar to these just
last month on a Lantana. Those flowers are still shown
at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/100926lo.jpg

Last month's Lantana, instead of being a mint like
Northern oregano, was a member of the Vervain Family,
the Verbenaceae, and so is our Orégano. Our Orégano is
LIPPIA GRAVEOLENS, native to the US Southwest, Mexico
and Central America as far south as Nicaragua. It's
such an important culinary plant that it's also
planted outside its area. It goes by numerous English
names such as Mexican Oregano, Scented Lippia, Scented
Matgrass and Redbrush Lippia.

Its fragrant flowers appear throughout the year,
especially after rains.

*****

GLOBE AMARANTH
In Hacienda Chichén's garden a pretty, two-ft-high
herb with interesting flowers is blooming, as shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/101017gg.jpg

The colorful heads look like those of clover, but the
leaves are very different. If you break open a head
you find the flowers well camouflaged, as seen at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/101017gh.jpg

This is Globe Amaranth, sometimes known as Bachelor's
Buttons, though that name is better applied to a very
different plant. Globe Amaranth is GOMPHRENA GLOBOSA,
a member of the Amaranth Family, the Amaranthaceae.

In the last picture the flower is the vertical,
cylindrical thing at the right. It appears to have
white fuzz growing up its right side, but the fuzz
grows on the rose-colored perianth, a perianth being
what the structure is called when the calyx and
corolla are indistinguishable, or fused together.

More interesting is the flower's jagged, white-tipped
orifice. The white tips are anthers releasing whitish
pollen. A typical stamen's baglike anther resides atop
a slender, usually white, matchstick-like stem. Here
the rose-colored filaments of five anthers have grown
together forming a closed cylinder surrounding the
female pistil -- the stigmas, deeply split style and
ovary. If you count more than five anthers its because
there's an extra filament "tooth" or lobe beside each
anther, plus each of the stigmas also are white.

Then to top it all off, at the base of each flower
arise three rose-colored, jagged-edged scales, two of
them overtopping the flowers. When you look at the
"globe" from a distance, mainly you're seeing rose-
colored scales.

Those scales constitute one of the distinguishing
features of the Amaranth Family. Usually in this
family you have to search among the scales to find the
inconspicuous flowers. Since the scales often are
colorful and don't wilt easily, many members of the
family are known as an "everlasting" -- good for
indoor bouquets because they retain their shape and
color after drying.

Globe Amaranths are thought to be native to the
American tropics. Heads of the wild species are
magenta, but cultivars have been developed with other
colors, including purple, red, white, pink and lilac.

*****

CHEWSTICK
Nowadays here and there at woods edges along roads you
see a vigorous liana, or woody vine, ascending into
the trees, then its limber branches cascading down
toward the road, ending in finger-thick, four-inch-
long (10 cm) racemes of white flowers, as shown at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/101017gn.jpg

At http://www.backyardnature.net/n/10/101017go.jpg a
close-up shows the 1/10th-inch-wide (3mm) flowers, and
a feature rather peculiar for the species -- a simple
tendril arising in the inflorescence, or flower head.
Usually tendrils arise on stems well below
inflorescences.

In Jamaica where this liana also occurs the species is
called Chewstick, and books say the Yucatan Maya call
it Xomak. It's GOUANIA LUPULOIDES of the Buckthorn
Family, the Rhamnaceae. My Maya friends here don't
seem to know about it. Sometimes it's like that, in
one area people being very familiar with a plant, but
then not far away it's unknown.

In the last picture you probably noticed the flowers'
unusual appearance, like shallow, ten-lobed bowls. The
deal is that the flowers' five sepals (calyx segments)
and five petals are white, about the same length, and
alternate with one another. Another curious feature is
how the petals partially enwrap the stamens.
Chewstick's flowers are relatively relaxed about their
sex. Most blossoms bear both male and female sexual
parts, but sometimes they're functionally male or
female, with one set of sexual parts being reduced and
sterile.

Maximino Martínez's "Las Plantas Medicinales de
México" says that the cooked plant is used to harden
the gums, and that the plant's dried stems, when
ground, produce a powder that has been exported to
Europe as a dentifrice. On the Wikipedia page for this
species I read that "To clean one's teeth ... one cuts
off a portion of the vine, peels off the bark and
chews the tip. The tip becomes fibrous and frothy.
Chewstick tastes slightly bitter but not unpleasant."

Also I read that a medicinal tea from the plant has a
pleasant but bitter flavor and can be used as a bitter
substitute for hops in ginger-beer.

Chewstick is native to a large area, from Mexico
through all of Central America to northern South
America, plus the West Indies.

*****

SELF INDULGENCE & THE SIXTH MIRACLE
Last week's look at food waste got me to thinking
about self discipline in general.

On the one hand, a lack of self discipline turned me
into a very fat kid who was miserable with that fat,
so I associate indiscipline with a whole range of
physical and emotional miseries. On the other hand,
some of the most valued and spiritually enlightening
moments of my life have come about during times of
extended, unrestrained self-indulgence -- with women,
while traveling, in backpacking in extraordinary
places, etc.

This week I've developed a coherent attitude about the
matter, with the help of the Six Miracles of Nature.

Remember that the Sixth Miracle enables us to think
rationally, in ways not dictated or influenced by our
genes. The wonders of science, the sense of esthetics,
spirituality (not religiosity) -- all are expressions
of the Sixth Miracle. The Six Miracles are outlined at
http://www.backyardnature.net/j/6/

I think about it this way: The first Five Miracles set
up a Universe in which the Creator appears to be
"pushing" creation -- all new things and all evolution
an outgrowth or continuation of the Big Bang. Even our
instinct-driven behavior is rooted in information
encoded on DNA molecules, and those molecules are made
of atoms generated either with the Big Bang or later
in supernovae that exploded, so in that sense even
human lust and the drive for possessions can be traced
back to the Big Bang.

However, with the Sixth Miracle -- with rational
thought, esthetics and spirituality -- something has
arisen that doesn't seem linked to the physical
Universe. Inspired thought and feeling arise from...
what?

If during the first five Miracles the Creator was
"pushing" Her creation forward, with the Sixth She
begins "pulling" our mental notions toward... what? A
guess would be that it's toward beholding and perhaps
eventually melding with the Universal Consciousness,
or Unity.

The thing is that self discipline is a pure product of
the Sixth Miracle. It's as if the Creator "wants" us
later-day creations to discipline ourselves so that we
can rationally take or leave the urges set upon us by
our genes.

So, this week I've come to the same conclusion I
nearly always come to when systematically and honestly
thinking about something. Here's that conclusion:

Follow the Middle Path. And this is remembering that
the Middle Path is by no means a mere compromise or
averaging out of impulses. The Middle Path is its own
thing.

One indication that the Sixth Miracle directs us
toward the Middle Path is that it takes much more
Sixth-Miracle-bestowed brainwork to recognize and
follow the Middle Path than it does to embrace an
extreme point of view, and live according to that
view's simplistic dogma.

The Fifth Miracle's greatest promise isn't that
someday we may completely overcome our genetic
programming. Rather, it's that someday we may acquire
the wisdom and will-power not only to live sustainably
but also artfully, spiritually awakened and at least
moderately lustily.

*****

Best wishes to all Newsletter Readers.

Jim

Subscribe AND unsubscribe to this Newsletter at
http://www.backyardnature.net/news/natnat.php

Post your own backyard-nature observations and pix at
http://groups.google.com/group/backyard-nature/

All previous Newsletters are archived at
http://www.backyardnature.net/n/

Visit Jim’s backyard-nature site at
http://www.backyardnature.net