Comments on: It all starts here 8

By: Erin Larkin

Erin Larkin — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:49:03 +0000

Arkansans represent!

I too, was going to say that it may be nice and fallish in the Southwest, but here in the mid-South in Arkansas, we sweat and shiver alternately depending on what time of day it is. And from my time in Memphis, I saw much of the basic processing and baleing happen there, before they were sent down the Mississippi river on the barge system. That huge, watery highway is full floating bales of cotton, soy, and rice. The clock seems to turn back just watching them slowly pass.

By: kay

kay — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:36:46 +0000

Anne, I used to work with a cotton systematist (working on cotton evolution). Fresh picked cotton right from the boll feels a whole lot like a cotton ball. Really rather boring. Cotton fibers are *very* close to chemically pure cellulose. Tree cottons, shrub cottons, wild cottons — except for coarser, shorter fibers in some cottons, my fingers really can’t tell the difference between a fresh boll (other than the seeds!) and drugstore cotton.

By: Grace

Grace — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 05:20:51 +0000

I do love jacaranda season. Take a look at my two favorite jacaranda trees.

“If you see a purple haze over the LA basin in June, it might be Jacaranda season. Or it might be smog or a linear combination of the two.”

You might want to visit during coral tree season in the spring or chorisia (silk floss tree) season in the fall.

In a land with very subtle weather changes, I measure the seasons by the flowering trees. Apple and other fruit trees followed by coral, jacaranda and trumpet trees, then crepe mrytle, acacia and chorisia.

By: Lisa Bloodgood

Lisa Bloodgood — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:24:15 +0000

I would really like to feel freshly picked cotton fibers. It would be really cool if someone could send some, but I don’t advocate anyone stealing from someone else’s field.

In case anyone doesn’t know, gum trees are what we call eucalyptus trees.

By: /anne...

/anne... — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:26:07 +0000

Ok, so I won’t send any of the registered weed varieties .

Some of them have become weeds if they run rampant outside their original environment, but most of the ones you see in Australia are where they’re supposed to be – much of the Australian bush consists largely of gum trees (there are hundreds of varieties), wattles, banksias, and a few other assorted plants.

Jacarandas are _beautiful_ . They’re also drought-tolerant – they flower heavily in Spring, then drop all the flowers to create their own mulch to protect themselves from the long dry summer. Very popular in Perth, Western Australia, which can go for 6 months without a drop of rain (almost all the rain is in winter).
The only problem is, if you’re inland, I don’t think they like frost.

By: kay

kay — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:17:08 +0000

Yes, you probably saw lots of yellow-flowered Acacia in Los Angeles. There are about 1350 species, quite a number of them native to Australia.
Currently Acacia auriculiformis, A. confusa, A. farnesiana (which has as one of it’s common names “Ellington curse”), A. mearnsii, A. melanoxylon, A. paradoxa and A. parramattensis are all considered introduced weeds in one or another parts of the US.

By: dosfashionistas

dosfashionistas — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:27:15 +0000

About those sweaty cotton pickers. I grew up in the 50’s,in Arkansas where they grow a lot of cotton. We picked it (by hand) in September and October. It might be cool in the morning when we started, but around noon it was plenty hot and we did sweat. It would feel sooo good to get back to the wagon and drink ice water in the shade.Then weigh your full sack and empty it into the wagon, sling it back across your shoulder and head down the next row.

When the cotton bole is completely open, you can pluck the fibers out with a pinching movement of your fingers, taking very little leaf or other trash. We always called it picking cotton. When did it get to be “scooping”? The cotton bole you have pictured is about half open.

They started picking cotton by machine about the time I went to college, in the early 60’s.

Boy do I sound like an old fogy!

By: Joyce Ireland

Joyce Ireland — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:41:08 +0000

The blue, purplish flowered trees are jacarandas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacaranda). They are gorgeous in LA in late May, early June. Not sure what the yellow ones might be.

By: Elizabeth Zwicky

Elizabeth Zwicky — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:26:41 +0000

Wattles are usually called acacias in the US. They’re pretty common, and yes, they’re undoubtedly the ones you saw in LA.

The trees with the purple flowers are jacarandas. Originally South American, but widely grown wherever the climate suits them because they are sooo pretty.