pineapples

I bought a whole pineapple (Ananas comosus) back in May, kept the crown, trimmed it, let the base dry over night before setting the crown in a glass of water. The pineapple crown quickly grew a healthy root system and now has a well established crown of new leaves.

Here are some photos of the cutting that I prepared. Around the base of the leaves are the buds that would become the new roots, I'll post photos of the crown once I have it potted up. There have been two previous attempts to get a pineapple plant to flower but I do hope to succeed this time round as the conditions are much better for a successful conclusion. More to come!

Sunday, I am off for the hike up Hollyburn Mountain as the weather will be much better. I spent the afternoon shopping and then doing the laundry, so all that is behind me. Expect some great pics from the top of the mountain! - V.

Bloom - Blume - Bloem

The word "flower" originated from the Norman French "fleur", which with the Norman invasion of England in 1066, is how that word and many others of French origin came into the English language. Another word for "flower" would be "bloom" where "Blume" and "Bloem" are the German and Dutch equivalents. English, German and Dutch are all Germanic languages, a sub-group of the Indo-European languages, which accounts for the similarity of the words.

The last post, entitled "Flowers", included the middle photo in the set below. I asked if anyone knew what flower this might be. Well, bribri suggested it might be the arnica montana, or Leopard's Bane in English (Arnika in German). The illustration above is from the book,
Flora von Deutschland Österreich und der Schweiz (1885) by Otto Wilhelm Thomé (1885 Ort: Gera-Untermhaus), which shows the arnica montana, a wild flower native to central Europe (check out the link on "Haliaeetus"). Compare that illustration with the three photos below to come to your own conclusion. The bright yellow flower below would certainly appear to be a Compositae, of which the arnica flower is a part, but I've decided to take some more photos of these flowers next spring into summer in order to take a closer look at the flowers, leaves and stems. The illustration, by the way, appears here under the GNU Free document license (source: http://www.biolib.de/) and can also be seen on Wikipedia (Google search for Arnica montana).

In case you're wondering, the photo below shows a bumblebee (Bombus ssp.) busy doing what they do best, gathering nectar! So have a close look and draw your own conclusions! In the meantime, I plan to post some more photos of the trail from Kitsilano to Point Grey Beach in Vancouver on my companion blog, Haliaeetus. That post should include photos of the scenery plus flowers and wildlife. Meantime, enjoy these!