Gardening in Fuerteventura

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Loads in the garden today!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Today's featured plant is the Jacaranda Tree.

I know of 3 on the island - there are probably many more. They are worth a peek while they are in bloom. Normally that is in May but they are having a second bloom at the moment.

1. On the edge of the airport grounds/fence, just before the Padilla sign as you travel south.
2. La Capellania (Tamaragua) in the garden of a house that runs along the edge nearest the new motorway.

Neither of these are somewhere I could stop for a pic hence I have downloaded one for reference.



3. Behind Oasis Zoo there is a lane leading from the carpark with some white cottages. One of these has a beautiful specimen sprawling over the garden wall (I last saw it about 4 years ago, hope it's still there!).

It is a tree I have wanted to grow since I first saw streets lined with them in mainland Spain about 30 years ago. I looked out here and couldn't find one for sale so I asked Baba in the garden centre in Corralejo and he ordered one in for me - unfortunately it didn't survive. I'm hoping to try again in a different aspect of my garden if he can get me another one.

From Wiki:

Jacaranda mimosifolia is a sub-tropical tree native to south-central South America that has been widely planted elsewhere because of its attractive and long-lasting pale indigo flowers. It is also known as jacaranda, blue jacaranda, black poui, or as the fern tree. Older sources call it Jacaranda acutifolia, but it is nowadays more usually classified as Jacaranda mimosifolia. In scientific usage, the name "jacaranda" refers to the genus Jacaranda, which has many other members, but in horticultural and everyday usage, it nearly always means the blue jacaranda.
The blue jacaranda has been cultivated in almost every part of the world where there is no risk of frost; established trees with the protection of hard wood can however tolerate brief spells of temperatures down to around −7 °C (19 °F). In the US, 48 km (30 mi) east of Los Angeles where winter temperatures can dip to −12 °C (10 °F) for short several-hour periods, the mature tree survives with little or no visible damage. Even when young trees are damaged by a hard frost and suffer die back, they will often rebound from the roots and grow in a shrub-like, multi-stemmed form.
In Europe it is grown on the entire Mediterranean coast of Spain (it is very noticeable in the Valencian community, the Balearic Islands and Andalusia with especially large specimens present in Valencia, Alicante and Seville, and usually with earlier flowering than in the rest of Europe), in the southern part of Portugal (very noticeable in Lisbon), southern Italy (in Naples and Cagliari it's quite easy to come across beautiful specimens), southern Greece (noticeable in Athens) and on the Islands of Malta and Cyprus.
The tree grows to a height of up to 20 m (66 ft).[6] Its bark is thin and grey-brown in colour, smooth when the tree is young though it eventually becomes finely scaly. The twigs are slender and slightly zigzag; they are a light reddish-brown in colour. The flowers are up to 5 cm (2.0 in) long, and are grouped in 30 cm (12 in) panicles. They appear in spring and early summer, and last for up to two months. They are followed by woody seed pods, about 5 cm (2.0 in) in diameter, which contain numerous flat, winged seeds. The Blue Jacaranda is cultivated even in areas where it rarely blooms, for the sake of its large compound leaves. These are up to 45 cm (18 in) long and bi-pinnately compound, with leaflets little more than 1 cm (0.39 in) long. There is a white form available from nurseries.

The unusually shaped, tough pods, which are 5.1 to 7.6 cm (2 to 3 in) across, are often gathered, cleaned and used to decorate Christmas trees and dried arrangements.

[OMR + MIN]

Great pic. Tamara.

We have loads too.

Good to see them back here again.

[OMR + MIN]

I tried to grow one too a few years ago. I didn't survive either.

[Gone Fishing]

Thought i saw some painted lady butterflies this morning.  

Has anyone else seen them?

I think the Canaries, Fuerte especially, is on (or just off) the migration route of painted ladies.

April 2008 La Concha beach was festooned with them, probably on their return journey, and this was one of several that landed on Mrs GF's beach towel that day.


   
(click to enlarge photo)

Apparently, this year has been a good year in the UK for them.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...utterflies

[OMR + MIN]

Thanks Gone Fishing.

Yes heard about them in the UK this year too.

Today we have many of them here flying about again. Good to see.

[Tardis]

Great pics Tardis! Thanks. Wish I had your patience.

Thank you all for your kind comments.  

The Monarch on the Bottlebrush plant was very happy to pose for me.  The others never settle for long, so it does take a lot of patience.  They say in close up/macro insect photography that out of 100 photos, only one will be worth keeping! 

I’m glad to hear that Bill and Ben have settled in.

We plan to sow Milkweed seeds soon.

Getting the balance right between Milkweed and caterpillars seems quite tricky.  Our caterpillars are busily munching away at what is left of the milkweed.  Just hope there are enough leaves for them.

[Can the Man]

I know it’s not Fuerteventura but here in Kildare Ireland I had a visit today by a peacock butterfly who landed on my turf heap and started showing off its beautiful colours. 
I will try attach a photo
[img]blob:https://fuerteventura.click/e18cd3b2-2c0a-481d-887c-7e6cf8a2bc82[/img]

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

I’m glad to hear that Bill and Ben have settled in.

We plan to sow Milkweed seeds soon.

Getting the balance right between Milkweed and caterpillars seems quite tricky.  Our caterpillars are busily munching away at what is left of the milkweed.  Just hope there are enough leaves for them.

Bill & Ben got very fat, very quickly and today have disappeared! I hope they have hidden to pupate and not been dinner for something else   
There was only a couple of leaves left on the milkweed plants so perhaps I didn't have enough for them (1 plant each!)

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

I saw some new cones on a tree today which prompted this post.

From Wiki:
Araucaria is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae.

Araucaria are mainly large trees with a massive erect stem, reaching a height of 5–80 metres (16–262 ft). The horizontal, spreading branches grow in whorls and are covered with leathery or needle-like leaves. In some species, the leaves are narrow, awl-shaped and lanceolate, barely overlapping each other; in others they are broad and flat, and overlap broadly.
The trees are mostly dioecious, with male and female cones found on separate trees,[6] though occasional individuals are monoecious or change sex with time. The female cones, usually high on the top of the tree, are globose, and vary in size among species from 7 to 25 centimetres (2.8 to 9.8 in) diameter. They contain 80–200 large edible seeds, similar to pine nuts, though larger. The male cones are smaller, 4–10 cm (1.6–3.9 in) long, and narrow to broad cylindrical, 1.5–5.0 cm (0.6–2.0 in) broad.
The genus is familiar to many people as the genus of the distinctive Chilean pine or monkey-puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana). The genus is named after the Spanish exonym Araucano ("from Arauco") applied to the Mapuche of central Chile and south-west Argentina, whose territory incorporates natural stands of this genus. The Mapuche people call it [i]pehuén[/i], and consider it sacred. Some Mapuche living in the Andes name themselves [i]Pehuenches[/i] ("people of the [i]pehuén[/i]") as they traditionally harvested the seeds extensively for food.

From Tamara  :
A fantastic tree which grows very happily here in Fuerteventura if given sufficient water but please, please, please think very carefully about where you plant it. They get enormous! That means large roots (bad news for foundations and underground pipes, water etc) and a heavy, tall trunk which if it blows over could cause extensive damage to buildings. I see some in tiny gardens or right next to houses and cringe every time. Think - would I plant an oak tree in this position? If no, then don't plant an araucaria! 
Because of their growth habit they are ideal subjects for decorating with solar fairy lights or wrapping a continuous light around the trunk if that's your thing. A Fuerte Christmas tree?