170+ species and a New Year's temple visit

 

Entry by Laura Luttrell with some parts from Blair Rynearson

As of January 7, we have visited and collected plants at 47 local homegardens! In order to facilitate communication we have employed a small number of local friends with varying degrees of English speaking ability throughout this time. It has been very helpful to have someone along that can translate our meanings and ease the flow of conversations, but it is also exciting that our Sinhala has now improved to the point that we are able to ask many of the questions ourselves (but, that’s not to say that we understand all the responses)!

                       

A fairly typical expanding homegarden with young coconuts, flowers, sugar, bananas, and more

We have now been introduced to families all throughout the towns of Kudawa (25-50 minutes walk down the road) and Pitakele (5-25 min down the same road and sometimes into the hills), who now understand that we are learning about homegardens and have a nursery, which we will plant out into our own traditional home garden at the research station. We have asked many questions to learn which species they plant, what they are used for, and how they are grown. Throughout this time, we have found the Sinhalese people to be unfailingly friendly. When they learned that we were interested in how their gardens were planted and managed, this phenomenal trait was amplified. They volunteered hours of their time, walking us through their properties, fielding our questions and offering us tea and produce from their backyards. At times, we would point to a tree with fruit, and they would tell us the name, how it was planted, and give us some fruit to try (it’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it). We were then instructed to save the seeds, and were given instructions on how to plant them.  

Logan happily receiving the gift of a young coconut tree

 

Laura was excited to receive more orchids for our garden

       

   

Ayurvedic treatment to help my hand heal

We have learned of many plants used in Ayurvedic medicine including plants for snake bites, healing bones, indigestion, stomach bugs, headaches, eye problems, infections, and much more. Within fifty yards of their house is a well-stocked pharmacy! After much local interest in my broken hand and their unfailing response that I should use Ayurvedic/Sinhalese medicine, I recently went to a local Sinahese doctor and received topical plant treatments to speed its healing and am now applying a muscle relaxing oil he gave me that is aiding me to regain mobility in my pinky finger and hand. Another X-ray proved that the bone has been mended together, but it sounds like one more month until it's completely healed.     Interspersed with the medicine is a complete spice cabinet: turmeric, ginger, cardamom, black pepper, vanilla, chili, garlic and many other plants that add flavor, but with which we are still pretty unfamiliar. And let’s not forget the produce department: yams, sweet potatoes, squash, cucumbers, manioc, beans, various types of curry plants, and salad leaves of a greater diversity than I have seen at any American farmer’s market. Fruits are also plentiful: coconut, mango, avocado, guava, soursop, custard apple, mangosteen, rambutan, jakfruit, breadfruit, lemon, lime, papaya, and more! To top it all off, they even have their own "lumber yard." There are abundant timber species, mostly native, with a few other well-known exotics like mahogany and teak.      

Jakfruit is commonly made into a curry dish

   

We are impressed to find that your average villager can identify hundreds of plant species, their various uses, and how they are grown. Most everyone, it would seem, is a storehouse of intrinsic knowledge. It’s daunting to think that our task is to recreate a traditional home garden designed by what we perceive to be highly specialized horticulturalists and landscape architects. There is much work to be done on trying to learn why, where, and how to plant the hundreds of species that we collect. It has become apparent that six-eight months is too short a time to scratch the surface of understanding the complexity of Sinharaja area home gardens... but try, we will!

Thankfully, the local gardeners are more than happy to support us. They fill our bags with seeds, clippings and bare root seedlings of species that they like and find useful. Logan started asking farmers about their favorite plants, which led to discovering what some villagers find to be their most useful or unusual varieties of common plants. 

                   

A homegarden view from the patio area

    

Ella batu is a small tasty eggplant

After so many interviews in the community and a lot of additional hard work with the plants, our nursery is starting to look impressive. We have amassed over 750 individual plants, and over 170 species, including what we perceive to be the core species of most homegardens and many, many, pretty flowers! Beyond the core species, we have been collecting many interesting and special plants from villagers. Having gathered some of the more unusual species from each family we visit has led to us possibly having the most diverse collection of all! The survival rate of our seedlings has been surprisingly high, mostly we think because the climate here is so perfect for growing tropical plants, but lately, we’d noticed that our seedlings were struggling to adjust to the intense afternoon sun. To give them a break, we installed shade netting over one part of the high fenced area and started moving the seedlings that needed more shade. The survival rate of our plantings is shockingly high. Most samples are collected as bare root seedlings or cuttings that are placed in polybags filled with a mix of organic topsoil and sand. We have followed the lead of knowledgeable locals and used no root hormone or inorganic fertilizer. We only water the plants if it doesn’t rain, which used to be a relatively infrequence occurrence, but lately has been everyday! I guess monsoon season is over... In addition to the seedlings, we have planted 263 polybags with seeds and many of those have germinated, so our nursery is steadily expanding. Next on the agenda is to figure out where to put all these plants! We’ve been talking with villagers about appropriate spacing and growing requirements for many of the plants. Already, we’ve planted a few species directly into the ground, as they weren’t going to make it in a little polybag... (note the large bananas in the fenced area). We also already have a few epiphytes on trees, pineapples out back, and a few flowers along the path. 

The high fenced area with shade cloth applied is housing our root crops and trees

Our unfenced area contains many planted seeds, spices, medicines, and flowers

 

Our "water feature" received a beautiful lotus flower & other water loving plants

On New Year’s Day, we went with our caretaker’s family to a Buddhist temple in a nearby town. We participated in ritual offerings, which included leaving flowers, burning incense, and lighting coconut oil. It was a rewarding cultural experience, despite the inevitable downpour. 

A recently restored Buddha statue  

Laura ready to visit the temple, offering lotus flowers

Logan on the way to the Buddhist temple