Wild castor beans, Panajachel, alt. 5100 ft, temp 70° F

Could two common weeds hold the keys to Guatemala’s independence from petroleum imports? Chances are you’ve seen them, just not recognized them as you drive about Guatemala, especially since one flourishes in the coastal lowlands and the other is widespread in the highlands.

The piñon or the higuerilla, at about 38 percent and 19 percent by weight respectively, are two weed seeds which when refined into super-fine diesel may hold the keys to independence from the diesel smoke clogging Guatemala’s highways and your lungs. Then replace gasoline with ethanol, distilled from Guatemala’s prolific sugar production (fifth-largest producer in the world) and voila! A green Guatemala.

Piñon, native to Guatemala, grows in lowland soils and climates. It is fast becoming better known as jatropha, from its official name Jatropha curcas. Used mainly in arid regions as fencing, since cattle do not like the taste of its foliage, until recently it served principally as a free fence post for farmers. Now there are thousands of acres under cultivation, and the pioneering research into jatropha is being carried out in Guatemala, fittingly enough for a native plant. Millions of acres are under cultivation in Brazil, Indonesia and India. Users of the first commercial quantities of jatropha-based “diesel” produced here report that it burns cleaner than even the highest-grade diesel obtainable in international markets (Guatemala’s trucks and buses use an inferior grade) and is easier in wear and tear on diesel engines.

Jatropha, under ideal cultivation, management and processing, yields about 38 percent pure diesel by weight, and the simple distillation process can be worked out by a high school chemistry student.

It sounds too good to be true—“A desert weed that animals don’t eat—just throw it on fertile soil, stand back and get rich overnight.” That’s the pitch of a new breed of jatropha hucksters, peddling cheap Mexican desert acreage as an ideal investment. Sure enough, it can be planted in Mexican deserts, but the cold nights (remember, it is native to Guatemala’s warm coastal lowlands) preclude maturity to commercial yields. Researchers here are now homing in on basic facts about commercial jatropha production. Soils, rainfall patterns and basic spacing and pruning techniques are key elements in commercial production—too much rain befuddles jatropha, more used to arid climates.

Higuerilla, Ricinis officinus, prolific in Guatemala’s Highlands, is better known worldwide as the castor bean. Its yield by weight when converted to diesel is about half that of jatropha, but since its price is twice as high it is competitive. Dreaded castor oil is not the most important use for the castor bean. That role falls to it as the key ingredient in Castrol lubricants. Before you run out to pick a bunch to experiment with, beware since castor beans and leaves can produce nasty skin rashes.

Add ethanol, the sugar-based gasoline substitute already produced in massive quantities, to jatropha and castor diesel, and Guatemala becomes independent from fossil fuels.
Dreaming?

wild jatropha, El Estor, alt. 100 ft., 100° F

There is beauty and mystery in your garden around the clock

written by S.C. Johnson

Day Time

You have a pretty good idea of what is going on in your daytime garden, since every day you can watch the main attractions. They include hummingbirds and butterflies, lured by the modern trend of planting hummingbird and butterfly “friendly” plants and flowers. Hummingbirds aren’t all that picky, hitting on almost any flower, even if it is just a few feet from your nose at breakfast.

Butterflies definitely respond to a little coaxing. So-called butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, is a weed to be sure, but a milkweed, one of the favorites for butterflies. I was recently shocked when a friend brought me a commercial pack of butterfly weed and it worked out to a U.S. nickel a seed. The real shock came when I found the same plant growing outside my gate—a weed indeed. A perennial, butterfly weed makes a great border, and the kids will delight at turning up the leaves and finding the tiny butterfly eggs that are often attached to the undersides. Wait until they cocoon, and take them inside to watch one of nature’s miracles unfold. Almost any salvia, or sage, there are 200 varieties, is a sure-fire butterfly magnet, too.

The Mexican sunflower, Totonia rotundifolia, is another butterfly destination. Although it is an annual, with some care in harvesting the seeds it can become perennial.

Night Time

But it is at night that the true magic of the garden is revealed. If the daytime, with orange and black monarch butterflies and ruby-throated hummingbirds, is modern Technicolor, a proud British invention from the 1930s, then the nighttime is an old-time black and white movie. Moths, many of them drab when compared to their showoff butterfly cousins, flit from flower to flower, performing the same essential pollination function. Preferred flowers, usually called this, that or the other alba from the Latin root word for white, are indeed white and the easiest for moths to find in the dark. Sit out on your patio or deck in partial or full moon light and enjoy the dance.

One of my favorites, and the seed is commercially available, is the appropriately named moonflower. Curled up tightly in daytime, this pure white flower unfurls to become Victoria Station for moths at night. I was thrilled during one of Guatemala’s seemingly frequent eclipses to see my moonflowers welcome the “night” by unrolling. Moonflowers can be shaped into bushes, which is a good idea since like any vine (they are a relative to the morning glory) they will otherwise soon take over.
Another, which I brought down from a roadside in Northern Mexico, is the chocolate vine, which, although again of course white, smells exactly like chocolate. But it spread so voraciously that I had to let it go.

There is a danger potentially lurking in your nighttime garden. The flor huele de noche tree, literally “flower, smells at night” is seductively covered with highly fragrant white blossoms that moths love. But it is actually a jessamyn tree and known to cause asthma and bronchial and breathing problems. Plant one for sure, but far from the windows.

Astute readers may notice that I have left out the firefly. But that’s because this fascinating natural LED rates its own treatment (May 2010 Revue).

Bougainvillea Sampler (photo Rudy Girón/AntiguaDailyPhoto.Com)

written by S.C. Johnson

Sometime, before my time, I believe it was in the 1930s when minds were preoccupied with the Great Depression, everybody had to have a national or a state flower. Now mostly, nobody even knows what they are. I was at a British pub quiz night recently and our Swedish team member had no idea what the Swedish national flower happens to be.

In Guatemala the national flower is the monja blanca, a delicate orchid that will never see the light of day in La Antigua Guatemala’s fine plant nurseries (too hot and illegal, too). So, in my opinion, I think the monja blanca’s time has come and gone and it should be replaced.

A national flower should be national in distribution. The monja blanca, confined to a few isolated mosslands is not. A national flower should be easily recognizable, especially by children, the future. Let’s face it, if a monja blanca knocked on your door, you wouldn’t recognize it. “Hello, who are you?”

Enter my candidate for the new national flower, the instantly recognizable and ubiquitous-in-Guatemala bougainvillea. No shrinking violet, the bougainvillea evokes the term my mother used for it every morning, the “wow!” flower. If one knocks on your door, you will say, “Wow! It’s bougainvillea!”

And bougainvillea has some special attributes that endear it. We have all looked up, and up and up and up, and seen bougainvillea growing high in other trees. How did it get 60, 70, 100 feet up? Since it has no tendrils with which to grasp, bougainvillea must grow out and flop over a nearby branch, ever higher and higher. A true triumph of perseverance.

Not only does bougainvillea achieve the seemingly impossible by climbing without tendrils, it is easy to start and can easily grow 10 meters in a season. There is no better flower to show a child how to start a plant, which can become a lifelong love. Simply cut a 10- to 14-inch piece, not too green, and stick it in sunny, moist ground, thorns pointing down. Within a few weeks buds will appear on the stem and your new bougainvillea is off to the races.

Bougainvillea makes an impenetrable barrier against intruders, although birds flit in and out to their nests, safe from cats, weasels or other predators.

What you think is a flower is the showy bract, with the tiny real flower in the center. Just follow the hummingbirds.

Build a bower of bougainvillea, the sunlight filtering through the bracts is truly ethereal.

Where can you find bougainvillea? You can “borrow,” with permission of course, cuttings from a neighbor. Guatemala’s spectacular plant nurseries always have bougainvillea available.

Up over the hill from Guatemala’s colonial capital or down the Pacific road from Guatemala City, about 16 kilometers from each, is the national agricultural university at Barcenas. Rows and rows of flowers and other plants are available for sale, including mature bougainvillea. Barcenas is a national treasure, free to enter and a fantasyland for plant enthusiasts.

Here is my bougainvillea dream. There are over 200 classified colors of bougainvillea. My prior favorite was San Diego Red, until a beautiful English blonde from York, near Carlisle of course, bought me a beautiful yellow bougainvillea in Oaxaca. I dream of someone reading this paean to the new national flower, discovering a new shade and classifying it as La Antigua Amarillo, propagating it and making it world famous.