Tag: barcelona

Barcelona, Spain.

Working day three. Continuing our wandering up to the Montjuic space, now in the Old Botanical Gardens.

From Wikipedia –

Umbellularia californica is a substantial tree indigenous to coastal forests of California and slightly prolonged into Oregon. It is the sole species in the genus Umbellularia.

Its pungent leaves have a equivalent flavor to bay leaves (even though stronger), and it might be mistaken for Bay Laurel.

In Oregon, this tree is acknowledged as Oregon Myrtle, when in California it is called California Bay Laurel, which may perhaps be shortened to California Bay or California Laurel. It has also been named Pepperwood, Spicebush, Cinnamon Bush, Peppernut Tree and Headache Tree. This hardwood tree is endemic to the California Floristic Province. The dry wood has a shade selection from blonde (like maple) to brown (like walnut). Myrtlewood is viewed as a globe-class tonewood and is sought following by luthiers and woodworkers from all around the world.

This tree primarily inhabits Redwood forests, California mixed woods, Yellow Pine Forest, and oak woodlands. Bays manifest in oak woodlands only close to the coastline or in serious northern California where by it is moister.

Throughout the Miocene, oak-laurel forests were found in Central and Southern California Laurel forest. Typical tree species included oaks ancestral to current-day California oaks, as perfectly as an assemblage of trees from the Laurel household, such as Nectandra, Ocotea, Persea, and Umbellularia. Only one indigenous species from the Laurel household, Umbellularia californica, remains in California right now.

Historical usage
Umbellularia has extended been valued for its numerous works by using by Native Individuals all through the tree’s variety, together with the Cahuilla, Chumash, Pomo, Miwok, Yuki, Coos and Salinan people.

The leaf has been used as a get rid of for headache, toothache, and earache – while the risky oils in the leaves could also trigger problems when applied in surplus. Poultices of Umbellularia leaves have been used to address rheumatism and neuralgia. Laurel leaf tea was built to take care of belly aches, colds, sore throats, and to apparent up mucus in the lungs. The leaves have been steeped in very hot water to make an infusion that was employed to wash sores. The Pomo and Yuki tribes of Mendocino County handled head aches by placing a single leaf in the nostril or bathing the head with a laurel leaf infusion.

Both the flesh and the inner kernel of the fruit have been applied as food by Indigenous Individuals. The fatty outer flesh of the fruit, or mesocarp, is palatable uncooked for only a short time when ripe prior to this the unstable aromatic oils are also robust, and afterwards the flesh speedily becomes bruised, like that of an overripe avocado. Native Individuals dried the fruits in the sunlight and ate only the lessen 3rd of the dried mesocarp, which is much less pungent.

The challenging inner seed beneath the fleshy mesocarp, like the pit of an avocado, cleaves conveniently in two when its slender shell is cracked. The pit by itself was usually roasted to a dim chocolate-brown coloration, eradicating much of the pungency and leaving a spicy taste. Roasted, shelled “bay nuts” were being eaten complete, or floor into powder and geared up as a drink which resembles unsweetened chocolate. The taste, based on roast degree, has been described variously as “roast espresso,” “dim chocolate” or “burnt popcorn”. The powder could also be pressed into cakes and dried for winter season storage, or applied in cooking. It has been speculated that the nuts of U. californica contain a stimulant nonetheless this doable influence has been very little documented by biologists.

Modern day Utilization
The leaf can be applied in cooking, but is spicier and “headier” than the Mediterranean bay leaf bought in groceries, and need to be employed in lesser amount. Umbellularia leaf imparts a fairly stronger camphor/cinnamon flavor compared to the Mediterranean Bay. The two Bay trees are relevant within just the Laurel household, together with the Cinnamons.

U. californica is also employed in woodworking. It is regarded as a tonewood, used to assemble the again and sides of acoustic guitars. The wooden is very hard and fantastic, and is also created into bowls, spoons, and other smaller goods and marketed as “myrtlewood”.

U. californica is also developed as an decorative tree, each in its native place, and in other places even further north up the Pacific coast to Vancouver in Canada, and in western Europe. It is once in a while used for firewood.

One preferred use for the leaves is to place them concerning the bed mattresses to get rid of, or protect against flea infestations.

“Myrtlewood” income
“Myrtlewood” is the only wood still in use as a foundation “steel” for legal tender. All through the “interregnum of despair” between Franklin Roosevelt’s election and his inauguration, the only bank in the city of North Bend, Oregon – the 1st Nationwide – was pressured to temporarily shut its doors, precipitating a dollars-flow disaster for the Town of North Bend. The metropolis solved this dilemma by minting currency employing myrtlewood discs printed on a newspaper push. These cash, in denominations from 25 cents to $10, had been utilised to make payroll and the town promised to redeem them for cash as quickly as it turned obtainable.

Nevertheless, when the lender reopened and the town appealed for individuals to convey their myrtlewood income in to redeem it, many opted to hold their tokens as collector’s items. Just after a number of appeals, the city gave up and introduced that the tokens would keep on being authorized tender in the town of North Bend in perpetuity. Right up until the 1960s, folks from time to time did funds in their tokens, but the remaining parts have grow to be extremely useful as a result of shortage and historical curiosity. Fewer than 10 whole sets are considered to exist.

California Bay Laurel is an important host of Unexpected oak demise and typically reside in forests with Tanoaks, which are also susceptible to the disorder.

Posted by wallygrom on 2010-12-05 23:38:01

Tagged: , Spain , Catalonia , Barcelona , Day 3 , Vacationer Bus , Purple Route , Montjuic , Aged Botanical Gardens , California Bay Laurel , Oregon Myrtle , Pepperwood , Spicebush , Cinnamon Bush , Peppernut Tree , Headache Tree , Umbellularia , Umbellularia californica

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