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Plant id request




Does anyone recognize this plant?
And if you do, are any parts edible?

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=118126&a=8529235&p=27611355
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=118126&a=8529235&p=27611358

Sharon
gordonse@one.net






At 04:42 AM 10/3/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Vinca rosea(Catharanthus rosea) is the Madagascan periwinkle from which
>Vinblastine is extracted for the treatment of leukemia. I'm not sure
>whether Vinca minor has medicinal properties - it's certainly
>distasteful to my chooks.
>
>Actually, its interesting becuase the chooks basically are synergistic
>with the vinca - having removed all the other ground covers the vinca is
>now growing rampantly and I have what might be termed a "weed" problem.
>Being lazy - the following has occurred to me. Although the vinca grows
>vigourously in winter - it dies back to the edge of the trees in summer
>- it can't handle the dry mediterranean summers we have here. It's roots
>act to bind together the sand on the relatively steep slope that i live
>on - this is good. Also I've noticed that where I've got "Wandering Jew"
>(the plant - sorry I don't know its latin name) growing in the
>understorey the vinca doesn't overgrow it - this is good - Wnadering Jew
>is easy to pull out and grows fast. I've found that the best way to deal
>with deep rooted smotherable weeds like vinca and kikuyu is to encourage
>other ground covers (nasturtiums grow over kikuyu as well as Vinca).
>That way you grow the weed that is easiest to pull out. Then it's simply
>a matter of paying attention to boundaries i.e. reducing the boundary
>where the problem weed is growing into your valuable vegies etc. by
>weeding strategically. I treat weeds like Vinca and kikuyu as 2 - 3 year
>problems.
>
>Hope this is useful
>
>Regards Bob
>
>
>
>
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