![]() ![]() The pith and the rhizomes are edible: the pith can be eaten raw or cooked, or it can be chewed like sugarcane. The ashes provide vegetable salt in Burundi. The pith is dried and used for stuffing mattresses and cushions (Gabon), processed with waste paper and water to make sanitary napkins (Great Lakes region), and to manufacture cardboard and wallboard (Uganda and Rwanda). It is used to make furniture, mats, baskets and other handcrafts, and for buildings, roofing, brick-making, and boat construction ( Rooney, 2013 Jones et al., 2018). Papyrus is still used on a subsistence basis by people living in the vicinity of papyrus wetlands in Africa. The fibrous parts of the culms were used for ropes, nets, sandals etc. Papyrus is cited in the Bible ("bulrush" in the King James Version) as the material used to make Moses' cradle (Exodus 2-3: S he took for him an ark of bulrushes) and to make boats (Isaiah 18-2: That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters) (The Holy Bible, KJV21). It was the only widespread recording medium until the 8 th century in Europe ( Vaughan, 2011 Rooney, 2013). Paper made from dried, pressed and woven strips of culm pith had been used since 3500 BCE to make paper by ancient civilizations in Egypt and the Mediterranean basin. Papyrus is not primarily used as fodder but it can be browsed or cut for livestock feeding. They contain 12-40 cylindrical, sessile spikelets spirally arranged along the spike ( Popay, 2014 Vaughan, 2011). The spikes are 2-3 cm long x 0.6-1.2 cm wide. It contains 50-360 green smooth branches, 15-35 cm in length, that bear spikes clustered in umbels at their apex. The inflorescence looks like an umbel, hemispherical when young and becoming sub-globose with age. The leaves are alternate, reduced, sheathing, reddish-blackish brown in colour when young. They are photosynthetic and contain a solid pith, white-light brown. Papyrus culms are erect and roundly trigonous, smooth, 15-45 (-60) mm in diameter. The roots are tough and able to extend 1 m or more. MorphologyĬyperus papyrus is a stout, aquatic perennial rhizomatous sedge that grows to 3-5 m in height. Papyrus is now widely used as an ornemental ( Vaughan, 2011). The dry plant can be burned for fire production. The pith is edible and can be eaten raw or cooked. It has been assessed as fodder for feeding livestock. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.Papyrus ( Cyperus papyrus L.) is an aquatic sedge mostly known for its use as paper by the ancient Egypt, Greek and Roman civilizations. They prefer to crawl, and that’s what this one was doing when I leaned in for a close-up.Īll material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. The katydid does have wings but is said to be a clumsy or even incapable flier. I spotted this one on the deck table this afternoon and took a photo of it for ESP, who is interested in bugs. It wouldn’t work on a front porch.Īfter a summer of singing in the oaks, the katydids are coming down to ground level, where I’m noticing them with regularity. This native evergreen relative of the yucca is perfect for containers in sun or shade, but watch out-it does get large. The pond is deep enough at 2 feet, and has steep sides with no sloping entry, so that it has foiled the raccoon attacks so far.Ĭousin Itt, my potted Texas nolina, looks more and more like a fountain or waterfall as it ages. ![]() ‘Black Marble’ taro still looks lovely in the pond too, even though it’s been knocked off its perch twice lately by something, probably a raccoon after the fish. The dwarf papyrus in my stock-tank pond displays that same beautiful sparkler flower head, made even more lovely at this time of year by turning golden yellow. We didn’t have a hard freeze last winter, but we usually do get at least a couple. It’s considered an annual where temperatures reach freezing, so I’m waiting to see whether it will return next spring. ‘King Tut’ grows quite large (probably larger if watered regularly) Proven Winners’ website says 48-72″ tall. It did suffer a bit during the heat of the summer, as a few big, sparkler-shaped heads turned brown, but it rebounded nicely with the cooler, wetter fall weather. And then our summer drought from hell set in, and I watered ‘King Tut’ exactly as much as the other new plants in my garden, which, by mid-summer, amounted to the city-legislated once per week. Oh well, it was free, so I plunked it in a shady spot just downhill from a sprinkler head and made a well of mulch around it, to better capture any stray moisture. What am I going to do with a bog plant in my dry garden, I wondered? So imagine my surprise when, among a nice selection of drought-tolerant plants, this ‘King Tut’ papyrus arrived. When Proven Winners asked me last spring if I’d trial some of their plants, I requested they send me only xeric plants, explaining that I am not a zealous waterer.
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