Proteus Flowers

Proteus


The Order Proteales consists of four families:

Family Proteaceae, a Southern Hemisphere family, is best known for large, dense, showy flower heads found in upscale flower arrangements, and for shrubs with bright red, white or yellow "bottle brush" flowers. They are also important nectar producers in Australia and New Zealand (where the most spectacular versions grow) and South America. A couple Genera produce edible nuts of commercial importance.

Family Nelumbonaceae, a Northern Hemisphere family, contains only the Genus Nelumbo, with only two species, yet it is of great culinary interest - the Lotus family.

Family Platanaceae contains Northern Hemisphere trees called Sycamores in North America and Plane Trees everywhere else. Their only culinary value is for wood excellent for cooking fires.

Family Sabiaceae is of no culinary interest.

CG Home

Cactus
Eudicots

Magnolia
Magnolias

SEARCH
Search
CloveGarden


SAFARI
Users



Proteales Family

The Proteales are primarily Southern Hemisphere plants found in Australia, New Zealand and South America. Some are grown in the Northern Hemisphere, usually as introduced species.

Gevuina avellana


Gevuina Leaves & Berries [Chilean hazel, Avellano Chileno (Spanish), Gevuina avellana]

Native to Chili and Argentina this evergreen tree bears bright red berries that turn black when ripe. The seeds are eaten raw or toasted and yield a cooking oil high in monounsaturated oils (similar to olive oil) with a high concentration of antioxidants, vitamin E and Omega 7. It is also much used by the pharmaceutical industry in sunscreens and cosmetics. While it grows well in California and the Pacific Northwest, commercial production comes mainly from South America, but New Zealand is now ramping up to become a significant producer. Photo by Franz Xaver distributed under GNU Free Documentation License..

Macadamia


Macadamia Nuts on tree [Macadamia Nut, Poppel Nut, Bauple Nut, Bopple Nut, Bush Nut, Maroochi nut, Kindal kindal (indigenous), Queensland Nut, Macadamia tetraphylla, Macadamia integrifolia]

This tree is native to Australia but best known to Americans from Hawaii where large commercial crops were first grown. These nuts are now also grown commercially in California, Africa, South America, Israel, Costa Rica and New Zealand.

Macadamias remain a high priced nut because they are very difficult to shell on a production scale. I shell them by dropping a nut into my big Thai granite mortar and hitting it with the heavy pestle. This way the shells don't fly everywhere. The oil is prized by the pharmaceutical industry due to it's 22% content of Omega-7 palmitoleic acid which makes it particularly good for skin care products.   Photo © i0128 .

Geebung


Geebung Fruit on Tree [Persoonia lanceolata (Lance-leaf Geebung)   |   Persoonia laurina (Laurel-leaved Geebung)]

Of the many Geebung shrubs growing in Australia, only these two species have been much eaten by the indigenous people. They are both native to New South Wales, P. lancelota along the central coast and P. Laurina farther inland. The natives of the region prefer the fruit if P. lancelota. These fruits ripen to partially red, then drop off the shrub to fully ripen to dark red. They are 0.4 inch long and 0.3 inch diameter. The fruit is eaten from the ground, not picked from the plant. These plants are not cultivated because nearly all Persoonia are very difficult to propagate.   Photo of P. lancelota by Casliber distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike v3.0 unported.

Wild Almond


Bitter Almond Fruits on tree [Bitter almond; Ghoeboontjie; Ghoekoffie, Bitteramandel (Afrikaans); Brabejum stellatifolium]

Not a real Almond, this low spreading tree is native to the west coast of South Africa. The fruits look much like almonds, but are laced with lethal amounts of bitter prussic acid. While sometimes called "bitter almond", it is not to be confused with the bitter almond of commerce, which is just a high cyanide variety of the regular almond.

Toxicity did not keep these seeds from being eaten. The Hottentots soaked and roasted the seed kernels to drive off the toxins, and did the same with roots, which are very high in cyanide. The early Dutch settlers similarly soaked the seed kernels and roasted them to make a coffee substitute. Porcupines, an important food animal in South Africa, feast on these seeds.   Photo by Andrew Massyn contributed to the Public Domain .



Nelumbonaceae Family

This is a Northern Hemisphere family, often confused with Water Lilies, but they are easy to tell apart. Water lily leaves have a deep notch from the edge all the way in to the stem, and they always float on the water surface. Lotus leaves are fully circular with stems in the center, no notch, and generally stand proud of the water surface (see photo below). Interestingly, though very distantly related, their very similar flowers are both noted for mild psychoactive and anesthetic properties.

Lotus


Lotus leaves, flowers [Nelumbo nucifera, Sacred Lotus] [Nelumbo lutea, American Lotus, Yellow Lotus, Water-chinquapin]

Native to a vast area stretching from Afghanistan to Vietnam, the Asian Lotus has been an important source of food throughout it's entire range since prehistoric times. It has since been carried to all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Flowers, seeds, leaves and rhizomes (roots) are all edible and popular throughout India, East Asia and Southeast Asia. The Lotus was unknown in Egypt until the Persian invasion. The "sacred lotus" of ancient Egypt was instead the blue water lily Nymphaea caerulea.   Photo © i0138 .

The American lotus (Nelumbo lutea) is similarly edible to the Asian species and was a significant native food resource into Colonial times. It is indigenous to the southeastern U.S., Mexico, Honduras and the West Indies but has been dispersed farther by humans. Details and Cooking.



pr_proteus 080203   -   www.clovegarden.com
©Andrew Grygus - agryg@clovegaden.com - Photos on this page not otherwise credited are © cg1 - Linking to and non-commercial use of this page permitted