Kyrre's Entries - 25.11.2001

Writing exercise: The Pachira plant

This came from a suggested writing exercise on Holly Lisle's web site. You should take an object, look at it for five minutes and then write a so detailed description as possible.

You remember the potted plant I mentioned a few days ago. Well, I made it the object of this exercise and the result borders on rambling.

***

When I got this tropical looking plant - Pachira - from my parents as an early housewarming gift it had a lush foliage. One icy night in a truck while moving home brought the poor thing near death. From its many leaves only a few remain. Nonetheless it still survives.

Standing on the ground it reaches as high as my chest. This doesn't mean much because I am anything but tall. The pot is a plain, beige, and unobtrusive ceramic.

The plant actually consists of four thin, intertwined, practically braided, trunks. It must be have done while they were still green. Now the trunks are woody and stiff. Their bark is slightly rough and of light brown-grey color. They are branchless until near to the top. There they were once cropped and green branches sprouted to form a crown. But one of the trunks is a bit shorter. It seems to have broken off. It doesn't end in a clean cut like the others but it splintered. But it too grew branches and leaves.

The Pachira smells, well, green. I can't find a better word for it. It smells fresh with a hint of sourness or bitterness and I imagine that it would taste very bitter. I didn't test it though. After the fateful night when it got frost most of the leaves dropped. They left behind a very strong, sharp and sour smell.

Three out of the four trunks were hit very hard by the frost.They lost all leaves and even the green branches dried up. Nonetheless I remain hopeful that they will recover because the wooden parts appear unharmed.

I am certain of that regarding the fourth trunk. It retained some leaves. They look bad now. Their green has faded into various shades of spotty brown to brownish yellow. Some still have some spots of green at the edges. But they didn't drop like the rest and the green branches are unaffected. So it will probably survive.

To tell the truth when I received the gift I didn't quite know what to do with it. Now, watching the little drama and its struggle to survive, I admire its resilience and feel closer to it. Maybe I should give it a name. It deserves it.

count: 435 words in post

Mood: bouncy

Missed class

The reason that I am still up so late or so early is that I wanted to take a look at the classes in Holly Lisle's Class chat. The topic was Norse mythology. Alas, it didn't happen; the instructor didn't show up. Maybe next week I am more lucky.

Instead I wrote down the exercise.

Mood: bouncy

Pachira aquatica

A short search turned up some information about my plant. As I suspected it is tropical or sub-tropical. It originates from the rainforests in Central America. I am quoting:

"Pachira aquatica is more commonly known as Malabar or Guiana Chestnut. Although not well known, this unusually heavy trunked tree is very durable indoors. It's from the Bombax family that stores water in the swollen trunks. But it grows in rainforests so it can tolerate both overwatering or underwatering!"

I can attest to its durability. :)

Mood: bouncy

Take a look at my Pachira

Here is a photo of this resilient plant. You can see that its leaves look bad. But I noticed today the first signs that it will start sprouting new branches.

That's good news. It will survive.

Mood: contemplative