A bright day in Shropshire, and I've been putting off writing this until the time when the Mayans predicted the world was going to come to an end had passed, in case I was wasting my time. For a moment, when a strange ball of fire suddenly appeared in the sky after days of blanket cloud and rain, I thought they'd got it right. Then I realised that the strange object was only the sun making a very rare appearance above us.
The Mayans were an ancient civilization, who lived in what are now Honduras, Guatemala and Yucatan in the south of Mexico, between 500 BC and 1241 AD and apart from what has now proved to be an inaccurate prediction, were probably best known for some of the plants they grew, and which were introduced to European use by the Spanish after their conquest of the Americas during the early sixteenth century.
The most important of these plants was probably Theobroma cacao, from which both chocolate and cocoa are produced. Zea mays gives us sweet corn and corn oil. The latter being added to a great many of the products we purchase from America. Not always to our advantage if the documentary about corn oil I watched on tv a month or so ago painted an accurate picture. Capsicum fructescens gives us Chillis, Paprika and Cayenne and Green Peppers. Nicotiana tabacum was first made into tobacco and smoked by the Mayans. It was introduced to Europe by Jean Nicot (hence its name) in 1558, and the habit of smoking it introduced to the UK by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585.
In the garden, well in the house really, at this time of year look out for Euphorbia pulcherrima, the Poinsettia, which originated in Mexico. Its artificially induced scarlet bracts brighten many a home from Christmas time until the New Year.
If you want to know more why not read Gardens of the Gods, by Brian Taylor, available from Amazon as a hardback book, or the e-book version of it, Sacred Plants of the World from Neanderthal Times until the Present Day, available from Amazon Kindle.
