Post by Wynette: Yesterday, Friday, May 4, we took a bus to the Jardín Botánico Atlántico. We spent 2 or 3 hours walking through the huge garden. They had areas with native plants, invasive plants, plants brought from the Americas, plants important for cultivation (farm plants), forest plants, herbs, and much more.
We learned that the Spanish word for holly is acebo and the name for gorse is tojo. That when the century plant, one of those American imports, gets a lot of water, they get really really really big. That bulrushes, at least the ones labeled as such that grow here, have beautiful yellow flowers that look like irises. That camellias are beautiful as long as they are deadheaded. (We saw so many on the Camino with brown flowers, we got a bad impression of camellias.) We learned what a monkey puzzle tree is. We learned that rich industrialists who probably treated workers badly can leave beautiful estates. We learned that yew trees can be pruned into really cool shapes. We learned that citrus can bloom and have fruit at the same time, and the blooms smell heavenly. And we learned that lilacs smell good here, too. (Well, we already knew that.)
That century plant is amazing. We have many but not that big!! Did they come from the americas or get sent there from Iberia? There’s so much to learn!
Yes, I was pretty amazed. The sign said the century plant was brought to Spain from the Americas. Charlie and I just assumed it gets so big here in northern Spain because it gets more water. But, come to think of it, it might be from some part of the Americas, México or further south, where Century Plants are of a type that are bigger.