Sorry if you thought this post was about hallucinogenic drugs.
I encountered a plant yesterday that did blow my mind, in a small sort of way.
Perhaps I have a small mind, therefore one easily blown.
I have wandered the few surviving woodlands of this state for years, and I have seen many things. But I have never, until yesterday, met in person the strange little plant called Jack-in-the-pulpit. And, ironically, it was growing in a fragment of woods in the middle of a subdivision.
Jack is in the arum family, a group of plant kin that feature a spathe and spadix , basically a fleshy flower spike and a flimsy little cover for it. You probably have an arum in your office, one of those peace lily things. He gets his name because some creative soul thought that the spathe and spadix combo looked like a tiny preacher a-preachin' in his pulpit.
Arums, like so many plants, are also planty chemical factories. Their specialty is oxalic acid, or rather calcium oxalate. They make tiny, needle-sharp crystals out of it that are peppery and poisonous to eat. Cooking destroys the needles, which is why Hawaiians can enjoy their "poi" paste, made from taro, an arum. And why the Native Americans in my region used to eat Jack, which is therefore also called Indian turnip.
Being the information freak that I am, I looked up the chemical composition of oxalic acid, from whence comes the oxalate. It's three elements: carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. I suppose, and I may be wrong, since I'm no chemical expert, that the combination of the metal calcium with the oxalic acid, technically creates a salt.
Which once again fascinates the hell out of me. I mean, here you have four of the basic building blocks of life. In one form, they contribute to the structure of a bologna sandwich or Kate Moss. In another form, reassembled, they are downright poisonous.
It's as if a child could use the same building blocks to create a pink unicorn or a hand grenade.
I encountered a plant yesterday that did blow my mind, in a small sort of way.
Perhaps I have a small mind, therefore one easily blown.
I have wandered the few surviving woodlands of this state for years, and I have seen many things. But I have never, until yesterday, met in person the strange little plant called Jack-in-the-pulpit. And, ironically, it was growing in a fragment of woods in the middle of a subdivision.
Jack is in the arum family, a group of plant kin that feature a spathe and spadix , basically a fleshy flower spike and a flimsy little cover for it. You probably have an arum in your office, one of those peace lily things. He gets his name because some creative soul thought that the spathe and spadix combo looked like a tiny preacher a-preachin' in his pulpit.
Arums, like so many plants, are also planty chemical factories. Their specialty is oxalic acid, or rather calcium oxalate. They make tiny, needle-sharp crystals out of it that are peppery and poisonous to eat. Cooking destroys the needles, which is why Hawaiians can enjoy their "poi" paste, made from taro, an arum. And why the Native Americans in my region used to eat Jack, which is therefore also called Indian turnip.
Being the information freak that I am, I looked up the chemical composition of oxalic acid, from whence comes the oxalate. It's three elements: carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. I suppose, and I may be wrong, since I'm no chemical expert, that the combination of the metal calcium with the oxalic acid, technically creates a salt.
Which once again fascinates the hell out of me. I mean, here you have four of the basic building blocks of life. In one form, they contribute to the structure of a bologna sandwich or Kate Moss. In another form, reassembled, they are downright poisonous.
It's as if a child could use the same building blocks to create a pink unicorn or a hand grenade.
1 comment:
I aim to please. (o:
So an acid is a hydrocarbon with oxygen mixed in?
How fascinating!
Why does everybody I know who has studied organic chemistry hate it so much? It sounds so interesting!
(Speaking as a right-brained, clueless knothead who has no actual idea what goes on in an organic chemistry class and couldn't tell a chemical mole measurement from a pot of guacamole.)
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