Long pepper

Long pepper (Piper longum), (Pippali), sometimes called Indian long pepper, is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. Long pepper has a similar, but hotter, taste to its close relative Piper nigrum  from which black, green and white pepper are obtained. The word pepper itself is derived from the Tamil/Malayalam word for long pepper, pippali.
The fruit of the pepper consists of many minuscule fruits  each about the size of a poppy seed  embedded in the surface of a flower spike that closely resembles a hazel tree catkin. Like piper nigrum, the fruits contain the alkaloid piperine, which contributes to their pungency. Another species of long pepper, Piper retrofractum, is native to Java, Indonesia.
History

Long pepper reached Greece in the sixth or fifth century BCE, though Hippocrates,the first writer to mention it, discussed it as a medicament rather than a spice. Among the Greeks and Romans and prior to the European discovery of the New World, long pepper was an important and well-known spice. The ancient history of black pepper is often interlinked with (and confused with) that of long pepper, though Theophrastus distinguished the two in the first work of botany. The Romans knew of both and often referred to either as just piper; Pliny erroneously believed dried black pepper and long pepper came from the same plant. Round, or black pepper, began to compete with long pepper in Europe from the twelfth century and had displaced it by the fourteenth. The quest for cheaper and more dependable sources of black pepper fueled the Age of Discoveries; only after the discovery of the New World and of chili pepper, called by the Spanish pimiento, employing their word for long pepper, did the popularity of long pepper fade away. Chili peppers, some of which, when dried, are similar in shape and taste to long pepper, were easier to grow in a variety of locations more convenient to Europe. Today, long pepper is a rarity in general commerce. Long pepper is known to contain Piperlongumine, a compound believed to have an antitumor effect.
Uses
Today, long pepper is an extremely rare ingredient in European cuisines, but it can still be found in Indian vegetable pickles, some North African spice mixtures, and in Indonesian and Malaysian cooking. It is readily available at Indian grocery stores, where it is usually labeled pippali.
The Ayurvedic texts list pippali as one of the most powerful Rasayana herbs, meaning it believed to be a longevity enhancer and is a remedy for throat irritation.Pippali is one of the most widely used Ayurvedic herbs.

Anthurium

Growth habits
Anthurium grows in many forms, mostly evergreen, bushy or climbing epiphytes with roots that can hang from the canopy all the way to the floor of the rain forest. There are also many terrestrial forms which are found as understory plants, as well as hemiepiphytic forms. A hemiepiphyte is a plant capable of beginning life as a seed and sending roots to the soil, or beginning as a terrestrial plant that climbs a tree and then sends roots back to the soil. They occur also as lithophytes. Some are only found in association with arboreal ant colonies or growing on rocks in midstream (such as Anthurium amnicola).The stems are short to elongate with a length between 15 and 30 cm. The simple leaves come in many shapes; most leaves are to be found at the end of the stems, although terrestrial plants show less of this pachycaul tendency. Leaves may be spatulate, rounded, or obtuse at the apex. They may be borne erect or spreading in a rosette, with a length that may surpass 100 cm in some of the larger species (such as Anthurium angamarcanum). The upper surface of the leaf may be matte, semiglossy, or fully glossy, and the leaf texture may range from leathery to fragile and papery. The leaves are petiolate and possess a structure called the geniculum, which is unique to the genus Anthurium. The geniculum allows the plant to swivel its leaves towards the sun, much in the same manner as sunflowers. In drier environments, the leaves can form a bird's-nest shaped rosette that enables the plant to collect falling debris, and thus water and natural fertilizer. Terrestrial growers or epiphytes often have cordate leaves; others grow as vines with rosettes of lanceolate leaves, and still others have many lobed leaves.

Flowering and fruiting
Anthurium flowers are small (about 3 mm) and develop crowded in a spike on a fleshy axis, called a spadix, a characteristic of the Araceae. The flowers on the spadix are often divided sexually with a sterile band separating male from female flowers. This spadix can take on many forms (club-shaped, tapered, spiraled, and globe-shaped) and colors (white, green, purple, red, pink, or a combination).The spadix is part of an inflorescence, the outer portion of which is known as the spathe. The spathe may be a single color (yellow, green, or white) or possibly multicolored including burgundy and red. That sometimes colorful, solitary spathe is a showy modified bract that can be somewhat leathery in texture. Anthurium grown for the florist trade generally have highly coloured spathes and spadices. There are no flowers on the spathe as is sometimes thought; flowers are found solely on the spadix. The spathe can vary in color from pale green to white, rose, orange or shiny red (such as A. andrenaum). The color changes between the bud stage and the anthesis, (the time the flower expands). Thus the color might change from pale green to reddish purple to reddish brown.The flowers are hermaphrodite, containing male and female flowers. The fruits are usually berries with one to multiple seeds on an infructescence that may be pendant or erect depending on species. Anthurium berries may range in colour from bright red to black, and may also be bicoloured or shaded. The flowers of Anthurium give off a variety of fragrances, each attracting a variety of specific pollinators.
Several species are popular in the florist trade as pot plants or cut flowers and for interior decoration. They include forms such as A. crystallinum f peltifolium with its large, velvety, darkgreen leaves and silvery white venation. Most hybrids are based on A. andreanum or A. scherzerianum because of their colorful spathes. Anthurium can also be called "Flamingo Flower" or "Boy Flower", both referring to the structure of the spathe and spadix.

Growing Anthurium
Like other Aroids, many species of Anthurium can be grown as houseplants, or outdoors in mild climates in shady spots. They thrive in moist soils with high organic matter. In milder climates the plants can be grown in pots of soil. Indoors plants thrive at temperatures between 16°C-22°C (60°F-72°F) and at lower light than other house plants. Wiping the leaves off with water will remove any dust and insects. Plant in pots with good root systems will benefit from a weak fertilizer solution every other week. In the case of vining or climbing Anthuriums, the plants benefit from being provided with a totem to climb.
Propagation
As with most Aroids, new plants can be grown by taking stems cuttings with at least two joints. Cuttings can be then rooted in pots of sand and peat moss mixtures. These pots then should be placed in greenhouses with bottom heat of 21°C-24°C (70°F-75°F). During the rooting process they should be kept out of direct sunlight. Once rooted the plants can be transplanted to larger pots or directly outside in milder climates. A second way to propagate Anthurium is to take stem cuttings particularly from trailing varieties and place them in water. In four to five weeks the plant should develop roots and can be transferred to pots. The final method is through direct planting of mature seed or berries.
Species
Such a large genus cannot be described by a few general terms. Schott, in his book Prodromus Systematis Aroidearum (1860), grouped the then known 183 species in 28 sections. In 1905 Engler revised these sections into 18 sections. In 1983 Croat & Sheffer came up with the following sections:
Belolonchium
Calomystrium
Cardiolonchium
Chamaerepium
Cordatopunctatum
Dactylophyllium
Decurrentia
Digitinervium
Gymnopodium
Leptanthurium
Pachyneurium
Polyphyllium
Polyneurium
Porphyrochitonium
Schizoplacium
Semaeophyllium
Tetraspermium
Urospadix
Xialophyllium

Paphiopedilum

The genus Paphiopedilum consists of flowering plants in the orchid family (Orchidaceae). It contains about 80 accepted species nowadays, some of which are natural hybrids. These slipper orchids are native to South China, India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, and form their own subtribe, the Paphiopedilinae.
The species or their hybrids are extensively cultivated, and are known as either paphiopedilums, or by the abbreviation paphs in horticulture.

Description
Paphiopedilum species naturally occur among humus layers as terrestrials on the forest floor, while a few are true epiphytes and some are lithophytes. These sympodial orchids lack pseudobulbs. Instead, they grow robust shoots, each with several leaves; some are hemicryptophytes. The leaves can be short and rounded or long and narrow, and typically have a mottled pattern. When older shoots die, newer ones take over. Each new shoot only blooms once when it is fully grown, producing a raceme between the fleshy, succulent leaves. The roots are thick and fleshy. Potted plants form a tight lump of roots that, when untangled, can be up to 1 m long.Members of this genus are considered highly collectible by orchid fanciers due to the curious and unusual form of their flowers. Along with Cypripedium, Mexipedium, Phragmipedium and Selenipedium, the genus is a member of the subfamily Cypripedioideae, commonly referred to as the "lady's slippers" or "slipper orchids" due to the unusual shape of the pouch like labellum of the flower. The pouch traps insects seeking nectar, and to leave again they have to climb up past the staminode, behind which they collect or deposit pollinia.

In horticulture
The paphiopedilums are among the most widely cultivated and hybridized of orchid genera. Spectacular new species are being discovered every now and then; for example the Golden Slipper Orchid , discovered in 1979 and described in 1982, amazed growers of orchids by the extraordinary beauty of its golden flowers. In addition, growers have bred thousands of interspecific hybrids and registered them with the Royal Horticultural Society in London over the years.These orchids are relatively easy to grow indoors, as long as conditions that mimic their natural habitats are created. Most species thrive in moderate to high humidity (50-70%), moderate temperatures ranging from 13 to 35 degrees Celsius and low light of 12,000 to 20,000 lux. Modern hybrids are typically easier to grow in artificial conditions than their parent species

Taxonomy and systematics
The genus name Paphiopedilum was established by Ernst Hugo Heinrich Pfitzer in 1886; it is derived from Paphos (a city on Cyprus, a place sacred to Aphrodite. It was said she had landed at the site when rose from the sea.) and Ancient Greek pedilon "slipper". Ironically, no paphiopedilum occurs on Cyprus  at least not as the genus is understood today. But it was long mixed up with its Holarctic relative Cypripedium, which indeed grows in the Mediterranean region. Paphiopedilum was finally decided to be a valid taxon in 1959, but its use has become restricted to eastern Asian species in our time.

Gardenia jasminoides

Gardenia jasminoides is a fragrant flowering evergreen tropical plant, a favorite in gardens worldwide. It originated in Asia and is most commonly found growing in Vietnam, Southern China, Taiwan, Japan and India. With its shiny green leaves and fragrant white summer flowers, it is widely used in gardens in warm temperate and subtropical climates. It has been in cultivation in China for at least a thousand years, and was introduced to English gardens in the mid 18th century. Many varieties have been bred for horticulture, with low growing, and large- and long-flowering forms.

Cultivation
Gardenia jasminoides is generally considered to be somewhat difficult to take care of.
As a tropical plant,[citation needed] it thrives best in warm temperatures in humid environments. Getting those conditions is rather hard when in non tropical latitudes, reason for which gardenias are usually cultivated indoors or in greenhouses. In warm places, though, it can be grown outdoors. Either way, it prefers bright indirect sunlight or partial shade, rather than direct sunlight.Apart from the difficulties in creating the suitable conditions for the plant to live, Gardenias need to be planted in an acidic soil (it is an acidophile plant). If the soil is not acid enough, many of its nutrients (especially iron compounds) will not be available for the plant, since they won't dilute in water and therefore won't be absorbed via the roots. It this happens, gardenias start to develop chlorosis, whose main symptom is a yellowing of the leaves. (See Soil ph).For this reason, it's advisable not to water Gardenias with very hard water. When having to water with hard water, it is possible to add some vinegar or lemon juice to it before doing so, this will lower the pH of the water.Iron chelate can be added to the soil in order to lower the pH, but care must be taken since an overdose can kill the plant, as with any other inorganic soil amendment.Some gardeners will spill vinegar over the soil to effectively keep the pH low and prevent chlorosis. This can be carried out either regularly or when the first symptoms of chlorosis have been spotted.
Use

Evidence of Gardenia jasminoides in cultivation in China dates to the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD), where both wild and double flowered forms have been depicted in paintings, such as those of the Song Emperor Huizong and the Tenh century artist . The Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) saw it on lacquerware, and the Ming Dynasty on porcelain (1368–1644). Gardenias were seen in nurseries in Guangzhou in 1794 by English statesman Sir John Barrow.Meanwhile, was first propagated in England in August 1757 by a James Gordon of Mile End, and sold well thereafter.It is widely used as a garden plant in warm temperate and subtropical gardens. It can be used as a hedge. It requires good drainage and a sunny location, and prefers a mildly acidic soil. Many cultivars have been developed. G. 'Radicans' is a low-growing groundcover which reaches 15–45 cm (6–18 in) and spreads up to a metre wide, while G. 'Fortuniana' and G. 'Mystery' are double-flowered cultivars. The former was sent by Scottish botanist Robert Fortune in 1844 to the Royal Horticultural Society in London. G. 'Aimee' is an early-flowering (spring) form.Cultivars such as G. 'Shooting Star' and G. 'Chuck Hayes' are more cold-hardy, roughly to zone 7.A new cultivar called Summer Snow is a hardier breed with a greater resistance to cold climates, growing in USDA Zones 6-10.
The fruit is used as a yellow dye,which is used for clothes and food (including the Korean mung bean jelly called hwangpomuk).Polynesian people in the pacific islands use these fragrant blooms in their flower necklaces, which are called Ei in the Cook Islands, Hei in French Polynesia and Lei in Hawai'i