Atocha Botanical Garden - Madrid Spain

The interior of the old part of the "Atocha" Madrid central train station is now an indoor botanical garden. This indoor tropical jungle was inaugurated in 1992 and covers an area of 4,000 square meters. There are about 7,000 plants from 260 different species in the garden as well as a pond with Goldfish and turtles. I first visited this garden in the Spring of 1994.

The garden is located where the old train landings used to be. There are paths that criss cross the garden and several cafes around the sides. Most of the plants are tropical species and a good number of them are palms. Some of these palms are so tall that they reach almost to the roof of the domed building. The image below is of the "Travelers Palm" that is native to Madagascar. In most outdoor settings this pseudo palms leaves tend to shred like a Banana tree but in this indoor garden the leaves are all intact and much more impressive.

The image below is of the Queen Sago (Cycas circinalis) which is similar to the King Sago Palm (Cycas revoluta).
In the swamp like pond at one end of the garden there are several Baldcypress trees (image below) as well as several Malabar Chestnuts.
Some other tree species in the garden include the Blue Jacaranda, the Fiddle Leaf Fig, the White Bird of Paradise, and the Rubber tree.

The Atocha train station is still the main central train station for the city of Madrid with access to the local Metro, the suburb light-rail "Renfe Cercanias", regional trains, national "Talgo" trains and the "Ave" bullet trains that go to Barcelona, Sevilla, Cordoba, Malaga and Toledo.

Edible Chestnuts vs. Horse Chestnuts

This is a post about which chestnuts you can eat and which ones you cannot eat.

To tell the difference between an edible chestnut (from Castanea Sativa) and a non-edible chestnut (Horse Chestnut or Buckeye) you need to take a close look at the pod that the chestnuts grow in. Once the chestnut (seeds) are out of their pods they can look very similar to each other.

The pod of the edible sweet chestnut has a sort of "porcupine" look to it with thin prickly spikes that point out in all directions and form a sort of thicket where you cannot see anything but the spikes. These are green while the chestnuts are forming and then turn brown when the chestnuts are mature.  Handling these pods without gloves can be quite tricky.

The chestnuts from a Horse Chestnut or Buckeye on the other hand have short bumpy spikes on a smooth ball shaped fruit where you can see the surface between the spikes. As you can see in these images there are a lot fewer spikes which are also shorter and less pointy than those of the edible chestnuts.

The leaves are also very different. Those of the Horse Chestnut and Buckey are palmate with five leaflets like the one in the image below.

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Over the years I have deditated countless hours to searching for interesting trees and blogging about specific tree related information.  Part of what motivated me was a love for photography and the joy of being out in nature surrounded by beauty.  Now both of my son's have taken up an interest in photography and my oldest son just started his own photography website.

Tree Aid - Improving the quality of life in rural Africa

I recently came across the website of a non-profit organization by the name of "Tree Aid". This organization has been working in Africa’s rural drylands, in some of the poorest regions of Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana and Mali, where forestry centered development interventions can alleviate poverty sustainability.

"TREE AID" is helping villagers in Africa to learn how to use and care for their trees, to know what to sell and how to sell it, learn to build and run a business so they can be self-reliant" - Zoe Wanamaker CBE

I am impressed by the idea behind TREE AID and I find it to be a convincing way to improve the basic quality of life for rural African communities. When trees area properly cared for they can be a sustainable source of food, medicines, essential oils, shade, firewood etc. A community without trees is a community without hope.

In support of TREE AID I am going to place this banner in the left column of this blog with a link to their website. I would encourage anyone interested to check this interesting organization out.

Weeping European Beech - Fagus Sylvatica Pendula

The Weeping European Beech is a cultivar of the tree species "Fagus Sylvatica". The "weeping" refers to the fact that the ends of the branches hang down in a limp "pendulum" sort of fashion. All weeping tree species variants have species names that end with the term "pendula". The Weeping Willow is probably the most famous of all weeping tree species.

The tree in this series of images is located in the Finch Arboretum near Spokane, Washington. The Finch Arboretum was established in 1949 and is comprised of 65 acres of land .
The image below is a 19th century illustration of the European Beech that is now in the public domain.