When Is a Nut Not a Nut?

432 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1972 Apply insecticides properly. When using sprays Apply either Nemagon or Sarolex at the rate it is important to apply the insecticide in a large recommended on the label. For Nemagon apply amount of water in order to soak the thick mats to moist soil with 150-200 gallons of water, of St. Augustinegrass. drenching 1,000 square feet of turf. For Sarolex Jar attachments to garden hoses are excellent apply to moist soil with 30-50 gallons of water tools for home gardeners to apply sprays. Use the drenching 1,000 square feet of turf. Immediately type which required 15 to 20 gallons of water after applying either material, water the lawn passing through the hose to empty the quart jar. thoroughly with one inch of additional water. Some of these materials are on the market in dry, The easiest and most economical method of granulated form for direct application with ferti controlling weeds is the judicial use of all sound lizer-spreader machines. practices of turf grass management. Diseases of turfgrass are common in South The safest way for homeowners to control Florida (3). In general, the presence of a disease weeds in a St. Augustine lawn is to use a weed is indicated when either the grass continues to and feed combination. This herbicide-fertilizer decline or the condition spreads to new areas. combination will in time control both broad-leaf Control of a disease is usually accomplished by the and grass-type weeds. A practical approach, and use of a fungicide. in the long run probably cheaper, would call for Observe the following points when spraying: reviewing the problem which caused unfavorable Spray the entire planting and not just the diseased turf conditions. Correcting the cause of trouble spot. The directions and precautions on the fungi may prevent further weed problems whereas at cide container should be followed carefully. Com tacking only the weeds usually results in a con plete and even distribution to the entire area is tinually expensive and superficial habit of chemical essential. A small amount of a wetting agent "squirting." should be used. Use enough water to wet the In summary, superior lawns can be achieved by grass thoroughly. (Ten gallons per 1,000 square anyone who carries out a sensible maintenance feet is usually sufficient.) An application every program with emphasis on mowing, watering and 10 to 14 days may be necessary to keep the fertilizing. Serious troubles can be avoided if we disease under control. Do not mow the grass im inspect often, identify problems correctly and act mediately after applying a fungicide. promptly. Certain nematodes are severe pests of turf grass. Symptoms of damage are varying de Literature Cited grees of chlorosis, die back of young foliage, 1. Brogdon, J. E., Kerr, S. H., Short, D. E., Home tendency to wilt during periods of high tempera Gardener's Lawn Insect Control Guide, 1972. Fla. Coop. Ext. Ser., Univ. of Fla. IFAS, Circular 213E. ture and low moisture. Grass cover becomes thin 2. Burt, E. O., 1966, Weeds and Their Control, Extension Office, Dade County M-Bul 66-6 5. and growth is poor. Severely affected areas may 3. Freeman, T. E., Mullin, R. S., Turfgrass Diseases and become bare and in turn infested by annual grasses Their Control, 1968, Agricultural Extension Service, IFAS Univ. of Fla. Circ. 221-C. and weeds. 4. Schlaack, N. F., Griffes, Art, Johnson, Charles, Burt, E. O. Daigle, L. J., 1966. Verti-Thinning, Ext. Office Dade At the present time only two materials are County M-Bul. 66-73. registered for nematode control on home lawns. 5. Wilson, Frank L. 1961. St. Augustine Lawn Grasses Univ. of Fla. Agri. Ext. Ser. Circ. 217. WHEN IS A NUT NOT A NUT? Edwin A. Menninger acorns which must have edible interiors or they The Flowering Tree Man would not be greedily grabbed by squirrels and Stuart other wild creatures. Those humans who have ex plored the possibilities in this direction, perhaps Defining the word "nut" is impossible if every as an item on a starvation diet, report that the one is to be pleased, but for purposes of this dis kernels of many acorns are "tasty" or even "good cussion it might be suggested that a nut is a nibbling," but their enjoyment has failed to hard-shelled fruit of which the contents are eaten arouse any enthusiasm, and for the purposes of by mankind. This excludes the 450 kinds of today's definition, acorns are definitely out. MENNINGER: WHAT IS A NUT? 433 This author's definition of a nut gets into all this operation are swallowed, the betel nut is kinds of difficulties. It must be stretched radically really a nut. in the case of the almond and the cashew, because Commercially most important of all nuts are the almond is the kernel of a hard-shelled seed the coconut and the peanut. Everybody agrees (not fruit) which is found inside a peach-like, that the coconut is a nut, but scientists object to soft fruit; the cashew is the kernel of a hard- the inclusion of the peanut in the nut category, shelled seed that hangs outside the soft fruit. But insisting that it is just a tuber like a potato, not these are rather extreme exceptions. a nut. However it gets included in today's defini Likewise many other hard-shelled fruits that tion. Both these nuts are important as food items in our carelessness of language we call "nuts," in all parts of the world. In southwest Africa are never eaten by humans although treasured where meat is scarce and expensive, the family by wild animals. A familiar example is the "buf cook enriches the supply of proteins by throwing falo nut/' This is the fruit of a small shrub of a handful of peanuts into whatever is simmering eastern United States known botanically as Sta- on the fire, getting ready for dinner. The peanut phylea trifolia which Bailey's Manual of Culti is as important there as it is in the peanut butter vated Plants calls the American bladdernut. The sandwiches in the American school child's lunch same books helps to complicate matters by de box. Similarly the coconut gets worldwide accep scribing the "buffalo berry" Shepherdia argentea, tance in a thousand products from cosmetics to a thorny shrub native from Manitoba to Kansas, kitchen cakes. explaining that the "fruit is drupe-like, the nut The commercial importance of the coconut sug [sic.] enclosed by the fleshy receptacle." Obviously gests that there should be a lot more palm trees the edible part is the fleshy area of the berry, and producing hard-shelled fruits with usable in the "nut" is not a nut by today's definition but teriors, just waiting for somebody to discover them. merely a seed. Please excuse a pun here: the Unfortunately among the thousands of different botanical name given to a species is always fol kinds of palms, relatively few produce nuts— lowed by the abbreviated form of the name of the hard-shelled pods containing interior materials botanist who first described it, and the correct that are palatable to human beings. There are name of this plant is always written Shepherdia however one or two notable exceptions to be dis argentea Nutt. cussed here, although they are not known to Nobody would ever think of eating a horse- offer commercial possibilities for the future. chestnut (Aesculus sp.) in spite of the name we Most nuts as defined here consist of two parts: carelessly give it. The lychee nut (Litchi chinensis) is another example of a hardshelled fruit that is not a nut by today's definition; we eat the fruit inside the semihard exterior shell, but we do not eat the kernel. Today's definition of a nut gets into other kinds of trouble. For example, there are thousands of plants in the bean family which bear fruits that have hard-shelled exteriors which we break to obtain the beans inside which we eat. These may be herbs or small shrubs, but again they may be big trees like Bauhinia esculenta in tropi cal Africa whose hard pods are harvested for the delicious beans inside. Obviously it would be silly to call these fruits "nuts" just because the kernels are eaten. Another route to difficulties is a study of the betel nut, the fruit of the Asiatic palm Areca catechu. The fibrous (hard) exterior (shell) is removed and the contents mixed with lime and popped into the mouth and chewed. The dictionary —Photo by Julia Morton calls it a masticatory. If the salivary proceeds of The cashew tidbit is contained in a hardshelled nut that protrudes beyond the apex of the soft fruit. 434 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 1972 the outside hard shell and the contents which we nuts are extremely poisonous until roasted to drive eat. But all are not like this. For example the off cyanic poisons. Maybe some of these Austral Brazil Nut (Bertholettia excelsa) as it reaches ian subjects ought to get more extensive consider us in the United States, consists of just those two ation today. parts. But on the tree in Brazil hangs a pod as The nuts eaten by people in the Philippines are big as a grapefruit, with a very hard shell. When not the nuts you and I know. The nuts eaten in ripe this pod falls to the ground from the enor India, Africa, many other places, are nuts you mous tree that bears it, and is quickly picked and I never heard of.

Load more