[FRIAM] Sunchoke rhizomes

[Steve Smith]

> That reminded me of this fantastic scene from a fantastic tv show:
>
>   https://youtu.be/EbkKaiqXmPU

That is closer to what happened when I tried tasting the seeds of the
"Moonflower" plants that grow sporadically here <grin>.

This year, my in-courtyard shady garden sprouted dozens which (my
general policy on all native volunteer plants is "every sperm is
sacred") it turned out our chickens do like to nibble (not munch) on.  
When Mary saw this she removed them all, which I accepted, though best I
could tell their ingestion was very limited and the leaves are much less
"toxic" than the seeds.  

Last year, a particularly flourishing one on the side of the house
showed up significantly denuded one day and upon inspection I discovered
a small family of hornworms crawling their stems.   I was fascinated
since I only know the worms as "tomato worms".   After the branches were
entirely stripped, the worms disappeared... I never see them en-cocoon
but understand/believe them to be the larval form of the sphynx-moth or
hummingbird-moth which are happy pollinators to have around, even if
they can be hell on my tomatoes.   Surprisingly the Datura's branches
sprouted fresh leaves and finished out the growing season with dainty
little leaves.   I saw another Datura with a hornworm a dozen yards
away, but this time it failed to strip it.  I haven't seen the phenomena
at all this year though...  

>
>
> On 8/6/20 10:26 AM, Steve Smith wrote:
>> I have tried chewing the
>> mature-but-fresh seeds and didn't find them at all interesting... just
>> fibrous.