Hastingsia
Hastingsia is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, known as rushlilies. These are small perennial herbs endemic to serpentine soils of the Siskiyou-Klamath region in northern California and SW Oregon in the United States, they reach heights between 25 and 90 centimeters and have long linear leaves and racemes of small white flowers. Species: Hastingsia alba S. Watson - white rushlily - California and Oregon Hastingsia atropurpurea Becking - Oregon Hastingsia bracteosa S. Watson - largeflower rushlily - Oregon Hastingsia serpentinicola Becking - Klamath rushlily - California and Oregon Jepson Manual Treatment USDA Plants Profile Flora of North America
Paradisea
Paradisea is a European genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae. It was classified in the family Anthericaceae or earlier in the Liliaceae. Paradisea is sometimes confused with Anthericum. Paradisea contains two species of herbaceous perennials:- Paradisea liliastrum is a graceful alpine meadow plant from the mountains of southern Europe, with grasslike leaves. Pure white, trumpet-shaped flowers, 3–6 cm long, with prominent yellow anthers, are borne in late spring, it can be propagated from seed. In good soil it grows to 90 cm high, is used as an ornamental in herbaceous borders; this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Paradisea lusitanica from Portugal and Spain, is taller than P. liliastrum, growing to 80–120 cm tall by 30–40 cm wide.
Tequila
Tequila is a regional distilled beverage and type of alcoholic drink made from the blue agave plant in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, 65 km northwest of Guadalajara, in the Jaliscan Highlands of the central western Mexican state of Jalisco. Aside from differences in region of origin, tequila is a type of mezcal; the distinction is. Tequila is served neat in Mexico and as a shot with salt and lime across the rest of the world; the red volcanic soil in the region around the city of Tequila is well suited to the growing of the blue agave, more than 300 million of the plants are harvested there each year. Agave grows differently depending on the region. Blue agaves grown in the highlands Los Altos region are larger in size and sweeter in aroma and taste. Agaves harvested in the lowlands, on the other hand, have a more herbaceous flavor. Mexican laws state that tequila can only be produced in the state of Jalisco and limited municipalities in the states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Tamaulipas.
Tequila is recognized as a Mexican designation of origin product in more than 40 countries. It is protected through NAFTA in Canada and the United States, through bilateral agreements with individual countries such as Japan and Israel, has been a protected designation of origin product in the constituent countries of the European Union since 1997. Tequila can be produced between 55 % alcohol content. Per U. S. law, tequila must contain at least 40% alcohol to be sold in the United States. Tequila was first produced in the 16th century near the location of the city of Tequila, not established until 1666. A fermented beverage from the agave plant known as pulque was consumed in pre-Columbian central Mexico before European contact; when the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill agave to produce one of North America's first indigenous distilled spirits. Some 80 years around 1600, Don Pedro Sánchez de Tagle, the Marquis of Altamira, began mass-producing tequila at the first factory in the territory of modern-day Jalisco.
By 1608, the colonial governor of Nueva Galicia had begun to tax his products. Spain's King Carlos IV granted the Cuervo family the first license to commercially make tequila. Don Cenobio Sauza, founder of Sauza Tequila and Municipal President of the Village of Tequila from 1884–1885, was the first to export tequila to the United States, shortened the name from "Tequila Extract" to just "Tequila" for the American markets. Don Cenobio's grandson Don Francisco Javier gained international attention for insisting that "there cannot be tequila where there are no agaves!" His efforts led to the practice. Although some tequilas have remained as family-owned brands, most well-known tequila brands are owned by large multinational corporations. However, over 100 distilleries make over 900 brands of tequila in Mexico and over 2,000 brand names have been registered. Due to this, each bottle of tequila contains a serial number depicting in which distillery the tequila was produced; because only so many distilleries are used, multiple brands of tequila come from the same location.
In 2003, Mexico issued a proposal that would require all Mexican-made tequila be bottled in Mexico before being exported to other countries. The Mexican government said. Liquor companies in the United States said Mexico just wanted to create bottling jobs in their own country, claimed this rule would violate international trade agreements and was in discord with usual exporting practices worldwide; the proposal might have resulted in the loss of jobs at plants in California, Arkansas and Kentucky, because Mexican tequila exported in bulk to the United States is bottled in those plants. On January 17, 2006, the United States and Mexico signed an agreement allowing the continued bulk import of tequila into the United States; the agreement created a "tequila bottlers registry" to identify approved bottlers of tequila and created an agency to monitor the registry. The Tequila Regulatory Council of Mexico did not permit flavored tequila to carry the tequila name. In 2004, the Council decided to allow flavored tequila to be called tequila, with the exception of 100% agave tequila, which still cannot be flavored.
A new Norma Oficial Mexicana for tequila was issued in 2006, among other changes, introduced a class of tequila called extra añejo or "ultra-aged" which must be aged a minimum of three years. A one-liter bottle of limited-edition premium tequila was sold for $225,000 in July 2006 in Tequila, Jalisco, by the company Tequila Ley.925. The bottle which contained the tequila was a two-kilo display of gold; the manufacturer received a certificate from The Guinness World Records for the most expensive bottle of tequila spirit sold. In June 2013, the ban on importation of premium tequila into China was lifted following a state visit to Mexico by President Xi Jinping; the entry of premium tequila into the country is expected to increase tequila exports by 20 percent within a decade. Ramon Gonzalez, director of the Consejo Regulador del Tequila, estimates that each of the top 16 producers of tequila had invested up to $3 million to enter the Chinese market. On 30 August 2013, the first 70,380 bottles of premium tequila from ten brands arrived in Shangh
Beschorneria
Beschorneria is a genus of succulent plants belonging to the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, native to semi-arid areas of Mexico and Central America. They are large evergreen perennials forming clumps of grey-green leaves, with tall flower-spikes to 1.5 metres. Marginally hardy, they may require winter protection in areas subject to frost. SpeciesBeschorneria albiflora Matuda - Oaxaca, Guatemala, Honduras Beschorneria calcicola A. García-Mendoza - Puebla, Veracruz Beschorneria dubia Carrière - Tamaulipas Beschorneria rigida Rose - Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Puebla Beschorneria septentrionalis A. García Mendoza - Tamaulipas, Nuevo León Beschorneria tubiflora Kunth - San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo Beschorneria wrightii Hook.f - México State Beschorneria yuccoides K. Koch - Hidalgo, Veracruzformerly includedThree names have been coined using the name Beschorneria, all referring to the species now known as Furcraea parmentieri. See Furcraea. Germplasm Resources Information Network: Beschorneria International Plant Names Index
Anthericum
Anthericum is a genus of about 65 species, rhizomatous perennial plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. It was placed in its own family, Anthericeae; the species have rhizomatous or tuberous roots, long narrow leaves and branched stems carrying starry white flowers. The members of this genus occur in the tropics and southern Africa and Madagascar, but are represented in Europe; the generic name Anthericum is derived from the Greek word ανθερικος, meaning "straw", referring to the narrow leaves. Only two species are in general cultivation. A number of species are now included in the genus Chlorophytum, the Spider Plant, a familiar and popular house plant. Others, including the St. Bruno's Lily, are now classed in the genus Paradisea. Anthericum acuminatum Rendle Anthericum baeticum Anthericum falcatum L.f. Anthericum japonicum Thunb. Anthericum liliago L. – St. Bernard's lily Anthericum ramosum L. Arthropodium cirrhatum R. Br. Bulbine frutescens Willd. Bulbine longiscapa Willd. Bulbinella hookeri Cheeseman Bulbinella nutans subsp.
Nutans Chlorophytum bichetii Backer Chlorophytum capense Voss Chlorophytum macrophyllum Asch. Eccremis coarctata Baker Echeandia flavescens Cruden Drimia fragrans J. C. Manning & Goldblatt Drimia physodes Jessop Narthecium ossifragum Huds. Pasithea caerulea D. Don Simethis planifolia Gren. & Godr
Mezcal
Mezcal is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from any type of agave. The word mezcal comes from Nahuatl mexcalli metl and ixcalli which means "oven-cooked agave". Agaves or magueys are found in many parts of Mexico and all the way down to the equator, though most mezcal is made in Oaxaca, it can be made in Durango, Guerrero, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas and the approved Puebla. A saying attributed to Oaxaca regarding the drink is: "Para todo mal, mezcal, y para todo bien, también.". It is unclear; the Spaniards were introduced to native fermented drinks such as pulque, made from the maguey plant. Soon, the conquistadors began experimenting with the agave plant to find a way to make a distillable fermented mash; the result was mezcal. Today, mezcal is still made from the heart of the agave plant, called the piña, in much the same way as it was 200 years ago. In Mexico, mezcal is consumed straight and has a strong smoky flavor. Though other types of mezcal are not as popular as tequila, Mexico does export the product to Japan and the United States, exports are growing.
Despite the similar name, mezcal does not contain other psychedelic substances. The agave was one of the most sacred plants in pre-Spanish Mexico, had a privileged position in religious rituals and the economy. Cooking of the "piña" or heart of the agave and fermenting its juice was practiced; the origin of this drink has a myth. It is said that a lightning bolt struck an agave plant and opening it, releasing its juice. For this reason, the liquid is called the "elixir of the gods". However, it is not certain whether the native people of Mexico had any distilled liquors prior to the Spanish Conquest. Upon introduction, these liquors were called aguardiente; the Spanish had known distillation processes since the eighth century and had been used to drinking hard liquor. They brought a supply with them from Europe, but when this ran out, they began to look for a substitute, they had been introduced to pulque and other drinks based on the agave or agave plant, so they began experimenting to find a way to make a product with a higher alcohol content.
The result is mezcal. Sugarcane and grapes, key ingredients for beverage alcohol, were two of the earliest crops introduced into the New World, but their use as source stocks for distillation was opposed by the Spanish Crown, fearing unrest from producers at home. Still requiring a source of tax revenue, alcohol manufactured from local raw materials such as agave was encouraged instead; the drinking of alcoholic beverages such as pulque was restricted in the pre-Hispanic period. Taboos against drinking to excess fell away after the conquest, resulting in problems with public drunkenness and disorder; this conflicted with the government's need for the tax revenue generated by sales, leading to long intervals promoting manufacturing and consumption, punctuated by brief periods of severe restrictions and outright prohibition. Travelers during the colonial period of Mexico mention mezcal with an admonition as to its potency. Alexander von Humboldt mentions it in his Political Treatise on the Kingdom of New Spain, noting that a strong version of mezcal was being manufactured clandestinely in the districts of Valladolid, Mexico State and Nuevo León.
He mistakenly observed that mezcal was obtained by distilling pulque, contributing to its myth and mystique. Spanish authorities, treated pulque and mezcal as separate products for regulatory purposes. Edward S. Curtis described in his seminal work The North American Indian the preparation and consumption of mezcal by the Mescalero Apache Indians: "Another intoxicant, more effective than túlapai, is made from the mescal—not from the sap, according to the Mexican method, but from the cooked plant, placed in a heated pit and left until fermentation begins, it is ground, mixed with water, roots added, the whole boiled and set aside to complete fermentation. The Indians say. A small quantity produces intoxication." This tradition has been revived in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Internationally, mezcal has been recognized as an Appellation of Origin since 1994. There is a Geographical Indication limited to the states of Oaxaca, Durango, San Luis Potosí, Puebla and Zacatecas. Similar products are made in Jalisco, Michoacán, Tamaulipas, but these have not been included in the mezcal DO.
Within Mexico, mezcal is regulated under Norma Oficial Mexicana regulations NOM-070-SCFI-1994, by the industry body Consejo Mexicano Regulador de la Calidad del Mezcal A. C.. This regulation became law in 2003, certification began in 2005; the regulations have been controversial, not only from small artisanal producers for whom the cost of certification is prohibitive, but from traditional producers outside the chosen GI states. Not only are the latter prohibited from calling their product Mezcal, under the new regulation NOM 199 issued in late 2015, they must label it Komil, a little-known word for intoxicating drink from the Nahuatl language, must not list the varieties of agave and maguey that are used. In Canada, products that are labelled, sold or advertised as Mezcal must be manufactured in Mexico as Mezcal under the stipulated guidelines. However, Canadian laws al
Camassia
Camassia is a genus of plants in the asparagus family native to Canada and the United States. Common names include camas, Indian hyacinth and wild hyacinth, it grows in the wild in great numbers in moist meadows. They are perennial plants with basal linear leaves measuring 8 to 32 inches in length, which emerge early in the spring, they grow to a height of 12 to 50 inches, with a multi-flowered stem rising above the main plant in summer. The six-petaled flowers vary in color from pale lilac or white to deep blue-violet. Camas can appear to color entire meadows. Camassia species were an important food staple for Indigenous peoples and settlers in parts of the American Old West. Many areas in the Pacific Northwest are named for the plant, including Oregon. Kamas, Utah, is another. Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest engaged in the active management and cultivation of Blue Camas. Controlled burning was employed to improve growing conditions for Blue Camas. While Camas plots occurred in the Pacific Northwest, Indigenous peoples would maintain a plot through the planting and harvesting of Camas bulbs, as well as by tilling and weeding.
Camas plots were harvested by individuals or kin-groups, who were recognized as a particular plot’s cultivators or stewards. Stewardship was lineage-based, cultivation rights to a particular plot were fiercely guarded. Multiple generations would harvest the same Camas plot. Plots have been recorded as possessing physical boundary markers, there were social consequences for harvesting from a plot, recognized as being maintained by a particular individual or kin-group; the camas bulbs were harvested with a pointed wooden tool, with the work of cultivation being done by women. While Camassia species are edible and nutritious, the white-flowered deathcamas species that grow in the same areas are toxic, the bulbs are quite similar in appearance, it is easiest to tell the plants apart. The quamash was a food source for many indigenous peoples in Canada. Blue Camas was harvested when in spring or early summer. After being harvested the bulbs were boiled. A pit-cooked camas bulb looks and tastes something like baked sweet potato, but sweeter, with more crystalline fibers due to the presence of inulin in the bulbs.
The eating of too many such baked bulbs - if undercooked - can cause excessive flatulence, due to their containing inulin and other oligosaccharides. When dried, the bulbs could be pounded into flour. Native American peoples who ate camas include the Nez Perce, Coast Salish and Blackfoot, Yakama among many others; the Kutenai called the camas "xapi". Camas bulbs contributed to the survival of members of the Clark Expedition. In the Great Basin, expanded settlement by whites accompanied by turning cattle and hogs onto camas prairies diminished food available to native tribes and increased tension between Native Americans and settlers and travelers. Though the once-immense spreads of camas lands have diminished because of modern developments and agriculture, numerous camas prairies and marshes may still be seen today; this bulbflower naturalizes well in gardens. The bulb grows best in well-drained soil high in humus, it will grow in shaded forest areas and on rocky outcrops as well as in open meadows or prairies.
Additionally it is found growing alongside rivers. The plants may be divided in autumn. Bulbs should be planted in the autumn. Additionally the plant spreads by seed rather than by runners. Camas was an important component of the diets of most indigenous groups located in the Pacific Northwest. However, not all indigenous groups harvested Camas themselves. Instead, many relied on trade. Indigenous groups that lived in environments that suited camas production, such as the Coast Salish, developed networks of exchange in order to procure a variety of goods and foods, such as cedar bark baskets and dried halibut. In North American Indigenous cultures, trade had economic as well as diplomatic functions, with ceremonies such as the potlatch serving as a means to legitimize an individual’s rule and establish their status as a provider. Camas was traded in large volumes for such occasions; as indigenous land-management techniques have been theorized as having had a significant impact on the maintenance of the Garry oak ecosystem, one of the primary ecosystems in which Camassia quamash grows, researchers have investigated the potentiality of anthropogenic transport through an investigation of the genetic structure of Camassia quamash.
Despite historical evidence for anthropogenic maintenance of Camas plots and transportation through Indigenous trade networks, analysis of the genetic structures of Camassia quamash have not substantiated theories of anthropogenic dispersal. The distribution of Camassia quamash across the Pacific Northwest is most the result of postglacial migration; these results imply that the degree of anthropogenic dispersal of Camassia quamash that occurred was not of such a scale as to leave a marker in the plant’s genetic structure. The genus was placed in the lily family, when this was broadly defined to include most lilioid monocots; when the Liliaceae was split, in some treatments Camassia was placed in a family called Hyacinthaceae (now the su
