Is this picture creepy or cool?

K

Kintpuash

Banned
75204462_944558319237056_8867508759153344512_n.jpg
 
K

Kintpuash

Banned
IleneK said:
Yes it is. :smile:
Click to expand...


It is the 'devils claw' - a pod of a really beautiful bewildering plant of the SW natives. Used in many traditional basketry. The seeds have to bust open with the scorpion defense mechanism to be carried by birds to migratory or predatory migratory places.



It is like a cat scratch if you ever stepped on one. A scorpian sting. Defense in death even.



It's leaves are gourdish - hairy and stinky - and a flower that is orchid like in intricacy and delicate beauty.



This is it's vestige.





As wicked as the claws look, they are springy and flexible. They do little damage to an animal’s foot. The pod’s design is ingenious for spreading the plant all over the Southwest, however. Indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States and Mexico made good use of Devil’s Claw. The pods and seeds are both edible and nutritious. Native tribes and settlers would gather the green pods in early summer and cook them like okra. The unripe pods reportedly were good pickled as well. Even when the pod has become woody, the seeds inside are tender and delicious. Mexicanos eat the seeds fresh from the fields, or roasted, and sometimes ground into a meal. Interestingly, for a time in the early 1900s, Devil’s Claw was grown in Michigan and Massachusetts, and the pods canned commercially!
 
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