Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Tradescantia spathacea - oysterplant

Many years ago, I had a neighbour who was a housewife with grown-up children. She was alone most of the time cleaning, washing and scrubbing. She was a cheerful woman with whom I had many over-the-fence conversations with. That was when I got to use my limited proficiency in Hokkien and Mandarin and she tried hard with what she knew of Cantonese. I do miss her!She was a good gardener nurturing papaya trees, guava trees and an assortment of plants in her backyard. She also grew these plants that I now know as oysterplant as well as by a few other common names. Seeing these plants again made me think of her, this dear woman who never grumbled as she laboured daily to keep the house clean as well as to cook for her family.She moved away several years ago but memories of her garden and her cheerfulness remain.
Common Names: oysterplant, Moses-in-the-cradle, boatlily, Moses-in-a-boat,
Family: Commelinaceae (spiderwort Family)

2 comments:

FML said...

my mum use the leaves & sugar cane to brew cooling tea. we call it 红竹叶locally.

interestingly, flowers are pollinated by snails ;)

Mableinsingapore said...

Yes, now I recall that the lady also told me that she boiled the leaves to make a cooling tea but I have never tried it. Oh, that info about the snails is interesting indeed!