#stem of bamboo

[khlur]

i bought one of those instant hot pot kits for lunch and oh my god it was so tasty and filling and satisfying and even tho it was just a lil bowl of noodles in mushroom and beef broth i am. STUFFED. cannot move. ready for a nap. HELLO???

[polarseven]

It's always interesting trying a new food and being met with a taste you've never experienced in your life. Bonus points if it's bad but you have to keep taking bites to figure it out

[spellwing777]

[naturalblue22]

i want to go to china and look at bamboo so bad

[ratanshis]

Beginners Guide to Lucky Bamboo Plant Growth & Care

Beginners Guide to Lucky Bamboo Plant Growth & Care

You usually see the lucky bamboo plant in the home placed in glass containers in water. It is often viewed as a Feng Shui practice in homes as the plant is known to bring prosperity and as its name suggests, luck to your life. This tiny house plant is also one of the top gifting choices. Although it's one of the easy-to-care indoor plant types, your lucky bamboo plant certainly requires care over time. The following article from experts at Ratanshi Agro-Hortitech, a Byculla-based plant nursery in Mumbai, will help you understand the basics of caring for your lucky bamboo plant.

Let’s focus on the basics first!

The lucky bamboo is a great plant for beginners or those who wish to have a unique variety at home. Here are some of the basics you need to know when growing your lucky bamboo indoors:

Watering requirements

Lucky bamboo plants are grown in water and require a change of water now and then, as you do not want the water to get stagnant or water. Experts suggest topping the water three to seven days, slightly above the roots, and changing the water in two or three months or before if the water smells bad. Moreover, it is essential to note that indoor plants are sensitive to chlorine or minerals in water. It is advisable to use bottled, distilled, or purified water. If you want to add tap water, collect and keep it for a day to ensure the chlorine content is evaporated (only if the water is not too hard).

Light requirements

These indoor bamboo plants do not require direct sunlight but grow well in bright spaces. They can also grow in low light, however, their growth will be slower, and their stems will be thin. Ensure you do not place these plants in direct sun as their leaves will scorch with heat. It is advisable to place them on east or south-facing windows and do not touch them directly to the window glass. You must also rotate them every few days to ensure they get ample light on every side.

Humidity and temperature requirements

The lucky bamboo plant grows well in tropical climates. It is essential to keep them in a humid space. These plants grow well in Indian climates as long as they are away from drafts or heating vents.

Fertilizing requirements

Lucky bamboo plants do not require a lot of fertilizers, however, experts suggest adding water-based fertilizer after you change the water. If you are unsure which fertilizer to use, consult experts at Ratanshi Agro-Hortitech. The wholesale plant nursery offers fertilizers for lucky bamboo.

Grower pots size and type

You can use a bowl or glass dish for growing lucky bamboo. However, ensure you have a minimum of one-inch space around the plant, allowing the roots to spread out. You can change the containers depending on the plant’s growth rate and if the roots are not covered with water. If you are looking for interesting ceramic or glass containers for your lucky bamboo, visit Ratanshi Agro-Hortitech.

Do spiral bamboo sticks care in lucky bamboo vary than straight stems?

No. Spiral-stem lucky bamboo requires the same care as straight-stem plants. Lucky bamboo is available in different designs for aesthetics, like spiral or braided designs.

What is the difference between a 2-layer and a 3-layer bamboo plant?



Lucky bamboo plants are available in 2 and 3 layers and have different significance. Two-layer lucky bamboo represents love and brings double luck in all spheres of life. Three-layer lucky bamboo is known to bring luck, happiness, and wealth. It is the most popular lucky bamboo presentation. The 3-layer lucky bamboo plant price is usually higher than the 2-layer bamboo plant.

Conclusion 

The above guide will help you take care of your lucky bamboo plant and watch it flourish as it brings good luck and prosperity to your life. If you looking for high-quality live plants online, visit www.ratanshis.com today or their plant nursery in Mumbai.

[headspace-hotel]

listen one of the major reasons i care so much about Arundinaria is that she's gotta be legit the most exciting rising star in the evolutionary world.

Flowering plants emerge like 100mil years ago, proceed to become the baddest bitches on planet earth with hundreds of thousands of species found in every environment.

from this lineage emerges the GRASS which, using the simple technologies of "Grow leafs from the bottom so the tops can get eaten and you can just keep a-goin'" and "Not die when stepped on" become the undisputed masters of the sunny and arid regions

From the lineage of the GRASSES. Emerges a grass that decides to step up its game and invent WOOD to become some sort of fucked up tree. This grass is known as WOODY BAMBOO and it kicks everybody's ass.

The woody bamboo is mostly thriving in Asia, but around 2mil years ago, a bamboo got LOST AS FUCK and accidentally went to NORTH AMERICA. It turns out the south-eastern part of North America is a downright luxurious climate for a bamboo and so the bamboo actually evolved into its own genus.

However, there was an ICE AGE that froze a bunch of North America and the bamboo was forced to a tiny edge of the Gulf Coast. Fortunately, the bamboo made a mutualistic symbiosis with HUMANS, which used controlled burning to create its ideal habitats in exchange for using the stems for a super-strong, versatile, flexible, water resistant material for literally everything. So basically it spread all throughout the Southeast of North America and formed its own habitat type, a bamboo forest environment known as a CANEBRAKE.

It's native North American bamboo, y'all. It's been reduced to 2% of its former extent and a lot of people don't even know it exists.

This plant is going places we can't let this shining streak of weird-ass plants with ideas just strange enough to work collapse because of a freak colonialism incident

Arundinaria gigantea my absolute beloved

[its-shells]

“So,” Grian says, “this is awkward.”

Scar says nothing. Scar had said nothing for quite a while, honestly, sitting cross-legged in the void and playing with the hem of his cloak. Or with the flower stems woven through the hem of his cloak, as it were. Lilacs and poppies. Grian had thought it painfully ironic the first time he saw them. Scar hadn’t. Not until now.

“So,” Grian says, again, “I can explain? I think?”

He can hear stifled giggles behind him, Scott and Pearl discussing the last moments of the fight. He feels Martyn’s heated glare between his shoulder blades too, knows that he’ll be getting an earful about taking his final life whenever the fourth winner can get his hands on him, but at least Martyn’s been kind enough to leave him at the mercy of the fifth for now. Or not kind enough, as it were. Whether or not Scar has any mercy for him is an open question.

“Explain what,” Scar says. It’s not a question, which is just as well, since Grian doesn’t really have an answer.

Can he explain?

“Well,” he says, “there’s these death games.”

The death games he technically started, and then technically couldn’t stop. The death games that weren’t meant to be blood sacrifices, but probably count as happening on somebody’s altar. The death games that no one ever wins, but technically–

“Technically, the people who win them get to keep their memories.” He scrunches up his nose. “Or, uh, recover their memories of the previous ones, I suppose. Which is what’s happening to you. And Martyn, and Pearl, and Scott, and I was the first, so–”

“One heck of a headache, right?” Pearl yells behind them. “Was even for me, and you’ve got four whole timelines to deal with!” She flops backwards onto the floor, which is the void, pressing the back of the palm to her forehead theatrically even as she peers up at Scar through parted fingers. Scott rolls his eyes and grabs her hand.

“Give them a moment, Pearl,” Grian hears him whisper. “I know you weren’t there for Third Life, but I’ve explained it to you a dozen times, so–“

“So,” Scar says. “Third Life was real.”

It’s a strange way of putting it for someone who hadn’t remembered it at all until now.

“That’s a strange way of putting it for someone who hadn’t remembered it at all until now,” Grian says, because he’s always loose-tongued after dying. Scar stares at him, unblinking.

“That’s a strange way of thinking for someone who declared the first ever game a double victory,” he says. His head is tilted to the side.

Grian stares back.

“That didn’t count.”

“It didn’t not.”

“You didn’t remember until now.”

“I didn’t not.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Doesn’t it?” Scar shrugs. He plucks a flower from between the dark threads. It’s a poppy. “No less than the rest of it. No less sense than me waking up with sand between my toes, or burns on my arms, or bamboo in my pockets. No less than the dreams. Those didn’t make sense either.”

“It’s not like you ever asked me to explain.”

“Would you have?”

“Not the point.”

“Isn’t it?”

Pearl is still giggling. Martyn is still staring. Scott is quiet.

“Maybe it is,” Grian admits, quietly. It’s not an apology. It never will be.

Nor is it forgiveness, when Scar leans forward to tuck the poppy behind his ear. Nor will it ever be.

Sure feels like it sometimes though.

[thagomizersshow]

I love when sci-fi/fantasy writers throw in a random fact about a fictional species that actually has big repercussions for that species' biology.

Like, there is a species in Star Trek called Saurians who are adorable dinosauroid looking dudes. They've had very little revealed about them despite having been mentioned as early as the original series by way of "Saurian brandy" — a drink that is so strong it can put a Klingon on their ass in one swig.

Other than that, most of what we know about them comes from snippets involving a reoccuring character on Discovery named Linus, who is mostly a comic relief character. Now the reason I bring them up is that in one episode there's a scene where Linus is eating bamboo of all things, and I'm not sure the writers realized how telling this is about Saurian biology.

Bamboo is a damn hard food to eat, and us humans can only eat the shoots of a few species. Even then, raw consumption of shoots can lead to cyanide poisoning if you aren't careful. We still don't know how exactly a lot of animals that eat a lot of bamboo (bamboo lemurs, red pandas, bamboo rats, elephants, gorillas) are able to digest so much of it without getting cyanide poisoning. There is some sort of neutralization process in giant pandas involving the rhodanese enzyme that turns cyanide into the non-toxic thiocyanate that they just pee out, but the process is still poorly understood in other species.

Bamboo is also hard to digest for the same reason all grasses are; their plant wall cellulose is hard as hell to break down. Like, your choices are:

a) you do a poor job of digesting it and just spend all day eating (giant panda, red panda, bamboo lemur)

b) you grow really big and have a big gut (elephants, gorillas)

c) you only eat the parts of the plant that are easier to digest (bamboo rats)

On top of that, bamboo is loaded with silica phytoliths that are like microscopic bits of glass. These evolved to make their tissues even harder to chew and metabolize.

It's hard to make out in the scene, but it looks like Linus is eating raw bamboo leaves. Just picking them up with his fingers and munching on them like it's nothing. That means his teeth and/or jaws would need to be very powerful (maybe hypsodont? or maybe tooth batteries?) AND, because he's eating it raw, he'd have to be immune to the cyanide in some way.

One explanation could be in the Star Trek Adventures TTRPG, where Saurians are said to have an ability called "Enhanced Metabolism" where they recover from toxins faster than other species (my guess is this was meant to reference their brandy being so strong). BUT, that's not the same thing as the immunity real bamboo eating animals seem to have. My head canon is that Saurians have a diet similar to red pandas, where bamboo-like plants are their main diet on their homeworld, but they'll eat other stuff too when it's available, AND they've evolved some way to convert cyanide into a harmless chemical they excrete, like a giant panda.

All of these whacky biology shenanigans stem (hehe) from the casual writing decision to make a supporting alien character seem weird by eating a weird thing.

[tobuzzu]

Tinikling is a type of Filipino traditional dance that imitates the movement of the tikling bird as it walks over grass stems and dodges bamboo traps set by farmers! Tumblr completely crushes the quality, so I’ll link to my DA post for a better image!

[fireandiceland]

Hetalia nations dressed as sweet treats from their countries 😊

Spain - Churro: a sweet Spanish snack consisting of a strip of fried dough dusted with sugar or cinnamon.

China - Tanghulu: a sweet Nothern Chinese snack consisting of several rock sugar-coated fruits of Chinese hawthorn on a bamboo skewer

France - Macaron: a sweet meringue-based confection made with egg white, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond meal, and food colouring, often filled with ganache, jam, or buttercream.

America - Apple Pie: a pie with the principal filling ingredient being apples with pastry above and below, often served with whipped cream or ice cream.

Germany - Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte: the black forst cake is a chocolate sponge cake with a filling made from whipped cream and maraschino cherries and kirschwasser or rum.

Italy - Gelato: the Italian word for ice ceam, in English it refers to a frozen dessert containing 6-9% butterfat, 35% air, and more flavouring than other kinds of frozen desserts.

Japan - Hanami Dango: a Japanese dumpling made from rice flour mixed with uruchi rice flour and glutinous rice flour, to eat during hanami (flower viewing) where the three colors (pink, green, white) represent the order in which cherry blossoms bloom.

England - Victoria Sponge Cake: two sponge cakes which are filled with cream and jam then dusted on top with sugar, namded after Queen Victoria who was known to enjoy the small cakes with her afternoon tea.

Russia - Pashalnii Kulichi: a traditional Easter bread baked in tall, cylindrical tins (like coffee or fruit juice tins) and decorated with white icing (which slightly drizzles down the sides) and colorful flowers or sprinkles.

Prussia - Baumkuchen: literally "tree cake" or "log cake", a kind of spit cake from Germany, but also a popular dessert in Japan. The name stems from the characteristic "tree rings" that appear in its slices.

[livesunique]

A French 'Japonisme' Gilt & Patinated Bronze & Chinese Cloisonné Enamel Table By Ferdinand Barbedienne,

The Design attributed to Edouard Lievre, Paris, Circa 1870, the Cloisonné Qing Dynasty, 19th Century,

The rectangular top with turquoise ground elaborately decorated with colorful flora, fauna, feathers and foliate scrolls, set in cloud-form pierced gallery, raised on cluster-column bamboo-style stem adorned with dragons, with further bamboo-style supports and similar base with outscrolled feet, signed F. Barbedienne to base.

35 in. (89 cm.) high, 34 in. (87 cm.), 22 in. (56 cm.) deep.

Courtesy: Christie's

[crevicedwelling]

How effective are those bee houses? The ones made of bamboo or planks with holes drilled in them. Do they really help bees/other bugs or are they just a waste of money?

solitary bees and wasps live in them, but they may also attract predators/parasites of those pollinators, and some become death traps/woodpecker buffets! if you don’t want the upkeep or don’t want to build a good one, it might be more sustainable (and benefit more bugs) to just leave some old unaltered dead wood and dried plant stems in the ground, for everyone to use as they wish.

some useful info about bee houses:

[birdstudies]

April 9, 2024 - Olive-winged Bulbul (Pycnonotus plumosus) These bulbuls are found in a variety of habitats including forests, scrub, and grasslands across parts of Southeast Asia. Foraging alone, in pairs, or sometimes in family groups, they eat berries, fruit, seeds, and invertebrates. They build deep cup-shaped nests from dead leaves, creeper stems, fine fibers, and grass, often decorated with bamboo leaves. Females lay clutches of two eggs.

[magicalqueennightmare]

Not a Damsel

(Eventual) Elijah Mikaelson x Reader

After worries about you being gone on a hunt for longer than expected Elijah decides to track you down. Could seeing the fact first hand that you're not a Damsel needing saving make him more willing to face his developing feelings?

“She's on a hunt Elijah! I can't control how long it takes. She'll call if she needs assistance but she is more than capable of handling herself” You'd left a couple days before on a hunt and your name had been the main subject of conversation between Rebekah and Elijah.

While she understood that this was your life, your choice to live it how you seemed fit. She knew that she had no right to try to change your mind on something you'd done most of your life and trusted that you would summon help in whatever form you deemed fit should you need it. 

Elijah had somehow gotten it into his head that you wouldn't make it back to New Orleans this time despite you having made multiple trips out of town since coming into Rebekah's and by proxy the rest of the Mikaelson's lives. “And if something happens that she can't call for help?” 

“Hunters have a tight knit network. Even if something was to happen they would ensure she was avenged” Klaus spoke from the doorway having come in on the tail end of the conversation.  The idea of you simply being avenged didn't sit right with Elijah. 

He wasn't sure where this sudden worry was stemming from. Since the night of the ball you'd gone from an acquaintance to something more. He found himself looking forward to seeing you. The sound of your heartbeat was one he could pick out of a crowd.  

Your laughter warmed something inside of him, coming home to you lounging on one of the couches gossiping with Rebekah, making tea in the kitchen or even dancing with Kol as he'd witnessed a time or two had ingrained in him a need for your presence. 

“Or is there something else bothering our dear brother besides the worry for her safety?” Klaus asked Rebekah who smiled “I believe you may be on to something” “Enough, children” Elijah grumbled but was already considering his options. He could locate you easily enough, ensure to himself that you were fine but how would you react? And why did he feel the need to go to such extremes over you? He shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. You were a longtime hunter you could handle yourself as Rebekah had said but he'd rather reassure himself.

The air was knocked out of you when your back hit the mausoleum but you didn't have the luxury of recovery time. Normally Okami didn't hunt in pairs but lucky you it just so happened you stumbled across one.

Their snack of choice? The recently widowed. It'd taken you two days to pinpoint their next victim and you'd nearly been too late to his wife's grave to stop them. 

You'd gotten Benjamin Mallory out of the crosshairs and taken down one of them but the remaining one was pissed that you'd not only killed her mate but ruined her supper. She advanced on you so you dodged one of her blows and somehow managed to block another, landing a few of your own.“Bitch” you grumbled when she caught you with a hard kick to your stomach.

A thought occurred to you so you stayed doubled, hoping she'd take the bait and she did. She moved faster than you would've liked but when she grabbed your shoulder you managed to drive the bamboo dagger home, quickly stabbing her the seven times needed.

When her body fell away you started to look around to make sure Benjamin had gotten the hell out of there but you felt the tattoo on your shoulder jump with electricity. Fuck, that meant something else was nearby.

—--------------

Elijah had started to intervene, knowing he could quickly dispose of the Okami but what stopped him was the fact that there was a beauty in the way you fought, raw aggression and the need to protect whoever the beast had been hunting. Your lip was split just enough that the scent of your blood hung on the air but the look in your eyes even when it appeared your enemy had the upper hand was so damn alluring. He chose to wait knowing he could save you if the tides turned.

You took a hard kick to the stomach and he'd moved to inject himself into the fight but the moment the Okami laid a hand on your shoulder you moved relatively fast for a human, shoving a bamboo dagger into her heart. Once you shoved the body away you braced your hands against your knees to catch your breath but suddenly you bolted up looking around. 

He saw your hand go to your side and knew you were going for another weapon even before you called out “Who or whatever is watching come on out and play. Don't lurk in the shadows”

That was his clue to leave. He wasn't even sure himself what had lead him here so how could he explain it to you?

—----------

You stood there for a while before the feeling went away. Maybe you were being paranoid. You checked your watch and breathed a sigh of relief if you went ahead and disposed of the bodies you could get on the road and be back in New Orleans by the time the sun was coming up. Sleeping in your own bed versus a ratty hotel room or curling up in your Nova sounded good right about now. You glanced around once more than bent to grab the arms of the first Okami. Yeah you still had an hour or two worth of work ahead of you.

Two days later you were with Rebekah at one of the many cafes that lined the streets of New Orleans. You'd slept in that morning and she'd called a half dozen times before you agreed to meet her. 

You were laughing at some story of when Klaus and Kol were honest to God teenagers when you felt electricity tingle through your tattoo much the way it had in the cemetery after the Okami fight right Elijah walked up to the table.

You glanced up at him and wondered if there was a connection but pushed that thought down when she spoke your name. Damn the way it sounded on his lips. “Elijah” you greeted which earned a smile from him “I see you made it back unscathed” you touched a finger to where your lip had gotten split “Mainly but a few bruises being the worst part is always a good thing” 

Rebekah glanced at him before saying “I told you the worry was for nothing” you looked from her to him and knew your eyebrows were probably meeting your hairline by that point “Worry? Aw, were you worried about me?” 

He shot a glare at Rebekah before saying “Perhaps a bit” you couldn't help but smile “Thank you for caring enough to worry but don't, I chose this life” “Doesn't mean those you've welcomed into it aren't allowed the luxury to have concern for your well being” you nodded at his answer “True but don't worry the Mikaelsons will have a harder time than that getting rid of me”

Elijah and Rebekah both spoke over each other when they said “Good to know” you laughed then motioned to the chair to your right “Care to join us?” Elijah shook his head “and interrupt your day more than I already have? No. I just wanted to say hello” you smiled “ok. I'll see you later then” 

Him and Rebekah held each other's gaze for a long second before he walked away. Once he was out of view you narrowed your eyes at her “Care to explain?” She laughed lightly “Afraid I can't but I can offer you to go shopping if you'd like” you didn't need anything but that was her way of asking to spend more time together so you replied “Sounds like the day is planned then”

It Works

[copperbadge]

[ID: Two images; one is a slow-cooker pan full of chopped onions gently sweating, and the other is my wax melt warmer, a lantern-looking object with a pool of warm wax in the lid, sitting on a windowsill.]

Okay. Now that I've done with the gross part, let's talk about the positives of today's cleaning!

Part of the reason I wanted to count yesterday's grocery trip was that I did an inventory of the freezer and found I was low on sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions, both of which I use frequently but are a pain to make when you want to be cooking other things, and both of which freeze really well so you don't necessarily have to.

I got a pound and a half of mushrooms plus three pounds of onions, and this morning I chopped up the onions and put them in the slow-cooker; I'm trying slow-cooker caramelized onions again, simply because I'll still have to babysit them a bit at the end but this way I don't have to spend forty solid minutes standing over the pot. I chopped the mushroom caps and sauteed those in chunks, but I also chopped the stems super-fine and put those in a pan of veggie broth to simmer and soften. (I don't mind the odd stem on a pizza or something but they can be a little tough, so when I prep them myself usually I cook the stems separately and puree them, then use the puree to flavor sauces.)

While the mushrooms were simmering, I got started on the kitchen counters, first wiping down the hutch where I keep my meds and Shabbat supplies. I'd been keeping the new wax melt warmer, meant to help my home smell nicer, on the hutch, but the kitchen is kind of closed-off, so I finally found a spot where it was both safe from the cats and also near an outlet but could spread its scent a little further.

And then I had to tackle the area to the left of the sink, where I do a lot of my meal preparing and also snacking. I mentioned this in the Soap Dish post earlier, and you can even see the edge of the freshly-washed dish over on the right. I moved everything, washed the counter with Grease Lightning and then vinegar before wiping with a damp cloth, then cleaned everything you see in whatever way it needed cleaning and put it all back. (The yellow mug is what I use for weighing liquids while baking, and the two bowls I often use for recipe prep; the rest is mostly snacks, though the "butter" dish is a French Butter Bell, which I link because I know people will have questions. The slatted board is a bread-slicing board that I use for meal preparation sometimes because it's easier for me to clean than the counter.)

[ID: An image of my kitchen counter; it has a paper towel dispenser and a set of bamboo shelves at the back, and resting on the shelves are several boxes of snacks plus a couple of bowls. In front of that is a slatted cutting board, as well as a crock reading BUTTER on it and a bottle of dish soap. Off on the left, mostly off-frame, is the sink; on one corner of the sink's lip is a metal contraption for holding sponges and soap.]