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Cây Bằng lăng Giant Crape-myrtle, Queen ‘s Crape-myrtle Lagertroemia speciosa, thuộc họ Lythraceae
Image by Hoa Trai Viet Nam
Tên khoa học: Lagertroemia speciosa, thuộc họ Lythraceae – Cây có nguồn gốc từ Ấn Độ đến Australia.là một loài thực vật thuộc chi Tử vi (Lagerstroemia – một tông chi lớn thảo mộc nước to). Tên tiếng Anh thông dụng là: Giant Crape-myrtle, Queen ‘s Crape-myrtle, Banabá Plant for Philippines, Pride of India, Queen ‘s flower.Entravel, Rose of India
Cây gỗ lớn, thân cao từ 10 – 15m, vỏ nứt màu nâu đen.
Tán lá rậm, hình chóp, rụng vào mùa khô (cành dài mềm hơi rũ xuống). Lá hình bầu dục, cứng, nhẵn, dài đến 20cm, cuống to dài 0,5 – 0,7cm, tròn ở gốc, nhọn ở đỉnh. Cụm hoa là chùm tán khá lớn. Hoa rất đẹp có 5 – 6 đài dính, cánh tràng màu hồng nhạt gồm 5 – 6 cánh nhăn nheo. Nhị nhiều. Quả nang cắt vách hơi tròn dạng trứng, lá đài còn lại xòe ra, quả dài 1,5 – 2cm, rộng 1 – 1,5cm cứng, bên ngoài hơi nhám, hạt có cánh mỏng. Lá, quả làm thuốc. Vỏ nhiều Tanin.
Do hoa có màu tím hồng đẹp, nên hiện nay thường được trồng làm cây cảnh quan đô thị. – Gỗ bằng lăng nước màu nâu vàng, dẻo, dùng đóng đồ mộc thông thường hoặc có thể đóng thuyền.
Nguồn gốc, đặc điểm
Banabá (Bằng lăng nước) là tên gọi theo tiếng Tagalog (dân tộc lớn nhất Philippines) của loài cây đặc thù của Ấn Độ. Loài này có nguồn gốc từ vùng nhiệt đới Nam Á, hiện có nhiều ở Đông Nam Á, Ấn Độ và các vùng nhiệt đới khác. Thân cây thẳng và khá nhẵn nhụi. Lá màu xanh lục, dài từ 8 đến 15 cm, rộng từ 3 đến 7 cm, hình oval hoặc elip, rụng theo mùa. Hoa màu tím hoặc tím nhạt, mọc thành chùm dài từ 20 đến 40 cm, thường thấy vào giữa mùa hè. Mỗi bông hoa có 6 cánh, mỗi cánh dài chừng 2 đến 3,5 cm. Quả lúc tươi màu tím nhạt pha xanh lục, mềm. Quả già có đường kính 1,5 đến 2 cm, khô trên cây.
Sử dụng
Bằng lăng nước là loài bằng lăng hoa tím ở vùng nhiệt đới đã được dùng trong Đông y ở Châu Mỹ, An Độ, Philippnes,… để trị bệnh tiểu đường. Lá láng bóng loài bằng lăng này chứa Colosolic acid ở mức cao (Colosolic acid là một hóa chất thực vật nổi tiếng làm hạ mức đường trong máu). Trong Y học truyền thống châu Á dùng lá bằng lăng nước làm nước trà để trị đau bao tử và bệnh tiểu đường. Các chất trích ly được thương mại hóa đôi khi cũng được dùng làm bớt mập phì. Chất trích lá bằng lăng nước thường tìm thấy trong các thuốc bổ sung đa thành phần để làm giảm cân, tỉ như Cortislim. Nồng lượng thay đổi tuỳ sản phẩm bán, nhưng thường chứa vài milligram đến vài tá milligram một ngày. Lá bằng lăng nước khó kiếm hơn nhưng được bán dưới dạng nước trích lỏng hoặc thể viên.
Loài bằng lăng cho bóng mát và cho hoa đẹp nên được trồng làm hoa cảnh. Thật ra ngoài hoa tím còn có hoa các màu đậm, lợt trắng, hồng, đỏ, tím,… và cuối thu nhiều giống cũng rụng lá vàng, lá đỏ như cây phong xứ lạnh. Vài giống lùn, lùm bụi, cũng được chọn làm cây kiểng, mùa hoa nở đầy chậu. Cây gỗ lớn cao đến 20m, phân cành cao, thẳng, tán dày, lá hình bầu dục hay hình giáo dài, cụm hoa hình tháp ở ngọn các cành, mọc thẳng, nụ hoa hình cầu, hoa lớn có 6 cánh, có móng ngắn, răng reo màu tím hồng. Cây mọc khỏe, thân thẳng, tán cao, cây trồng chủ yếu bằng hạt, ươm gieo như các cây khác.
Trồng trọt
Đất trồng cây Bằng lăng phải có tầng đất mặt tơi xốp, dễ thoát nước, nếu đất có độ pH thấp, cần bón vôi thêm. Trước khi trồng tiến hành đào hố trước ít nhất 1 tháng, kích thước hố và lượng phân bón lót tùy thuộc vào đất giàu hoặc nghèo dinh dưỡng, thông thường 50 x 50 x 50cm, trộn đều lớp đất mặt với phân hữu cơ, NPK, phân bón lót, phân lân, vôi …… Sau đó dồn hỗn hợp đất phân cho xuống hố. Công việc trên cần thực hiện trước khi trồng cây ít nhất là 1/2 tháng.
Cây được trồng vào đầu mùa mưa (tháng 5, 6) và được trồng dặm trước tháng 9 hàng năm. Mật độ trồng thích hợp từ 500 đến 834 cây/ha. Cây cách cây 3 mét, hàng cách hàng 4 mét, hoặc cây cách cây 4 mét, hàng cách hàng 5 mét.
Sau khi trồng cần làm cỏ, xới đất kết hợp tủ gốc giữ ẩm cho cây 4-5 lần/năm. Trong 3 năm đầu khi cây chưa kép tán cần trồng thêm cây che bóng giữa các hàng để bảo vệ đất, nhằm tăng cường chất hữu cơ và giảm công làm cỏ…
Lượng phân bón trong 3 năm đầu như sau: phân chuồng 5-10kg, phân NPK 150g/gốc/năm. Các năm sau tăng dần lượng phân lên, nên bón phân vào lúc làm cỏ và vun gốc vào đầu, giữa và cuối mùa mưa.
Ở Việt nam cây này được gọi là Bằng lăng nước, mọc nhiều nhất ở các rừng vùng Đông Nam Bộ, đặc biệt là rừng cây gỗ toàn là bằng lăng gần thị xã Gia Nghĩa, tỉnh Đăk Nông.
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Lagerstroemia speciosa (Giant Crape-myrtle, Queen’s Crape-myrtle, Banabá Plant for Philippines, or Pride of India[) is a species of Lagerstroemia native to tropical southern Asia.
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Growth
It is a small to medium-sized tree growing to 20 m tall, with smooth, flaky bark. The leaves are deciduous, oval to elliptic, 8-15 cm long and 3-7 cm broad, with an acute apex. The flowers are produced in erect panicles 20-40 cm long, each flower with six white to purple petals 2-3.5 cm long.
Cultivation and uses
It is grown in South East Asia, India and the Philippines.
It is also widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in tropical and subtropical areas.
Banaba extract is used as a natural health supplement and is made from the leaves of the banaba tree. Some research suggests that banaba extract may support blood sugar balance and weight loss. The primary active ingredient is corosolic acid, and there are also numerous possible synergists including lager-stroemin, flosin B and reginin A.
Banaba Tea The leaves of the Banaba and other parts are used widely by the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan as a Tea preparation. This tea is consumed as a natural means for a variety of reasons involving the kidneys, such as dissolving kidney stones, kidney cleanses, and kidney health in general. Research being conducted in Japan shows much promise for this plant and its potential uses in the medical community.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagerstroemia_speciosa
Memorial Day Service at Old St Paul’s, Wellington – May 30, 2011.
Image by US Embassy New Zealand
Memorial Day Service at Old St Paul’s, Wellington – May 30, 2011.
Related:
Remarks by the President at a Memorial Day Service
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington, Virginia
11:25 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you so much. Please be seated.
Thank you, Secretary Gates, and thank you for your extraordinary service to our nation. I think that Bob Gates will go down as one of our finest Secretaries of Defense in our history, and it’s been an honor to serve with him. (Applause.)
I also want to say a word about Admiral Mullen. On a day when we are announcing his successor as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as he looks forward to a well-deserved retirement later this year, Admiral Mullen, on behalf of all Americans, we want to say thank you for your four decades of service to this great country. (Applause.) We want to thank Deborah Mullen as well for her extraordinary service. To Major General Karl Horst, the commanding general of our Military District of Washington; Mrs. Nancy Horst; Mr. Patrick Hallinan, the superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery, as well as his lovely wife Doreen. And to Chaplain Steve Berry, thank you for your extraordinary service. (Applause.)
It is a great privilege to return here to our national sanctuary, this most hallowed ground, to commemorate Memorial Day with all of you. With Americans who’ve come to pay their respects. With members of our military and their families. With veterans whose service we will never forget and always honor. And with Gold Star families whose loved ones rest all around us in eternal peace.
To those of you who mourn the loss of a loved one today, my heart breaks goes out to you. I love my daughters more than anything in the world, and I cannot imagine losing them. I can’t imagine losing a sister or brother or parent at war. The grief so many of you carry in your hearts is a grief I cannot fully know.
This day is about you, and the fallen heroes that you loved. And it’s a day that has meaning for all Americans, including me. It’s one of my highest honors, it is my most solemn responsibility as President, to serve as Commander-in-Chief of one of the finest fighting forces the world has ever known. (Applause.) And it’s a responsibility that carries a special weight on this day; that carries a special weight each time I meet with our Gold Star families and I see the pride in their eyes, but also the tears of pain that will never fully go away; each time I sit down at my desk and sign a condolence letter to the family of the fallen.
Sometimes a family will write me back and tell me about their daughter or son that they’ve lost, or a friend will write me a letter about what their battle buddy meant to them. I received one such letter from an Army veteran named Paul Tarbox after I visited Arlington a couple of years ago. Paul saw a photograph of me walking through Section 60, where the heroes who fell in Iraq and Afghanistan lay, by a headstone marking the final resting place of Staff Sergeant Joe Phaneuf.
Joe, he told me, was a friend of his, one of the best men he’d ever known, the kind of guy who could have the entire barracks in laughter, who was always there to lend a hand, from being a volunteer coach to helping build a playground. It was a moving letter, and Paul closed it with a few words about the hallowed cemetery where we are gathered here today.
He wrote, “The venerable warriors that slumber there knew full well the risks that are associated with military service, and felt pride in defending our democracy. The true lesson of Arlington,” he continued, “is that each headstone is that of a patriot. Each headstone shares a story. Thank you for letting me share with you [the story] about my friend Joe.”
Staff Sergeant Joe Phaneuf was a patriot, like all the venerable warriors who lay here, and across this country, and around the globe. Each of them adds honor to what it means to be a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, and Coast Guardsman. Each is a link in an unbroken chain that stretches back to the earliest days of our Republic — and on this day, we memorialize them all.
We memorialize our first patriots — blacksmiths and farmers, slaves and freedmen — who never knew the independence they won with their lives. We memorialize the armies of men, and women disguised as men, black and white, who fell in apple orchards and cornfields in a war that saved our union. We memorialize those who gave their lives on the battlefields of our times — from Normandy to Manila, Inchon to Khe Sanh, Baghdad to Helmand, and in jungles, deserts, and city streets around the world.
What bonds this chain together across the generations, this chain of honor and sacrifice, is not only a common cause — our country’s cause — but also a spirit captured in a Book of Isaiah, a familiar verse, mailed to me by the Gold Star parents of 2nd Lieutenant Mike McGahan. “When I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here I am. Send me!”
That’s what we memorialize today. That spirit that says, send me, no matter the mission. Send me, no matter the risk. Send me, no matter how great the sacrifice I am called to make. The patriots we memorialize today sacrificed not only all they had but all they would ever know. They gave of themselves until they had nothing more to give. It’s natural, when we lose someone we care about, to ask why it had to be them. Why my son, why my sister, why my friend, why not me?
These are questions that cannot be answered by us. But on this day we remember that it is on our behalf that they gave our lives — they gave their lives. We remember that it is their courage, their unselfishness, their devotion to duty that has sustained this country through all its trials and will sustain us through all the trials to come. We remember that the blessings we enjoy as Americans came at a dear cost; that our very presence here today, as free people in a free society, bears testimony to their enduring legacy.
Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay. But we can honor their sacrifice, and we must. We must honor it in our own lives by holding their memories close to our hearts, and heeding the example they set. And we must honor it as a nation by keeping our sacred trust with all who wear America’s uniform, and the families who love them; by never giving up the search for those who’ve gone missing under our country’s flag or are held as prisoners of war; by serving our patriots as well as they serve us — from the moment they enter the military, to the moment they leave it, to the moment they are laid to rest.
That is how we can honor the sacrifice of those we’ve lost. That is our obligation to America’s guardians — guardians like Travis Manion. The son of a Marine, Travis aspired to follow in his father’s footsteps and was accepted by the USS [sic] Naval Academy. His roommate at the Academy was Brendan Looney, a star athlete and born leader from a military family, just like Travis. The two quickly became best friends — like brothers, Brendan said.
After graduation, they deployed — Travis to Iraq, and Brendan to Korea. On April 29, 2007, while fighting to rescue his fellow Marines from danger, Travis was killed by a sniper. Brendan did what he had to do — he kept going. He poured himself into his SEAL training, and dedicated it to the friend that he missed. He married the woman he loved. And, his tour in Korea behind him, he deployed to Afghanistan. On September 21st of last year, Brendan gave his own life, along with eight others, in a helicopter crash.
Heartbroken, yet filled with pride, the Manions and the Looneys knew only one way to honor their sons’ friendship — they moved Travis from his cemetery in Pennsylvania and buried them side by side here at Arlington. “Warriors for freedom,” reads the epitaph written by Travis’s father, “brothers forever.”
The friendship between 1st Lieutenant Travis Manion and Lieutenant Brendan Looney reflects the meaning of Memorial Day. Brotherhood. Sacrifice. Love of country. And it is my fervent prayer that we may honor the memory of the fallen by living out those ideals every day of our lives, in the military and beyond. May God bless the souls of the venerable warriors we’ve lost, and the country for which they died. (Applause.)
END 11:37 A.M. EDT
