Human Flower Project
Los Angeles, California USA
Miami, Florida USA
Denver, Colorado USA
Saturday, January 07, 2012
Luffa: Wring in the New Year
Plant a garden of amazement this year and harvest a kitchen tool.
The flower of Luffa aegyptiaca
Photo: Garden Life
By James H. Wandersee and Renee M. Clary
EarthScholars™ Research Group
How about a New Year’s resolution that’s actually an absorbing pleasure? This year, grow some garden plants that fascinate children. We suggest that you begin by rekindling your own sense of wonder: raising a plant that imitates a sea animal.
We all know that sponges are animals that live and grow beneath the sea. Sponge divers retrieve natural sponges for human applications. There are over 5,000 species of sponge animals, freshwater and marine, but only 15 species have fibrous “skeletons” that are absorbent and soft enough for people to use. The divers cut these loose from the sea floor (provided they meet legal size limits), then clean and sun-dry them.
If you want to interact with real sponge-fishers and purchase animal sponges newly harvested from the Gulf of Mexico, we suggest you visit the sponge docks at Tarpon Springs, Florida. This city boasts the US’s highest percentage of Greek-Americans and is, historically, a sponge-fishing community. There you can even go sponge-fishing on a working boat with a professional diver.