Costus

Costus speciosus (Crepe Ginger)

Costus is a member of the Zingiberaceae (Ginger) family which is grown in tropical areas across the globe. It is often called 'Spiral Ginger' because the new stems grow in a spiral with the leaves on the outer side of the curve.

The spear-shaped leaves are soft and hairy with a velvet-like feel to the underside. Just last year, the genus Costus was divided into four new genera based on study of DNA makeup of the plants.

Costus speciosus (Crepe Ginger), now called Cheilocostus speciosus, grows a red cone-shaped 'head' (bract) at the top of the stalk from which one or two large white flowers emerge from the lower part.

As each flower dies, another one will follow slightly higher up the bract for a period of up to a month after which the head browns and eventually falls off the plant.

The plant is tall, 2-3 meters (6-10 ft.), and as new stalks emerge from rhizomes in the soil, it forms a dense clump, easily measuring 3-4 meters wide (10-13 ft.). The plant can become invasive if not controlled.

We recently dug up/cut back/thinned out two large clumps of this Costus. This picture shows one of the clumps back in June 2006. It was much larger than this when we started.

This picture shows the result about three weeks after we 'reduced' it. It seems to return from every piece of rhizome left in the soil − we did try to remove all of them!

I think that I will (be trying to) remove all of this plant from my garden. It grows to the perfect height for the flowers to show from our sala familiar (family room) windows, but it just seems too invasive.

We have another wild species which grows a lovely, tight, orange cone-shaped bract, many of which have two heads. We found this one growing by the creek in heavy shade but surprisingly, it is much more well-mannered than the Crepe Ginger that we bought at a nursery here in Honduras.

This one grows to a height of only about 1-1.2 meters (3-4 ft.), has shorter, wider, slightly variegated leaves, and doesn't spread as aggressively, staying in a bush-sized clump.

I believe this one to be Costus scaber, in which the bract colors can vary from yellow to orange to red. It is native to many parts of Central America.

Costus scaber can be identified by the single row of upright hairs growing on the upper part of the leaf vein. In three years, we have never seen more than the tiniest blooms peeking out of the bracts, but the orange cones are attractive even without the showy flowers.

Aloha Tropicals lists 45 varieties of Costus, with flowers of white, red, yellow, orange, and pink, and different variations of leaf size and color, and Dave Skinner (who must be The Ginger Expert) at GingersRUs displays hundreds of Costus pictures. Click on the "thumbnail image pages" button on the left hand side of his home page to view eight pages of Costus photos.

Costus are easily propagated by divisions or stem cuttings and quickly form a nice bushy clump which flowers year round here in the tropics. They grow in sun, partial shade, and even deep shade as their natural habitat is the forest floor.

Washing clothes in the river

Clothes drying on the rocks by the river

Most Honduran women wash their clothes by hand in a large pila (concrete sink) with a built-in scrub board. The wealthier and even the not-so-wealthy hire other women to do it for them.

But many women don't have the luxury of a pila or sufficient water to wash clothes at home, so they wash their clothes in the river.

Some women bring their own portable scrub board and some scrub their laundry on big river rocks. This is the type of soap that is used to hand wash clothes. FYI: I do my own laundry, most of it in a washing machine, but I do use the soap and washboard for some things. It works great.

I've been wanting to do a series of "washing day" photos after we've had several days of rain but I keep forgetting. The weather has been nice lately, not much rain at all, and these pictures were taken on a Sunday, so there isn't a lot of laundry to be seen.

At times, after a week of rain, it seems like the entire city of La Ceiba is covered with laundry drying in the sun, on clotheslines, fences, shrubs, and lawns as well as the riverbanks. It makes a colorful sight.

I call this a multi-purpose river. On this day it was being used for a car wash, a bathing spot, and a laundromat all at the same time. During heavy tropical storms it looks like the Mississippi filling up to the banks (well, a slight exaggeration!), but most times it looks peaceful like this. There is a surprisingly strong current, though, even in the shallow part.

These photos are of the northern parts of the Rio Cangrejal and Rio Danto a few miles from the ocean.

This is a photo of some of the colorful river rocks. I love the colors. We used tons of river rocks in our construction projects. A couple near the top have turquoise house paint on them :-) but the rest are natural.

Just in case any river rafters come to this article and are terribly disappointed about the prospects of rafting the Rio Cangrejal, below are a couple of pictures of the river further south where the rafting is done.

River rafting on the Cangrejal

It is loads of fun! I recommend it − even for wimpy people like me. If you look closely, you can see me in the raft. (Ha ha! Good luck!)

Can you see the raft?

EcoMart at the Copena station

EcoMart at the Copena gas station, La Ceiba, Honduras

La Gringa aims to please. I received this by email the other day.

I ran into your blog the other day while on the internet. I was just in Ceiba last week on a medical mission trip. The reason I'm writing is because I was wondering if you have any pictures of the Eco-Mart gas-station signs. My friends and I fell in love with the sign, and figured we could find a picture of it on the internet, but I haven't run across one as of yet.

Sorry it's such a random question!

Thanks,

H

We stopped to buy a soft drink today and darned if it wasn't at the Copena EcoMart. I ran back to the car to get the camera. Since you gave me such an easy assignment, H, as a bonus, here are a couple of interior shots.

Looks just like the good old USA, doesn't it? It has all the same bad-for-you stuff plus you can throw your money away on Loto tickets, too. Just like home.