Kyrgyz people: cross-border connections

Kyrgyz people are living in the Central Asia for ages. The world of the Kyrgyz people has been split into 2 main areas of interests – former Soviet Union and China. All Kyrgyz people historically used Arabic alphabet for writing. However, in former Soviet Union was introduced Latin alphabet in 1927 and it was replaced by Cyrillic alphabet from 1938, while people in China use Arabic alphabet till today.

Due to these historical reasons, Kyrgyz people are now divided into 2 groups. The bigger one (around 4 000 000 people) use Cyrillic alphabet and the smaller one from China (around 150 000 people) is using Arabic alphabet. People from these groups usually can not read the other script.

Today, internet is a medium which can easily get in touch people from different countries, but unfortunately, due to script barrier Kyrgyz people are still not joined.

Saturday 21st August 2010 07:25 | print | Language projects

The cultivation of the Four Leaf Clover - (Marsilea quadrifolia)

The Four Leaf Clover (Marsilea quadrifolia) is a water fern of which the leaves look like clovers. Do you think that the terms water fern and clover has nothing to do with each other? On the contrary – both of these terms describes the characteristics of these unusual very decorative and practical unknown plants in the gardening world.

Saturday 12th June 2010 13:09 | print | Water and aquatic plants

How to descend of the bean weevil?

I suppose that the bean weevil needs not to be introduced to you. This is small little beetle of 3–4 mm big, that can be found on the seeds in the kitchen for example.

These detrimental small beetles develop in the seed of all kinds of pods. In fact, every pod type has some of these creatures – the broad bean – broad bean weevil (beetle), pea – pea beetle, lentils – lentils beetle, and garden broad bean – garden broad bean beetle etc.…

On the damaged seed you can find depression at places where little holes were done by larvaes. When the adult beetles hatch, drill holes become visible in the seeds. Beetles often cause most of the damage during the storing (because the living conditions are ideal) irrespective of the fact that the plant was already contaminated when it was still in the garden.

The fight against the beetle is fortunately completely simple and efficient (100% chance of success!)

Friday 11th June 2010 12:07 | print | Pests

Kiwano – Cucumis metuliferus

The kiwano 10–15 cm long fruits look like an orange. It belongs to the cucumber family. The fruit has little horns on the peel and makes one think of a medieval weapon. The flesh of the fruit is green and contains usually many 5–10 mm long white seeds. When not ripe yet, the colour of the fruit is green, with drawning.

Tuesday 8th June 2010 11:26 | print | Exotic plants

Welwitschia mirabilis – the cultivation of a living fossil

Welwitschia (Welwitschia mirabilis) is a primeval plant growing in a small area along the coastal region of the Atlantic Ocean in Namibia and Southern Angola. Welwitschia is actually a tree, although it does not seem like it at first glance. The whole plant consists of one short trunk out of which 2 leaves grow – these look like two huge curled ribbons with frayed, barren ends. Welwitschia sometimes looks like a heap of rubbish!

Saturday 22nd May 2010 14:40 | print | Exotic plants