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November 07, 2008, 03:34 PM ET
Caltech Offers a Google Map to Dine Out On
As part of today’s Olive Harvest Festival at the California Institute of Technology, a Caltech administrator named Thomas N. Mannion is giving a tour during which he will show people how to “find, recognize, and prepare the plants and herbs around campus.” For those who can’t make the tour — and as a reference tool for those who can — Mr. Mannion has also created a Google Earth map of edible and medicinal plants on the campus.
The map not only offers directions — to orange, lemon, lime, tangerine, and grapefruit trees; to grapes, figs, passion fruit, pumpkins, and wild strawberries; to asparagus, arugula, chives, lavender, and carob — but clicking on an icon pops open a box with photos of the relevant plant and information about it. The Mexican fan palm, for instance, “bears fruit that is not a date but similar,” the map says. “It is a spherical, blue-black, thin-fleshed fruit with one seed in the middle.” The hibiscus has multiple uses: “The petals of the hibiscus flower can be eaten and used as a garnish. Jam can be made from the fruit of the plant, and tea can be made from steeping the flowers in boiling water.”
“Rather than just planting beautiful flowers that cannot be used, we can plant things that look nice and can be eaten as well,” says a page about the map on the institution’s fledgling Green Wiki. “Caltech continues to plant more gardens with fruits, vegetables, and other edibles that the entire Caltech community can enjoy!” —Lawrence Biemiller
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