Far and Wide

Apologies for the gap in posts - this was caused by a trip to Kuwait City to visit lovely family. My horticultural expectations of Kuwait weren't high - it's a dessert nation with temperatures rising to over 50 degrees in the summer, however the city was greener than I expected.

Predictably there were lots of palm trees, but I was struck by just how beautiful they were. Fantastic  sculptural shapes casting gorgeous (and much needed) shadows, creating an exotic and calming effect.

But there were also lots of other municipal shrubs and trees trimmed to within an inch of their lives. Topiary is big in Kuwait City, never let it be said that a tree should be left to be tree shaped. They were square, round, triangular, wavy, regularly trimmed and watered, and - due to the numbers of them -slightly mad! Every roundabout, roadside verge and central reservation has it's allocation of topiary, and as all the roads, even the inconsequential ones, are minimum 6 lane highways, that's a lot of topiary. I'm  glad I don't have to maintain it!

And finally the plant that impressed me most was this

I have no idea what it is, but I think it's the only thing that grows in the dessert, certainly it was the only thing we saw. This plant is tiny, this clump is quite large compared to some, about 1 inch across, however it is what camels live on. Now the camels we saw stood 6-7ft(ish) tall and are large animals, and roam in large herds all over the dessert. That this plant sustains them is amazing, if not incredible! So this plant gets my awe and respect, hardy, nutritious and tenacious.