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The gardens of ancient Egypt probably began as simple fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, irrigated with water from the Nile. Gradually as the country became richer, they evolved into pleasure gardens with flowers, ponds and valleys of fruit and shade trees. Temples, palaces, and private residences had their own gardens, and models of gardens were sometimes placed in tombs so their owners could enjoy them in their afterlife.

The history and character of gardens in ancient Egypt, like all aspects of Egyptian life, depended upon the Nile, and the network of canals that drew water from it. Water was hoisted from the Nile in leather buckets and carried on the shoulders to the gardens, and later, beginning in about the 4th century B.C., lifted from wells by hoists with counterbalancing weights called shadouf in Arabic. The earliest gardens were composed of planting beds divided into squares by earthen walls, so the water could soak into the soil rather than be lost. Gardens belonged to temples or the residences. Secular gardens were located near the river or canals and were used mainly for growing vegetables. Beginning during the New Kingdom, gardens were attached to more luxurious residences and were sometimes enclosed by walls. Temple gardens were used to raise certain vegetables for ceremonies,

Palace gardens first appeared in Egypt just before the Middle Empire (2035-1668). These gardens were very large in scale, and were laid out in geometric patterns. The ponds of palace gardens were enormous and numerous. In the second millennium BC, the garden pond of King Sneferu was large enough for boats rowed by twenty oarsmen.

The rulers of ancient Egypt, such as Queen Hatshepsut (1503-1482 BC) and Ramses III (1198-1166 BC), used pots to bring back to Egypt new kinds of trees and flowers discovered during their conquests in Libya, Syria, and Cyrenia.

Beginning during the time of the New Kingdom, pleasure gardens became a common feature of luxury residences. According to paintings in tombs in Thebes from the 18th Dynasty (1552-1296 BC), gardens of that time had a standard design. They had a pond, usually rectangular, in the center, filled with colorful fish, with lotus blossoms in the water and flowers around the edges. Around the pond were successive rows of trees, including sycamores, palms, and grenadiers, alternating with flower beds. The edges of the water basins were sloping, with a stairway down one side so gardeners could collect water for irrigation.

The pond was often surrounded by walls or columns supporting grapevines. The walls and columns were decorated with colorful paintings of people, animals, and plants such as the poppy and rose.

Temples often had extensive gardens. The Temple of Amun at Karnak had twenty-six kitchen gardens, alongside a very early botanical garden, which, according to an inscription, contained "all kinds of beautiful flowers and bizarre plants which are found in the divine land which His Majesty has conquered." The hymns painted on the walls of tombs show that religious ceremonies centered on the cycles of nature and the changing seasons. Temple gardens often had rows of fig trees and sycamores (the tree sacred to the goddess Hathor), tamaris, willows, or palm trees. Rows of trees sometimes stretched for several kilometers, connecting several temples. The temples themselves had esplanades planted with trees. When rows of trees were planted far from the river, wells had to be dug ten meters deep to reach water for irrigation. During the time of Amenophis III, some temples were devoted to a goddess in the form of a tree, with a trunk for a body and branches for arms. This goddess was believed to carry water to the dead to quench their thirst. Temple gardens often were the homes of animals sacred to the gods, such as the ibis and the baboon. Flowers were part of all the religious ceremonies during the time of the god Amon. These gardens also produced medicinal herbs and spices such as cumin, marjoram, anise, and coriander.

Funeral gardens were miniature versions of house gardens that were placed in tombs. They usually had a small square house or pavilion with wooden columns, surrounded by a wall, Within the wall was a basin surrounded by a row of trees. The house resembled the kiosks in gardens, where the owner would play checkers or relax. The dead were traditionally surrounded by the objects they would have enjoyed in life, and it was expected that they would continue to enjoy their gardens in their afterlife. The inscription of one tomb said: "You promenade at your ease by the lovely bank of your pond; your heart rejoices from your trees and is refreshed under your sycamores; your heart is satisfied by the water from your wells that you made so that they would last forever."

Trees were used in the gardens to produce fruit and for shade. Nineteen different species of trees were found in the gardens of Ineni, the architect to the Pharaoh Thutmose I (1504-1492 B.C.). The pink flowered tamarisk, acacia and willow trees were common in gardens. The sycamore (Ficus sycomorus) and tamarisk trees were sometimes planted in front of temples, as they were at the temple of Nebhepetra, from the 11th century BC.

The ancient Egyptians cultivated Ficus sycomorus from Predynastic times, and in quantity from the start of the third millennium BCE. It was believed to be the ancient Egyptian Tree of Life, planted on the threshold between life and death. Zohary and Hopf note that "the fruit and the timber, and sometimes even the twigs, are richly represented in the tombs of the Egyptian Early, Middle and Late Kingdoms." Some of the caskets of mummies in Egypt are made from the wood of this tree.

The most common fruit trees were date palms, fig trees and doum palms (Hyphaene thebaica). The persea tree was considered sacred, and was found in both temple gardens and residential gardens. The pomegranate tree was introduced during the New Kingdom, and was prized for its aroma and color. Other fruits grown in the gardens were jujube, olives, and peaches. Vegetables were grown for food or for ceremonies. Cos lettuce was considered sacred and was connected with Min, the deity of reproduction, and was believed to be a powerful aphrodisiac. Grapes were used to make raisins and wine. Tomb paintings show that grape vines were sometimes planted atop pergolas to provide shade to the garden. Flowers were raised in gardens to make decorative bouquets and for use in religious ceremonies. Common garden flowers were the mandrake and the daisy, chrysanthemum, anemone, and poppy, jasmine, and the rose.

Egyptian ponds and basins were often decorated white and blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulea) and with papyrus.

The date palm, used by the Ancient Egyptians both as a food and for making wine. The Egyptians learned to pollinate the trees by hand.

The sycamore (Ficus sycomorus) was often planted for shade. It was also often planted at temples, and its wood was used for making coffins for mummies.

The tree was associated with Iusaaset, the primal goddess of Egyptian mythology.

Cyperus papyrus was used as a writing material, for making boats, and even eaten.

Ponds and pools were a common feature of the residential gardens of the wealthy and powerful of ancient Egypt, and are shown in a number of tomb paintings. Sometimes, as in the garden of Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, the pond was in the shape of a T, with one part of the T connected to a river or canal. The water was usually hoisted into the pond from the river by hand, or using a shadouf. Fish for food and ornament were raised in the ponds. They also were the home of migrating water birds.

Flowers such as white and blue lotus were grown in the ponds for decoration and for ceremonies, and papyrus was known to grow at Deir el-Bahri. Later, during the Persian occupation of Egypt, the pink lotus was introduced.

Shade, color and aroma

Shade was an important feature of the garden, provided by trees and by grapevines supported between columns. Describing these gardens, Shaw and Nicholson wrote: "The overall effect would have been one of cool shade, heavy with the fragrance of the flowers and the trees. Gardens are therefore one of the most frequent settings of Egyptian romantic tales."

Gardening in ancient Egypt was very hard work; gardens required constant irrigation, with water carried or lifted by hand, weeding, and tending, including the artificial propagation of date palms, which required great skill. Great effort was also needed to keep birds from eating the crops. Ingenious traps were set to catch the invading birds.

Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson, The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, British Museum Press, 1995.

Michel Baridon, Les Jardins - Paysagistes- Jardiniers - Poetes. Editions Robert Lafont, 1998. (ISBN 2-221-06707-X)

Jan Assmann, David Lorton,"Death and salvation in ancient Egypt", Translated by David Lorton, p171, Cornell University Press, 2005, ISBN 0801442419

Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, Domestication of plants in the Old World, third edition (Oxford: University Press, 2000).

C. Desroches-Noblecourt, L'Art Egyptien, PUF, Paris, 1962.

J.C. Hugonot, Le Jardin dans l'Egypte ancienne, Peter Lang, Paris, 1989.

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The gardens of ancient Egypt probably began as simple fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, irrigated with water from the Nile. Gradually as the country became richer, they evolved into pleasure gardens with flowers, ponds and valleys of fruit and shade trees.

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There's a lot of hype out there about new technologies that will "change everything". Sometimes it's nice to sit back and "smell the roses". In that spirit, here are five plants with surprising super powers - they have provided a boost to technological innovation or invention, often with a green lining.

Algae and Biofuel

If you keep track of the news, algae should already be on your radar. Depending on your favorite species, algae can be eaten, burned for heat, or used to produce hydrogen, methane, biodiesel, or plain old fertilizer. Algae is so prolific, and comes in so many varieties, that it's actually a chore to isolate your preferred species for cultivation out of a water sample from the wild. The best part is that algae soaks up the sun and lots of CO2 to work it's magic. That's two forms of renewable energy used to produce fuels or foods (sushi anyone?) in high demand.

An algaculture biodiesel plant is already in operation today, happily churning out 4.4 million gallons of algal oil per year. That may not sound like a lot, but as the first operational algae oil factory, you can bet they'll make enough money to build bigger. Other companies are also in the game to make algae the biggest thing since oil. As a renewable source of fuel, algae is becoming one of many solutions to our energy problems. Not too shabby for pond scum.

Guayule and Latex

Gua-what? Guayule is a desert plant native to North America. One company, Yulex Corp., realized that this little plant has a lot to offer. The first super-power is that Guayule can produce rubber. Most natural rubber is produced from one breed of rubber tree, which leaves the crop at risk from disease.

Latex made from guayule performs better than traditional latex, and it's allergy-free. Softer, stretchier, stronger, and an effective barrier - Yulex latex products are already on the market and in high demand from the medical, scientific and contraceptive sectors. Keep your eyes peeled. Latex gloves might not seem like a huge technological breakthrough, but consider how commonly they're used in labs, hospitals, factories, etc. Building a better glove is like upgrading from a black-and-white television to color.

Guayule also produces resin, which is an ingredient in everything from paint and paper to particle board and soap. They're also trying to make lumber products (think plywood) from it, and they hope to use what's left over to produce bio-energy and ethanol. Because guayule is a hearty desert crop, it requires little water or fertilizer to grow. The plant has a high energy content, which will also make it attractive for upcoming cellucosic ethanol and syngas technologies.

Farmers can use similar methods and machinery from cotton fields to grow and harvest guayule, so it's easy to make the switch. The icing on the cake is that Yulex Corp. tries to be green - they take care to keep their crop and operations as environmentally friendly as possible.

Corn and Plastic

That's right, corn. Believe it or not, you can make more than high fructose syrup from corn. Starches are used in everything from paper to detergent, and dextrose gives us everything from antibiotics to booze. You can even make tires out of corn. My favorite use for corn is plastic: biodegradable corn plastic.

The problem with most plastic is that it never goes away; it just breaks up into tiny pieces forever. It kills animals, and in some parts of the ocean there's almost as many plastic granules as sand.

Biodegradable plastic provides the benefits without the ecological damage or petrochemical base. Even though corn gets a bad rap these days (for some good reasons), I'd rather have a renewable plastic source that will break down eventually. Remember that plastic provides us with everything from medical equipment to computer cases and beyond. A lot of cutting edge technology depends on it, but that doesn't mean we want it around forever. That's why this innovation made the list.

Cockleburs and Velcro

George de Mestral invented Velcro in 1941 after studying some of the seed pods stuck to his clothing and in his dog's fur. Anyone growing up in the 1980s or 1990s might find Velcro old news, but its versatility and resilience really is impressive. Anything that can serve astronauts and small children - opposite extremes of human existence - is worthy of note. Did you know that each space shuttle is equipped with 10,000 inches of Velcro? That the army has top-secret silent Velcro? That two square inches of Velcro can support 175lbs?

What's really amazing is not what Velcro can do, but what it has enabled human beings to do. Scientists in space greatly expanded the safety and convenience of life in zero-gravity with inventions like Velcro. It continues to serve astronauts as they conduct important and exciting research in space. Here on earth, the structure of Velcro is still inspiring other inventions and ideas.

Velcro is long-lasting and durable, and it can be made from recycled and recyclable materials. So aside from taking hours to comb out of your pet's fur, it's good to know that your local variety of burr is working hard for the humankind.

Lotus Plant and Nanotechnology

The lotus plant grows in muddy waters, but its leaves emerge clean. The leaves are not smooth, yet water rolls off of them and collects dirt along the way. This is called the Lotus Effect. Microscopic structures on the leaf trap air bubbles and repel water with a waxy coating. The result is droplets of water dancing on tiny spikes instead of a flat surface. Since there's nothing to cling to, the water is forced to roll away on the slightest decline. This superhydrophobic coating is great against water droplets, but it doesn't work well against water vapor.

The applications for water repellent and self-cleaning coatings are almost unlimited. Imagine tools and surfaces that bacteria, food and dirt cannot stick to. Imagine clothes that rarely need to be washed. These coatings already exist and some are on the market. It can also be made with safer or fewer chemicals and increase the life cycle of many materials and resources.

The lotus plant has been a symbol of purity in Asia for thousands of years, in part thanks to its superhydrophobic leaves. Understanding how and why are perhaps just an enlightening as observing the phenomenon, as they offer insight into the ingenuity of evolution and natural systems.

Image Credit: Red algae via Wikipedia, Guayule rows via the Yulex website, Corn Lane via iowa_spirit_walker on Flickr Creative Commons, Burrs via Martin-James on Flickr Creative Commons, Lotus Leaf via tanakawho on Flickr Creative Commons.
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Top 5 Plants that Inspire New Technology

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There's a lot of hype out there about new technologies that will "change everything". Sometimes it's nice to sit back and "smell the roses". In that spirit, here are five plants with surprising super powers - they have provided a boost to technological innovation or invention, often with a green lining.

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The plants take in co and then they produce it by Photosynthisis

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Plant Cell vs Animal Cell - Difference and Comparison | Diffen

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What’s the difference between Animal Cell and Plant Cell? Plant and animal cells have several differences and similarities. For example, animal cells do not have a cell wall or chloroplasts but plant cells do. Animal cells are mostly round and irregular in shape while plant cells have fixed, rectangular shapes. P…

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Lichens and moss covering rocks in Pennsylvania. Did Precambrian land look like this? Photo Credit: David Geiser, Penn State

The largest genetic study ever performed to learn when land plants and fungi first appeared on the Earth has revealed a plausible biological cause for two major climate events: the Snowball Earth eras, when ice periodically covered the globe, and the era called the Cambrian Explosion, which produced the first fossils of almost all major categories of animals living today.

According to the authors of the study, which will be published in the 10 August 2001 issue of the journal Science, plants paved the way for the evolution of land animals by simultaneously increasing the percentage of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere and decreasing the percentage of carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas.

"Our research shows that land plants and fungi evolved much earlier than previously thought - before the Snowball Earth and Cambrian Explosion events - suggesting their presence could have had a profound effect on the climate and the evolution of life on Earth," says Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist and leader of the Penn State research team that performed the study.

The researchers found that land plants had evolved on Earth by about 700 million years ago and land fungi by about 1,300 million years ago - much earlier than previous estimates of around 480 million years ago, which were based on the earliest fossils of those organisms. Prior to this study, it was believed that Earth's landscape at that time was covered with barren rocks harboring nothing more than some bacteria and possibly some algae. No undisputed fossils of the earliest land plants and fungi have been found in rocks formed during the Precambrian period, says Hedges, possibly because their primitive bodies were too soft to turn into fossils.

The early appearance on the land of fungi and plants suggests their plausible role in both the mysterious lowering of the Earth's surface temperature during the series of Snowball Earth events roughly 750 million to 580 million years ago and the sudden appearance of many new species of fossil animals during the Cambrian Explosion era roughly 530 million years ago. "Both the lowering of the Earth's surface temperature and the evolution of many new types of animals could result from a decrease in atmospheric carbon dioxide and a rise in oxygen caused by the presence on land of lichen fungi and plants at this time, which our research suggests," Hedges says.

"An increase in land plant abundance may have occurred at the time just before the period known as the Cambrian Explosion, when the next Snowball Earth period failed to occur because temperatures did not get quite cold enough," Hedges says. "The plants conceivably boosted oxygen levels in the atmosphere high enough for animals to develop skeletons, grow larger, and diversify."

Lichens are believed to have been the first fungi to team up with photosynthesizing organisms like cyanobacteria and green algae. Lichens can live without rain for months, providing protection for photosynthesizing organisms, which produce oxygen and release it into the atmosphere. The researchers suggest that the pioneer lichen fungi, which produce acids strong enough to dissolve rocks, also could have helped to reduce carbon dioxide. When washed away by rainwater, the calcium released from the lichen-encrusted rocks eventually forms calcium carbonate limestone in the ocean, preventing the carbon atoms from forming the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere.

Land plants also can lower levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. They have molecules called lignins, which contain carbon but do not readily decompose. After the plant dies, some of its carbon remains locked up in the lignins and can become buried in the Earth through geologic processes, preventing those carbon atoms from returning to the atmosphere and effectively lowering atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Lichens and moss covering rocks in Pennsylvania. Photo Credit: David Geiser, Penn State

"The Earth cools when you take away carbon dioxide," Hedges says. "Other factors such as the location of the continents may have had some effect in cooling the atmosphere and creating periods of Snowball Earth, but I suspect the biggest cooling effect came from the reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by fungi and plants, which we have shown were living on the land at that time."

Fossil fuels like coal and oil are made from plant material, containing carbon that was taken out of the atmosphere and buried in swamps millions of years ago. Releasing those same carbon atoms back into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels appears to be causing the Earth to get warmer again, according to many studies.

Hedges and his research team made their surprising discoveries about the early appearance on Earth of the first land plants and fungi by studying as many of the genes as possible of their descendants - the species of plants and fungi living today. They began by sifting through their molecular fingerprints - the unique sequences of amino-acid building blocks - in many thousands of genes from hundreds of species archived in the public gene-sequence databases.

Eventually, they found 119 genes common to living species of fungi, plants, and animals that met the researchers' stringent criteria for use as "molecular clocks." Previous studies had used a single gene. By detailed comparisons of the amino-acid sequences of individual genes among numbers of species, the scientists identified those genes that had accumulated mutations at a fairly constant rate relative to one another during their evolution. "Because mutations start occurring at regular intervals in these genes as soon as a new species evolves - like the ticking of a clock - we can use them to trace the evolutionary history of a species back to its time of origin," Hedges explains.

The scientists calibrated each of their gene clocks with evolutionary events well established by fossil studies, primarily those in the history of animals. Using these known dates as secure calibration points, and the mutation rate for each of the constant-rate genes as a timing device, the researchers were able to determine how long ago each of the species originated.

Hedges says his research might help in the search for life on other planets by providing a link between the different stages of life's evolution on Earth and the timing of events in the chemical evolution of Earth's atmosphere, such as the rise in oxygen. "Possibly the early history of life on Earth can give us clues for predicting the kinds of lifeforms that are likely to exist on planets in other solar systems from the chemical content of their atmospheres," Hedges says.

In addition to Hedges, the Penn State research team includes Daniel S. Heckman, an undergraduate student whose senior honors thesis formed part of this research; David M. Geiser, assistant professor of plant pathology; and undergraduate students Brooke R. Eidell; Rebecca L. Stauffer; and Natalie L. Kardos. This research was supported, in part, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center.

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CONTACT:
Blair Hedges, 814-865-9991, sbh1@psu.edu
Barbara K. Kennedy, 814-863-4682, science@psu.edu
IMAGES:
Additional high-quality color images of lichen are available directly from Stephen Sharnoff, a professional photographer and colleague of the researchers, via e-mail at lichen@idiom.com, telephone at 510-548-9189, or postal service at 2406 Roosevelt Ave., Berkeley, CA 94703.

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First Land Plants and Fungi Changed Earth's Climate, Paving the Way for Explosive Evolution of Land Animals, New Gene Study Suggests

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Lichens and moss covering rocks in Pennsylvania. Did Precambrian land look like this? Photo Credit: David Geiser, Penn State The largest genetic study ever performed to learn when land plants and fungi first appeared on the Earth has revealed a plausible biological cause for two major climate events: the Snowball Earth eras, when ice periodically covered the globe, and the era called the Cambrian Explosion, which produced the first fossils of almost all major categories of animals living today.