Garden guide

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

This one is from our side of the world: avocados grow wild from Mexico down to Peru.

From: Mexico to PeruLauraceae18 planted

1. Flowers that switch

   Each flower opens twice: first as a female, then it closes and reopens as a male. Different varieties keep different schedules, which helps them cross-pollinate.

2. Ripens off the tree

   Avocados grow on the branch but only soften after they fall or are picked. They can be left hanging for weeks, like a living fridge.

3. From Bodhi MenteJulieta's favourite

   Julieta, our black dog, is the resident avocado expert. She goes out, picks the best ones and eats them before we get the chance.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The orange isn't a wild species. It's an ancient cross between two older citrus fruits, the pomelo and the mandarin.

From: Southern China & MyanmarRutaceae10 planted

1. From Bodhi MenteWhen a tree gives birth

   Around here, people say a fruit tree pare, Spanish for "gives birth", when it starts to bear fruit.

2. Green and ripe

   In warm climates like this one, a fully ripe orange can stay completely green. The bright orange colour in shops is often brought out after harvest.

3. An early traveller

   Columbus may have planted oranges on Hispaniola in 1493. Within a century they had spread across the Americas.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

One of the original wild citrus. Most citrus fruits you know, oranges included, have mandarin in their family tree.

From: Southern China & VietnamRutaceae10 planted

1. An ancestor

   The wild mandarin evolved in a small region of southern China and Vietnam, and it's a parent of the sweet orange and many other hybrids.

2. Domesticated twice

   Genetic studies suggest people domesticated mandarins at least twice, from two separate wild populations in China's Nanling Mountains.

3. Built to peel

   Its peel is thin and loose with very little white pith, which is why it comes off so easily and splits into neat segments.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Before chewing gum was made in factories, it came from this tree.

From: Southern Mexico & Central AmericaSapotaceae4 planted

1. The original chewing gum

   The bark gives a white latex called chicle. The Maya chewed it, and from the 1880s to the 1950s it was the base of commercial chewing gum.

2. Wood that sinks

   The wood is so dense it sinks in water. The ancient Maya used it for temple beams and lintels because termites can't get through it.

3. Worth the wait

   An unripe fruit bleeds white latex and dries your mouth. When it's ripe, the skin goes soft and the flesh tastes sweet and malty, like brown sugar.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The patience fruit. After the tree flowers, each fruit takes about two years to mature.

From: Mexico & Central AmericaSapotaceae3 planted

1. From Bodhi MenteSusi's ripeness alarm

   Susi, our rat terrier, loves this fruit. She is the one who lets us know when the fruit is ready to pick up.

2. The scratch test

   Growers scratch a tiny patch of skin. If it's red underneath, the fruit is ready to pick. Then it needs five to seven days to soften.

3. Cousin of the níspero

   It's in the same family as the sapodilla, and the tree can grow 10 to 15 metres tall.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Wild coconuts are built to sail. A thick, light husk keeps the seed afloat so the ocean can carry it to a new beach.

From: Indo-PacificArecaceae10 planted

1. A palm, not a tree

   Palms don't make wood or grow rings. The trunk is a bundle of fibres, which is why it bends in a storm instead of snapping.

2. The shark myth

   You may have heard that falling coconuts kill more people than sharks. It's an urban legend. A full coconut is still heavy, though.

3. From Bodhi MenteA second life

   One of our palms died after a fire was lit too close to her and burned her roots. We didn't let her go to waste: her wood became the plant signs you see around the garden.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A tree that crossed the Pacific by canoe. It came from tropical Asia, and Polynesian voyagers carried it all the way to Hawaii.

From: Tropical AsiaMyrtaceae2 planted

1. A canoe plant

   Polynesians brought it to Hawaii 1,000 to 1,700 years ago, as one of the plants they needed to start life on a new island.

2. Made of water

   The fruit is crisp, very juicy and mild, which is how it earned the name pera de agua.

3. From Bodhi MenteFray's pick

   These two were Fray's idea. Fray helps us run the finca and knew they would do well here.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

One of the most famous timbers in the world, and a surprising relative of mint and basil.

From: South & Southeast AsiaLamiaceae6 planted

1. Mint family

   Teak belongs to the Lamiaceae, the same family as mint, basil and oregano.

2. From Bodhi MenteYou are standing on it

   Natural oils in the wood keep out water, rot and termites, so teak lasts outdoors without varnish. That's why our villa decks are built from it: if you're staying with us, you're standing on this tree's wood.

3. Leaves for cooking

   In parts of Asia its huge leaves are used to wrap food. In Indonesia they give the dish gudeg its dark colour.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The national tree of Cuba. Its smooth, pale trunk looks almost like a concrete column.

From: Cuba & the CaribbeanArecaceae6 planted

1. A green neck

   Just below the leaves is a glossy green crownshaft, made of leaf bases wrapped around each other.

2. From Bodhi MenteEl Palmar Real

   In October 2025 we planted six royal palms to create El Palmar Real. Two didn't survive the wild rainstorm of February 2026. The four that made it are still standing tall.

3. A palm with helpers

   It was the first palm found with root nodules full of bacteria that pull nitrogen from the air, the way beans do.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Science only found this palm in 1968, on a remote, boulder-covered range in northern Australia.

From: Cape Melville, AustraliaArecaceae5 planted

1. Named for a keeper of knowledge

   Its name honours Wodyeti, the last Aboriginal man known to hold traditional knowledge of the plants around Cape Melville.

2. Black-market seeds

   After it was described in 1983, demand exploded and collectors raided the wild palms. A single seed sold for up to 5 Australian dollars.

3. Now everywhere

   Nurseries grew it legally from seed, and today it's planted around the world. The city of Cairns alone has more than 1,500.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Every wild kentia comes from one tiny island in the Pacific: Lord Howe Island, off Australia.

From: Lord Howe Island, AustraliaArecaceae10 planted

1. The Victorian parlour palm

   From the 1870s it became the fashionable indoor palm in Europe. Queen Victoria reportedly had them in all her homes.

2. An island's seed business

   Lord Howe still collects and exports its seeds around the world, under strict rules.

3. Named after explorers

   Its scientific name honours Johann and Georg Forster, naturalists on Captain Cook's second voyage.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A giant from the savannas of Madagascar, named after Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany.

From: MadagascarArecaceae1 planted

1. Leaves wider than a car

   Mature leaves can grow more than 3 metres across.

2. Fireproof

   It grows in grasslands that burn often, and it survives the fires. In parts of Madagascar it's one of the few trees left standing on cleared land.

3. Male and female

   There are separate male and female palms. Only the females make fruit.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

In the wild it survives only on Round Island, a tiny islet off Mauritius, and it's critically endangered there.

From: Round Island, MauritiusArecaceae1 planted

1. From Bodhi MenteOur welcome palm

   Ours stands at the entrance, the first plant to welcome you to Bodhi Mente. Gardens like ours help keep the species going while it recovers in the wild.

2. Not a water tank

   Many people think the swollen trunk stores water. It doesn't; that's a myth.

3. Slow and short

   It stays short for a palm and grows slowly, so this one will look much the same for years.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Named in 1879 after George Washington, the first president of the United States.

From: NW Mexico & SW United StatesArecaceae4 planted

1. Desert fan palm

   It comes from the dry canyons and oases of northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States.

2. A grass skirt

   Dead leaves don't fall off. They hang down around the trunk like a skirt unless someone trims them.

3. Sky-high

   It can reach about 25 metres, which is why it towers over the streets of Los Angeles.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

One of the most planted palms in the tropics, yet in its home forests in Madagascar it's listed as Near Threatened.

From: MadagascarArecaceae8 planted

1. A crowd, not a trunk

   Each plant sends up many cane-like stems from its base, forming a clump shaped like a vase.

2. Butterfly palm

   Its leaves curve up from the stem like wings, which is why it's also called the butterfly palm.

3. From Bodhi MenteOur fastest grower

   We love this palm. It has grown faster than any other plant on our land, and left alone a clump can reach 6 to 12 metres.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Our living fences. Instead of wire and posts, we planted 2,400 swinglea to mark the land.

From: PhilippinesRutaceae2,400 planted

1. A one-of-a-kind cousin

   From the Philippines, it is the only species in its genus and part of the citrus family, like our oranges and mandarins.

2. From Bodhi MenteTwice the plan

   We first thought we would need 1,200. We ended up planting twice that.

3. Hedge or tree

   Kept trimmed, it grows into a thick barrier. Left alone, it becomes a small tree of 3 to 6 metres.