Portuguese Walking Stick Tree Collard

Perennial tree. Capable of growing beyond 2  meters.

Portuguese Walking Stick Tree collards provide large cabbage-like leaves which can be eaten raw or cooked. The young stems are sweet and taste similar to broccoli stalk and cabbage.
The purple veined variant will change it's leaf colour to sweet purple before frosts. In Brassica's, this can be a sign of sugars being used as a form of antifreeze, protecting the leaf from light frosts.  

If grown well, this collard provides an extra use at the end of it's life, by providing a wooden cane, which can be used as a ... walking stick.

Binomial 

Brassica oleracea

Growing Tips

Grows well in full sun, can grow in part shade.

Keep well watered. Fertile soil, rich in organic matter.

Although this collard can last several years, it is best to take a cutting or two of new branches in late Winter and early Spring to ensure it's continuation.

Fri 24th August 2018
Tree Collard Garden Photos taken today :
Re-sprouting Tree

Above and Below

Different perianal plant growing with the tree collards, Ethiopian Cabbage.

Ethiopian Cabbage has delicate leaves and tastes great freshly picked and eaten. Mustard heat varies from mild to medium heat.

Back to the walking sticks...

September has been quite dry, which is why it's great that the tree collards harvest some of the water from morning fogs. I first noticed this a few years ago when I found the ground under the tree collards was wet, and yet dry everywhere else .... who had watered these for me?
I have not found a plant in the yard that can harvest fog/collect due at anywhere near the rate.

late September 2018 ....