Director of Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary

a DIY ecologist.

'Wolfgang-uncle' founded the Sanctuary, traveling through the rain-forest, when he was suddenly grasped by a fascination for one of the plants there. Thirty years later he is a world expert on the orchids of the Kerala rain-forest and probably on several other plant families. He is a great teacher of ecology and ethics and the inventor of Ecosystem Gardening

Wolfgang has an interesting view on seeds. He told us that seeds are the ultimate designs in nature because of the growing power, endurance, amount of stored information and beauty packed into a minimum of space. Personally I liked the many varieties of pods that grow on the trees, like the one on the right:

He also has an interesting theory of diets of people and bees (snakes and dogs too but I forgot the details.)

People in European regions, like in his native Germany, need high caloric diets because added to the energy needed for moving etc, is the need to heat the body, in tropical regions need much less calories because of the warm climate, but need spiced food to get their systems running.

Some bees of tropical environments produce a much thinner honey and can live in smaller groups, than those in tempered areas. There is no winter in the tropics and thus honey is never stored as long. A volume of honey is only processed a few times and is therefore much less concentrated (dehydrated) as honey is in colder parts of the world.

– Theun Karelse - 17 Jan 2007