Cheatgrass, also known as downy brome and downy chess, Bromus tectorum (grass family Poaceae) is a very small grass that has become a major weed. Generally we think of problems increasing as plants get bigger. Individual plants of cheatgrass are almost too small to notice. It makes up for that in numbers.
| patch of cheatgrass along a trail (red) |
Hummingbirds are a strictly New World group of birds, some 375 species (family Trochilidae) found from Alaska to southern Chile and Argentina. They are the main group of birds that pollinate in the New World. Fast and often brightly colored, people love to watch them. They typically hover while probing flowers for nectar, a fascinating sight.
| hummingbird pollinating Monarda |
Vera aloe has been a household remedy for burns for millennia. It still works.
| Vera aloe, Aloe vera |
I live in Colorado. Castles are not a part of my landscape. So of course I was fascinated by the plants that had colonized the walls of Conwy Castle.
| View of Conwy Castle |
The dandelion is a plant everybody knows. That is quite a distinction since so many people are oblivious to the plants around them. And because dandelions are not particularly distinctive. There are many plants with similar yellow flowers and others with a puff-ball seed head. It is not the dandelion's unique shapes that make it so widely recognized, but rather because it is so common.
| common dandelion, Taraxacum officinale seen in Seattle, Washington |
Winter enhances memories of summer. Here is a July visit to Guanella Pass, in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado.
| Rocky Mountains, central Colorado, July |
In April, 2018, I visited the Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu and was delighted to see a double coconut, Lodoicea maldivica, (palm family Aracaceae) growing there. The double coconut, also called the Seychelles coconut, sea coconut, and coco de mer, has the largest seed in the world. It is endemic to two islands Seychelles, small islands in the Indian Ocean. At the time, the Foster Garden was proudly displaying seeds their double coconut had produced.The plants are rare and they are dioecious so a "male" and "female" plant are needed for reproduction.The Seychelles is trying to preserve and increase the wild populations so is not sharing seeds. To pollinate their female palm, Hawaiian botanists brought pollen from Singapore, where there is a male plant. (Blog posts from that visit the plant; getting the seeds. )
| Seed of double coconut, Lodoicea maldivica, largest seed in the world, Foster Garden 2018 |