Rain

“Emergance”

ESPatch May 10, 2010 9 comments

And I thought I leaned toward the nerdy side of plants!..If you have not seen this clip, it is a classic. If you are interested in plants, you will be mesmerized by the book, “The Secret Life of Plants” …It changed my perspective of all things green forever…it is an absolute must-read to pamper the inner nerd in you.

I have even purchased my own polygraph machine from the flea market just north of San Antonio. I am currently in the process of recreating some of the experiments documented in the book. What?

The plant “alphabet training” toward the end of the clip?…I showed it to my daughter who will be starting kindergarten in the fall with a horticultural threatening… “Hey, come over here and look at this… a talking plant that will be most likely be in the same class as you..oh, and look…it knows the entire alphabet already.”

I just received an incredulous stare followed my an exaggerated eye-roll, then a premature teenage “what-EVER!”

Now here is a plant that will not likely be attacked by a lab technician wielding a large bread knife…Milk thistle.

Silybum marianum

Another name for it is St. Mary’s thistle. I have allowed this plant to mature in the Patch to see if it would develop and bloom, and it has, in fact it has developed two! The medicinal benefits of milk thistle have been valued for more than 2,000 years. Written records show that as early as the first century, Romans were using the plant as a liver-protecting agent.

“Prepare thyself to be slain, thistle of milk”.

The plant was also frequently used throughout the Middle Ages, and it is in the herbal literature of this period that the medicinal properties of milk thistle seeds are first noted. Several scientific studies suggest that substances in milk thistle (especially a flavonoid called silymarin) protect the liver from toxins. The active ingredient of the herb, silymarin, is found in the ripe seeds of the plant. Milk thistle is native to the Mediterranean region, and is now found throughout the world.

This stout thistle usually grows in dry, sunny areas. The spiny stems branch at the top, and reach a height of 4 to 10 feet. The leaves are wide, with white blotches or veins. Milk thistle gets its name from the milky white fluid that comes from the leaves when they are crushed. The flowers are red-purple which true to its name, resembles a thistle.

“Aye, it does look a wee bit like a Scottish thistle, I’ll give ye that ESP”!

As I walked to my “everything but the kitchen sink” rainwater collection tank of buckets, cups and saucers, vases etc, etc. I was greeted by an extensive web and this brightly colored little spider sitting proudly in the middle of it…

This is an Orchard Spider,

Leucauge venusta

This spider is super fast, and it will deliberately shake its web to try to scare you away. Oh and they will give you a bite if you really annoy them, a fact that I was only too well aware off as my camera lens was almost touching it. Orchard spiders are very similar to regular orb-weavers, they build their webs in strategic locations to catch flies, moths, and other insects. This spider web spanned the entire radius of my stock tank, catching mosquitoes no doubt.

Remember these?…

Well now they are these…

The blooms on my Threadleaf ragwort have long since faded, being replaced by seed heads that are attractive in their own way, a large seed head for such small blooms!

After I had taken these shots I gave one of the plants a swift slap, sending thousands of the tiny seeds into the air. Who could resist?

Staying on the subject of seeds for a moment, I love the way this unidentified plant holds it’s seeds in these tiny brown pouches, it is really quite effective.

I will find out what this Tinkerbell plant is and include it in a future post.

(Simultaneous ooo’s and ahhh’s)

I emptied out one of these small green pouches just to see its contents…

Amazing!

Now, time to gross you all out…yes it is that time folks, get your hurling buckets at the ready… this isn’t going to be pretty:

Are you ready?

Wait for it…

This is insane, an emerging dragonfly…I think this is its back, the head sill being tucked up under the nymph head somewhere. This has to be one of the most amazing transformations in the insect realm. What makes it even more insane is that dragonflies spend most of their life in the water. A dragonfly has a life span of between one and six years (depending on size), but very little of that life is actually as an adult dragonfly. There are three stages of the dragonfly life cycle, the egg, the nymph, and the adult dragonfly. Flying adult dragonflies only live about two to four months.

Brrrr! You wouldn’t want to see this scene in the headlights, late at night on a country road.

Another bizarre scene that I have never witnessed before, sadly resides on my mountain laurel:

This is a new one for me, web-worms eating my mountain laurel seeds?

Well I hope you all get poisoned!

On a more colorful traffic–light-note…

The tomatoes are beginning to ripen in the Patch…

…and it looks like a bumper crop this year! I have planted a variety of tomatoes this year from plants obtained from the sunshine garden’s annual plant sale.

They are all doing pretty well.

As is my Buddah’s belly bamboo. This bright bamboo has rebounded faster then all my giant timber bamboos from our harsh winter. My giant timber bamboos have suffered.

This is also a first in the Patch, a Lauxinid Fly

Neogriphoneura sordida

on my one and only Mexican hat, Ratibida columnifera.

Captains Log supplemental:

I have finally collected together my favorite photographs from the Patch and put them under one roof:

http://www.eastsidepatch.com/esphotography/

Inspirational image of the week, courtesy of my old friend and UK garden designer Paul Hensey at: http://paulhensey.blogspot.com/

Stay Tuned for:

“While the Neighbor’s Away…The Patch will Play”

All material © 2010 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

“Lady-bug-Gaga”

ESPatch Apr 16, 2010 20 comments

“Aw, I make a great ladybug, don’t you think ESP?”

“Oh yeah, looking real good now Lady Gaga!”

Ladybug! Ladybug!

Fly away home.

Your house is on fire.

And your children all gone.

All except one,

And that’s little Ann,

For she crept under

The artemesia plant.

In Britain ladybugs are referred to as ‘ladybirds.’ It is believed that the word Ladybird was substituted for Ladybug in the American version of the nursery rhyme, due to the word association with Firebug meaning an arsonist or pyromaniac. There has been some speculation that the rhyme originates from the time of the Great Fire of London in 1666.

photo by Steve VanGunda

Farmers of old knew the value of having the ladybirds around, reducing the amount of pests in their crops, it was traditional to cry out the rhyme before they burnt their fields following harvests.

I have a bumper infestation of ladybird larvae and ladybugs on my artemesia this year,

I had no idea this plant was such an attractant or host, another good reason to have a bunch of it.

I caught up with another large ladybug looking creature that was actually a beetle, a Milkweed Leaf Beetle:

Labidomera cliviollis

It was clambering around rather clumsily in this feather grass, the grass not able to hold it’s weight.

While we are on the subject of insects:

This metal dragonfly from the creative iron-working hands of Bob over there at: http://dracogardens.blogspot.com/ was a real hit in the Patch this week, and no accidents so far Bob!

It gets a tweaking at every opportunity:

The scorpion hook has taken pride of place in our hallway, I hung it down low for the hobbits to hang their coats on, the pincers are great for holding their Tolkien rings.

Thank you!

The elder hobbit now keeps asking…“so who is Bob”?

Oh yes, someone giving her gifts? She has to get to the bottom of it.

One last bug communication I overheard this week…

“Wait lads! Let me make sure the coast is clear”…

(Dog Whistles back over shoulder) then moves a bunch of legs in a series of marine-like gestures…

Winged reproductive termites

“Go! Go! Go!

I first noticed these alates (winged) or primary reproductive termites when a mocking bird dove over my head, did some mid-air aerobatics to snag a couple as they emerged from the side of my house. I quickly honed in with my camera…first one, then a few, then they began streaming out of my house like bats coming out from under Congress bridge. This exodus is referred to as a dispersal nuptial flight, it is commonly referred to as swarming. If I wasn’t there taking pictures of the event I am sure the birds would have been in a full-on feeding frenzy. When the alates receive the proper cues (warm temperatures, bright sunlight, low winds, for example) they will leave the colony and fly away to start their own. Male and female termites shed their rainbow colored wings and will pair up when a suitable mate is found. When termites swarm they are often misidentified as “flying ants”, due to their visual similarities.

“Enough of this insect nonsense ESP, move with haste towardeth the plant talk!”

Central Texas has had some sporadic light drizzles this past week, and a little rain…

…drizzles that left water jewels defying gravity on the grasses…

and a dusting of dew on my hearts…

“Yes, yes” (obligatory noises).

…moisture that made the ragworts perspire.

Along with the moisture naturally came the now traditional, ESP snail hunt…

…and quite the bounty there was to had for nimble picking fingers, by the time they had finished, this bucket was three quarters full.

When the sun made it out again, later in the day, I was emphatically summoned to the back of the garden for some sushi…the goldfish! Oh no the goldfish!…Could they? Would they?

“Allez cuisine!”

Thankfully this was the vegetarian feast that was awaiting me at the end of the garden, complete with post-oak chopsticks. I thought the bamboo husks were a nice Michelin-star touch from my elder hobbit. While I was devouring my garden sushi, (holding my head back and dropping it to the ground), I noticed that my oldest clump of giant timber bamboo had developed fresh growth at it’s base…

…the funny thing was, the foliage was variegated? Very odd, but I am not complaining.

The sun also dried out the barbed seeds that have now formed on my feather grasses, not sure if I should go around and strip these seeds now before they have a chance to blow around and germinate, what would you do? I must have…

“Hmmm”…

“A million seedlings?”

My loquats are in loquat heaven with the recent moisture, combined with a rather wet winter.

My stone crop waterfall is also starting to bloom with tiny white pendants that hang over the slabs. This great little plant seems to grow where there is no soil. I think it is now rooting on the debris that my Post Oak is emitting.