botany Archives - Macska Moksha Press

Postcard from the Grand Mesa

August 2, 2024 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

View west from the Grand Mesa

In mid-August, I met up with Nikki Hill at a trailhead on the Grand Mesa. She was there to scope out sites for the field course she’s teaching next week, on Human-Landscape Relationships, Ecology, & Ethnobotany. Summer wildflowers were blooming and berries were coming on. Within earshot of our camp, a fork of Kannah Creek was babbling over the rocks on its journey down into the valley below. Birds and chipmunks twittered and squeaked. No traffic noises except the occasional passing car on the nearby gravel road. No light pollution but a few twinkling lights on ranches in the valley. Fresh air, scattered clouds, and lovely overnight temps. A truly idyllic spot.

But the star of the show was the view. In the far distance were the peaks of the La Sals range, over 100 miles away as the crow flies, in Utah. Below was the Grand Valley, which is part desert, part irrigated agriculture. On the other side of the Valley, and extending to the horizon, were the tumbled ridges and deeply cleft canyons of the Uncompahgre Plateau. The vista is startling in its expansiveness, like little else I’ve seen before. The sense of space is so vast, it almost feels like being at the ocean.

The rough terrain of the Uncompahgre Plateau was especially evident in the morning light:

View of Uncompahgre Plateau from the Grand Mesa

The Desert is Full of Life: Announcing an online botanical guide I made

February 2, 2024 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

This post announces the launch of a website I set up, Wildflowers of Joshua Tree Country, a botanical guide for common plants of the Mojave Desert, showcasing my own photography. Feel free to just go look at it now without reading the rest of this if you want! (But hit the thumbs-up before you go.)

The desert is much misunderstood in western culture. Because we are an agriculturally-based civilization, we judge land on how appropriate it is for farming, and in that context, the desert is considered “useless” and by extension, “lifeless.”

This perspective has a long history. An “eremologist” is one who studies deserts, and the word is derived from the Greek eremos — ἐρημία — which means both “desert” and “lonely.” As detailed by photographer and amateur botanist, Michael L. Charters, at his website, “California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations,” forms of eremos signify:

“a lonely place, a place of solitude, a deserted place, solitary, uninhabited” and by extension “of the desert” since a desert is a lonely place that is largely uninhabited.

Uninhabited by agriculturally-civilized humans, that is. But not uninhabited.

Change of Season Announced by Tiny Flower

January 31, 2020 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Birdeye Speedwell (Veronica persica), in southwestern New Mexico, USA, 30 January 2020 (Photo by author)

Today in the garden my heart leapt at a lovely sight: this year’s first flower.

It was a Speedwell, specifically Veronica persica, known by many names including Persian Speedwell, Common Field Speedwell, Winter Speedwell, and my favorite, Birdeye Speedwell.

The flower had four petals. The outer 2/3 of each was sky blue, with violet stripes that converged into a scalloped ring around a white center. It did indeed resemble an eye, but with an iris white instead of black.

The blossom was only about the size of a small shirt button or a jean rivet. The entire plant would barely have filled my cupped palm. Though diminutive, it jumped out at my attention anyway. I dropped what I was doing to grab my camera.

Rare Wildflower vs. Mining Company (Part 1)

October 13, 2019 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Tiehm's buckwheat flower by Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity. — Tiehm’s buckwheat flower by Patrick Donnelly/Center for Biological Diversity.

This is part 1 of a two-part series.

In a remote corner of Nevada is a wildflower that grows nowhere else on earth. Named “Tiehm’s Buckwheat” (Eriogonum tiehmii), it has been found on only ten acres of public land in the Silver Peak Range of Esmerelda County, and is virtually unknown except to a handful of botanists. Tragically, it is at risk of extinction due to mining activities that have just started in its habitat.

Virgin Prairie: Rarer Than Old-Growth Forest

August 26, 2019 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Purple Poppy Mallow (*Callirhoe involucrata*) – Photo by author

The following is an excerpt from my new book, “Roadtripping at the End of the World.“

I was born and raised in Nebraska, but my curiosity about the native prairies was not piqued until years later. In September 2018, over twenty-five years since the last time I lived in the state, I finally visited a remnant of original, unplowed prairie, located outside the city of Lincoln and entirely surrounded by the farmland that replaced most of it. I was entranced by what I found.

#WeedsArePeopleToo: Springtime reflections on farming & its damages

May 3, 2019 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale)

I woke the other morning to the staccato sound of a Woodpecker pecking. He (I am guessing, based on appearance) was tap-tap-tapping on a dead branch on a nearby Oak. The rhythmic noise was not disturbing, even first thing upon waking, because I had been observing and appreciating this bird and his habits for the last few days on this particular tree. But the vibration also brought me sadness, as I knew the tree was not much longer for the world, and was in fact scheduled to be cut down that very day. Why? Such is agriculture. Read on…
Read More…

The Troubles of “Invasive” Plants – zine

January 16, 2019 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

“On the topic of so-called ‘invasive’ plants, we don’t have an axe to grind, but there sure is one we would like to dull.”

“The Troubles of ‘Invasive’ Plants” is a 21,000+ word project by Nicole Patrice Hill & Kollibri terre Sonnenblume for Macska Moksha Press. Excerpts are posted online (see below), but the full version is available only as a zine that you can download here free-of-charge.

Hardcopies are for sale here.

The Scarlet “I”: Climate change, “invasive” plants & our culture of domination

January 16, 2019 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

This is part three of a three part series. Read part one & part two. The full series, along with additional material, is available as a zine, here.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis) [Photo by KtS]

By Nicole Patrice Hill & Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Changing plant communities at the local scale are symptomatic of the changing climate globally. Patterns of temperature, precipitation and seasonal timing are shifting, and with them, the patterns of birth, growth, reproduction—and survival—of all living creatures.

One widely observed syndrome is “season creep,” in which Spring has been arriving progressively earlier in the calendar year. This does not mean that every Spring starts sooner than the year before, but that an overall trend has been observed. For example, a survey of leafing, flowering and fruiting records from 1971-2000 for 542 plant species in 21 European Union countries showed advanced timing for 78% of the plants. According to other sources, “Spring events, such as blooming, frog breeding and migrant bird arrivals, have advanced 2.3 days per decade.” Winter snow cover duration—as measured from Fall to Spring—has decreased throughout the Northern Hemisphere since 1978. The earlier the snow melts, the less water is available during the hot summer, which affects a wide range of plants, animals and other life.

Winters have been warming. For example, the average February maximum temperature in the US rose by 0.3 F per decade from 1895-2016. This general rise in the “floor” has been accompanied by an increase in “extreme” events, such as “false Springs” when temperatures warm up enough to trigger life cycle stages in a variety of species. When more “normal” weather arrives later—or another extreme event follows, but this time on the cold side—a plant can be injured or even killed. A common example is when a hot spell causes fruit trees to flower, and then a frost—even just a “normal” one—zaps the flowers, thereby taking out that year’s harvest.

When we were farmers, we experienced how extreme events affect crops. In the Spring of 2013, periods of warmer-than-average weather alternated with periods of colder-than-average weather a few times, and the transitions between them were quick, as in 36 hours. Spring greens thriving in “normal” cool temperatures would go to flower prematurely when the temperature rapidly heated up. Then, warm weather crops would stall out when the temps fell. Annual vegetable plants don’t do well with such erratic conditions and we watched helplessly as our failure rate climbed.

Shooting the messengers: How plants are unfairly blamed for wasteful human water practices in the U.S. West

January 9, 2019 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

This is part two of a three part series. Part one can be found here.

Saltcedar trees at an undisclosed location in southern California [photo by KtS]

By Nicole Patrice Hill & Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Popular ideas are not always factual ideas.

When the subject is a particular “invasive” plant species, common assumptions about its undesirable impacts are not always scientifically documented or even true. Add to this an inherent bias in the field of invasion biology for interpreting nearly all effects of non-native plants as detrimental without considering the possibility of positive outcomes and you’re sure to get villains nearly every time.

Let’s look at two well-known examples of so-called “invasive” plants that are under the gun: Tamarisk, aka Saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) and Russian Olive, aka Oleaster (Elaeagnus angustifolia). In the western United States, these two trees are now the third and fourth most frequently occurring woody riparian plants, and the second and fifth most abundant species along rivers. To eradicate them would entail destroying a significant amount of healthy vegetation (with no little amount of collateral damage to other flora) and would incur a hefty cost. Congress authorized $80 million for Saltcedar removal between 2005 and 2009, which included herbicide,[1] but that is pennies compared to what would be needed for everything. So the case for removal needs to be strong.

But the case is not strong. The main claims made against both species are that they a) push out native flora, b) monopolize groundwater, and c) don’t provide for native fauna. Saltcedar is additionally accused of increasing the salinity of its immediate environment. Yet these claims have never been proven and plenty of evidence to the contrary has been produced.

The Troubles of “Invasive” Plants: Collateral Damage, Monsanto, and the tragedy of Pinyon-Juniper eradication

January 3, 2019 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

St. Johnswort (Hypericum perforatum) [photo by KtS]

By Nicole Patrice Hill & Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

This is part one of a three part series. In this part we discuss: a) the negative effects of invasive plant removal methods, b) the involvement of Monsanto in popularizing invasion biology, and c) the tragedy of Pinyon-Juniper forest eradication in the western U.S. under the rubric of “native invasive species management.”

Defining “invasive species” is a slippery proposition.

The U.S. federal government defines it as “an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.”

The National Wildlife Federation elevate s environmental considerations, describing it as “any kind of living organism… that is not native to an ecosystem and causes harm.”

The Connecticut Audubon society is less discriminating about the effects of introduction. For them, an invasive is any “non-native species that has been introduced, either intentionally or accidentally into a new habitat or has escaped cultivation.”

A plant species doesn’t have to venture far outside its native range to be considered invasive. Such is the case of the endangered Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), which “ is a frequent target for the chain saws of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department—even though two small stands in Monterey, just fifty miles south, are cherished and protected as natives.” Meanwhile, a 500 mile drive north of its relict range , a large specimen planted by European settlers in the 1850’s is an officially designated “Oregon Heritage Tree,” which we assume grants it some safety.

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