Bobo Brazil: NOT a taxonomist

In the previous blog post, read by many, there is a reference to the CocoBOP, also call the Coco Butt--a move where Bobo Brazil smashed his head into that of his opponent's. This man, called the "Jackie Robinson of Professional Wrestling" broke the color line in fake, TV, staged, totally fake wrestling. He was not Brazilian. He was born in Little Rock, and established a famous restaurant in Benton Harbor, Mi. He died from a series of strokes, which is the opposite of ironic. He was father to six children. He was not a plant taxonomist but he could kick the crap out of Linnaeus.

Tricky Taxonomy

The plant you see here is Euthamia gramifolia. It use to be a Solidago. So really when you get right down to it and put a taxonomist in the Claw or give him the CocoBOP, then he or she will tell you that yes, this is the seventh goldenrod at 42.31, -73.55.

A New Season: Solidago

Those of you who have been following the seasons here have realized that the season Day Lily is a long one, most of July in fact is Day Lily. But life goes on. And sometime in end of July the early goldenrod, Solidago juncea, blooms, followed by FIVE MORE species of goldenrod: S. gigantea at 8.4; S. bicolor at 8.27; S. canadensis on 8.28; and on 9.6 S. nemoralis and S. rugosa.

This is a season of yellow flowers, in which the whiteness of Queen's Anne's lace in fields gives way to a number of species with yellow flowers that persist to mid September. This is the season called Solidago. To me, even though it is August, it is a sign that summer is turning the corner. Welcome to Solidago. PS Solidago bicolor is white.

Philip Larkin poem

One of the legion of readers of this blog (actually 3 people) sent in this poem. And to that person, yes I was a professor of botany at UW Madison in the 1970s.

The Trees
By Philip Larkin

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too.
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

Day Lily: Queen Anne's Lace

As July rolls on the fields of the Taconics have a white cast because of so much Queen Anne's Lace. If you look closely at this picture you will see on tiny black flower right in the center? Why does this occur, you ask, pleading for knowledge. I don't know. I'll Google it and get back to you.

A lot of you (actually not a single human being on the face of the earth) have asked me why the season Day Lily has gone on so long. "Dan," you ask, " why had the season Day Lily has gone on so long?" July is actually, in my sense, a time of stability when compared to May and June. It really is a time of invertebrates, of insect such as wasps that build and flies that, ah, fly. But look, do you se that golden color here and there?

Invertebrate of the Year nominee: Hummingbird moth

You know how nature likes to fool you, like you have a meeting with your boss and you can't keep your hair from looking like a mop and you lose your job? You all know what I mean. Anyway, this is the humming bird moth--nature fools you in many ways. It LOOKS like a little hummingbird AND it is a moth that flies around in the day. So you go, "Neptune's Barcalounger! What a tiny bird." Then when you realize it's moth you look around to see if anyone heard you? You all know what I mean. Invertebrate of the Year Nomineee: the White-lined Sphinx Hummingbird Moth, Hyles lineata.

Plant of the Year Nominee: Galium verum

If there is any more beautiful yellow I'd like to see it. This is a great year for this plant, called lady bedstraw.

Seasons to Date

These are the seasons at 42.31, -73.55.


1. Amelanchier (March 26)
2. Taraxacum (April 21)
3. Sweet Vernal Grass (May 10)
4. Viburnum (May 27)
5. Galium (June 10)
6. Day Lily (July 4)

New Season: Day Lily

On or about July 4, the season of Galium gives way to a season that is more able to deal with the heat of what used to be called summer. I use the word summer in the same way that people use the words "wort" or "thy" or, "My mother will bake thee a bannock." We who follow this blog (which is actually nobody ) scoff--yea! we scoff!--at the use of outmoded words for seasons,

As summer progresses, Galium turns into the next season, Day Lily. I chose it because Hemerocallis fulva reminds me of a firework going off on the Fourth of July, which for the many of you reading this in Borneo is the US Independence Day, the day in 1776 when US botanists formally severed ties with the tyrannical English botanists lead by John Ray and his band of wild naked taxonomists. (Actually John Ray is a GOD, more on him later.)

Galium: Trifolium repens Plant of the Year Nominee

Every once in a while a plant has a banner year, can considering this is legume and its flower has a banner its a banner banner year

Trifolium repens: white clover. So common! And yet so overlooked. But not by me, no siree.

Nominee for Plant of the Year

Fabre

"After eighty-seven years of thought and observation, I say not merely that I believe in God –I can even say that I see Him."

Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915) Frog Nature Writer

OK, so he was a religious nut who didn't believe in evolution and I probably wouldn't have been able to talk with him for 10 minutes UNLESS we were outdoors studying spiders and insects, in which case I would really really have found a friend of the closest kind. If you read Life of the Spider you will get a sense of one of the most remarkable nature writers of all time. His work is brimming with affection for living things.

Galium: Plant of the Year Nominee

OK. They are weedy, and I cut off all young trees on my land. But let's face it, this year they are amazing beyond amazing. Here at June 25 there are some trees with so many huge white flowers that you HAVE to swallow your predudice and nominate Catalpa speciosa as Plant of the Year

Galium: Great Weed #7

Galium is the season of the legumes. Among the most brilliant is the pretty week, Lotus coniculatus, the bird's foot trefoil. Trefoil, a stupid word; it means three leaves. I think the word trefoil is dorky, but on the other hand I like the word "wort." It's from the Middle Ages and it means plant. But best, it goes very well with eye of newt.

Galium: Invertebrate of the Year Candidate

There are more than 2000 species of fireflies in the world. I nominate all the ones around here whatever they are. One day I will make friends with an insect freakazoid who will help me identifiy ours. The enzyme that catalyzes the reaction that gives light is LUCIFERASE, named after Lord Voldemort.

Galium: Season checkllist

It is now June 16th and we are in the 5th season of the year. Here is a recap for those of you (and that includes every other human being on the face of the earth except me) who have lost track.

1. Amelanchier (March 26)
2. Taraxacum (April 21)
3. Sweet Vernal Grass (May 10)
4. Viburnum (May 27)
5. Galium (June 10)

Great Weed #6 Bishop's Weed

http://www.ehow.com/how_16306_grow-bishops-weed.html

There's a dumb web site.

Aegopodium podograria, the scourage of gardens, one of nature's most useful and most insidious weeds. It's dominance in June is unparalleled among weeds but only in gardens--go figure. Also call goutweed, as it was used in the year 1000 for just about everything but let's face it, science wasn't exactly on the front burner in the Dark Age.

I have a hill here that is pure bishop's weed in June. An amazing and actually delicate plant. When you weed whack it you get sprayed with juice.

Great Weed #5 Rosa multiflora

Well, at least we don't have blackthorn.

Invertebrate of the Year Nominee: Whitetail

This is our first nominee for Invertebrate of the Year. This is the whitetail dragonfly, Plathemis lydia.

This from William T. Hathaway: The male White-tailed Dragonfly is easy to identify because of its bright white abdomen. Another interesting characteristic is its habit of resting with head facing down while wings are drooping in a forward position. The white abdomen is held in a raised position.

Galium

On or about the 10th day of June, you just can't deny that summer has arrived--it arrives in our world as the season called Galium. Galium is the genus of bedstraw. Its foamy, creamy flowers can turn whole fields, ah, foamy and creamy. Of great importance is Galium mulligo.

At the commencement of Galium the legumes go wild. All of the clovers (or many of them) are up, Lotus corniculatus, the bird's foot trefoil, Melilotus alba, and the black medic Medicago lupulia. And though it may seem that summer is all about legumes, it is Galium that gives its name to the season, Galium with its four parted flowers of the Rubiaceae.

Summer has come to Spencertown.

"Spring: Theirs and Ours

Let us review the seasons so far, because our summer is right around the corner;

March 21 to June 5

Their (stupid) idea of Spring
Spring
and this ends on June 21? no way!
Who are "they" you ask. Druid Astronomers!

Our idea (less stupid) of Spring
Amelanchier
Taraxacum
Sweet Vernal Grass
Viburnum