couple things I learned from this piece... . 1. there's a whole subculture of cactus poaching. I had no idea until @mska the cactus queen - told me it's a thing. People illegally taking plants from their natural spaces to resell - this has an ill effect on the population ecology an the fragility of the environments capacity to recover -- like 100s of yr old cacti type of deal. Or even stolen specimens ability to survive in new urban environments or lack of proper care. . soo yes, there's proper cactus harvesting licensing and permits (not that there's alot of cactuses to pick in Canada but if your ever in the desert...), if you're buying these plants buy from a licensed nursery look for legitamet native flora tags 🌵🌵💚 . 2. Had a lady come by who started chatting to me about monarchs and how she can still remember when there used to be swarms of them. SWARMS OF THEM. I read about the amount of butterflies around before but it's another thing having someone recall 20/30 yrs ago witnessing the abundance of this native pollinator... It would be pretty fucken cool to see clouds of them passing through. . soo yes, stop using pesticides, plant some native wildflowers (ex. milkweed) in your front or backyard, and grow even more plants like black eyed Susan's, purple coneflowers, or asters 🦋🦋🧡 . . . . . . . . . #cactusofinstagram #cactus #cactusclubtoronto #cactusclub #desert #environment #monarchbutterfly #monarchbutterflyhabitat #pollinatorhealth #muraldesign #mural #streetart #colour #toronto #yyz (at La Tortilleria) https://www.instagram.com/p/By27LZ5g2Jk/?igshid=utwd88ot8s0e
