Blithe

Borage (Borago officinalis) is a herb commonly used in summer salads and the like (it’s also used in Grüne Soße). The plant has a long history of use with the Romans and the celts as a supposed source of courage and a ward for depression. Whether or not it actually does this I cannot say. The only scientific articles I could find said it helped with inflammation. The leaves are rich in calcium and it makes a good companion plant for tomatoes. It particularly drives away tomato hornworms

Baobab trees are some of the longest living angiosperms in the world. The oldest recorded one was well over 2000 years old. You wouldn’t think a tree this large is related to succulents but it is strangely enough. The fruits have this dry pith-like flesh that can make a very fine juice when water is added. They’re also sometimes used as a landscape plant in the United States. Specifically they can only really be grown in places like Florida so if you ever travel to central Florida there’s a chance you can find juice there (the tree would need to be artificially pollinated in some way because the bats that pollinate them obviously don’t live in Florida)

I love this fat lesbian

Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) despite the name the fruit is only ripe by late July. The plant itself is poisonous everywhere including the fruit itself when unripe. The fruit rewards your luck and patience with a flavor very reminiscent of passion fruit if you get the privilege of finding a ripe one. Their range is shockingly wide, I’ve seen them from Illinois all the way to Florida. I commonly associate these guys with mushroom foraging since they usually emerge around the same time morels do in mid early spring

While researching this I came across blogs that said it was used as an offering but when I looked into it further I could only find sources telling me that it’s inappropriate to offer this fruit to ancestors in Buddhism. So if anyone familiar with Thai culture could tell me who or what this fruit is offered to and why I would like to know. If they’re even offered at all

Mewgenics gameplay

(Orchis militaris) Turkish ice cream is made from a flour harvested from the tubers of this orchid (more than one species can be used though) the flour is called salep. It and plant resin give the ice cream its elastic properties as well as its ability to resist melting. Salep also is the name of a hot beverage made using the orchid flour. At one point in history it occupied a similar niche that hot cocoa did in 18th century England. From personal experience having salep it tastes like a drinkable version of instant packet cinnamon oatmeal. It’s quite pleasant albeit it’s very thick and heavy

The trees take forever to grow. A persimmon in my parent’s backyard is barely above the width of a pencil and it was planted 8 years ago. This comes with the added benefit of making really dense wood that was used for making golf clubs

Death Valley is blooming right now (it’s basically over for low latitude) so I figured it would be interesting to talk about. During springtime when it’s cool and wet enough a super bloom can occur. It occurs at different times for high and low elevations with the low elevations producing those large fields of flowers. The plants that are usually found in a bloom are desert sunflowers, desert five spots, and phacelias. There are more species but those stood out to me the most. Death Valley itself is a very interesting place with one of the highest recorded temperature on earth. Never been there myself but according to my grandfather’s anecdotes it was hot and dry enough there it gave his sliced bread a similar texture to toast

Tristerix aphyllus aka cactus mistletoe is parasitic just like its namesake. The seeds embed into the cactus and leech off of nutrients using an organ called a haustorium. When the time is right months later they flower and then produce fruits so the birds can spread the seeds to other hosts. They’re primarily pollinated by hummingbirds hence why the flowers are very long and tubular with those anthers sticking out

Haleakala hopping moth for your viewing pleasure. It’s forced to be flightless because the mountain it lives on has high winds. Both the larvae and adults feed on shrubs

They’re a short day plants so that means they appear everywhere when fall rolls around. They’re also a part of the Japanese imperial crest. They also produce insecticidal compounds called pyrethrins. These pyrethrins attack the nervous system of insects causing paralysis and insecticides use similar synthetic compounds called pyrethroids

The compounds that you get thc (tetrahydrocannabinol) from the trichomes on the cannabis plant. Cannabis is also dioecious and the female of this plant species tends to be the most valuable. The male plants can produce thc but not enough for it to be sellable so they are generally relegated to reproduction. The female plants that are used for bud production often remain unfertilized because they would divert their energy into producing seeds instead of their resin heavy buds

Wisteria frutescens is a species of wisteria native to the United States that should be blooming around this time. Wisteria is in the legume family and like other legumes it’s capable of fixing nitrogen from the air into the soil. Wisteria is associated with longevity and the afterlife in a lot of cultures

Linen is its own unique fiber that is derived from the flax plant (also hemp but the properties of the two after processing are virtually identical where it counts). The fiber itself comes from the bast fibers of the flax’s phloem. The fiber’s role in transporting nutrients to the seed head of these tall plants gives it moisture wicking properties making it excellent for summer clothes and tent canvases. This also gives it a niche over cotton since it doesn’t readily absorb water and odors. It also can be more ecofriendly in comparison to cotton because making linen on an industrial scale doesn’t require a lot of water or chemical processing compared to other natural fibers. Ireland currently has one of the strongest linen industry out there since they have been weaving with the flax plant since at least the 11th century

Ginkgo biloba is a living fossil that first appeared during the Jurassic. The trees are dioecious meaning they come in both male and female. Male ginkgos are much more popular in landscapes because they don’t produce the seeds. From personal experience the seed smells like a very potent rotten cheese and a female ginkgo is hard to be around for this reason. They have excellent yellow fall colors which is why they are a popular landscape tree. The trees are also prized for their longevity and resilience with some being documented to survive the Hiroshima nuclear blast. I have heard of them being used in Chinese medicine for longevity and they are currently being looked at to treat dementia