The Earth is my Homestead

Hopefully this video clears some stuff up about Jimothy! (There are captions for anyone who needs them)

Crazy story with this one, I got a message from someone at the QLD museum saying this species has only been described two years ago from 2 specimins and a couple images... there is not even any info on what the female might look like!

I haven't seen them since, but if I do it'll be like finding a cryptid o-O

Also me:

Last year, wasps built this nest

This year, other species of wasps built a nest on that nest

do not taste plants if you don't know what they are

do not identify a fruit as edible just because it tastes sweet

hope you didn't eat any fucking seeds, bro

I saw the photo in my feed and went ohh, dude, no, we do not handle yellow rocks with our bare hands until we know for sure what they are. And I know that orange...

In comments, they continue:

and that's where I started cussing at the computer monitor. But someone else had got there first:

DO NOT THROW THEM BACK FOR FUCK’S SAKE. 

That’s an Asian Carp, and they ARE invasive. The Iowa DNR encourages people to catch, kill, and eat as many as possible. 

It does not have two eyes on the same side; it just has a mark there that looks sorta like one. 

Another pic;

They mostly eat plants, but sometimes will get snagged when line fishing. But, they also do THIS;

Midwesterners being who we are, we immediately knew what to do; BOWFISH THEM SHITS

And INVENT THE SPORT KNOWN AS ‘SCARPING’, which is just netting them out of the air/smacking them with baseball bats/spearing them with pitchforks/ect while waterskiing;

The DNR actively encourages all inventive ways of killing them off that people can come up with. There’s no limit on them, so you can fill up the boat. 

my mom is in fact aware that dandelions exist. she temporarily forgot the name and there was some miscommunication.

the truth is actually weirder

she’s aware dandelions look like this

she is familiar with this flower. she knows the name of this flower. she declines to believe, however, that these are also dandelions

she does not believe these are the same plant. I tried to explain, and she thought I was either misinformed or lying. so I asked her what exactly did she think the yellow ones were called?

gosh I enjoy this website

Take a moment and ask yourself, a project like this requires a lot of time, money and dedication of resources, why would scientists dedicate that time to something that could just be done by a tree?

The answer is they wouldn't. So that means this claim requires further investigation!

This project is called LIQUID 3, and it's not meant for cities with wide open spaces, it's meant for cities like Belgrade in Serbia. These cities are densely populated and heavily polluted, to the point where pollution actually chokes out current trees and makes creating green spaces difficult.

Liquid 3 was a PhD scientists answer to these problems. The microalgae tank is intended for spaces where you either:

Don't have enough space to plant full trees, or

Don't have enough time to plant trees and wait for them to grow up.

The tank is extremely efficient when you consider the amount of space needed compared to the amount of CO2 turned into oxygen. The tank can operate throughout the winter. And most importantly, it can be quickly set up in areas that desperately need relief from air pollution NOW not in 10 years when trees are done growing. Children currently suffocating on polluted air can't wait for trees to grow, they need to be taken care of now, and Liquid 3 is one of the ways to take care of them. Depending on the species of microalgea used, a number have shown a pretty amazing capacity to pull heavy metals out of the air which is something trees can get choked up by.

The tanks aren't just tanks either! Liquid 3 have solar panels placed on top, they have lighting and mobile phone charging, and they work as public benches. The designers of it want to encourage green spaces where there's room, but where there isn't room or time, Liquid 3 can step in. Realistically, this isn't a replacement for trees. It's replacing boring metal city benches with new, cooler benches that also clean the air (and have at least some heating during the winter).

Not only that, but the microalgea that grows is native to Serbia and all that microalgea has a ton of great uses! It makes for great fertilizer, compost, wastewater treatment, cleaner biofuels and even for helping create new tanks for further air purification. They only require a quick algae divide once a month, and the produced algae can be carted off to where ever it's needed. This makes them effective solutions for areas that can't sustain complex installations.

Gymnocalycium valnicekianum

This Gymnocalycium species comes from western Argentina, and it is considered by some classifiers to be a subspecies or form of G. mostii, though it has long been represented in collections as a species in its own right. It has formidable gray spines and white flowers with dark red centers.

as promised, the transplanting tutorial

most sources make transplanting sound incredibly difficult, but transplanting young seedlings from areas with sparse dirt, like a driveway or roadside, is actually incredibly easy and can get you some great stuff. Once I worked out the method, i've had a very high survival rate

it took me like a month of trial and error to figure this out so you don't have to.

It is a common belief that native plant gardening is hard and expensive but plants are free. They're everywhere. They just do their thing.

It is common for seedlings to grow in places they cannot survive longterm; the side of the road, pavement crack, gravel driveway.

How did they get here? Plants spread their seeds in a variety of ways. Some of the main ones are:

birds: when birds eat berries and fruits, the seeds are not digested and sprout in the ground when the bird poops.

wind: lots of seeds have fluffy parachutes of helicopter wings so they can be blown far away to find a place to grow

water: rain and streams can wash seeds away and leave them in a muddy area to sprout

mammals: acorns and nuts from trees are foods for families, who bury them later. sometimes they sprout into trees instead

A seed will do its best to sprout... whether it's a good place for a fully grown plant or not. Plants that sprout in harsh places are sometimes beautiful and vulnerable species, and they are easy to transplant.

Here's how:

you will need

a pot: A red solo cup is the right size for most transplantable seedlings- don't use anything much smaller. You can also use an orange juice carton or even a cardboard box. Make sure you cut holes or slits in the bottom so it won't be soggy forever when you water it.

potting mix: it's not the same as dirt- it's lighter, fluffier and drains easily.

a place to put it: put them outside where they get some sun, but not where they get direct sun all day long. If they're on a surface that gets hot, elevate them by putting them on a cardboard box or something.

The idea is to transplant seedlings that wouldn't survive where they are. Don't just uproot plants that aren't in any danger. Obviously don't do anything dangerous or illegal. AVOID roads with frequent traffic or main highways. Do NOT put yourself at risk of being hit by a car.

I collect from roadsides because I live in a neighbourhood with no outlet. If you grab an invasive species, it's in a pot where it can't hurt anything and you can just kill it.

NEVER plant anything in the ground without knowing what it is, though.

A seedling this size (about an inch) or smaller is most likely to survive. The two most important things are to keep as much of the root intact as you can and to make sure the roots stay damp. You can wrap the roots up in a wet paper towel.

How to transplant:

From gravel: seedlings growing in gravel or pebbles are easiest to transplant. Remove bits of gravel one by one and carefully pry up the pieces that are stuck, until the roots are exposed. Mulch can be removed the same way.

From a crack in the pavement: Very carefully pinch the stem as low to the ground as you can and shift and tug until you pull it free. Be patient! Breaking small roots is fine but if you hear the main root 'snap' RIP to the plant.

From dirt: Digging around the whole plant is hard to do quickly and seamlessly. Soaking the ground in water or searching after a rain can help you gently pull small plants up.

How to put them in a pot:

Carefully put potting mix around the roots. Don't crush them.

Don't touch any part above the lower stem with dirty hands... especially not new leaves. A speck of dirt on a delicate new leaf can make it start rotting which will spread to the whole plant. Water, immediately. Get only the potting mix wet, not the leaves (that can make them vulnerable to rotting).

Seedlings with broad, big leaves can dry up easily from direct sun exposure, but many aren't happy in the shade So you can cut one of these (cardboard toilet roll centre) in half and put the half around the seedling like a "collar".

How to take care of them:

After transplanting, plants are very weak. It's like recovering from an injury or illness.

Check on the plants at least a couple of times a day and water a little if the potting mix is dry. I like to adjust their location at different times of the day- newer seedlings might need to be moved to a shadier spot when it's sunniest, but later in the evening plants in the shade benefit from being put in the sun.

Don't be discouraged if they die, they had a very harsh early life and some of them won't make it.

As they get bigger you can identify the species you have and decide if you want to plant them. My policy is to plant only species that are native to my area. You WILL find invasive species and you want to get rid of those, trust me. Uprooting them and leaving them on a concrete surface kills just about everything. Don't throw an invasive plant in the grass and DO NOT try to compost them.