Holly branch.

Coloured woodcut (Mattioli, 1568).

Wellcome Collection gallery.

Also pretty sure my vet would roll his eyes at me for asking 😅 but I’m curious what the vet community thinks.

Yam Tax for the question. He says no Turkey tail, only potato tail. We thank you!

I am beyond deeply skeptical about the claims, because they always track back to anti-vaxxers or people actively trying to sell it.

Plus the Facebook ads I've seen with before and after have always been either a- the other side of the dog, b- a different dog, or c- a dog that clearly had the mass surgically removed. Bonus points if the sutures are still present.

It's like the dental supplement ads claiming to remove all tartar where the before and after have the after photo be a dog literally in the process of having an anesthetized dental procedure with the trache tube visible.

This is humorous timing with the fact that I currently have turkey tail mushrooms growing in my back yard. If only I was less ethical I could sell them as organic, free range mushrooms.

Homeopathy scammers and LUSH.

The "None Of Your Beeswax Lip Balm" did test positive for urushiol via GC/MS, so they are definitely using actual Toxicodendron plant materials in their products.

CosDNA results for products containing "Rhus succedanea" and "Hydrogenated Japan wax" are nearly all LUSH... Did they make a deal with some lacquer company to buy up their byproducts for cheap? Their website has a page for "Japan wax" that carefully avoids mentioning how toxic the plant is:

I'm so jealous of the connection the Na'vi have with nature. Maybe my lack of spirituality is catching up with me and I just want something to believe in. I don't believe in Eywa, but I want to believe the plants and animals around us understand a lot more than we think.

I come from a very science-oriented household. Almost everyone in my family is a doctor and I'm currently pursuing my own doctoral degree (won't specify which branch of medicine for purposes of anonymity). I'm diving headfirst into research and there is so much evidence to indicate that both plants and animals have a much higher level of understanding/sentience than we originally thought. I can't talk about this with my family because I just sound like a tree-hugger, but the evidence is there. It doesn't help that the political state of the world is so dire, most people would rather focus on something else.

Source details and larger version.

The life I aspire to have.