These flowers are somewhat inconspicuous from a distance, but interesting and beautiful up close. 4-petaled flowers are relatively uncommon on North American trees except for dogwood. It’s also interesting how the stamens grow sideways and lay at 45° angles alternate to the petals. Good plant 👍

Possumhaw is dioecious (“two houses”= separate male/female plants). The flowers shown are female flowers, having the raised central ovary and vestigial stamens. Male flowers (not shown) would have flat central disks and the stamens would have prominent yellow pollen-covered anthers. 🧵

Possumhaw flowers are tiny, white, and have 4 round petals arranged symmetrically around the axis, and they cluster in the leaf axils. In the pics, nectar is visible pooling next to the superior ovary, which will develop into the berry. Ants, lady beetles and other insects were all over this tree. 🧵

Possumhaw (Ilex decidua) flower close-up

Possumhaw (Ilex decidua) flowers and Asian lady beetle

Possumhaw (Ilex decidua) flowers close-up

Possumhaw (Ilex decidua) flowers and a large ant collecting nectar

As the scientific name implies, possumhaw (Ilex decidua) is a deciduous holly species. Native to the SE (US), it is prized as an ornamental for its red winter berries. Pictured are the spring flowers that give rise to those berries. The flowers are prized by insects for their nectar. 🧵

If a dog’s recall isn’t great, starting calm & positive is crucial. If they come when called & the owner gets angry at them for taking too long, the lesson is, “If I come when called, I’ll get in trouble.” Always praise your dog for coming to you, even if they’re slow. Rewards help in the long run.

If a dog jumps up on you and you turn to the side and ignore them, it discourages the behavior - or at least doesn’t reinforce it. But catching their feet is a reward, even if you say “no”. Saying “no” while giving a reward can actually erode the meaning of “no”.

My dog learned to stick her nose in people’s crotches to get pets. I call it “the pet me button”. Every time she does it, somebody pets her, which reinforces the behavior. She doesn’t do it to me because I don’t reward her for it.

Dog behavior all makes sense when viewed thru the lens of classical and operant conditioning. Nearly every time you touch, talk to, or make eye contact with your dog, their behavior is either reinforced or discouraged.

#dogs #dogbehavior #psychology #pavlovwashere

In my view, ADHD/autism are disorders *not* because something is wrong with the brain, but because something is wrong with *society*.

“If you plant an orchid in the desert and it wilts, you wouldn’t diagnose it with wilting orchid disease. You’d look to the environment around it… Human beings are products of their surroundings.” - Jamil Zaki, Hope for Cynics

This is how I think about #ADHD and #autism. 🧵1/2

Please add me. I may not post Druidry-related things very often, but you never know.

Happy Winter Solstice to my fellow nature lovers!

“There are worse things, I think, than leaving a task undone. The oak forests of the world would not exist if squirrels did not lose track of acorns.”

- Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows

#nature #wintersolstice #rest #quote #wisdom #book

#Baikal is an active tectonic rift lake, and the rift is still opening. Sediment enters the lake and sinks into the rift. Sediment and water included, the rift is an estimated 6 to 7 miles deep! Incredible!

Thanks Alie Ward @ologies.bsky.social for bringing yet another guest to blow my mind.

Lake Baikal — the world’s oldest and deepest — is 5387 feet deep (over a mile!). That’s not the most #amazingfact. 300 rivers dump sediment into it, which would fill most #lakes. Why isn’t Baikal getting shallower? 🧵

Cappuccino was also named as a reference to the friars’ brown robes and distinctively long and pointed hoods. The Italian word for hood is “cappuccio”.

Capuchins (friars and monkeys) still exist today, but the latter are in decline, mainly due to deforestation and forest fragmentation.

Capuchins (subfamily Cebinae) are small, social, intelligent new world monkeys with semi-prehensile tails.

Early explorers thought the contrast of the monkeys’ dark brown bodies and cream colored necks looked like they were hooded, which reminded them of the friars’ robes and hoods. 🧵

Cappuccino… the preferred coffee of capuchins!

Actually, the monkeys and the coffee beverage were both named for the Capuchin friars, a sect of the Franciscan order originating in the 16th century. 🧵

#funfact #animalfact #monkeys #coffee #conservation

Mushrooms

Mushrooms

Mushrooms

Mushrooms

These cool #mushrooms popped up overnight. I love how the morning dew looks on them.

I’m not confident with mushroom ID, but iNaturalist thinks it’s the poisonous green-spored parasol (Chlorophyllum molybdites), commonly mistaken for 3 edible species in the same genus called shaggy parasols. 🍄‍🟫

Once the stabilimentum is built, the spider will shake it vigorously by pumping its legs. It’s thought that this creates a visual effect that prevents accidental bird strikes, attracts insects, or warns off predators. Only spiders that hunt during the day build stabilimenta.

The yellow garden spider (I grew up calling it a writing spider) is a visually striking species, good to have in the garden, & generally harmless to humans (they won’t bite unless grabbed). The bite’s pain is comparable to a bumblebee sting. However, some folks are allergic. 🧵

A female yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) sitting in its web on a chain link fence that is overgrown with vegetation.

A female yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia). Look at that beauty!

#Spiders in this genus are known for making webs with a thick zigzag of silk called a stabilimentum, its purpose being disputed. 🧵

#nature #animalfacts #orbweavers

Like many legumes, Desmodium species can fix nitrogen: they have root nodules that host symbiotic bacteria, which convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form. This enriches the soil and benefits neighboring plants.

Clover (a legume) is commonly planted in lawns and fields for the same purpose.

This animal dispersal strategy helps seeds move farther from the parent, decreasing competition and increasing genetic diversity.

Desmodium is beneficial to deer for browse, an important source of food for seed-eating birds, and nectar for pollinating insects. 🧵

A close-up of tick trefoil (Desmodium spp.) seeds/stickers, showing how they grow and separate as sort of a string of pearls.

I just learned that Desmodium is in the pea/legume family Fabaceae. But unlike a typical legume that splits lengthwise (think green beans), tick trefoils split between seeds, creating strings of loosely-connected triangular stickers. These break off individually when an animal brushes past. 🧵

A photo of my pant legs, thickly covered with tick trefoil (Desmodium spp.) seeds/stickers.

Tick trefoil (Desmodium spp.) is a diverse genus with broad native distribution. I’ve long hated their Velcro seeds, adapted for animal dispersal. But the plant is beneficial to a variety of animals, and their roots help neighboring plants access nitrogen.

I just learned that🧵

#plantfacts #nature

And still, the same people who carried pocket-sized copies of the constitution at all times during Obama’s presidency are mysteriously silent.

Spent canna flowers with maturing seed pods.

Wild cannas are native to the tropical and subtropical Americas from South Carolina, west to Texas, and south to Argentina.

It’s also known as Indian shot, edible canna, and arrowroot. Arrowroot powder is used widely as a food starch and is produced from the plant’s rhizomes.

Mature seed pods of canna (Canna Indica).

Mature seed pods of canna (Canna Indica), with a glimpse of a seed inside.

When the seed pods ripen, they dry, turn brown, and open to release the seeds. The seed pods’ 3 chambers are visible in these photos.

Reproduction by seed can be seen as secondary, as cannas spread via rhizomes, and seed hibernation is made possible by a hard seed coat.

A canna (Canna Indica) plant with a fully opened flower and unripe seed pods.

As a monocot, the flower parts are in multiples of three. The three petals and sepals are inconspicuous. What’s appear to be bright, showy petals are modified stamens and pistil. The pistil is connected to a 3-chambered ovary, which matures into a 3-chambered seed pod (pictured below, unripe).

A canna (Canna Indica) plant with an unopened flower bud, early flower, spent flowers, and seed pods.

Sometimes called “canna lilies”, cannas aren’t true lilies. They’re in their own family (Cannaceae), which has 10 species in a single genus.

Pictured is an unopened flower bud, early flower, spent flowers, and maturing seed pods.