Photo of a mass of green leaves dotted with bright yellow florets.

My patch of Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) is ready for pollinators and black swallowtail eggs!

Reminder to make sure your Bluesky settings require alt text on every image!

I dunno, that pseudotooth on the beak is freaking me out

Today I untangled and planted out some tiny baby Apios americana that I grew from seed. Many more seedlings remain.

A bunch of other winter sowing seedlings are getting to that plant out/pot up time too. I need a lot more hours in a day tbh.

🌱 #nativeplants

A Skipper butterfly nectars on Bluestar flowers.

An American Lady Caterpillar feeds on Pearly Everlasting plants.

Male Longhorn Bees use a sunflower as a dormitory.

An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail nectars on Dense Blazingstar.

Every day is Earth Day.

Does this #EarthDay leave you wanting to Do Something?

There are a lot of ways to help, whether your local environment or on global issues. Tell me a little about your current hobbies or likes/dislikes (social or solo? Inside or out? Etc) and I will brainstorm compatible Somethings with you.

Photo of a man wearing a long black wig, and a frilly 18th century outfit with lacy neck and cuffs, standing on a uniform lawn with a house with 4 perfectly trimmed bushes behind him. Text says, "Are you still dressed like this? Then why does your yard still look like this? 18th century style yards are no longer environmentally sustainable. It is time to adjust the aesthetics of our yards! www.healthyyards.org"

#EarthDay2026 Time to rethink the "perfect" lawns, which are maintained with applications of fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, & never allowed to go into seasonal dormancy.
Read about a failed quest for a perfect lawn: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2026/04/a-qu...

Book cover of “Climate-Wise Landscaping: Practical Actions for a Sustainable Future. By Sue Reed and Ginny Stibolt Foreword by Doug Tallamy" 2 photos: Top photo show a yard filled with a variety of low-growing native plants, a brick walkway, a corner of a porch with a rain barrel at the corner. Bottom photo shows a black swallowtail butterfly on a pink mountain laurel flower head.

#EarthDay2026 “Lawns” is the first chapter in our award-winning book, "Climate-Wise Landscaping: Practical Actions for a Sustainable Future," because rethinking the lawn is the easiest & most significant action people can take to make their yards more earth friendly.
www.ClimateWiseLandscaping.com

It’s earth day!!

🌎 plant a pesticide free native 🌱
🌎 switch your energy supplier to a renewable
🌎 take transit instead of an uber
🌎 then make fun of your friends (lovingly) for taking Ubers when the train is right! there!
🌎 heckle your family members. About whatever you want! It’s earth day!!!

“ Hello dad! It’s Earth Day, which does give me the right to heckle you about your lawn. Here’s some shit I bought for you. Please plant it in the backyard or I will do it for you. Yes that is a threat. Love you!”

“Creating Habitat in Yards, Containers, and Other Tiny Spaces” A hoverfly perched on small yellow flowers, and a planter pot full of native plants, including the flowers the fly is on.

Think you don’t have enough space for native plants? Think again! Join us to explore what a small habitat can look like and the steps people can take to build their own miniature pollinator haven! 🪴🦋
🗓️Apr 30 at 10am PT / 1pm ET
🔗Register for this free event: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

I've never looked at a pelican head on, but it is both goofy and terrifying

Image description: A black wolf pup leaning over a log howling. Text overlay reads, "breaking news. H.R. 1897, the Endangered Species Act Ammendments Act, has been pulled from the house floor due to opposition.

Major #EarthDay win 🎉: H.R. 1897, aka the Endangered Species Act Amendments Act was just pulled from house floor consideration following outcry from both Republicans and Democrats who oppose the bill.

I won't tell if you don't ;)

but really, it sets a good example, even if it was to keep your hands warm

Photo of a small tree that is just leafing out and flowering at the same time, so it is a very vivid yellow green with yellow-y looking splotches of flowers.

A close up of some not fully open flowers on the fringetree. They're white and, aptly, fringey.

An even more close up shot of some fringetree flows, these ones farther along and fully bloomed.

Fringetrees are starting to bloom!

seen from the front, a flower with around half a dozen large, rounded, overlapping white petals that cup in to form a bowl-shape. in the center, there is a squat light green ovary capped with a large, pale yellow, hemispherical cluster of stigmas, surrounded by around a dozen inward-curving pale yellow stamens.

two mayapple shoots growing up from leaf litter on the forest floor, seen from the side from shin to knee height. the small shoot on the left is sterile: its unbranched stem holds one circular, deeply lobed green leaf from a point at the leaf's center. the shoot on the right is much taller; at the same height as the sterile shoot's leaf, this fertile shoot branches in two, each branch continuing upward at an angle before terminating in their own larger leaves. from the point where the stem branches, a nodding stem grows, bearing a large white flower with petals cupping forward around a large green ovary & array of stamens. the top of the fertile shoot and most of its leaves are out of frame. a couple lobes and the cut between them are illuminated by sunlight. the circular leaf is divided into large, wedge shaped lobes which have their own smaller lobes along the outer edge.

looking up towards the ridge of a hill in a forest, blue sky visible behind the trees now leafing out. in the distance a haze of green obscures the forest floor above the leaf litter. closer in, the ground is covered in an extensive colony of mayapples. standing up to knee high, these shoots have either one unbranched stem and one leaf (sterile), or a branched stem with two leaves (fertile); in the crook between the branch on fertile shoots, sometimes a large white flower may be glimpsed. the shiny green leaves are large, well over a handspan in diameter, held from the center by their stems. they are cut into usually 4-9 deep wedge-shaped lobes, each often with smaller lobes on their outer edges. poison ivy grows abundantly beneath and between the mayapples.

🌼 mayapple 🌿
Podophyllum peltatum

#nativeplants #ecoregion71

A small springtime flower blooming in the woods in dappled sunlight. Graceful long petals in shades of purple with white and yellow crests on the two lower petals. Wide straight green leaves. Growing in brown leaf litter.

#WeekPforPurple
#AlphabetChallenge

Dwarf Crested Iris
#Wildflower #SpringEphemerals

Considering planting a tree for earth day? 🌍

I beg you, remember that trees grow. Sometimes very big!

Please don't plant a tree that can reach 70 feet under a power line

Maybe don't plant a River Birch in a dry area (the name is a hint!)

Don't plant a tree that grows 8' wide 2' from your house

Niche plant share fact: in Maryland you can almost always find someone to give you a baby redbud tree. Redbud does not get very tall so it's relatively power line friendly, and it is, of course, absolutely beautiful. It can get wide though, and is not the sturdiest/sometimes drops branches.

Native Plant & Seed Share When: Saturday, May 9, 2026, 1-3pmWhere: 7719 Chicago Ave, Takoma Park, MD (new location as of last fall!)RSVP: Optional, at this RSVP Link or on Facebook Let’s support each other in growing our ga…

This is true. If you’re reading this, *i* will give you a baby redbud.

Or come to the native plant share on May 9 sstpmutualaid.wordpress.com/native-plant...

The World’s Forests Won’t Be Saved by Science Alone: We Need Better Communication • The Revelator Research tells us that we need sustainable forest practices. But how does this knowledge lead to action?

Research tells us that we need sustainable forest practices. But how does this knowledge lead to action?

Check out the latest from @therevelator.org, our news and ideas initiative.

the easiest way to tell them apart when they're flying and you can't see their heads is to look at the way light reflects off the underside of their wings. Black vulture wings reflect just at the wing tips and turkey vultures' wings reflect along the length of the wing.

Question for my fellow native plant enthusiasts & observers of nature- how would you characterize the total insect population in your area over recent years? Please specify your general area.

* substantially increased
* increased
* about the same
* decreased
* substantially decreased

#NativePlants

Image from DC Vote: I am a DC resident. I pay federal taxes. I have no vote in Congress. *image of a DC Taxation without Representation license plate* If you have representation, will use it for me? tell your members of Congress to support DC statehood. Tax Day | 12 April 2026 | #LetDCVote

I've filed my federal taxes, but as a citizen of DC I face #TaxationWithoutRepresentation. DC isn't a state so the 700,000 people who live here have no voting representation in Congress. Will you stand with me and demand #DCStatehood now? #LetDCVote #TaxDay @dcvote.bsky.social

Joint Base Andrews Jet Fuel Leak Raises Major Concerns for Local Community and Waterways • Chesapeake Bay Foundation This week, the U.S. Air Force’s Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County alerted state officials to the release of 22,000 gallons of jet fuel into Piscataway Creek, a tributary of the Potomac Rive...

This week, Joint Base Andrews alerted MD officials to the release of 22,000 gallons of jet fuel into Piscataway Creek, a Potomac tributary. Officials suggested the leak began as early as January and continued through March. Any fuel spill is alarming, but not reporting it immediately is inexcusable

Photo Contest Details - Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes promotes environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant commu...

Wild Ones Photo Contest is open! 📸🌼

Share the native plants, landscapes, and moments you’re seeing—your photos inspire others to plant native 🌱

Submit up to 3 photos per category + chances to win prizes.👉 wildones.org/photo-contes...

I like the gloves! My first thought was "ooh, no touchy"

Close up photo of a black, white and orange bird in the leaves, head up, beak open, eyes wide as he calls loudly.

Me too, towhee friend. Hang in there

#birds 🌿

Brush-like yellow flowers standing above fresh green sedge and old brown leaves.

🌱 Pennsylvania Sedge in bloom