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Cotoneaster pannosus

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Cotoneaster pannosus

Growing up in Canberra, Australia, we had a row of cotoneasters along the back fence, so I immediately recognised the one in the garden here. Silverleaf Cotoneaster, originally introduced from China as an ornamental plant, features white flowers and red fruits. It has escaped cultivation and is now found in disturbed areas, particularly near residential zones, as well as in undisturbed coastal scrub, grasslands, and forests. Each plant can produce thousands of fruits annually, which are spread by birds, small mammals, water, and human activity. Its Cal-IPC (Invasive Plants Council) rating is Moderate.

The berries are toxic to domestic pets, including dogs and cats, and are not considered safe for human consumption. I’ve read that blackbirds, thrushes and waxwings enjoy the fruit, but I have not observed that for myself — must keep an eye out for birds in the bush!

mud wasps

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muddaubers

We had a dinner disaster last night, when the old stove’s exhaust vent suddenly rained a flood of debris down into the skillet of beans and asparagus. Dinner went to the compost, and I remained grumpy for a while. But today I took the cover off the vent and banged the pipe to try to completely clear it. A lot of what emerged was mud wasp nests.

Mud daubers fill their nests with spiders to feed their larvae. Unlike some wasp species that fill a nest cell with one or two large spiders, mud daubers pack up to two dozen smaller spiders into each cell.

To capture a spider, the wasp grabs it and delivers a sting. The venom from the sting doesn’t kill the spider, but it paralyzes and preserves it, allowing it to be transported and stored in the nest cell for later consumption by the larvae. The mud dauber typically lays its egg on the prey before sealing the nest cell with a mud cap. Afterward, the wasp moves on to construct another cell or nest. The young larvae survive the winter inside the nest.

I’ve now sealed up the vent with foil (the exhaust fan is non-operational) so hopefully there’ll be no more dinner mishaps from that direction.