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Manduca sexta

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Here’s something interesting: hornworms’ hemolymph (blood) is blue, coloured by a protein called insecticyanin. The foliage they eat contains carotenoids, which are primarily yellow in hue. The resulting combination (blue + yellow) gives them their green colouring. If fed a wheatgerm-based diet in a lab, these caterpillars are turquoise due to the lack of carotenoids in their diet.

Both tobacco hornworms and the very similar tomato hornworms are big fans of Solanaceae (nightshades like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, tobacco), but they also eat crucifers, legumes, eucalyptus, ficus, and other plants.

Kuruvunga Springs

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Would you drink from a spring in the middle of Los Angeles? I did. It tasted fairly neutral, and I didn’t get sick. In fact, someone in the museum told my friend the water was reputed to be heal joint and muscle pain. Regardless, it was nice to drink water straight from the ground in the middle of a metropolis, with no ill-effects.

dracaena

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I went to my first Urban Sketchers event in a year; we met at Kuruvunga Village Springs, which is only a 30 minute drive from home, but I’d somehow never heard of it before. This very large dragon tree caught my attention.

A couple of fun things happened when I arrived. First I saw a guy I worked with years ago, and his wife, and we had a nice catchup. He was just randomly visiting the springs that day, nothing to do with USK. Then, I overheard one of the other sketchers mention John Muir Laws, so I sidled over and told her about our new nature journal club. She was very interested and said she’ll come along. Yay!

Heteromeles arbutifolia

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I’ve blogged about toyon before, but here’s something new: The plant has been used as a treatment for Alzheimer’s by indigenous people of California, and 2016 research backs this up. Toyon contains compounds that are known to protect the blood-brain barrier, prevent the infiltration of inflammatory cells into the brain and prevent neuronal damage. This plant medicine may provide new leads for drug therapy in the disease. Cool!

yer blood’s worth bottlin’

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This came in the mail today. Apparently I have given blood at Red Cross 32 times. That doesn’t count the time I donated at work, on an empty stomach, then fainted and got a concussion. Oops. Now I need a 4 gallon hat on which to pin my 4 gallon pin.

I give because my father did, and because he had a few blood-related exclamations he was known to utter. When he was angry he would sometimes yell “Hell’s bells and buckets of blood!” I knew to make myself scarce when I heard that one. The other was “Yer blood’s worth bottlin’!”, an expression of admiration or gratitude.

I miss my Dad; I think of him every time I go to get my blood bottled.