
Scene/seen while walking the dog.
I used to think Tagetes lemmonii was so-called because it smells citrusy. But it’s actually named after John Gill Lemmon (1832-1908), who, with his wife Sara Allen Plummer Lemmon (1836-1923), collected plants throughout the American West.
Since first discovering it decades ago at Huntington Gardens, I’ve planted it at every place I’ve lived.
Yesterday was my birthday. Inspired by Yvea Moore and others in the nature journalling community, I invited some friends to help me celebrate by picking up litter on Venice Beach. It’s a tradition I hope goes viral. (Let’s see … on any given day, about 11,000 people in Los Angeles are celebrating their birthday. Imagine if they all took a couple of friends and picked up litter for an hour on this one day per year. It could really make a difference, right?)
In amongst the native sagebrush and laurel sumac in the Malibu Bluffs Open Space is a big healthy patch of non-native Pride of Madeira. Even though it doesn’t ‘belong’ there, the bees, hummingbirds, orange-tips and tiny native pollinators are loving it.