I was reading up on the fig leaf in Western culture, and came across a funny story:
The V&A Museum in London holds a plaster cast of Michelangelo’s David. When Queen Victoria first saw the replica, she was reportedly so horrified by its nudity that a proportionally sized fig leaf was commissioned to cover the statue’s genitals. The leaf was kept on hand for royal visits and attached to the figure with two discreet hooks 😂.
Huh. I always thought the feijoa was a native of New Zealand, but though it’s been widely grown there for 100 years, it’s actually native to the highlands of Colombia, southern Brazil and the hills of northeast Uruguay. It can also be found in eastern Paraguay and northern Argentina.
We planted some at Malibu, and they never really thrived (and then they burned in the fire). But there’s some very healthy specimens at King Gillette Ranch, in full flower right now. So pretty.
Our club joined up with the Channel Island Nature Journalers for a visit to the local botanic gardens.
A dying tree supports so much life—insects, lichen, fungi, bacteria, reptiles, plants, small mammals. I sat by this log and recorded a few of the organisms I could easily see.
I just found this in my drafts folder. I think I painted it last November.
In the U.S. we call this the floss silk or silk floss tree, but in South America (where it is native) it goes by palo borracho (“drunken stick” in Spanish). Looking at this specimen, I can see why!
hashiworks 