Tag: trees

Quercus

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I joined with the Ellwood Friends Nature Journal Club at the Goleta Butterfly Grove, one of the most significant monarch butterfly overwintering sites in California (must go back in winter to see them!). I was happy to find a coast live oak laden with baby acorns, as it seems that this species is having another lean crop year.

Ficus carica

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figleaves

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 😂.

Feijoa

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Feijoa

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.