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Polypogon monspeliensis

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Polypogon monspeliensis

What is this fluffy-flowered grass on the water’s edge, we wondered. Turns out that rabbitsfoot or beardgrass is native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, but is now found in other parts of Africa, as well as in Australia and both North and South America. In California, it is widely distributed but typically confined to moist habitats. The flowers sure are attractive, but the grass can form dense stands and outcompete native plant species.

wuthering

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wuthering

How long since you read this classic?

According to Italo Calvino*, “Classics are books which, the more we think we know them through hearsay, the more original, unexpected, and innovative we find them when we actually read them.” Also “A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading.”

If it’s been a while, maybe it’s time for a re-read!

*Why Read the Classics, 2001

willow galls

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galls

Galls, also known as cecidia, are abnormal swellings that form on the outer tissues of plants, resembling benign tumors or warts in animals. These growths can be triggered by a wide range of parasites, including viruses, fungi, bacteria, other plants, insects, and mites. The scientific study of these structures is called cecidology.

Galls come in many different sizes, shapes and colours; I’m always looking out for them. Our native arroyo willows display at least two different insect-triggered galls. The sawfly/midge lays its eggs under the surface of the leaf/stem. Cecidologists are still trying to figure out how the plant’s genetic instructions cause the responding structures, which provide shelter and food for the insect’s larvae when they hatch.