Penn-Sylvania Prairie

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The last Sunday in April was a great day to visit Missouri Prairie Foundation’s Penn-Sylvania Prairie – the temperature was comfortable and wildflowers were blooming. A fellow Missouri Master Naturalist led the hike, another person used Seek to record what we were seeing, and my daughter did the driving…I simply enjoyed the hike and took pictures! Before we started our hike we all took precautions for ticks. I got one on me – when I took a picture of the sign! – but brushed it off quickly and didn’t find any more on subsequent tick checks.

The list for the day included:

  • Canadian Lousewort Pedicularis canadensis

  • Prairie Blue-eyed Grass Sisyrinchium campestre

  • Bastard Toadflax Comandra umbellata

  • Small skullcap Scutellaria parvula

  • Eastern Shooting Star Primula meadia

  • Carolina Rose Rosa Carolina

  • Sampson’s Snakeroot Orbexilum pedunculatum

  • Ohio Spiderwort Tradescantia ohiesis

  • Cowpoison Nothoscordum bivalve

  • Mead’s Sedge Carex meadii

  • Prairie Phlox Plox pilosa

  • Pale-spiked lobelia Lobelia spicata

  • Painted-cup Paintbrush Castilleja coccinea

  • Goat’s Rue Tephrosia virginiana

  • Pail Beardtongue Penstemon pallidus

  • Common Yarrow Achillea mallefolium

  • Green Antelopehorns Asclepias viridis

  • Violet Woodsorrel Oxalis violacea

  • Cream wild indigo Baptista bracteate

  • Golden Alexander Ziza aurea

  • Leadplant (not blooming yet) Amorpha canescens

  • Rattlesnake master (not blooming yet) Eryngium yuccifolium

  • Smooth sumac (not blooming yet) Rhus glabra

Most of the pictures were of plants…although I did manage one butterfly – probably an American Painted Lady. We saw larger bubble bees (maybe queens since it is the season for them to be flying) and some black swallowtails and grasshoppers. There were a few smaller bees/wasps that we photographed on plants.

I used two different cameras: 1) my phone (iPhone 15 Pro Max with Bluetooth shutter remote) for when I could easily get close to the plant. The flowers that were blooming were low so I frequently opted to use my other camera to avoid being brushed by vegetation (tick perches).   

2) my bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX 70 HS) has good zoom capabilities so I could stand up to photograph rather than being down in the vegetation.

After we left the prairie, we continued along gravel roads to check on a Killdeer nest that had been seen at the edge of the road. It was still there and the bird stuck with her nest while we took some photos.

After lunch at the Hanger Kafe we headed home from our field trip.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 2, 2026

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

4/22/2026 The Conversation Microplastics have been found to interact with the gut microbiome – here’s what health effects they might have - A recently published study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, showed that giving mice a group of polystyrene microplastics of various sizes makes the gut vulnerable to IBD.

4/22/2026 The Washington Post More Americans are exposed to polluted air in the United States. See where. - More than 150 million people across the United States, including nearly half the nation’s children, live in areas affected by harmful levels of air pollution.

4/20/2026 Our World in Data Most people care about farm animals — our food system doesn't reflect that - In a recent US survey about common farming practices, at most one in five respondents rated each practice as “acceptable”. The researchers noted that this view was broadly shared across age, gender, income, political affiliation, ethnicity, and region. The practices in question included pigs kept in cages unable to turn around for week, newborn male chicks are killed in meat grinders, newborn calves castrated without pain relief, and chickens bred to grow fast and struggle to walk/stand. In another US survey, around two in five of respondents agreed on banning slaughterhouses and factory farming, and close to a third supported banning animal farming altogether.

4/14/2026 Yale 360 In a First for the U.S., Renewables Generate More Power Than Natural Gas - In a first last month, renewables supplied more power to the U.S. than natural gas, a milestone in the shift to clean energy. However, rising power demand is complicating the transition away from fossil fuels by extending the lives of many aging coal power plants. Together, renewables — including solar, wind, hydropower, and bioenergy — were the biggest source of U.S. electricity in March. Along with nuclear power, they supplied more than half of U.S. power.

4/14/2026 BBC Why wildflowers are moving from meadows to the city - Cities might seem like an unlikely candidate for flowers to thrive – but wildflowers love them.  Cities are often associated with stress – and only the toughest plants can cope in them. Thankfully, wildflowers thrive on stress. This is because stress keeps the competition down and wildflowers can't cope with lots of competition. we need to accept a bit of wildness and untidiness. We can't exist as humans alone; we're part of nature and we need to let nature in.

4/22/2026 NWF Blog What in the Hellbender? -Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) are fully aquatic amphibians, meaning they spend all their lives in water. They primarily feed on crayfish, snails, small fish, tadpoles, insects, and worms, and have long life spans, sometimes up to 30 years. Hellbenders breathe through their skin even though they have gills, but like most amphibians, they lose their frilly external gills once they reach adulthood. heir wrinkly skin allows them lots of surface area to breathe while underwater. There are two subspecies, and unfortunately, both are facing serious conservation challenges. They are the Eastern Hellbender and the Ozark Hellbender.

4/19/2026 Clean Technica We Can Create Food Systems That Enhance Human & Planetary Health -Globally, the food system accounts for roughly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. Big Ag incorporates large volumes of manure, chemicals, antibiotics, and growth hormones to increase agricultural yields. These can contaminate nearby water sources and threaten aquatic ecosystems, biodiversity, nitrogen cycles and soil health. The world’s growing population will need food systems that can sustainably convert crop production into calories for human consumption. Many agricultural experts concur that support for agriculture needs to focus on soil health, water quality, and climate resilience. By focusing on low carbon methods, enhancing circular nutrient management, and reinforcing soil regeneration, food systems can reduce risk, stabilize yield, and drive long term productivity.

4/18/2026 Science Daily Common cleaning sponge found to release trillions of microplastic fibers - That “magic” sponge under your sink may be hiding an environmental downside. While melamine sponges are famous for effortlessly scrubbing away stubborn stains, they slowly break down as you use them—shedding tiny plastic fibers that wash into water systems. Researchers estimate that globally, these sponges could release over a trillion microplastic fibers every month, potentially entering the food chain and affecting wildlife.

4/14/2026 The Conversation How microplastics hurt the hidden helpers that keep our coasts healthy - Despite bamboo worm’s (Macroclymenella stewartensis)  hidden lives and small size – most measure just a few centimeters long – these New Zealand worms have an outsized influence on the health of the marine environment. But now there are troubling signs that microplastics – tiny but pervasive fragments of broken-down plastic – are disrupting the vital role the worms play, with potentially wider effects we are only just beginning to understand.

4/20/2026 Compound Interest Magnolia molecules: fragrance, pigments and medicines – Last year I learned that the petals of the Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) were edible. The infographic includes more magnolia trivia!

eBotanical Prints – April 2026

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in April – all are available for browsing on Internet Archive.   16 of the books are a continuation of the Carnivorous Plant Newsletters; there are 4 volumes per year so this month includes 2004 to 2008; I’ll continue browsing this periodical in May.

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,343 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from April’s 20 books below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.

Enjoy the April 2026 eBotanical Prints!

Alpen-Flora für Touristen und Pflanzenfreunde * Hoffman, Julius; Friese, Hermann * sample image * 1904

Ocean flowers and their teachings * Howard, Mary Matilda * sample image * 1846

Algae and corallines of the bay & harbor of New York * Durant Charles Ferson * sample image * 1850

A popular history of British seaweeds : comprising their structure, fructification, specific characters, arrangement, and general distribution, with notices of some of the fresh-water algæ * Landsborough, David * sample image * 1857

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.33:no.2 (2004)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.33:no.3 (2004)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.33:no.4 (2004)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2004

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.34:no.1 (2005)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2005

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.34:no.2 (2005)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2005

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.34:no.3 (2005)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2005

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.34:no.4 (2005)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2005

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.35:no.1 (2006)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2006

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.35:no.2 (2006)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2006

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.35:no.3 (2006)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2006

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.35:no.4 (2006)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2006

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.36:no.1 (2007)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2007

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.36:no.2 (2007)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2007

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.36:no.3 (2007)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2007

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.36:no.4 (2007)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2007

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.37:no.1 (2008)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2008

Ten Little Celebrations – April 2026

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April was full of springtime happenings worth celebrating.

Native plants for my garden. I celebrated finding all the plants on my list at a native plant sale….and when I got all 28 of them planted.

Angel’s Diner. Celebrating finding a great place to stop for lunch on my way home from my monthly trips to Dallas….in McAlester OK.

Luna moths. 10 luna moths emerged from cocoons that had overwintered in my John Deere room. I celebrated every time one took off into the wild.

Another red buckeye. My young red buckeye that made it through the winter was killed by several frosts as its buds were popping…so it was a day to celebrate when a Master Naturalist friend dug up a seedling from her yard for me.

Dandelion and violet leaves in my salads. It’s that time of year when I don’t need to buy leafy greens…there are so many that are available in my yard. I’m celebrating the bounty.

Pawpaw and elderberry seedlings. I hadn’t anticipated how hard digging 10 holes for seedlings was going to be….so the biggest celebration of the day was when it was done!

Earth Day. I celebrated having 2 (very different) tabling gigs for Earth Day this year.

Scissor-tailed Flycather. Celebrating that they are back…I saw one in Oklahoma on my trip to Lewisville/Dallas this month.

Rhododendron blooming. Celebrating the big clusters of flowers.

Show-me less plastic events. 2 successful events….good interactions and learning experiences. Celebrating baby steps toward plastic reduction.

Zooming – April 2026

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April was a mix of temperature extremes with some plants thriving – others not faring so well. By the end of the month, it was obvious that the majority were going to be OK. I enjoyed my yard in April as I planted almost 40 new native plants (the bulk in a new garden); I photographed older plants as I added the new ones. I released 10 luna moths that emerged from last summer’s cohort; the temperature swings might have been challenging for them but I opted to release them within 24-48 hours after they emerged since their adult life span is so short. There is one picture from my Texas trip…3 from a visit to Powell Gardens.

Rhododendron Blooms

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The big rhododendron bush just outside my office window is in full bloom. I love to take pictures when there are still some buds….and other flowers fully open. I like the luminescence of the flowers, and the pollen sometimes looks like gold. It is probably a cultivar of the rhododendron native to North America….but not to Missouri.

I am wondering if the bloom time this year will be prolonged by the recent cold days when the flowers probably simply slow or stop opening. The beautiful flowers seem to fade quickly.

I cut some stems near the bottom of the plant to bring inside since the bush is encroaching on the stone path in front of it. The blooms fit nicely in a largish wine glass on my windowsill.

Earth Day Tabling

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I volunteered for two Earth Day events last week. The first one was on the grounds of a church; several Master Naturalists and I volunteered at two tables contains skulls and pelts….and exploring rotten logs. That’s not my favorite tabling topics…because with skulls and pelts the question about where they came from always come up; my standard answer is that they are provided to us by Missouri Department of Conservation to use for public or school outreach events. I like to contrast skulls/teeth of carnivores and herbivores with omnivores in-between. I had a coyote and red fox representing carnivores, white-tailed deer and beaver representing herbivore….then racoon as an omnivore.

It was a cold morning so there were not many children at the celebration for the first few hours. The rotten logs did not get a lot of attention from the adults that braved the cold. Shortly afternoon, we had some children start to peel off layers of bark and rotting wood looking for critters --- finding some and having a good time looking at the textures of wood and fungi while they worked.

Our tables were under a large tree with a good view of a neighboring sweet gum tree with lots of last fall’s gumballs still on the ground. I was pleased to see that even the decoration of the bathroom inside the church was nature themed!

My shift lasted for 3 hours and it was just warming up enough to shed my coat when I left; I figure that the shift from 1-4 had a lot more traffic!

Stay tuned for a post on my second Earth Table tabling experience where the topic was plastics.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 25, 2026

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

4/9/2026 Yale 360 A More Troubling Picture of Sea Level Rise Is Coming into View - Sea levels are much higher than we thought. Real-world oceans are making a mockery of flood-risk forecasts based on crude global modeling. And to make matters worse, coastal lands almost everywhere are subsiding faster than anyone realized — often many times faster than the seas are rising. 

4/10/2026 BBC The air throughout our homes is infused with microplastics. But there are things you can do to breathe less of them - Scientists believe the majority of our exposure to microplastics happens when we're indoors. To solve the microplastic pollution crisis will take a lot more than changes within the home – there are plenty of broader sustainability concerns too. If moving to replace synthetic fibers in your home with natural fibers, for instance, there's also the greater water and land use from organic cotton use to think about. Or if choosing to ventilate your home more to usher away microplastics, that pollution is only being pushed outdoors. Short of systemic change and a global reduction from the 460 million tons of plastic made each year, there's only so much individuals can do. 

4/9/2026 National Parks Traveler Deer Test Positive for Chronic Wasting Disease at Catoctin Mountain Park – We enjoyed Catoctin when we lived in Maryland….I’m sad that the deer there and in nearby parks have tested positive for CWD.

4/08/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See the 2,000-Year-Old Ancient Roman Cargo from an Accidental Shipwreck Discovered at the Bottom of a Lake in Switzerland - Roughly 2,000 years ago, an ancient Roman ship sailed across a large lake in what is now Switzerland, transporting supplies ranging from olive oil to chariot wheels. For some unknown reason, the vessel scattered its cargo across the lakebed. The cargo is in good condition, but researchers are concerned it may become damaged or destroyed by erosion, boat anchors, vandals and looters. As a precautionary measure, they decided to bring the most vulnerable pieces up from the depths.

4/10 2026 Artnet How a Hopi Potter Named Nampeyo Became a 19th-Century Art Star - Born in 1859 in the village of Hano, a Tewa village on First Mesa, in modern-day Arizona, Nampeyo (1859–1942) is believed to have learned the art of pottery making from her paternal grandmother. By the 1870s, Nampeyo was selling her works at trading posts throughout the region. Nampeyo’s legacy is a complex one, shaped by ancestry, archaeology, and the shifting trade systems of the still-expanding United States as it entered the 20th century.

4/11/2026 Science Daily Unusual airborne toxin detected in the U.S. for the first time - Scientists searching for air pollution clues stumbled onto something unexpected: toxic MCCPs drifting through the air for the first time in the Western Hemisphere. Although these pollutants have previously been detected in places like Antarctica and Asia, scientists had struggled to measure them in the air over the Western Hemisphere until this study. These chemicals are commonly used in industrial processes, including metalworking fluids and the production of PVC and textiles. They frequently appear in wastewater and can end up in biosolid fertilizer, also called sewage sludge, which is produced during wastewater treatment. The researchers believe the MCCPs they detected in Oklahoma likely originated from nearby fields where this type of fertilizer had been applied.

4/8/2026 My Modert Met Winners of the Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2025 Celebrate Scotland’s Wild Beauty - The winning photos span 10 primary categories, including Environmental, Natural Abstract, Scottish Botanical, and Scottish Wildlife Portrait, among others. I appreciated the beauty among so many other blog posts that were somber….depressing.

4/3/2026 NWF Blog How to Grow More - Conservation outreach professionals are tasked with the challenge of not only clearly explaining conservation programs but also personally connecting with farmers. This combination of technical skills and personal communication skills is rare, since the skills are seldom taught in school and professional development opportunities are uncommon or unsupported.

4/3/2026 The Conversation Toxic dust from California’s shrinking Salton Sea is harming children’s lung growth - As the lake shrinks, wind blowing across the exposed lake bed kicks up toxic dust left by years of agriculture chemicals and metals washing into the lake. That dust makes its way into the lungs of the children of the Imperial Valley. The study began to show that higher levels of dust exposure, especially among those children living closer to the sea, are linked to poorer lung function, as well as reductions in children’s lung growth over time. Reduced lung function increases the risk for chronic respiratory disease, such as COPD, or more frequent respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, as adults.

3/19/2026 Mongabay Should potentially harmful chemicals be appraised by class, not one at a time? - Some scientists and health advocates are pushing for a “Six Classes” framework that evaluates entire groups of chemicals, or chemically related subgroups, together, flagging them for scrutiny before harm is documented rather than after. The framework targets six broad categories of chemicals that share many common traits: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), flame retardants, phthalates and bisphenols, antimicrobials, certain solvents, and certain metals.

Pawpaw and Elderberry Seedlings

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I ordered Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) and Elderberry Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) seedlings from Missouri’s George O. White State Forest Nursery (a service provided by the Missouri Department of Conservation)….and they came last week! There were 10 seedlings for each species – the plan was for me to plant half of them in my yard and my daughter getting the rest for hers.

The box came in the evening, and I opted to plant the next day. They came in a box wrapped in paper backed plastic held in place with ties. The tops of some were showing at the top.

There was an instruction sheet that got a little damp even though it was outside the wrapping. The seedlings themselves had been packed with damp moss. They were labeled – the pawpaw is the darker bark/roots and the elderberry – aside from being lighter in color – had leaves beginning to emerge.

Digging the 10 holes was work; the day was cool but very humid. I planted 3 elderberry in the front yard native plant garden (these were the only easy holes because they were in mulch!), all the pawpaw in an area of my backyard that will become my pawpaw patch (it already had one plant that I purchased last fall), and the other 2 elderberry at two places in my back yard. It had rained not long before I planted, and rain was in the forecast, so I packed down the soil around them and let nature take over.

I finished up and took the remaining seedlings to my daughter…left her to dig her own holes. It was an exhausting day.

I hope at least half of what I planted survive….would be thrilled if more did. Getting seedlings this way was less expensive than buying that many plants from at native plant sales, but I am not as confident about their survival.

Slime Mold in the Oak Mulch

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I started my native plant garden last fall with a thick layer of wood chips – primarily oak from my daughter’s tree trimmers. I’ve only recently planted into it. When planting, I observed that while the surface looked dry, it was moist just below the surface. There were some areas of crust on the surface that I wondered about. Then the yellow splotches of slime mold appeared after a rain…..and a few days later dried out and became crusts like I had seen earlier.

It’s good to have natural cycles playing out in my yard…and molds are part that often go unnoticed. My goal now is to observe frequently….enjoy the garden’s evolution.

Suburban Savanna - 1

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Shortly after I started the 9-month Missouri Woodland Mentor series back in January, I started pondering whether the sterile suburban yards (highly fertilized, sprayed with pesticides, rigidly trimmed, full of non-native plants, toxic to most wildlife) could be transformed into something with a positive impact on the natural environment. It seemed to me that the definition of a savanna fit closest to what suburbs looked like on the surface: grass interspersed with trees providing less than 30% canopy cover.

There are some qualities of a suburb that would work against it becoming a full-fledged savanna:

There is too much impervious surface: streets, houses, sidewalks, driveways…which means that water will run off more quickly. There are often water retention ponds in newer developments to collect run off – somewhat slow the flow.

The building of the houses and infrastructure often is a severe disruption to the land: scraping off topsoil and hauling it away, removing almost all vegetation, and planting of turf. Sometimes there are a few trees planted by the builder – but they are not necessarily natives.  It takes a long time to recover from that disruption. It is the starting point for neighborhoods to progress toward a suburban savanna.

Even with those challenges, there are things I am already doing to nudge my yard toward the savanna goal:

  • I don’t spray pesticides or herbicides….and I don’t fertilize.

  • I don’t mow the fall leaves in my back yard until late spring (let the moths and insects emerge.

  • The non-native trees to Missouri (a Kousa dogwood and an eastern white pine and a variety of holly) are not going to be cut down…but I am planting more native woody plants: pawpaw, fragrant sumac, spice bush (hosted spice bush swallowtail caterpillars last summer), red buckeye, elderberry, and Ozark witch hazel. A red maple and shortleaf pine are the two native trees that were already growing in my yard. The forsythia and Japanese barberry will eventually be dug up.

  • The violets that were contained in a bed on the east side of the house when I moved here have been allowed to spill out taking over half the grass/moss area of that side yard. I have noticed more birds finding food in the debris from the violets over this past winter – even that small change has made a difference to birds.

  • I have planted a native plant garden in the middle of my front yard. As it matures – I will extend it so that there will be less ‘turf’ remaining.

  • Last summer I avoided mowing patches of clover I found growing in the year as a step toward improving the quality of the soil.

  • I am learning to recognize goldenrod, asters, and Rudbekia coming up in my yard that I can simply mow around!

I will post next month about my progress transforming my yard into a suburban savanna. My focus currently is on my yard …but I will take every opportunity to encourage others in my neighborhood to begin the process as well.

Sustaining Elder Care/Road Trip to Texas – April 2026

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I made my monthly trip to see my dad in Lewisville TX a week ago. It was a pleasant sunny day for the drive down. I bought a salad at my last stop in Oklahoma and ate it at the Texas Welcome Center on US 75. The temperature was perfect to park in the shade, roll down the window and eat my salad. There were still bluebonnet blooming and other flowers had appeared as well – I took pictures as I walked around a little after lunch.

My dad was sleeping when I arrived…but he woke up after about 20 minutes, and I was able to convince in to take a walk around the courtyard. He can’t see very well so I keep a hand on the walker to set the direction but let him set the pace. He seems to move slower than he did prior to last month’s hospitalization, but he still enjoys being outside. We sat in the shade on the patio for a while afterward.

Once I got him back to his room, he seemed exhausted, so I left to meet one of sisters. She is cleaning out her mother-in-law’s house (she moved into an assisted living apartment). I got there a little before my sister and enjoyed seeing the large trees in the front yard; one was an oak (progeny in the flowerbed) but its trunk was not nearly as large as the ones in Maryland and Missouri; the heat stress in Texas probably causes them to grow differently. I got some botanical artwork my sister’s mother-in-law had done years ago; I got several different sunflowers that will look good in my office.

Some of my plastic reduction strategies worked better than usual this trip. My tin with stainless forks worked well for my lunch salad the first day and my breakfast the next morning. I put the used forks in the ice chest so that I could easily put them in the dishwasher when I got home. Coffee filters (left over from when I switched from a coffee maker to an electric kettle (glass and stainless) work well to hold microwave popcorn for my evening snack. A Pyrex bowl that had carrots and celery in the ice chest on the way down was emptied the first evening and then used to hold my breakfast the next morning – avoiding a Styrofoam plate.

The season is warm enough now that I am realizing that I need to put my cosmetics in the ice chest since the suitcase stays in the care when I am visiting my father. It avoids melted or separated products. It takes as much room as food stuff.

I saw my dad just after he finished breakfast in the morning and he was keen to go for a walk. It was a little cooler, so we did a walk that was part inside and part outside…and he was a little tired by the time we were back in his room. It wasn’t long before an aide came to give him a shower…so I headed toward home about 30 minutes earlier than I had planned.

I got to the diner I wanted to try in McAlester OK about noon. It probably will be the place I will stop on my way home from now on. I was glad I had a good lunch since the middle of the drive was full of rain which made it a bit more challenging; the road in the small towns often has curbs but no drains so water accumulates quickly. I had expected rain closer to home but it cleared off for the last couple of hours. Still – I just wanted to relax when I got home.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 18, 2026

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

4/2/2026 NPR EPA flags microplastics, pharmaceuticals as contaminants in drinking water – A good move….but not enough, by itself, to do what needs to be done to improve water quality. It seems out of step with what the EPA has been doing recently so I am skeptical.

4/2/2026 Science Daily Study finds dangerous lead levels in children’s clothing - Researchers testing children’s shirts from multiple retailers found every sample exceeded U.S. safety limits, raising concerns about toxic exposure—especially since young kids often chew on clothing. Brightly colored fabrics like red and yellow showed particularly high levels, likely due to chemicals used to fix dyes. Simulations suggest that even brief mouthing could expose children to unsafe amounts of lead, a substance known to harm brain development and behavior. None of the items tested met U.S. safety standards.

4/2/2026 National Parks Traveler Seventy-Three Percent of Marine Protected Areas Are Polluted by Sewage - A study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Queensland (attached) found that nearly three out of four of the world's marine protected areas (MPAs) are polluted by sewage. In the ocean regions most critical for coral reefs and tropical sea life, the problem is even worse: between 87 percent and 92 percent of protected areas are affected, and typical pollution levels inside these zones are ten times higher than in surrounding unprotected waters. Over 16,000 MPAs globally were evaluated in the study.

4/1/2026 Clean Technica U.S. Coal Exports Decreased in 2025 after 4 Years of Growth - The decrease in U.S. coal exports largely reflects a 92% decrease in exports to China in 2025 compared with 2024, after China imposed a 15% additional tariff on imports of U.S. coal in February of last year and a 34% reciprocal tariff on imports from the United States in April. It also reflects a global market characterized by ample supply and soft demand, which caused prices to decline, making it increasingly difficult for U.S. coal exporters to earn profits. Finally, coal generation in the U.S. domestic coal market rose 13% in 2025, leading to a 12% increase in electric power coal consumption after three straight years of decreases.

3/9/2026 The Scientist Nearly Ten Percent of Cancer Papers Flagged as Potentially Fake - Over the last two decades, the scientific literature has been flooded by low-quality research papers produced by for-profit organizations known as paper mills. It is estimated that suspected paper mill products account for two to 46 percent of manuscripts submitted to scientific journals, with the estimated rate of problematic articles in biomedical research reaching nearly six percent in 2023.

4/1/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Humans Might Struggle to Make Babies in Space. Sperm Gets Disoriented in Microgravity - Many of the proteins found on sperm act as mechanosensors, tiny molecular devices that detect physical forces. Remove the force of gravity, and it stands to reason that these sensors would be thrown off, disrupting the sperm’s ability to orient and navigate. As we progress toward becoming a spacefaring or multi-planetary species, understanding how microgravity affects the earliest stages of reproduction is critical.

4/1/2026 National Parks Traveler Study Finds Microplastics on 45 Percent of Beaches - A 2025 study collected samples from 209 beaches across 39 countries and 6 ocean basins, discovering that 45 percent of the beaches contained “suspected microplastics” (those visually identified but not yet confirmed through further analysis). Some of the samples came from Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, where microplastics may indirectly reduce the turtle nesting success of species like the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle.

4/1/2026 NPR The oil industry is betting big on plastics. Here's what that means for the future - Beth Gardiner, a journalist and author of the new book "Plastic Inc.: The Secret History And Shocking Future Of Big Oil's Biggest Bet." In it, she argues that while millions of us have been trying to use less plastic, the fossil fuel industry has been making more. Plasticis Big Oil's plan B. The less we use, the more they make.

4/20/2026 Smithsonian Magazine This High School Student Invented a Filter That Eliminates 96 Percent of Microplastics from Drinking Water - Her current prototype, which is about the size of a standard bag of flour, consists of three modules. The first unit, about a liter in volume, holds the contaminated water inside it, while the second stores the magnetic oil-based ferrofluid. The core process takes place in the third module, which is much smaller. A magnetic field pulls the microplastics out of the water, and the ferrofluid is recovered and reused in a closed loop. --- I hope there is follow-up to this story!

3/30/2026 CNN Millions of preterm births and thousands of infant deaths linked to plastic chemical - Two chemicals used to make plastic more flexible are linked to nearly 2 million premature births and the deaths of 74,000 newborns worldwide in 2018, according to a new study. Babies who survive may have breathing problems, feeding difficulties, cerebral palsy, developmental delay, vision problems, and hearing problems. he two chemicals in the study — Di-2-ethylhexylphthalate, or DEHP, and its cousin diisononyl phthalate, or DiNP — are part of a family of synthetic chemicals called phthalates. Meaningful protection cannot rely solely on individual behavior. The most effective solutions are upstream, including stronger regulations, safer product formulations, better labeling, and improved environmental management and regulatory oversight.

Macro Photography – Springtime

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There are so many plants making moves in the springtime….which makes for a lot of macro photography subjects. These are all from my yard!

The short-leaf pine has dropped some cones and the cycle is beginning again in the tree.

The Ozark Witch Hazel is leafing out and its stems are growing rapidly.

Dandelions and henbits are blooming. I was surprised that I didn’t see any insects around the plants; perhaps the wind was too strong for them? Neither plant is native but they have deep roots that hold the soil and I usually see a lot of insects visiting the dandelion flowers.

There is a Chinese mantis case from last year on a plant in my yard. I’ll keep an eye on it – hoping to see some tiny mantises emerge.

A spiderweb caught a seed!

The Japanese Barberry is blooming. I am going to cut down my two bushes again since I really do not want the plant in my yard. There is a small one in the flower bed that has come up from seed. They are invasive and have thorns – nothing to like about them.

There were some insects on the last daffodil flower.

The lambs ear is coming up from everywhere it was last year. I like the tint of green…and velvety texture.

Finally – the violets are blooming. The plants started out as small clumps of leaves; then the leaves get bigger and the flowers open. I am harvesting some for greens (think salad and stir-fry), but the plants recover quickly. They are a great native plant for the shady parts of my yard.

Planting Native Plants in the Front Yard

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I waited a day or so to plant the young plants – when the nighttime temperatures would not be dipping into the 30s again. I planted into the oak mulch that I had put down last fall. As I made the hole for the first plant, I noticed that the surface was dry but underneath for very moist. There were worms and small grubs and white fungus hyphae. The new plants are going to love it. Of course, this also means that plants I don’t want there were going to love it too….I will need to recognize and pull as they appear!

I planted 8 plants on the first day:

Wild Blue Indigo Baptisia australis and Cream wild indigo Baptista bracteate

Rattlesnake master Eryngium yuccifolium and Golden ragwort Packera aurea

Missouri Evening Primrose Oenothera macrocarpa and Nodding Onion Allium cernuum

Yarrow Achillea millefolium and Little Bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium

The Soapweed yucca Yucca glauca was planted the following day in a bed where I had to remove rocks and landscaping cloth. The bed is not covered by our sprinkler system and some of the plants previously there had not done well with the dry conditions.

Now that this first round of plants is in the ground, I am in monitoring mode….to water if it doesn’t rain enough and to pull weeds. I am expecting some elderberry seedlings that I will add to the front garden….and some pawpaw seedlings that will join one I planted last year in my back yard (completing the pawpaw patch).

Buying Native Plants for the Front Yard

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The local nature center hosted two native plant vendors (Ozark Soul and Missouri Wildflowers Nursery) on a recent Saturday, and I bought the initial plants for my new front yard native plant garden. The oak chips have been in place since last fall, and the temperatures are warm enough to begin plantings. It was a damp morning, but my daughter helped by volunteering her time and her car; we loaded up three bins of plants.

I took pictures of the bins when I got home and documented what I bought. I’m keeping a record of what I buy, plant…what survives.

In bin1 there are:

  • 10 Missouri Evening Primrose Oenothera macrocarpa The one near my mailbox is doing very well and these plants will become the ground cover level of my native plant garden.

  • 2 Little Bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium It will be the background for the lower part of the garden….and show up more after other vegetation has died back for the winter.

  • In bin 2 the rows from top to bottom are:

  • Little Bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium, Nodding Onion Allium cernuum, Wild Blue Indigo Baptisia australis

  • Rattlesnake master Eryngium yuccifolium, Nodding Onion Allium cernuum, Wild Blue Indigo Baptisia australis

  • Rattlesnake master Eryngium yuccifolium, Yarrow Achillea millefolium, Rattlesnake master Eryngium yuccifolium

In bin 3 the rows top to bottom are:

  • Golden ragwort Packera aurea, Soapweed yucca Yucca glauca

  • 2 Cream wild indigo Baptista bracteate

  • Soapweed yucca Yucca glauca, Golden ragwort Pakera aurea

My next post will be about planting these into the garden. There are 28 plants in all.

There is another native plant sale at the botanical garden in early May. Hopefully these plants will be thriving, and I can focus on filling in with the plants that will bloom into the fall…provide food for pollinators at the end of the season.

Luna Moths

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I’m not sure why I decided to check the luna moth cocoons I had put in my John Deere room last fall. I was surprised and excited to see 6 moths in the cage! They hadn’t been out long since there were males and females…none mating.

I knew that there were some moths that hadn’t emerged last fall, but I wasn’t sure how many would make it through the winter months. I released the first 6 at dusk on the evening they emerged last week. They seemed reluctant to leave my finger although when I tried to release them on my red maple they crawled onto the branches; red maple is a food plant for the caterpillars. Two more emerged the next day and I waited until the frost warning was over before releasing them.

The red maple is barely leafing out. I hope that if the moths lay eggs there we be sufficient leaves by the time the caterpillars emerge.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 11, 2026

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2/23/2026 I’m Plastic Free Watched The Plastic Detox? Your Guide to Reducing Microplastics Exposure - The Plastic Detox is a powerful documentary exposing the hidden health risks of plastics in our homes. As six couples commit to removing plastic from their homes, the experience transforms their families in lasting ways. The documentary uncovers what microplastics are, how their associated chemicals affect our bodies, and what practical steps individuals can take to regain control over their health.

3/30/2026 BBC Salmon sperm to bird droppings: The science behind bizarre skincare trends - While even the most bizarre of skincare routine fads may have some scientific backing, scientists think that options for the next generation of skincare therapies will involve, among other things, finding new ways to optimize collagen supplementation. Other new therapies are exploring novel ways of manipulating the skin microbiome, the populations of invisible microbes that live on our faces and contribute heavily to the inflammation present in our skin.

3/30/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Sharks in the Bahamas Test Positive for Drugs, Including Cocaine and Painkillers - Sharks in the Bahamas are ingesting drugs—including cocaine, caffeine and painkillers. Scientists identified blood contamination in about one-third of tested animals, findings that further highlight how humans are harming marine environments. While the detection of cocaine—an illicit substance—tends to draw immediate attention, the widespread presence of caffeine and pharmaceuticals in the blood of many analyzed sharks is equally alarming.

3/30/2026 ScienceDaily Simple therapies beat drugs for knee arthritis pain relief - Non-drug treatments like knee braces, hydrotherapy, and exercise can significantly ease knee osteoarthritis symptoms. These approaches not only reduce pain and improve mobility, but also avoid the risks tied to common medications.

3/27/2026 NWF Blog Building hope, organizing communities, and strategic planning on Florida’s Coast - To learn more about the Tampa Bay Coastal Master Plan and efforts to use nature-based solutions to adapt to sea level rise and climate change, with resilient strategies like living shorelines, habitat enhancements, and habitat preservation, please visit this site.

3/26/2026 The Conversation Mosquitoes carrying malaria are evolving more quickly than insecticides can kill them – researchers pinpoint how - The mosquito-borne disease malaria kills over 600,000 people annually. Mosquitoes are quickly evolving counterstrategies that make these insecticides ineffective, putting millions of people at greater risk of deadly infection. Mosquitoes today from Ghana to Malawi are often able to survive insecticide concentrations 10 times the previously lethal dose. Genome-scale sequencing remains important to detect new or unexpected evolutionary responses. The risk of adaptation is highest under a continuous, strong selection pressure, so minimizing, switching and staggering pesticides can help thwart resistance.

3/25/2026 CleanTechnica Why Nature-Based Investments Produce Results - Nature-based solutions have the potential to lift a billion people out of poverty, create 80 million jobs, add an additional $2.3 trillion of growth to the global economy, and prevent $3.7 trillion of climate change damages. Investing in biodiversity conservation and restoring ecosystems have a lot going for them.

3/23/2025 NASA A Fault Line in Bloom – Flowers had turned areas around Soda Lake a bright shade of yellow, and by mid-month, they had spread even farther. Yellow wildflower blooms are visible amid the dendritic network of streams flanking the alkaline lake, which dries out completely during drought years. Colors were particularly vibrant across the Carrizo Plain National Monument, even decorating meadows along the zipper-shaped San Andreas Fault with splashes of purple due to blooms of Phacelia ciliata.

3/30/2026 National Parks Traveler Three Florida Reef Corals "Functionally Extinct" Due To Marine Heat Waves - Extinction has claimed staghorn and elkhorn corals, whose distinctive antler-like arms once peppered the sea floor off Florida but now are all but impossible to find thanks to warming waters and disease throughout their coastal habitat. They are “functionally extinct,” meaning they lack numbers and health to survive threats facing them in the wild. It doesn’t mean they are entirely gone. Scientists are keeping the two species alive in coral nurseries, both onshore and offshore. Many facilities are working to preserve them and raise their offspring as just one aspect of efforts to save the Florida Reef, a 350-mile-long collection of reefs besieged by disease and marine heat waves since the 1970s that have robbed the reef of an estimated 98 percent of its live coral cover. Pillar coral was designated functionally extinct in 2020. On a positive note - elkhorn and staghorn corals typically are ready to move from onshore nurseries into the ocean in about 18 months.

3/30/2026 Yale Environment 360 Even a Few Scattered Trees on Farmland Can Be a Boon for Wildlife - ll told, 58 scientists took part in the effort, using on-the-ground surveys, sound monitoring, and satellite imagery to track close to 2,000 species of birds across more than 1,000 forest remnants. They found that a fragment of forest surrounded by farmland might host more than twice as many bird species as a reservoir island of the same size. 

Backyard Greens

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My backyard greens are ready to eat! I won’t be buying arugula or spinach again until the late fall. Since I don’t put any chemicals on my yard – they are safe to harvest/eat just before I need them.

Right now, the dandelions are full of blooms and I pick mostly flowers – although there are a few leaves too. I generally use them in stir fry since cooking reduces the bitterness of the leaves. The flowers are tasty cooked or fresh!

I use violet leaves like arugula. The flowers are edible – but only available in the spring. They are easy to harvest and seem to replenish themselves quickly. The violet patch has gotten bigger each year we have lived in our house – once I stopped mowing the area where they were spilling out of the flowerbed. They will be the ‘carpet’ under the American Spikenard and the small Red Buckeye and pawpaw and spicebush.

The dandelions are not native…but they are attractive to pollinators and their roots are deep – they hold the soil. So – I am OK with them in my yard. The violets are native and I am encouraging them to grow as far out into the yard as they want. They have taken over about a third of the yard area on the east side of the house; there they get morning sun but once the neighbor’s River Birch gets its leaves the area get less sun even in the morning; the violets thrive in that environment!

I am enjoying the green bounty of my backyard!

Powell Gardens – Part II

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The Orchid Delirium exhibit was the motivation for our visit to Powell Gardens last week. I always enjoy taking macro pictures of orchids with my phone (iPhone 15 Pro Max); it is easier with a Bluetooth shutter remote which I had remembered to clip onto my purse handle. The pathways through the exhibit were wide and it was not crowded…everyone was taking their own time looking at the orchids. Usually, the slipper orchids are my favorites but I found myself drawn to the orange ones (orange was my mother’s favorite color and the color reminds me of her). I noticed the different textures and patterns of the flowers – lightly creased, curls, lines, dots, fizzy hairs, shiny/matte, veins. I realized that orchids sometimes remind me of carnivorous plants.

Enjoy the carousel of images!