eBotanical Prints – November 2024

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in November - available for browsing on Internet Archive, New York Public Library Digital Collections, or Botanicus. They cover a range of botanical topics: medicinal plants, botanical link in literature (Milton), particular taxonomic groups, and fruit as well as plants of places (Italy, Russia, and Korea (7 volumes!)). Three volumes (1 by Cornut and 2 by Presl) were about North American plants from preserved plants collected by others – the authors never visit the New World. Overall - the 20 books were published over almost 300 years (1635-1933).

My list of eBotanical Prints books past the 3,000 volumes milestone in November – now totaling 3,003 botanical eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here. Click on any sample image below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume.

Enjoy the November 2024 eBotanical Prints!

Picturesque botanical plates * Thornton, Robert John * sample image * 1807

American medical botany * Bigelow, Jacob (artist) * sample image * 1820

Sorimachi 409 * Spencer collection * sample image * 1746

The Flowers of Milton * Giraud, Jane Elizabeth (Lithographer) * sample image * 1846

Pomona Italiana * Gallesio, Giorgia (illustrator); Capurro, Niccolo (pubisher) * sample image * 1839

Iac. Cornvti ... Canadensivm planatarvm, aliarumque nondum editarum historia.  * Cornut, Jacques Philippe * sample image * 1635

Eidodendron: views of the general character and appearance of trees foreign and indigenous connected with picturesque scenery * Burgess, Henry William (artist); Hullmandel, Charles Joseph (printer) * sample image * 1827

Flora Rossica * Pallas, Peter Simon * sample image * 1788

Reliquiae Haenkeanae V1 * Presl, Karel Borivoj; Haenke, Thaddaus * sample image * 1833

Reliquiae Haenkeanae V2 * Presl, Karel Borivoj; Haenke, Thaddaus * sample image * 1835

Hymenophyllaceae :eine botanische Abhandlung  * Presl, Karel Borivoj * sample image * 1843

Tentamen Pteridographiae * Presl, Karel Borivoj * sample image * 1836

The Hardy Catalpa * Record, Samuel James * sample image * 1906

Flora Sylvatica Koreana Pt 11 Caprifoliaceae * Nakai, Takenoshin * sample image * 1921

Flora Sylvatica Koreana Pt 16 Araliaceae and Cornaceae * Nakai, Takenoshin * sample image * 1927

Flora Sylvatica Koreana Pt 17 Elæagnaceæ, Alangiaceæ, Daphnaceæ, Flacourtiaceæ et Ternstrœmiaceæ  * Nakai, Takenoshin * sample image * 1928

Flora Sylvatica Koreana Pt 18 Piperaceæ, Chloranthaceæ et Salicaceæ * Nakai, Takenoshin * sample image * 1930

Flora Sylvatica Koreana Pt 19 Ulmaceæ et Moraceæ * Nakai, Takenoshin * sample image * 1932

Flora Sylvatica Koreana Pt 20 Bambusaceæ, Myricaceæ, Juglandaceæ, Magnoliaceæ * Nakai, Takenoshin * sample image * 1933

Flora Sylvatica Koreana pt. 21 Aristolochiaceæ, Lardizabalaceæ, Berberidaceæ, Pittosporaceæ, Malvaceæ, Empetraceæ, Urticaceæ * Nakai, Takenoshin * sample image * 1933

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 30, 2024

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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.

How the Groundbreaking Suez Canal Forever Transformed the World’s Shipping Routes – The official opening ceremony was on November 17, 1869. It had taken 10 years to build on the path of an ancient canal and was called “the greatest service to the commerce of the world since the discovery of America.” The project was funded mostly by Western Europe.

'Jekyll and Hyde' leaders do lasting damage - When supervisors swing between good and bad behavior, they do even more damage to their employees than ones that are abusive all the time. And there are some indications that this kind of leadership could be contagious, with a leader's volatility fostering volatility in others

Scientists find a 35,000-year-old saber-toothed kitten in the Siberian permafrost - The cat was just three weeks old when it died, but its cause of death is unknown. The kitten still had its whiskers and claws attached when it was pulled out of the permafrost, and was covered in a coat of short, thick, soft, dark brown fur. Its hair was about 20 to 30 millimeters long. When looking at the mummified cub, scientists found some interesting differences between the kitten and a modern lion cub, particularly, in their paws: the saber-toothed kitten had wider paws, but no carpal pads — that's the wrist joint that's help modern day felines absorb shock.

Hatchling Alligators at the Fort Worth Nature Center – The Dallas/Fort Worth area is at the edge of American Alligator range…but the Nature Center has confirmed that it has a breeding population there. The Fort Worth Nature Center is 3,650 acres of mixed habitat, owned and operated by the City of Forth Worth; it is one of the largest city-owned nature centers in the US. There is an alligator research project ongoing there now that the breeding population has been discovered.

Sitting too long can harm heart health, even for active people - 10 hours or more of sedentary behavior per day is associated with heightened risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death. I am so glad that I decided years ago to use a Swopper chair (without a back…bouncing) at my computer desk….so I am moving most of the time that I am there!

Bone marrow in the skull plays a surprisingly important role in ageing - Studies in mice and humans showed that ageing results in skull bone-marrow expanding, and in mice this marrow was more resistant to inflammation and other hallmarks of ageing.

Glaciers Reveal When Volcanoes Are on Brink of Eruption - New research shows that glaciers near active volcanoes flow faster than other glaciers. The findings suggest it would be possible to predict volcanic eruptions by tracking the speed of glaciers.

Can we live on our planet without destroying it? - With eight billion people, we currently use a lot of the Earth's resources in ways that are likely unsustainable. Research shows that humanity can stay within the planetary boundaries. But it seems that there is little political will to do so. A depressing commentary on humanity.

Memories are not only in the brain - In the future, we will need to treat our body more like the brain -- for example, consider what our pancreas remembers about the pattern of our past meals to maintain healthy levels of blood glucose or consider what a cancer cell remembers about the pattern of chemotherapy.

Astronauts of the underworld: The scientists venturing into the deep, dark Earth - Hundreds of cave entrances are known on Earth, the Moon, even Mars. Many have never been explored.

Nevin Otto Winter Travel Books

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This week’s books are 9 well-illustrated travel books by Nevin Otto Winter published between 1910 and 1918. I was most interested in the illustrations – mostly photographs – although the narrative would serve to understand the perspective of an American traveler of that time period encountering foreign customs. I picked two sample images from each book to include with this post but follow the link to Internet Archive to experience the whole book. Enjoy!

 Brazil and her people of to-day

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2024

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Our area finally is getting some rain. We have been celebrating the rainy days after being very dry for months. We got above the annual average rainfall for the month before mid-November. Of course – there was a lot more to celebrate during the month as well.

 Stems for bees in a bucket…and a small turtle. The yard and neighborhood are making the transition to winter…with lots of leaves flying and the tender leaves of the violets wilting. I celebrated starting a project with stems in a bucket (hopefully becoming a good place for native bees to nest) and seeing a small red-eared slider on a branch in our neighborhood pond.

Friends of the Library. I volunteered twice during the month – sorting/boxing used books at two libraries in the county where I live; the next sale is in the spring. Celebrating the opportunity to contribute to the book availability in my community!

Harris’s sparrow seen during our first FeederWatch observations. My husband and I saw a ‘new to us’ sparrow during our first FeederWatch session! It didn’t appear in subsequent weeks so perhaps it was migrating through. Springfield is on the edge of this sparrow’s winter range…well within the migration area.

Soft peppermints. Peppermint is my favorite winter candy flavor…and the soft ones have become my favorite this year – either eaten or dissolved in a cup of hot tea!

Brilliant red Virginia Creeper. I’ve let the Virginia Creeper become the ground cover of my front flowerbed…and celebrated its brilliant red color this month.

Valley Water Mill for a second day. Celebrating the discovery of a favorite outdoor place near Springfield.

McDaniel Park. The last field session of my Identifying Woody Plants class…celebrating a city park with lots of trees.

Accumulating 40 Missouri Master Naturalist hours. The Missouri Master Naturalist training was over at the end of October which qualified me as an ‘intern’ until I accumulated 40 volunteer hours. I celebrated that I crossed that threshold by the end of November!

Seek app identification (the bug on the Rose of Sharon pods). The Seek app can be very helpful. I forgot to use it in the field (at McDaniel Park) but remembered when I got home…celebrated that I had a ‘good enough’ picture for the app to make a good identification: Hibiscus Scentless Plant Bug.

Thanksgiving. Celebrating the day….and the reminder of all that is positive for us right now….that being grateful is easy.

Identifying Woody Plants – Month 3

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The Identifying Woody Plants field class I am taking at Missouri State University is winding down. The field trips are done, and we’ve had a class looking at twigs and fruit in the lab. The fruit is not too hard…but twigs are a challenge. I did some photographs of fruit.

Hickory nuts/husks, pods (trumpet creeper, catalpa, honey locust)

Colorful bittersweet (I hope the native), acorns, chestnut burs, magnolia (the grouping looked very artsy to me), rose hips, tree of heaven winged seeds, pods of Rose of Sharon.

The ginkgo outside the building our classroom is in finally turned yellow. There were others on campus that had already turned yellow and dropped their leaves. This one was delayed.

In another class, we looked at pressed specimens from prior classes (some of them more than 10 years old) with the assignment to be able to ID them in the next class! I realized how much I look at many aspects of the tree and only having the small part that can fit on a page is sometimes very challenging.  The Nyssa sylvatica specimen has no fruit – just leaves and twig.

There is one more class after Thanksgiving that includes the mounting of our own pressed specimens. Then I will be done since I am auditing the class and can forego the final!

Previous posts about Identifying Woody Plants field class

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 23, 2024

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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.

How a Soviet swamp rat scheme for Azerbaijan went horribly wrong – Nutria introduced in the 1930s…..destroying every wetland in Azerbaijan today.

Light Pollution May Be Keeping Honey Bees Up at Night - On hot nights honey bees will sleep outside and slept less/more fitfully if there is artificial light…which could undermine the health of the colony.

The next massive volcano eruption will cause climate chaos — and we are unprepared – The history of large eruptions and what we can determine about the aftermath…though provoking on what it would be like if a massive eruption happened in the modern world.

Carbon recycling instead of plastic trash – Using iron electrocatalysis and producing green hydrogen as a biproduct…can be powered by solar panels. I hope this can be commercialized near term. We are overwhelming our world with plastic trash!

CT Scans Unlock Secrets of Mummified Individuals at Field Museum – Respect for the ancient dead…but still studying their bodies.

How do countries measure immigration, and how accurate is this data? - Three types of migrants who don’t have a legal immigration status. First, those who cross borders without the right legal permissions. Second, those who enter a country legally but stay after their visa or permission expires. Third, some migrants have legal permission to stay but work in violation of employment restrictions. Most high-income nations have a small minority of irregular immigrants in their immigrant population; the exception is the United States which estimates 22% of their immigrants are irregular.

Riding The Rails on Amtrak's Cardinal Line Through New River Gorge – Maybe a relaxing way to see the National Park and Preserve…thinking about next fall.

Mother Tiger Teaching Cub How to Fight Wins Nature’s Best Photo Awards – Great pictures….but Patricia Homonylo’s video is the most thought provoking….the one that is a call to action.

Geologists rewrite textbooks with new insights from the bottom of the Grand Canyon - From the Tonto Group's 500-meter-thick strata, we're learning about sea-level rise and the effects of catastrophic tropical storms -- probably more powerful than today's devastating hurricanes -- during a period of very hot temperatures when the Earth was ice-free.

Quantifying How Urban Trees Cool Cities - The authors of a new study estimate that the city of Baltimore could reduce land surface temperatures by 0.23°C if they increased tree canopy by 1%. To achieve 1.5°C of cooling, they would need to increase tree canopy cover by 6.39%.

Robert Edwin Peary’s Arctic

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Robert Edwin Peary’s Arctic explorations in the later 19th and early 20th centuries are documented in 6 books he published between 1898 and 1917. They are available on Internet Archive and worth browsing. They are all well-illustrated…attempting to show every aspect of Arctic exploration and Inuit life too. I’ve selected 2 sample images from each book…hopefully enough to encourage browsing the books for yourself!

Northward over the "great ice" : a narrative of life and work along the shores and upon the interior ice-cap of northern Greenland in the years 1886 and 1891-1897

Project FeederWatch

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My husband signed us up for Project FeederWatch and we are counting our feeder birds together – 2 days a week, an AM and PM time each day for a total of 2 hours. We have comfy chairs situated at a large window and leave our binoculars within reach. I do the logging into the app on my phone as we observe – no paper involved at all. This is the view from our window. I moved the chairs from around the table before our latest count. It’s a very calming activity. I usually have a cup of hot tea at my elbow.

We’ve had several rainy days. The light was poor enough that we opted to take the screens off the window (no bird strikes there so far). It made photography a little easier too.

A squirrel has come through may times while we’ve counted; it only stopped at a feeder once (didn’t manage to get anything) since there were plenty of acorns around and it’s the squirrel’s time of year to bury them!

The most numerous birds are sparrows (white throated and white crowned) and finches (gold and house). There are a couple of juncos but we had more last year so maybe they have not all arrived in our area yet from their breeding areas to the north. There are occasional titmice, chickadees, and a red-bellied woodpecker. The grackles are also occasional….they are too big to get much from our feeders; one or two come around to try but don’t stay long fortunately.

Our holly tree has berries, but we haven’t had any hard frosts yet…haven’t seen any birds eating the berries.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 16, 2024

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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.

Drought Expands Across the U.S. – We are finally getting some rain…but we are in the ‘extreme drought’ area of southwestern Missouri; it is going to take a lot to get back to ‘normal.’ On October 29, abnormal dryness and drought affected over 78 percent of the American population—the highest percentage in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s 25-year-long record.

Cholera, Zika and West Nile: The deadly diseases that sweep in after hurricanes – Damage to infrastructure has been the big focus of reporting in the US, but diseases are ramping up.

  • Florida health authorities released a warning in early October of a likely spike in Vibrio vulnificus infections, urging residents to avoid wading in floodwaters.  Vibrio vulnificus is a bacteria which can cause the breakdown of skin and soft tissue, sometimes leading to amputations.

  • West Nile cases rose in Louisiana and Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina.

  • Studies found that flooding in Louisiana following hurricanes Rita and Katrina led to an increase in the airborne fungi Penicillium and Aspergillus, which can cause allergies, respiratory infections and pneumonia.

  • Research into the aftermath of hurricanes Maria, Irma and Michael, shows that a significant number of people in Florida developed new chronic health conditions such as asthma and allergies in the six months following the disasters.

Satellite Imagery Shows Breadth of Flooding in Spain - Valencia saw a year’s worth of rainfall in just eight hours, with floods destroying buildings, disrupting trains, and leaving more than 100,000 homes without power.

What animal societies can teach us about aging - Humans are not the only animals to change our social behavior as we age. Red deer may become less sociable as they grow old to reduce the risk of picking up diseases, while older house sparrows seem to have fewer social interactions as their peers die off.

The world’s oldest tree? Genetic analysis traces evolution of iconic Pando forest - By sequencing hundreds of samples from the tree, researchers confirmed that Pando, a quaking aspen tree (Populus tremuloides) in Utah, is between 16,000 and 80,000 years old. Pando consists of some 47,000 stems that cover an area of 42.6 hectares in Utah’s Fishlake National Forest. Because of the way the plant reproduces, this collection of aspens is technically all one tree, supported by a single, vast root system. Pando is triploid, meaning that its cells contain three copies of each chromosome, rather than two. As a result, Pando cannot reproduce sexually and mix its DNA with that of other trees, and instead creates clones of itself.

Have we found all the major Maya cities? Not even close – Using lidar to survey 50 square miles revealed evidence of more than 6,500 pre-Hispanic structures, including a previously unknown large city complete with iconic stone pyramids.

Stunning Shortlisted Photos From the 2024 Close-Up Photographer of the Year Contest – My favorite was “Chicory” for the color…and that I knew what it was!

Low-level lead poisoning is still pervasive in the US and globally - Chronic, low-level lead poisoning is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease in adults and cognitive deficits in children. Factors such as menopause and hyperthyroidism release lead sequestered in the skeleton, which causes a spike in blood lead concentrations. The solution to protecting people from lead poisoning is to identify and eliminate environmental sources of lead: eliminating lead acid batteries, replacing lead service lines, banning leaded aviation fuel, reducing lead in foods, abating lead paint in older housing, and further reducing lead-contaminated soil and other legacy sources.

Ghost Forests Creep Into North Carolina - Large swaths of cypress and pine forests along the southeast Atlantic coast have died, shed their bark, and become pale, leafless snags that line the waterways like gravestones. In the period before winds topple the snags over and shrubs cover them up, researchers call the eerie ecosystems “ghost forests.” One place that is it happening is Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge…and I realized I have been there! We visited in April of 2015. It was the first place I saw river otters and two vultures (different species) sharing a meal. There probably were bald cypress dying in 2015, but it is even more evident now.

Trees cool better than reflective roofs in vulnerable Houston neighborhoods - Heat islands occur in cities where structures such as buildings and roads absorb the sun's heat more than natural landscapes such as trees and grass. The researchers considered three different heat island mitigation strategies: painting roofs white to increase solar reflectance; planting vegetation on roofs to increase evaporation through the plants; and planting more trees, which increases evaporation and provides shade.

Wm. H. Edwards’ Butterflies of North America

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As we head into winter – I am thinking about butterflies…how I didn’t see as many (or any species) this past summer. Maybe it is the drought in our area, and they will be more numerous next year. I hope so.

Edwards’ volume is the first of three he produced in the 1870s. The illustrations were done by Mary Peart and hand colored by Lydia Brown and often include more than simply the adult butterfly in the later volumes. They are well worth browsing.

The butterflies of North America

 I’ve not thoroughly browsed the other two volumes yet but I think I found them on Internet Archive as well: Volume 2, Volume 3.

McDaniel Park

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The last field trip of the Identifying Woody Plants class was to McDaniel Park – a convenient commute from the campus. It had a lot of invasive plants (Japanese honeysuckle, Winter creeper, Bush honeysuckle, White Mulberries) but some native species too --- lots of good review. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my bridge camera so only had my phone for photography.

One of the review trees was Osage orange – Maclura pomifera – Moraceae. None of the trees had fruit under them. Had it been picked up or were they all male trees?

A new species was Rose of Sharon - Hibiscus syriacus – Malvaceae.  I was as fascinated by the insects on the seed pods (Hibiscus Scentless Plant bugs?)as I was the plant. This is a plant I am familiar with…not native but widely planted. The seeds are hairy!

The River birch - Betula nigra - Betulaceae is an easy one to id from the bark and catkins.

Did you know that poison ivy seeds are white? It was something I learned this semester…not sure why I had never noticed before.

Arcuately veined and opposite fall leaves of a silky dogwood – Cornus obliqua – Cornaceae.

And the variability of Sassafras leaves – Sassafras albidum – Lauraceae. For some reason, I got stuck years ago on ‘mitten’ leaves but the leaves are not always like that!

Our teacher collected seeds and twigs for the lab next week and that included Winged sumac – Rhus copallinum – Anacardiaceae.  I am intrigued that it is used to make tea. We previously saw smooth sumac but there were no seeds on those plants.

I couldn’t resist taking some pictures of fall foliage and a recently cut tree trunk (the tree was around 50 years old).

The field trip was a pleasant fall afternoon – a good finale. I am realizing I that  will miss the weekly classes and am solidifying my plan for the spring semester.

13th Anniversary of my Blog

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This is the 13th anniversary of this blog space. It all started when I made the firm decision to retire and started a daily blog…a few months before my career formally ended. It was a way for me to guarantee a little bit of structure in what loomed as a time of my life without many external requirements on my time.

Work had dominated so much of my time – way more than my college education during the first decade of my career…more than my daughter’s 1st 20 years in decades 1.5-3.5 of my career. My husband has been a constant through it all  - both of us putting considerable time into our careers. Mine ended without a glide path (intentional on my part)….his was a glide that finally ended a few years after my retirement. We both were aware of developing new ways to fill our days with a mix of activities that we chose – sometimes very different from things we did while our careers were active.

Writing a daily blog has had a positive impact on furthering my artistic side…and sometimes spurring me to action.

Previous anniversary posts: 12th anniversary, 11th anniversary, 10th anniversary, 9th anniversary

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 09, 2024

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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.

Old Growth – Mitch Epstein photographs of very old trees.

The true story of a famed librarian and the secret she guarded closely – Belle da Costa Greene, the first director of New York's historic Morgan Library and Museum.

Inside Turkey’s Mysterious Ancient City That Once Sheltered Thousands—Underground - The Derinkuyu underground city is a sort of gargantuan anthill, except made by and for humans—up to 20,000 of them at a time, in fact. The city descends 280 feet into the earth, divided into eight levels. Upper levels were primarily used for living and sleeping, while lower levels were used for storage, even housing a dungeon. The far-stretched system of interconnected rooms was carved out of the Cappadocia region’s tuff rock. People didn’t live in these underground quarters year-round, however, as they were mainly used for shelter during times of conflict or extreme weather.

Climate change will affect food production, but here are the things we can do to adapt - Farmers can pick crop varieties best suited to different climate condition...production can shift to places with more optimal temperatures…planting and harvest times can shift as the seasons shift…focusing on the right irrigation, fertilizer, pesticides synchronized to climate change. We have the chance to build a more productive and resilient food system, but it’s not guaranteed that we will. It depends on whether the seeds, irrigation, and adaptation practices will be available. That will require real and sustained investment from governments, donors, and private companies.

Toothbrushes and showerheads covered in viruses ‘unlike anything we’ve seen before’ - We live in a richly microbial world. Interactions with bacteria and other microbes in our homes are an integral part of our human biology.

The monarch butterfly may not be endangered, but its migration is - Migrating monarchs don't fly at night, so they spend their evenings in bunches on trees or shrubs, known as roosts. The study relied on 17 years of data from more than 2,600 citizen scientist observations of monarch roosts along the butterfly's migration route. The researchers found that roost sizes have declined by as much as 80%, with these losses increasing from north to south along the migration route. The evidence shows that when monarchs are reared in a captive environment, either indoors or outdoors, they're not as good at migrating.

World’s Rivers Are Driest They - In 2023, the hottest year on record, the Mississippi River and Amazon River basins were at all-time lows, while the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Mekong rivers, which all have their headwaters in the Himalayas, were also unusually dry. Across nearly half the globe, rivers were drier than normal.

The worrying puzzle behind the rise in early-onset cancer - Over the past 10 years, rates of colorectal cancer among 25- to 49-year-olds have increased in 24 different countries, including the UK, US, France, Australia, Canada, Norway and Argentina. Perhaps the most obvious explanation points to the role of obesity and metabolic syndrome, conditions which have been associated with driving cancer risk through increasing inflammation throughout the body and causing the dysregulation of key hormonal pathways. Or maybe changes in sleep patterns is part of the explanation. Combined with shifts in lifestyle, many cancer scientists believe that a key driving force for these illnesses is the consequences of various toxic changes within the gut (from microplastics). Antibiotics might be involved too. The bottom line…it’s a looming public health crisis.

New research reveals how large-scale adoption of electric vehicles can improve air quality and human health - Computer simulations show that aggressive electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet, coupled with an ambitious rollout of renewable electricity generation, could result in health benefits worth between US$84 billion and 188 billion by 2050. Even scenarios with less aggressive grid decarbonization mostly predicted health benefits running into the tens of billions of dollars.

New study explores how universities can improve student well-being - Six guiding principles for improving student well-being:

  • Embedding well-being into curricula for broader, more accessible adoption.

  • Having each initiative only focus on one or two aspects of well-being, making it easier to create instruction that can also be more immersive.

  • Tailoring initiatives to the student body and university culture.

  • Securing buy-in from faculty.

  • Ensuring new offerings are accessible and don't create additional financial burden for students.

  • Employing an iterative assessment framework at the beginning to make it easier to change or scale up a program.

A Hand-book to the Order Lepidoptera

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William Forsell Kirby was an English Entomologist that authored a 5-volume Handbook to the Order Lepidoptera in 1896 and 1897. I am featuring the 1st volume as this week’s ‘book of the week’ because I was so pleased to find it. I had somehow browsed the other 4 volumes back in 2016! Enjoy the 4 sample images….and follow the link to see many more.

A hand-book to the order Lepidoptera - volume 1

The links to the other 4 volumes are: two, three, four, five.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 02, 2024

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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.

Astonishing Photo of Millions of Monarch Butterflies Wins 2024 European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest – Starting out the gleanings list this week with beautiful images from nature.

Iceberg A-68: The story of how a mega-berg transformed the ocean - Scientists following A-68's birth and demise were able to track just what such giant icebergs do to the surrounding ocean. For its short, transient life as an iceberg, A-68 became a frozen lifeboat for a wide range of species. Over its three-and-a-half-year journey since it broke away from the Antarctic ice shelf, A-68 lost 802 billion tons of ice as it thinned from an average thickness of 770ft (235m) to 551ft (168m). Over a three-month period at the end of 2020 and start of 2021, it dumped an estimated 152 billion tons of fresh water into the ocean – that is equivalent to almost 61 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. At the peak of its breakup, around 1.5 billion tons of fresh water was gushing into the ocean every day. The crushing weight of the freshwater from A-68a as it melted may have helped force carbon-based material down more quickly, to depths where it was less likely to be eaten.

Salmon Make a Long-Awaited Return to the Klamath River for the First Time in 112 Years, After Largest Dam Removal in U.S. – Four dams blocked the salmon’s migration between the Klamath basin and the Pacific Ocean…but now the dams have been removed, and the fish are returning. The first salmon in the river since 1912 were spotted less than two months after the last dam was removed.

Avian architects: weaver birds in Africa have unique building styles – The African white-browed sparrow weavers build nests that look like pompoms in acacia trees. Some families build roosts that are very long, with long entrance and exit tubes; others will build roosts that are much shorter, with hardly any tubes. Essentially, it looks like different white-browed sparrow weaver families have different architectural styles. Researchers excluded all environmental and genetic explanations for the differences in the structures built by different families. Maybe, like humans, some species of birds have their own architectural traditions passed on across generations through social interactions.

Huge! A Roman Engineering Marvel Reaching Across a Spanish City - In Segovia, the Romans built an aqueduct that stands as arguably their greatest architectural legacy from six centuries in Spain. After drawing water from the Frio River, the aqueduct runs underground for some 10 miles before appearing in Segovia as a grand, elegant beast that strides for nearly 2,400-feet across the town. Comprised of more than 20,000 blocks of granite and erected without a lick of mortar, at its highest point the aqueduct reaches more than 90-feet high with narrow, double arches. It remained in use until the late 1970s.

Life-saving spongelike 'bandage' rapidly stops hemorrhaging and mitigates risk of infection - A liquid gel comprised of siloxanes (silicon and oxygen) that is delivered via a special two-chamber syringe which rapidly expands into a spongy foam upon exposure to each other within the wound in under one minute. The sponge applies pressure to restrict the hemorrhage at the delivery site while also serving as an antibacterial agent because of the silver oxide in it.

Learning in the Environment: The Importance of Expanding Outdoor Education Across the United States - Although environmental discussions are expanding in schools, students often lack the opportunity to interact with the natural world through outdoor education, including place-based learning located in nature. The widespread decline of green spaces, especially in densely populated areas, restricts youth engagement with the environment. Interacting with the outdoors helps students to understand not only the environment itself but the role they can play in protecting it.

Chickpeas: Sustainable and climate-friendly foods of the future - Chickpeas are a drought-resistant legume plant with a high protein content that can complement grain cultivation systems even in urban areas. I have discovered that roasted chickpeas is my favorite ‘crunch’ topping for soups and salads!

Photo Contest Celebrates Excellence in Architectural Photography – I haven’t done much architectural photography…but maybe it is something to consider…when I am not able to do nature photography (which is my favorite).

Grasslands live in the climate change fast lane - The rapid shifts in grassland communities involve not only the gain of some hotter, drier species but also the loss of some cooler, wetter species. These shifts might have negative consequences such as dominance by non-native species and loss of biodiversity.

eBotanical Prints – October 2024

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Twenty more books were added to my botanical print book collection in October - available for browsing on Internet Archive. These 20 books covered a range of botanical topics: berries, fruits, nuts, plants for sale as well as plants of particular places (Mexico, Korea, New Zealand). They were published between 1830 and 1942.

The whole list of 2,983 botanical eBooks I’ve browsed over the years can be accessed here. Click on any sample image below to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume.

Enjoy the October 2024 eBotanical Prints!

Rio Mayo plants: a study of the flora and vegetation of the valley of the Rio Mayo, Senora * Genty, Howard Scott * sample image * 1942

Hymenophyllaceae - eine botanische Abhandlung * Presl, Karel Borziwogo * sample image * 1843

Symbolae botanicae, sive, Descriptiones et icones plantarum novarum aut minus cognitarum * Presl, Karel Borziwogo * sample image * 1830

Icones Plantarum V31 * Hooker, Joseph Dalton; Hooker, William Jackson * sample image * 1922

Icones Plantarum V32 * Hooker, Joseph Dalton; Hooker, William Jackson * sample image * 1933

Icones Plantarum V33 * Hooker, Joseph Dalton; Hooker, William Jackson * sample image * 1935

New Zealand Berries * Harris, Emily Cumming * sample image * 1894

New Zealand Flowers * Harris, Emily Cumming * sample image * 1890

New Zealand Ferns * Harris, Emily Cumming * sample image * 1890

Illustrated catalogue of fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs, vines, roses, etc. * May Brothers * sample image * 1887

Rose buds and holly berries * Bennett, Harriet M. et al (illustrators) * sample image * 1888

Bush-fruits; a horticultural monograph of raspberries, blackberries, dewberries, currants, gooseberries, and other shrub-like fruits * Card, Fred * sample image * 1898

Betten, Robert: Beerenobst 1908  * Betten, Robert * sample image * 1908

The Book of the Grape * Ward, William Henry * sample image * 1901

The Small Fruit Culturist * Fuller, Andrew Samuel * sample image * 1887

The Nut Culturist * Fuller, Andrew Samuel * sample image * 1896

Practical Forestry * Fuller, Andrew Samuel * sample image * 1884

Flora Sylvatica Koreana Pt 1 Aceraceae; Pt 2Betulaceae * Nakai, Takenoshin * sample image * 1915

Flora Sylvatica Koreana Pt 7 Rosaceae; Pt 8 Ericaceae * Nakai, Takenoshin * sample image * 1918

Flora Sylvatica Koreana Pt 8 Rhamnaceae; Pt 9 Oleaceae * Nakai, Takenoshin * sample image * 1920

Zooming – October 2024

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All the pictures in the slideshow were taken in the Springfield Missouri area: my home, the Missouri State campus, Lake Springfield, Busiek State Forest…the majority were during Missouri Master Naturalist or Identifying Wood Plants class field trips! October was a great month for being outdoors. Enjoy the slideshow of zoomed images!

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2024

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The temperatures were more pleasant in October….I enjoyed the outdoor field trips and classes a lot more.

Pleasant temperature to walk around the Missouri campus during class. We were outdoors longer but it was easy compared to short hikes around campus in August and September!

Field trip to a healthy stream and woodland. Celebrating the water quality and the native species (not overcome by invasives)!

Cut down a Japanese barberry and burned most of it. Celebrated one more non-native (that is sometimes invasive) being gone from my yard.

Geology field trip plans. I celebrated that enough of my Missouri Master Naturalist classmates and chapter are interested in geology field trips to make them a likely late fall/early winter activity.

Getting seeds planted. I got buckeye, Hopi sunflower, common milkweed, and persimmon seeds during the second week of October….and celebrated when I got them planted. Some must go through the cold temps of winter to sprout in the spring.

Volunteering at a fair for homeschoolers…talking about Monarch butterflies. I celebrated by first gig as a Missouri Master Naturalist…and that my iPad-based slideshow of Monarch butterfly pictures was well received.

Owl Pellet. I vaguely remember that I had dissected an owl pellet in some previous training…but I celebrated that I did a more thorough job this time… and found a complete rodent skull…and the backbone…lots of ribs.

First solo Missouri Master Naturalist volunteer gig. I celebrated that the two days spent doing an after-school program with a local school for gift students was positive for them…and for me!

Whataburger. Sometimes I just want to splurge. On the way back from my Dallas trip, I stopped for a Whataburger…celebrated that it tasted just as I remembered - although I won’t do it very often.

Successfully completed my Missouri Master Naturalist training. Hurray! I am celebrating what I learned and that I now have more time to volunteer!

Identifying Woody Plants (Month 2)

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The Identifying Woody Plants field class I am taking at Missouri State University has met 5 more times since my last post about the field sessions on the campus.

I am continuing to take pictures of items in the classroom before class:

An opened Maclura pomifera (Osage orange) fruit

Some Quercus macrocarpa (Bur oak) acorns

An herbarium page showing Tilia americana (American Basswood) fruit which we have seen in the field, but my pictures were not very good.

Cuttings from two plants were brought in and we were asked to ID them based on our notes – with the hint that the first one had milky sap (hard to see since it had been cut):

Morus alba (white mulberry) – a non-native that is frequently seen as a ‘weed’ tree and Vitis (grape).

Recently the walk from the parking lot to the classroom building has been full of late blooming pollinator plants and fall foliage.

The one session where we stayed on campus added some new trees to our list:

Quercus bicolor (Swamp white oak)

Sassafras albidum (Sassafras)

Carya ovata (Shagbark hickory)

Quercus lyrata (Overcup oak)

We also saw some review trees and I got better pictures of Celtis occidentalis bark (Rough hackberry)

And some add odd growth of a Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip/yellow poplar). The trunk of the tree was growing at a slant rather than straight upward and it had small branches coming out relatively close the ground.

The hikes on campus and further afield have been more pleasant this past month because the temperatures have been cooler. There have been no rainy days in the field either!

Previous posts about Identifying Woody Plants field class

Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area

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A sunny fall day…the Identifying Woody Plants Class spent a couple of hours at Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area – adding 9 more woody plants to our list and seeing others that were already on the list and we practised our ID skills for them; there are now 78 woody plants that we should recognize and be able to supply the common name, family, and scientific name!

We encountered an Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) – a tree we’d seen in previous classes - that had leaves that hadn’t fallen before the first hard frost. All of us began to realize how changed identification was going to be without leaves on the trees!

The first new one was Box Elder (Acer negundo) – the only maple with compound leaves. ID is helped by its green branches.

The second new tree was Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) – still with leaves and one I had seen recently in a Missouri Master Naturalist field trip. The picture I took was of a male but there were female trees with red fruit that we saw at Busiek.

 American Sycamores (Platanus occidentalis) were growing along the dry creek bed…another tree that we reviewed. The very large leaves were still mostly on the tree.

The third new tree was the Carolina willow (Salix caroliniana)…also growing close the dry creek bed. Its leaves are a little bigger that the Black Willow’s…and the stipules tend to stay on rather than falling off. It still had leaves…everyone realized it was a willow of some kind.

I couldn’t resist taking some pictures from the dried creek bed. The fall color is a bit muted this year because it has been so dry here. I noticed some wasp apartments on one of the bridge support columns.

Another review tree – the honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthus) – and I finally got some pictures of thorns. I also picked up a seed pod to put in the tree educational trunk I am creating for Missouri Master Naturalist.

The fourth new tree was the Chinkapin oak (Quercus meuhlenbergii). I didn’t get any good pictures of it!

The same was true of the fifth new plant – a vine: Greenbrier (Smilax). Supposedly it might be something that will be easier to see and ID in the winter because the stems stay green….and the thorns would be on the vine too – to mistaking it for a grape (Vitis).

Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) was the sixth addition for the day. The plants did not have the distinctive seed heads because they tend to get cut down frequently so that they don’t take over the area where they are growing.

Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) was our seventh new plant. The fruits looked beautiful, but no one was willing to try them quite yet. I am glad I have planted some in my yard and hope to enjoy them at perfect ripeness in the future.

The eighth new plant was a native woody grass/bamboo: giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea).

The ninth (and last) new plant for the day was an Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides). Most of the leaves were gone…but the one we looked at was a huge tree with deeply grooved bark and buds ready to go for next spring.

It was a good walk and a transition point for the way we will begin to identify trees by characteristics other than their leaves.