Springtime photography….is April the best month? It seems like that might be true this year. The photographs were taken at the Springfield Botanical Gardens, my yard, the Missouri State University Campus, my daughter’s yard, Onondaga Cave, and 2 volunteer activities. There were so many images to choose from; I selected 23. I used three different cameras – iPhone 15 Pro Max, Canon Powershot SX730 HS, and Nikon Coolpix P950. Enjoy the slideshow!
I was braced to make the whole drive between my home in Missouri to Dallas in the rain last week….but the rain didn’t materialize until I got more than halfway there. The scissortail flycatchers are back for the summer and I saw quite a few flying over or beside the road; the silhouette is very distinctive. There also seemed to be more egrets too. I didn’t see quite as many hawks because the leaves are out on most of the trees and that makes the birds harder to spot. There was an interesting mural on a truck at one of the truck stops.
It rained heavily as I got to McAllister OK but then was only sprinkling when I got to the Texas Welcome Center on US 75. The bluebonnets were in bloom!
It had evidently done more that sprinkle at the place just before I got there…the water droplets were still clinging to the flowers. Most of the plantings are native…but there are a few yellow roses too.
I had responded to a request from a fellow Missouri Master Naturalist for a program last weekend – a little bit of training and volunteering about an hour from where I live. There was heavy rain for the drive there – but it was weekend and the traffic was not as heavy as usual on the interstate. Fortunately, the first part was training so I could destress after the drive. I wandered around the Route 66 museum that is housed in the same building with the library. It was interesting – lots of items specific to Lebanon and then more broadly to Route 66. Much was before my memories began so I would have appreciated a few more dates for the pictures and newspaper articles. I enjoyed seeing the displays….glad I don’t have to drive over any ‘bone-jarring Ozark rock roads’!
I do vaguely remember one of my grandmothers having a wringer washing machine in the barn in the early 60s so that was something in the museum that looked familiar.
Then I had a brief training on the nature touch tables set up in the foyer of the library/museum. There were skulls and rocks and pelts and snake models/skins/id puzzles and pictures of caves and wildlife there – a bat preserved in acrylic. Handouts for each topic from Missouri Department of Conservation were available and many people took at least one. The snake booklets were probably the most popular.
I’m learning a lot about different parts of Missouri through Missouri Master Naturalist volunteering…I like feeling more familiar with the state where I now live and interacting with people!
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.
Liberation of Bergen-Belsen: how a lack of protective clothing cost lives – Typhus was rampant when the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by British troops on April 15, 1945. Anne Frank had died there just a few weeks before. What happened in the immediate aftermath of liberation is described.
How climate change is supercharging pollen allergies – Longer growing season….and extreme allergy events where trillions of pollen particles, sucked up into the clouds as the storm formed, splintered by rain, lightning and humidity into ever-smaller fragments – then cast back down to Earth for people to breathe them in. In one such event in Australia - emergency rooms saw eight times as many people turning up with breathing problems as they would normally expect. Nearly 10 times as many people with asthma were admitted to hospital. 10 people died. It’s been called ‘thunderstorm asthma.’ In the US, pollen levels are expected to be higher than average in 39 states…with worse symptoms.
Colorful city birds – Brown shades are more common in natural environments than in cities. Successful urban bird species have more elaborate colors in their plumage, which is especially true for females. Cities seem to favor more colorful birds -- probably because there are fewer predators in urban areas and 'being seen' poses a lower risk than in rural areas.
See the Titanic in Remarkable Detail With a 3D Scan – From National Geographic. …a digital reconstruction of the wreck.
Royal Meteorological Society Celebrates 10 Years of Incredible Weather Photography – Great photographs an interview with Kirsty McCabe, UK's Royal Meteorological Society’s senior broadcast meteorologist and editor of their MetMatters blog.
Odd-Looking Blue Creatures Are Washing Up in Large Groups on California’s Beaches Once Again –The jellyfish-like creatures in this post are Velella velella – thin, oval shaped blue or purple that usually are 3-4 inches long. They use their stinging blue tentacles to prey on plankton.
Meet Four Amazing Endemic Parrots from New Zealand – They are quite different from each other…and the parrots we see in zoos.
Why you should avoid lotions and creams that contain 'fragrance' – Avoiding fragrance is easy enough…but other things are harder to detect and avoid.
Six immersive experiences for more joy – The 6 seems reasonable to me…most of them I had derived for myself already!
Ten National Wildlife Refuges That Need Our Support Most – All the wildlife refigures I have visited over the past few years have unmet maintenance needs. Funding for materials, equipment and staff has been too low for some time. There are Friends organizations that try to address some of the needs…but it is never enough. Some of the places that became refuges because they are very special are suffering now…maybe being irrecoverably harmed.
The flowering dogwood flowers are beginning to wane…but they have put on a good show this month.
I took the pictures for this post on the Missouri State University campus on the way to the Student Union for lunch with my daughter. There was a grouping of the natives (white) and a hybrid (pink). Their branches were low enough to get macro pictures.
Later in the week, my daughter and I visited Onondaga and Bennett Spring State Parks and I enjoyed the winding roads in and near the parks with Flowering Dogwood (the native) in the understory. I’m glad Missouri chose the dogwood for its state tree!
Dogwoods were a tree I remember from east Texas earlier in my life….and then seeing a lot more of them in Virginia and Maryland when I moved to that area in the early 80s. Then Dogwood Anthracnose killed or damaged many of the trees there; they vanished from the understory in some areas. So – I was happy to observe healthy Flowering Dogwoods in the wild again.
My daughter and I visited Onondaga Cave State Park last week. I had made reservations for the 10 AM cave tour. The park is a bit over 2 hours from Springfield – almost all on I-44. We made good time and had time to look around outside before going in to join the tour. There were emerging plants in the pollinator garden (I only spotted one milkweed…hope there are more nearby) and a display about the Gemstone and Fossil Panning activity (we were focused on the cave but it would be a fun activity with children).
I used my small Canon PowerShot SX730 HS on the ‘night scene’ setting. It worked relatively well although the guide was using as flashlight and sometimes the light from the flashlight was needed!
The walk is about a mile….made easier by ramped walkways (i.e. no stairs). It is slippery in some places but there are handrails. There are a few low ceilings that could be hazardous for tall people, but the guide is very proactive about pointing them out.
So much going on in April --- I’ve been out and about…noticing and photographing bits of springtime.
These first two are from my yard – two native plants I added 2 years ago: the fragrant sumac (a woody plant) that is putting up more stems and is blooming right now and the American spikenard (a perennial) that is coming up where I can see it from my office window!
On the Missouri State campus as I walked to my geology lab class: two maples that have produced samaras, sweet gum has small leaves and is beginning of seed formation, and some ‘carnation’ trees that have been added very recently are blooming at the edge of a parking lot.
There were some things I noticed at my daughter’s house as I waited for the tree crew to arrive: hostas coming up (she could easily divide these to supplement the few that are growing under her southern magnolia), a bed recently cleared of a bush honey suckle and other invasive plants…and there is some good stuff that survived underneath), Carolina silverbell in bloom, an azalea with a few flowers in deep shade under the hemlock,
Leaves unfurling on the oak leaf hydrangea, and
I like the garden gate on the shady side of her house. It’s idyllic looking but in previous years not a place to sit…because the mosquitos tend to like the area. Now that the redbud is gone, the area will get a little sun…maybe make it a pleasant place for a chair and small table.
Back at my home, the front yard has been mowed, and I made the decision to put mulch under the Asian dogwood tree. I cut the grass that had come up there very short with the weed eater and trimmed off the lower branches. I had enough cardboard to put under the mulch. The day was windy, so it was a bit challenging to keep the cardboard in place before I got the mulch on top. I used about 1/3 of the mulch I got from my daughter: a big blue bin and then a smaller bin. I used the snow shovel to move it around on top of the cardboard pieces…was pleased with the results. I am already planning the projects for the rest of the mulch – waiting to accumulate enough cardboard!
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.
Survey: US Public Spaces Not Meeting Community Needs – Funding for maintenance and basic improvements seems to be the key issue.
I tested some of the most popular ways of meeting new people. Here's what I found – The author engaged in 4 ‘hobbies’ and assessed their effectiveness in fostering social connection: team sports, bouldering, creative writing sessions, and a life drawing course. Evidently, they all worked for her! For me – my volunteer activities (with Missouri Master Naturalist and my county’s Friends of the Library) are the way I meet new people; I tend to like the triadic interactions (attention both to each other, and to an object or activity of mutual interest) that volunteering provides.
These Unassuming Artifacts from King Tut’s Tomb Could Tell a Remarkable Story – Originally the 4 small unbaked earthen dishes were thought to be stands for the nearly four-foot high gilded wooden staffs…but a new study proposes that the clay troughs would have held libations, most likely of water, aimed at the purification and rejuvenation of Tutankhamun in the afterlife, a rite known as the Awakening of Osiris.
Cuts to the National Weather Service May Have Serious Impacts on National Parks – And for everywhere else too. Weather impacts everybody.
New research boosts future whooping cough vaccines – My father – now in his 90s – almost died from whooping cough as a young child. Deaths have become less common since the vaccine although they are still in the double digits in the US. In 2024, several outbreaks left public health officials and hospitals scrambling to accommodate a sudden influx of patients, primarily infants, who are often too young to be vaccinated and suffer the most severe symptoms. I’m glad that a new vaccine may be more effective and longer lasting than the one we have now.
Study Reveals Mercury-Poisoned Industrial Age Child – A three- to four-year-old child died in France sometime in the 18th or 19th century. The youngster suffered from rickets and scurvy likely caused by poor living conditions during the Industrial Revolution. But there were also high levels of mercury in his bones and teeth. The study ruled out sources of mercury contamination and concluded that the child had been administered the toxic metal as a cure for his ailments, which ultimately killed him.
At 97, Endangered Tortoise Becomes Oldest First-Time Mom of Her Species with Four New Hatchlings – Four Galapagos tortoise hatchlings at the Philadelphia Zoo!
Celebrating Seeds – From The Prairie Ecologist. So many obstacles must be overcome for a seed to become a mature plant producing seeds….continuing the cycle of the species.
Antarctic Sea Ice Plunged in Summer 2025 - In 2025, summer sea ice in the Antarctic tied for the second-lowest minimum extent ever recorded in the 47-year satellite record. It’s not yet clear whether the Southern Hemisphere has entered a new norm with perennially low ice or if the Antarctic is in a passing phase that will revert to prior levels in the years to com
Global Economy More Vulnerable to Warming Than Previously Thought - By rattling supply chains, future storms and heat waves will also send ripples throughout the global economy, inflicting costs far higher than models currently show. No country is immune.
The Terra Nove expedition took place between 1910 and 1913. It was led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott who died after making a last entry in his diary on March 29, 1912; his death along with the men in his party, overshadowed the scientific contributions at first.
The 12 scientists who participated—the largest Antarctic scientific team of its time—made important discoveries in zoology, botany, geology, glaciology, and meteorology. Volumes 4-8 of the Natural History Reports from the expedition were published between 1917 and 1924; they are my free eBooks selections for this week…freely available on Internet Archive.
Natural History Reports / British Antarctic ("Terra Nova") Expedition, 1910-13 V4
Natural History Reports / British Antarctic ("Terra Nova") Expedition, 1910-13 V5
Natural History Reports / British Antarctic ("Terra Nova") Expedition, 1910-13 V6
Natural History Reports / British Antarctic ("Terra Nova") Expedition, 1910-13 V7
Natural History Reports / British Antarctic ("Terra Nova") Expedition, 1910-13 V8
My plan is to do a lot of volunteering to support the Roston Native Butterfly House during its May – September season. The training for new docents was this month – 1.5 hours on a Saturday morning. The training was held at the Springfield Botanical Center. I arrived a little early and took some pictures of plants near the entrance as I walked in. The spring bulbs are almost done…but there are a few that are still beautiful.
There will be an orientation in the butterfly house itself in the days before the opening to the public and new docents are paired with experienced ones as the season starts. There might be some additional volunteer roles helping with school tours to the butterfly house. I am confident that it will be a rewarding experience – maybe my volunteer gig for summers for the next several years at least.
The session was well organized with folders of information for everyone, a signup sheet to get t-shirts, and forms to fill out. Their goal was to have 60 volunteer docents to keep the butterfly house running smoothly. They had that many last year and hopefully the new volunteers, like me, will make up for any attrition.
There are similarities and differences between the volunteering I did in Maryland at Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy. I am relieved that the containment requirements at this butterfly house are much easier since the butterflies are all natives! As far as interacting with visitors, I am anticipating that it will be very similar and something I will enjoy.
I have done an initial mowing of my front yard but am waiting to mow my fenced back yard until we have a week of low temperatures above 50 degrees…so that all the butterflies and moths overwintering in the leaves (that I left on the yard) can emerge. Some of the back yard won’t ever be mowed again. There are some areas that were grassy a few years ago that are now overgrown with plants spilling over from the flowerbeds…mostly violets. The east side yard that is grass and will be mowed is 4-6 feet narrower than when we moved to the house!
In addition, an area between our Eastern White Pine and the patio beds with holly trees has been covered with pine needles to deter the scraggly grass (heavy shade) and there is a robust clump of lambs ear (bird planted) and a few violets there. I am dividing hostas that have grown too dense in the flower beds and transplanting them into the area….and will place more stepping stones between the patio and the grassy area to avoid stepping on tender plants.
One area of the side yard that I am not mowing as frequently contains 2 clumps of lambs ear that established itself last summer and seems to be returning; I mill mow around the clumbs; I hope they grow together and create one bigger clump. It’s a slopped area; I am glad to have something besides grass growing there!
In the sunnier part of the yard, there is another stand of lambs ear that is spilling out of the flower bed and into the grass next to the Fragrant Sumac. I need to clear out the part that bloomed and then died last fall to make it easier for the young plants to reclaim the whole area of the parent. I hope the sumac will eventually spill out into the grass as well. I am not mowing near where the plants are growing into the grass…trying to encourage their growth.
The violets and fragrant sumac are native. The lambs ear is not but seems to be a good filler plant until I can get more natives growing to fill the beds and start growing into the yard. The violets on the east side of the house took over almost on their own since the habitat there is good for them. An American spikenard and spicebush will grow above them this summer!
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.
Doctor shortages have hobbled health care for decades − and the trend could be worsening – It does seem like it is getting harder and harder to make an appointment with my doctor…and I have yet to see the same doctor twice for my annual checkup since we moved to Missouri. This article provides some background into why the US is increasingly short of doctors.
Your neighborhood might affect your risk of dementia - Most studies of risk factors for Alzheimer's disease focus on the individual level, not the community level. Of course, intervening at the community level is challenging, but prioritizing disadvantaged communities may be an effective way to mobilize resources for older adults and provide avenues for reducing the risk of dementia for the overall community.
Mangrove Pioneers - On the ground, a team surveying tidal marshes near the Florida–Georgia border in 2024 found red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle) and black mangroves (Avicennia germinans) growing 50 miles (80 kilometers) and 14 miles (23 kilometers) farther north, respectively, than their previously documented range. Landsat and other satellite imagery are valuable for monitoring marsh-to-mangrove transitions over larger areas and longer time frames. Conditions along the U.S. East Coast are conducive to mangrove territory expansion - less-frequent extreme cold events and rising winter temperatures in the region as contributing factors to the trees’ survival.
These Carnivorous Snails Slurp Earthworms Like Spaghetti – Snails in New Zealand….the short video is worth watching!
Why Norway is restoring its Cold War military bunkers - Norway is a land with many bunkers. At the peak of the Cold War, the sparsely populated, mountainous country had around 3,000 underground facilities where its armed forces and allies could hide and make life difficult for any invader. Norway is reactivating two of their most iconic underground structures of the Cold War. The role of the reactivated base which has had structural and equipment upgrades is to help the "resilience and survivability" of Norway's F-35s in the face of a Russian attack.
Are Hairstyles the Key to Unlocking Art History’s Most Famous Portraits? - Hairstyling has always been a way that women exacted agency over their self-presentation. Paintings and sculptures can be rare visual records of these carefully chosen, and ephemeral, hairdos—which, unlike fashion garments, can’t survive and be passed down. (Although some historic wigs and clip-ins have stood the test of time and made it into museum collections.)
Making Sense of Butterfly Declines - Over the past two decades, the total number of butterflies across 554 species has plummeted by 22%. That means a loss of about one butterfly out of every five observed since 2000. This alarming trend underscores the severity of the decline, with many species experiencing drastic reductions in their populations. Three ways to help butterflies: plant native, plant native milkweed (i.e. native host plants), don’t spray.
2,000-Year-Old Wooden Houses Found in China - Houses in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, that date to the Warring States period (475–221 b.c.). The stilted and terraced wood-frame structures would have been covered with reeds and bamboo. The walls, made of interwoven wooden posts and thatch, retain numerous small holes, which archaeologists believe were left by grass ropes used to bind the structure together. Artifacts recovered from the site included primitive porcelain cups, red pottery tripods, ceramic urns, bronze drill bits, and plentiful remains of domestic animals as well as marine resources.
Retreating Arctic Glaciers Have Exposed 1,500 Miles of Coastline - Scientists tracked the movement of 1,500 coastal glaciers from 2000 to 2020, finding that retreating ice had unveiled hundreds of miles of coastline, largely in Greenland - revealing stores of precious metals…. but they warn that newly exposed coastline, which has not been cemented with ice, is vulnerable to erosion and landslides.
Listen to the First Known Recording of Shark Sounds, a ‘Weird’ Audio Clip Captured at a Marine Lab in New Zealand – Sounds from a rig shark…when it was handled between tests in the lab.
The juncos seemed to have left a little earlier than I expected. We didn’t see any by the beginning of April. Our bird feeder area looks almost the same as it did in the winter since the hollies and cedar are evergreen. Now we have violets coming up (the small low clumps of green in the rocked areas); they seem to thrive in the rock with landscaping cloth underneath. I’ve noticed robins and doves collecting the fine stems from last season’s violets to build nests.
We were startled during the first few minutes of one of our Feeder Watch sessions by a Cooper’s Hawk flying in and landing on the patio table! I managed to get a picture before it took off. All the other birds had vacated before the hawk came – so it didn’t get a meal from our feeder area. They didn’t return until the later part of our 30-minute observation time.
The white-throated and white-crowned sparrows are still around. I didn’t take pictures of them. There are house finches and goldfinches. The goldfinches are sporadic visitors and the one we saw stayed at the feeder longer.
The light blue color when a dove blinks always surprises me. This one seemed to snoozing….making it easier to photograph. It was cold morning, so the feathers were fluffed.
The Carolina Wren is not a bird we see every single observation time…but we usually see it at least once during our 2-day Feeder Watch count. It likes the suet…and whatever is scatter on the ground….best.
There is a pair of downy woodpeckers. They like the suet and the seed….and our trees. I am hoping they nest nearby and produce young this year.
I saw a red-bellied woodpecker briefly, but the grackles came and it left quickly. On the plus side – the grackles are acting as a deterrent to the starlings.
This is the last month of the Project Feeder Watch season. I’ll do one last post in early May to close out what happens at our feeders (maybe we’ll see some migrants). We’ll start up again in the fall.
The most significant experience with my newish Nikon Coolpix P950 was our trip to Loess Bluff’s National Wildlife Refuge; there were three blog posts from that trip (one, two, three). My favorite image that the new camera captured was a video of trumpeter swans…trumpeting!
There were a few photos I took around my spring yard – crocus and a pinecone in the grass. I notice the slight increase in weight from my previous camera…not a positive for the new one.
The camera autofocus is not as good in lower light as my previous camera…or maybe it is the ‘through the window’ aspect of the photos I take while we are making Feeder Watch observations.
I am determined not to revert to my previous bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) but I find myself using my small point and shot camera that I can slip in a pocket for times I don’t anticipate needing the additional zoom power of the heavier camera!
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.
What’s Hiding Inside This 2,200-Year-Old Pyramidal Structure in the Judean Desert? - Alongside Nahal Zohar, a stream in the southern Judean Desert, archaeologists are picking through a large building they believe was used as a stronghold for protecting the caravan route bringing bitumen and salt from the Dead Sea to Mediterranean ports. To date, researchers have found a new Dead Sea Scroll, excellently preserved ancient Roman swords, and a 10,000-year-old basket and lid.
Which Native Plant Are YOU? - Take a moment to enjoy a bit of playful anthropomorphism as you take a Native Plant Personality Quiz, to see which native plant YOU are most like!
Ecologists document Utah's bee species and say beehive state is rich in bee diversity - 1,167 bee species are documented in the state of Utah!
Mud, water and wood: The system that kept a 1604-year-old city afloat - The city, which turned 1604 years old on March 25, is built on the foundations of millions of short wooden piles, pounded in the ground with their tip facing downwards. These trees – larch, oak, alder, pine, spruce and elm of a length ranging between 3.5m (11.5ft) to less than 1m (3ft) – have held up stone palazzos and tall belltowers for centuries, in a true marvel of engineering leveraging the forces of physics and nature.
From Wasteland to Wonder – A free eBook by Basil Camu about trees and how each of us can improve the places we love. It includes QR codes for instructional videos about how to do things. One that I viewed and will apply immediately is how to prune shrubs in a way friendly to the plant…and results in less frequent pruning!
Renewables Accounted for More Than 90 Percent of New Power Globally Last Year - Still, growth is not on pace to meet a global goal to triple renewable capacity by the end of this decade. Continuing its clean-energy dominance, China installed more renewable power than all other countries combined last year.
7 Ways State Wildlife Action Plans Save Species – From the National Wildlife Federation.
Women Played a More Important Role in Producing Medieval Manuscripts Than Previously Thought - Female scribes were responsible for producing at least 110,000 handwritten manuscripts between 400 and 1500 C.E. in the “Latin West,” or the Roman Catholic parts of Europe, researchers find. That represents roughly 1.1 percent of the total 10 million manuscripts produced during that period….and that is likely an underestimate.
Jamestown is Drowning - Millions of artifacts have been excavated from the site over the last century, helping historians to understand much of what we know about this historic early settlement. But untold numbers of other artifacts may soon be lost forever because of increasing water levels, not just from flooding but also from rising groundwater and migrating wetland areas. Among the most profound known impacts are the loss of human remains. The average sea level has risen nearly 1.6 feet in the tidewater region of Virginia—a trend that is now accelerating. Studies predict that about 14 of Historic Jamestown’s 23 acres—or 60 percent—could be permanently underwater within the next 50 years.
These Are the 20 Happiest Countries in the World - The United States dropped to its lowest ranking yet in the annual report. This year, America came in 24th, down from its peak at 11th on the 2012 list.
Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in March - available for browsing on Internet Archive. This month includes 4 volumes of Dissertatio Botanica by Carl Peter Thunburg from the late 1700s and the first volumes of Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature by Pierre de Savary (the second series will be continued in the April eBotanical Prints). My favorite image of the month is from the Album of Chinese flora executed by one or more Chinese artists for John Reeves (1774-1856).
My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,083 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.
Click on any sample image from March’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 March 2025 eBotanical Prints!
Nova genera Plantarum * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1781
Dissertatio Botanica V1 * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1781
Dissertatio Botanica V2 * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1782
Dissertatio Botanica V3 * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1782
Dissertatio Botanica V4 * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1782
Flora Japonica * Thunberg, Carl Peter * sample image * 1784
Flora Japonica sive Plantae * Siebold, Philipp Franz von * sample image * 1835
Album of Chinese flora executed by one or more Chinese artists for John Reeves (1774-1856) * Chinese School * sample image * 1820
Icones selectae plantarum * Kaemper, Engelbert * sample image * 1791
Medical botany; or, history of plants in the materia medica of the London, Edinburgh and Dublin pharmacopoeias. Arranged according to the Linnaean system V1 * E. Cox and Son (publisher) * sample image * 1821
Medical botany; or, history of plants in the materia medica of the London, Edinburgh and Dublin pharmacopoeias. Arranged according to the Linnaean system V2 * E. Cox and Son (publisher) * sample image * 1822
Standardized products - a descriptive list of drug extracts standardized by chemical or physiological means * Parke, Davis & Company * sample image * 1911
A brief treatise on various ailments and their treatment by nature's remedies * Medical Institute (Bradford, West Yorkshire, England) * sample image * 1895
The new British domestic herbal * Waller, John Augustine * sample image * 1822
Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des plantes * Dodart, Denis * sample image * 1676
Handbuch der pharmaceutischen Botanik. : Mit illuminirten Kupfern * Juch, Karl Wilhelp; Volckart, Johann Friedrich * sample image * 1804
The reformed practice of medicine * Rosen, Samuel * sample image * 1895
Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V3 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1764
Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V4 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1764
Recueil des plantes les plus usuelles peintes d'apres nature V5 * Savary, Pierre de * sample image * 1765
Last week I was one of 4 tables for a Scouting event (the other tables were about bears, skulls, and tracks). I used materials I have been collecting and used since last fall. It was the first time with small groups coming to the table and talking about trees for 10 minutes…then doing it all over again. I expected to be limited to one table but I had 2 – plenty of room to spread out.
The groups were K-4th grade…3-6 in each group. I was surprised at how many recognized the thorn (or pods) of honey locust, knew that trees produced oxygen, and knew that counting trees rings is a way to tell how old the tree was (even though most of them had never really tried to do it before)!
I had a slide show that emphasized things to notice about a tree if you want to identify the type of tree it is.
The different sizes of pinecones were fun….and the difference between the pinecones and the cone from a spruce was new to them. We talked a bit about escaped Bradford pears that we see blooming all over our area right now…and the redbuds that are also in bloom and are native. My white oak seedling was a good conversation starter too; one of the scouts had an acorn that had a root (so far) and was trying to figure out what to do with it next. It is probably one of the red oaks since they tend to sprout in the spring.
The pictures are from the end of the sessions…rearranged considerably from when I started!
There were signs of spring at the Springfield Botanical Gardens last week when I made a short visit.
The daffodils were beginning to wane.
The grape hyacinths filled some niches in beds otherwise still bracing for winter.
The maple trees had new samaras – still colorful. There must be several different kinds of maples based on the different structure and color of the samara clumps.
The most dramatic were probably the deciduous magnolias. I always like photographing them. The most of trees that I found were very young.
I found some tulips as I headed back to my car. It was a little disappointing to not see more of them. They did not appear to be as densely planted as in previous years – or maybe a lot of them just didn’t produce for some reason.
The redbuds were blooming….making a haze of color in the gardens! This is a great time of year to visit botanical gardens frequently to see the transition from winter to spring to summer.
Lots of early spring celebrations in March!
Trout Lilies. One of the high points of our hike at Cedar Gap Conservation area was seeing trout lilies blooming down by the stream…as celebration of the new season.
Bald Eagles. The serendipity of seeing two bald eagles soaring over Springfield was another celebration of our Cedar Gap field trip. They seemed to be heading north so might have been migrating through as eagles do in the spring.
Tenure. My son-in-law was granted tenure at Missouri State University. It’s a major milestone to celebrate.
Pinecones. The wind caused pinecones to fall from our shortleaf pine and I picked up a bag of them for my sister. We both celebrated in anticipation of the fun projects she’ll do with her grandson.
Redcedar. I transplanted a small eastern redcedar that came up in my flowerbed to the place in my yard that I want it grow….and celebrated that it stayed upright even with the high winds that came along in March. It will make a great addition to the bird habitat near our patio!
Physical therapy. I celebrated that the physical therapy my dad is doing seem to be helping him recover his mobility after an illness in February.
Covid booster. My husband and I both got a booster in March…celebrated how easy it is to do at our pharmacy. We both have managed to never have Covid.
Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge. Celebrating snow geese and swans…and all the other birds at the refuge.
Orchids. The Missouri Botanical Gardens (St. Louis) Orchid Show is quite a celebration of flowers. It will probably become an early spring tradition for us from now on!
Volunteer opportunities. I am celebrating that there are so many great volunteer opportunities…lots of variety which I will continue to explore this year.
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 long will you live? New evidence says it’s much more about your choices than your genes - Environmental factors influence health and longevity to a far greater extent than genetics. Environmental factors had the greatest impact on lung, heart and liver disease, while genetics played the biggest role in determining a person’s risk of breast, ovarian and prostate cancers, and dementia. The environmental factors that had the most influence on earlier death and biological ageing included smoking, socioeconomic status, physical activity levels and living conditions.
'The ice melted beneath our feet': The huskies that revealed the rapid shrinking of Greenland's ice - Greenland experienced record ice loss in 2019, shedding a total of 532 billion tones from its giant ice sheet, according to a 2020 study. On average, Greenland loses 234 billion tons of ice per year. What's distinctive about Greenland is how much melting happens on the surface in the summer, because Antarctica doesn’t get anywhere near as much.
Humboldt Penguins on the Edge – Temperate penguins of Chile and Peru. They hunt in the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the Humboldt Current, the world’s largest marine upwelling, that flows a few miles offshore. They are excellent swimmers and deep divers in their pursuit of anchovies and other fish. Humboldt penguins have come back from the edge of extinction before—it will take the continued efforts of local communities, governments and partners to bring them back again.
Study: 'Sustainable intensification' on the farm reduces soil nitrate losses, maintains crop yields - A nine-year study comparing a typical two-year corn and soybean rotation with a more intensive three-year rotation involving corn, cereal rye, soybean and winter wheat, found that the three-year system can dramatically reduce nitrogen -- an important crop nutrient -- in farm runoff without compromising yield.
These Everyday Artifacts Tell the Story of Harriet Tubman’s Father’s Home as Climate Change Threatens the Historic Site – The site is in Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge – the first place I saw a bald eagle in the wild (in the early 1990s). My family visited there many times when we lived in Maryland, and we observed the transition of the marshes to ghost forests and then then open water over the next 30 years. The refuge is obviously changing with rising sea level.
Plastic recycling gets a breath of fresh air - The researchers used a molybdenum catalyst and activated carbon -- both of which are inexpensive, abundant and non-toxic materials. The mixture with PET was heated and, after a short period of time, the chemical bonds within the plastic broke apart. With the tiny bit of moisture from air, the material turned into terephthalic acid (TPA) -- the highly valuable precursor to polyesters. The only byproduct was acetaldehyde, a valuable, easy-to-remove industrial chemical.
This English Burial Site May Be Centuries Older Than Stonehenge - Flagstones, a burial site in Dorset, on the English Channel, may be the earliest known large circular enclosure in Britain. It is a perfectly circular ditched enclosure, with burials and cremations associated with it and may have even served as a prototype for later sites such as Stonehenge, which is located just 45 miles to the northeast. The ditched enclosure was created around 3200 B.C.E., with burials placed in it at that time. The scientists were also intrigued to find that a young man was buried under a large stone at the site fully a millennium later.
Climate change threatens future of banana export industry - It will be economically unsustainable by 2080 for many areas across Latin America and the Caribbean to continue growing bananas for export, because of rising temperatures caused by climate change.
Spring Spectacle: Thousands of Tulips Bloom at One of LA’s Top Gardens – Reminds me that I need to plan a visit to the botanical gardens near where I live in Missouri for tulips soon!
Portraits of women who 'shine a light': from an 'analog' astronaut to a watermelon farmer – Vignettes of women from around the world…what a range of activity!
Copyright © 2025, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from last month:
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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