American Spikenard Buds/Flowers

The American Spikenard I planted my first summer in Missouri (2023) might be my favorite plant in the whole yard. I see it from my office window. It is thriving with violets as its understory. When I planted it, the violets were mostly between the new plant and the house; once I stopped mowing they have filled half the side yard. I thought that the spikenard had been killed that first winter, but it came back the next spring and has been bigger every yearsince. References say that the plants get 3-5 feet tall but this one is taller!

And it is full of buds/flowers right now. They are not showy as individual flowers, but the cluster is noticeable because of the change in texture from the large compound leaves. The fruits will be even more noticeable this fall because they will be reddish purple.

The American spikenard is not as common as many of the other native plants, but it certainly has worked well in my garden. It should contribute to the lushness of my shade garden as it spreads via it roots or seeds. I planted a second plant this year at the northern end of the shade garden and wonder if the two plants will eventually expand to meet in the middle!

Life Magazine in 1948

Continuing my look at Life Magazines on Internet Archive….

As I looked at the issues from 1948, I noticed more stories about booming business and industry that about the aftermath of World War II. Isreal was in the news…and Truman surprised the prognosticators by winning the election in November. Children were in the news struggling in a polio epidemic or left behind across the world by GI fathers or hungry/homeless in Europe. The Life pictures are windows into what the publishers (and a lot of other people) thought was newsworthy in 1948.

 Life Magazine 1948-01-05 - Big whale kill in Faeroe Islands

Life Magazine 1948-01-12 - Coca-Cola advertisement (vending machine)

Life Magazine 1948-01-19 - As the Arabs fight from ambush, the Jews train regular army

Life Magazine 1948-01-26 - Fighting bighorn rams

Life Magazine 1948-02-02 - Palestine Jews crawl through cross fire

Life Magazine 1948-02-09 - The US runs short of oil

Life Magazine 1948-02-16 - Gandhi joins the Hindu immortals

Life Magazine 1948-02-23 - Timberline skiing

Life Magazine 1948-03-01 - Scio, Ohio rebuilding pottery plant

Life Magazine 1948-03-08 - Explosions kill Jews as Arabs defy the UN

Life Magazine 1948-03-08 - Sacred rivers receive Gandhi’s ashes

Life Magazine 1948-03-08 - The Brando’s – the brother and sister from Omaha

Life Magazine 1948-03-29 - Czechs flee their new red regime

Life Magazine 1948-04-05 - Ozark spring

Life Magazine 1948-04-12 - Cannon percale sheets

Life Magazine 1948-04-19 - Dishwasher advertisement

Life Magazine 1948-04-26 - Meteor Crater in Arizona

Life Magazine 1948-05-03 - Spring walk (garden)

Life Magazine 1948-05-10 - Jews score a preliminary victory

Life Magazine 1948-05-17 - Maine & Pennsylvania

Life Magazine 1948-05-24 - American Airlines advertisement

Life Magazine 1948-05-31 - Isreal is born in travail and hope

Life Magazine 1948-06-07 - Pennsylvania railroad advertisement

Life Magazine 1948-06-14 - Trademarks in nature and gasoline

Life Magazine 1948-06-21 - Hong Kong’s eastern tip – cemetery for World War II dead

Life Magazine 1948-06-28 - Western Europe wears a new look

 Life Magazine 1948-07-05 - Oil breaks production records again

Life Magazine 1948-07-12 - Earthquake in Japan

Life Magazine 1948-07-19 - Fogging to kill insects (using helicopters)

Life Magazine 1948-07-26 - Chicago beach

Life Magazine 1948-08-02 - Black and white ranges of Peru

Life Magazine 1948-08-09 - Steel and sunflowers in Ukraine

Life Magazine 1948-08-16 - American abroad

Life Magazine 1948-08-23 - GI children left behind by their fathers from London to Tokyo

Life Magazine 1948-08-30 - Polio epidemic

Life Magazine 1948-09-06 - Madison, Wisconsin

Life Magazine 1948-09-13 - Airborne hospital

Life Magazine 1948-09-20 - Western Electric (telephone) advertisement

Life Magazine 1948-09-27 - Soviet prison camps

Life Magazine 1948-10-04 - Never has such a volume of goods been manufactured by a nation at peace

Life Magazine 1948-10-11 - Ritze crackers with cheese

Life Magazine 1948-10-18 - Yardley advertisement

Life Magazine 1948-10-25 - Earth photographed from rockets

Life Magazine 1948-11-01 - Rainwear

Life Magazine 1948-11-08 - Bees on the wing

Life Magazine 1948-11-15 - Truman wins!

Life Magazine 1948-11-22 - The US harvests a record corn crop

Life Magazine 1948-11-29 - Watchmakers of Switzerland advertisement

Life Magazine 1948-12-06 - Johnson and Johnson first aid advertisement

Life Magazine 1948-12-13 - Pennsylvania railroad holiday homecoming

Life Magazine 1948-12-20 - American Airlines “I’m closer to my grandchildren” ad

Life Magazine 1948-12-27 - Christmas finds many children of Europe in great need of help

Rattlesnake Master

One of my favorite native plants is rattlesnake master. All three of the plants I bought and planted in my front yard garden have bloomed this year. The downside is that their flower stalks fall over if there is not a lot of vegetation growing around them to help hold them upright. I did notice that there were tiny insects all over the flowers even when they on the ground! They are touted as great plants for pollinators and some swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on them! As the season has progressed, I’ve noticed that they are continuing to grow more stalks. By next year maybe each clump with be substantial enough to support the stalks. They are the most interesting plants in the native plant garden structurally!

I saw a clump of rattlesnake master at the St. Louis Zoo which has become my and am wondering how long it will be before my plants are as dense. Maybe next year? Maybe the year after that?

Butterfly House - July

My shifts in the Roston Native Butterfly House in July were hotter; maybe not as pleasant for people but the butterflies and caterpillars were very active. I’ve learned to take more water – and wear a neck fan! The caterpillars included  large cecropia moth caterpillars (that can get as big as a hotdog) as well as tussock moths and red spotted purple caterpillars that look like bird poop. There were still plenty of spicebush swallowtail caterpillars around too, but I somehow didn’t take any pictures of them; I was too busy trying to get them into the cage as they opted to leave the plant to find a good place to make their chrysalis.

The giant swallowtail is laying eggs on the wafer ash and there are all stages from egg to varying sizes of caterpillars on the tree. Based on the number of eggs, some of the caterpillars will have to be moved to another tree (i.e. outside the house) so that the tree will keep at least a few leaves!

The pawpaws are still green. It will be a month or more before they ripen. The thistles that were the big nectar source in June have been replaced with other plants that are smaller but must have plenty of nectar.

The butterflies and big moths are still the big show!

Cat Sitting

My family is traveling…I am the only one at home – which means that I am taking care of cats in 2 locations! Food, water, litter scooping….the occasional clean-up of throw up. Treats occasionally but they don’t seem to be as crazy for them as previous cats.

My daughter and husband left for an amateur astronomy event in Nebraska in the early morning. I took a picture of the sunrise at my house since I was up and ready for the day already.

They sent a picture of their camp later in the day…and then sunset.

Evidently the sky was clear, but it was windy which made photography more challenging. They did send one picture from the first night.

There are evidently some tiny prickly pears in the field where they are set up…they stick to everything – including tires.

My son-in-law left for a conference early the next day. I checked on their cat in the afternoon…refilled a water bowl and refreshed the food supply. My son-in-law had already put the trash/recycle bins out at the edge of the driveway; I put them away when I went the next day.

I am enjoying the quiet of home…even with the little bit of extra work cat sitting!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 18, 2026

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.

07/06/2026 Clean Technica Fixing Climate Communications Part 1 - Make consequences such as your insurance bill, your home, and your children’s health urgent and tangible; make the cause concrete by anchoring every message to pollution rather than climate change; and make the cure feel expansive rather than restrictive. Reaching enough people to sustain the transition will require a delivery infrastructure built around genuine community engagement, economically grounded wins, and a willingness to hold accountable the interests that have made this conversation harder than it needs to be.

07072026 Clean Technica Climate Communications — From Losing the Argument to Winning It Part 2 - Telling the climate story with the value proposition of cost, risk management, improved operational performance, supply chain resiliency, and long-term enterprise value is a winning one. It’s a strategy that appeals to the C-suite, is durable, and can be couched in shareholder returns.

07/06/2026 Smithsonian Magazine These 11 Wildlife Images from the Ocean Conservancy’s Photography Contest Showcase the Wonder of Earth’s Waters - The annual contest received more than 1,000 photographs of marine wildlife and habitats this year. The ones that rose to the top were portraits of ocean wildlife, and I think that’s because we crave to see and connect with animals on an interpersonal level.

07/07/2026 The Conversation 3.1 billion‑year‑old rocks in Australia reveal a forgotten chapter of Earth’s water cycle - We learn the water cycle in school as a story of evaporation and precipitation. But Earth runs a second, far slower one deep beneath our feet. On the ocean floor, seawater seeps into the oceanic crust and reacts with the rock, becoming chemically bound inside its minerals, locked into their crystal structures rather than sitting as free water. Over millions of years, sinking tectonic plates carry these water-bearing minerals down into the mantle, the hot rock layer beneath the crust. This sinking of one plate beneath another is called subduction, and volcanoes eventually breathe the water back out. The deep water cycle moderates Earth’s water budget. At the surface, it keeps the oceans from drying up or drowning the continents, while in the interior, it changes how the mantle melts and builds continents.

07/06/2026 NWF Blog Marine Animal Quiz: It’s Plastic Free July! - Take the time to learn more about how plastic pollution in the oceans of the world harms marine life and consider action steps you can take to reduce your plastic waste footprint.

07/04/2026 ScienceDaily The secret to healthy aging may be hidden in your blood - A new study found that centenarians have a unique chemical "fingerprint" in their blood that sets them apart from normal aging, including unusual patterns of bile acids and steroids linked to longer survival.

07/03/2026 Planetizen Lake Powell reaches lowest water level on record - Currently, Lake Powell is around 24 percent full. The last time it was completely full was in 1983. Since then, water levels have fluctuated, but in 2026, they have fallen to a critical point. And there are multiple concerns if the water levels continue to drop. One includes reaching "dead pool," the point at which water levels are so low that water can no longer move across the dam and into the Grand Canyon, which would cause significant ecological impacts and reduce the capacity for hydroelectricity. 

07/03/2026 Yale Environment 360 In Overfished Adriatic Sea, Dolphins Look to Trawlers for Food - Off the eastern coast of Italy, large numbers of bottlenose dolphins are looking to fishing trawlers as a source of food, a sign that dolphins may be struggling to feed themselves in waters depleted by overfishing. Dolphins may also suffer hearing damage that results from chronic exposure to the noise of trawlers. It is risky behavior. However, finding sufficient prey away from trawlers in an overfished sea may be too difficult. It appears that for these animals, taking the risks is better than going hungry.

7/2/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Earth Might Be Home to 20 Million Insect Species—More Than Three Times as Many as Previously Thought – Only about one million species have been named and described, meaning up to 95 percent of the planet’s insect diversity might remain a mystery…. With more than 40 percent of known insect species threatened with extinction. “The library is being burned before the books can be read.”

6/21/2025 YouTube Slicing and Dicing Onions – Learn some practical kitchen knife skills via a video from the American College of Culinary Medicine!

Our Missouri Yard

There is so much going on in our yard this year that I might do more than one post about it each month. Every time it rained in June – there were mushrooms in and around the native plant garden in the front yard. They were often almost like a living edge…along the margin of the mulch – almost into the grass. A few times there was a clump in the middle of the bed. I love to see them because it means the natural decomposition of the mulch is well underway.

All three of the rattlesnake master plants have stalks. Unfortunately, most of them fall over but they still seem to be developing. I might have seeds and then more plants next year!

The new Missouri Evening Primrose plants are thriving and most have bloomed. The red oak seedling (squirrel planted) that I am leaving is next to one of them. In a few years it might be the tallest of the new plantings although it might be more years before it is taller than the maple. The yarrow (I bought 2 but only one survived) is next to another of the primrose plants; I like the very different texture the yarrow adds to the garden and hope that it will reproduce itself over time…or I will have to buy more!

In sunny, drier garden next to our front door, the day lilies and Virginia sweetspire have finished blooming now…the crape myrtle (out of the picture) is blooming and there are several fall blooming natives there. The violet (ground cover) is lush but will begin to dry out soon unless I remember to water it; the leaves are already not as good to eat as the violets that are growing in my shade garden.

The soapweed yucca appears to be thriving although I need to keep other plant away from it. There is a grapevine growing on the dead Japanese maple in the corner….and I am going to let it continue to grow there…and drive out other plants that are not as hardy.

I noticed a stand of poison ivy in a small flower bed on the west side of the house…and it had something growing on the leaves. After watching a recent webinar on galls, I realized that the growths were caused by the poison ivy gall mite! It also can infect fragrant sumac; I checked the plant I have in my back yard and, so far, it doesn’t have any galls! I need to develop some better techniques to take gall pictures….since now I will be looking for them everywhere I go (particularly on oaks!).

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 11, 2026

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.

07/01/2026 Clean Technica Southeast Missouri Smelter Announces Intent to Restart This Year - Not mentioned in the release today is how the smelter will be powered, and whether the smelter will be in compliance with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources plan to reduce sulfur dioxide pollution to levels that are safe to breathe. New Madrid County recorded the worst air quality in the United States before idling.

07/01/2026 Yale Environment 360 A Home Battery Revolution Is Reshaping the Power Grid - As residential batteries have become more energy dense, cheaper, and smaller, more households are storing their excess solar power. Now, utilities and energy companies in dozens of countries are buying up those electrons, bundling them together, and using them to balance the grid.

07/01/2026 Planetizen Replacing lead pipes in Chicago costs more than 6 times the national average - Chicago has the nation's largest inventory of lead water pipes. Officials say replacing each one costs about $31,000 on average — more than six times the Environmental Protection Agency’s national estimate of $4,700 a line. The most significant factors driving up costs include inefficient early contracts, cumbersome permitting requirements, and the city’s reliance on one-off replacements rather than undertaking whole blocks at once.

07/01/2026 NPR Lone star ticks are covering much of the U.S. Here's what you need to know - The lone star is spreading across vast regions of the U.S., and the illness it carries, the alpha-gal syndrome, is spreading in more than 30 countries on six continents, often spread by various other ticks. The alpha-gal syndrome is more difficult to diagnose and treat than lime disease, and the symptoms are more severe. In many cases, the victim develops an allergy to all red meat, including nearly microscopic particles of it. The allergy can become so extreme it can kill you.

06/28/2026 BBC What watching the sunset really does for your health - There's growing evidence that sunsets – and sunrises, for that matter – can have a meaningful impact on our brain and mental health: diminishing anxiety and depression while boosting memory, creativity, sleep and even altruism. 

6/25/2026 The Conversation Most bees are solitary and don’t live in hives. Climate change risks them starving - Currently, most of what we know about bee nutrition comes from highly social species such as honeybees or bumblebees. Yet most bees are solitary or communal (group living but with no queens and workers). They might experience the nutritional landscape and nutritional stress in very different ways.

06/22/2026 NASA A Turquoise Tint for the Black Sea - The Black Sea sits at the boundary between Europe and Asia and connects to the Mediterranean Sea via a chain of waterways. Its surface often appears dark, but each spring and summer it transforms into a striking expanse of swirling turquoise. The turquoise color is likely caused by coccolithophores, a type of phytoplankton covered with calcium carbonate plates that can give surface waters a milky-blue appearance. These types of phytoplankton tend to dominate in late spring and early summer. Other times of the year, diatoms—a type of microscopic algae with silica shells—can become more prevalent, and they tend to darken the water rather than brighten it.   

6/24/2026 NWF Blog 7 Moths that Make Butterflies Look Boring – The only one I haven’t seen is the Texas Wasp Moth!

06/30/2026 Artnet These 10 U.S. Landmarks Are At-Risk - As America gears up to mark the 250th year of its independence, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) is throwing a spotlight on 10 historic places that it says are most urgently in need of preservation.

6/27/2026 Science Daily Yellowstone’s supervolcano may be fueled by something unexpected - Instead of a deep plume rising from near Earth’s core, a broad “mantle wind” may push hot rock beneath Yellowstone, generating magma closer to the surface. This process helps create a massive underground magma network and may explain how supervolcanoes remain active for long periods.

Butterfly House – June

I had 4 morning shifts in the Roston Native Butterfly House in June. The weather was getting hotter and the house was full of active butterflies and caterpillars…the moths were, as usual, sleeping in their cage.

On the first shift of the month, it had been wet the night before and I noticed a lot of tulip poplar leaves on the floor when I first walked in. Right after I took this picture, I noticed there were a lot of tiger swallowtail caterpillars on the floor too! Fortunately, I hadn’t stepped on one. Getting them off the floor became the priority…and then picking up all the leaves and cleaning frass off the table/sweeping the floor. I was glad I had gone in 30 minutes before opening so I had time to get it all done.

I don’t take pictures every shift…it depends on how many people come in. On one morning there were multiple field trips that came through – so no pictures from that day! I did get pictures of several kinds of caterpillars: tiger swallowtail, pipevine swallowtail, and cecropia moth.

The female Diana Fritillaries were the ‘big, beautiful butterflies’ of the month but there were some monarchs and zebra swallowtails that I photographed as well.

On the way down to butterfly house, I often stop by the rain garden near the Botanical Center. There were milkweed seed pods just beginning to form and skippers visiting the cone flowers there.

June was a good month in the house…I was surprised that with all the rain showers coming through that all the shifts I signed up for remained dry!

Lake Springfield Boathouse Garden

I’ve been volunteering for the weekly maintenance sessions at the Lake Springfield Boathouse Garden this year. It’s been a learning experience. Recently the ‘taskmaster’ sent some pictures from 3 years ago – around the time I first visited the place.

The next time I volunteered, I took some similar pictures to document the way it looks in 2026. The plants are much more established now.

Of course I couldn’t resist taking some closer photos – cone flowers, button bush, cup plant, and some mushrooms that reminded me of roasted marshmallows.

Tabling at the Butterfly Festival

The annual Butterfly Festival at the Springfield Botanical Garden was held last weekend. It had rained a lot before the event and was still sprinkling as I was setting up; everyone was relieved when the day was dry after that! The local Missouri Master Naturalist chapter had two tables with several activities/topics: Highway 13 Butterfly trail, trees needed by butterfly/moth caterpillars, a butterfly symmetry craft, bugs, and rotten logs to explore. My collection of bookends worked to keep the items on the table from blowing off the table.

Over the course of the day, we had over 900 people visit our tables! I brought most of the materials in my car and was relieved that I had three helpers for each of the two shifts (9-12 and 12-3). One came early and helped me wrangle the table clothes onto the tables (with the corners tied at the ends to keep them securely on the tables and out of the mud). The pictures above are of the tables before the crowds arrived.

The mosaic below is from the butterfly symmetry craft. We often had a line waiting to make their butterfly and it was a challenge to get a picture of most of the creation before they moved on to the next activity.

The rotten log activity looked more like mulch than logs by the end of the day. We were allowed to leave it under a nearby cedar which made cleanup a simple matter of folding up the tarps.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted…but exhilarated that we had such a great turnout for the Butterfly Festival. I didn’t have time to look at other activities/tables – but they must have been great since everyone that we encountered at our tables seemed to be enjoying the day.

eBotanical Prints – June 2026

Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in June – 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 2013 to 2017; I’ll continue browsing this periodical in July. There were a few miscellaneous volumes at the beginning of the list – with a wide range of publication dates (1660 – 2001).

My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,383 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.

Click on any sample image from June’s 20 books 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 June 2026 eBotanical Prints!

6 Maine Trees * Goodale, Rebecca * sample image * 2001

JARDIN DE RARES ET CURIEUX FLEURS FAICTES * Geest, Julius Francois de * sample image * 1660

Sketch book of flowers in watercolor * Dabney, Beatrice Penati Adams * sample image * 1960

Practical directions for learning flower-drawing. Illustrated by coloured drawings * Syme, Paterick * sample image * 1810

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.42:no.1 (2013)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2013

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.42:no.2 (2013)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2013

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.42:no.3 (2013)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2013

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.43:no.1 (2014)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2014

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.43:no.2 (2014)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2014

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.43:no.3 (2014)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2014

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.43:no.4 (2014)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2014

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.44:no.1 (2015)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2015

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.44:no.2 (2015)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2014

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.44:no.3 (2015)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2015

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.44:no.4 (2015)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2015

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.45:no.1 (2016)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.45:no.2 (2016)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.45:no.3 (2016)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.45:no.4 (2016)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2016

Carnivorous plant newsletter v.46:no.1 (2017)  * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2017

June Road Trip to Texas

My road trip from Missouri to Texas (and back) in June was harder than usual. It rained for the first two hours on the way down and again when I left Lewisville the next morning!

I was looking forward to the last rest stop on the drive down at the Texas Welcome Center on US 75 – thought I would see the bluebonnet seed pods. It was not to be. They had taken out the non-woody plants to put down fresh mulch! The beautyberry was blooming and there was one clump of cone flowers. There was a large fungus growing on an old stump – an indication that the area was getting some rain.

The stand of red yuccas blooming and forming seed pods at my dad’s memory care center brightened my mood!

On the way home I stopped at a diner in McAlister for lunch – just as the rain began to move out. The piece of pie was a splurge. It looked luscious in the case….but it was frozen! Fortunately, it was a hot day so a frozen piece of pie that tasted great was OK.

On the way home I stopped at a diner in McAlister for lunch – just as the rain began to move out. The piece of pie was a splurge. It looked luscious in the case….but it was frozen! Fortunately, it was a hot day so a frozen piece of pie that tasted great was OK.

Hellbender Conservation

My third field trip associated with the Missouri Master Naturalist state conference was to the St. Louis Zoo to tour the Center for Hellbender Conservation. Pictures were not allowed so I am sharing the link to the center. There were bins of bleach to step in at every entry…trying to keep pathogens (like Chytrid fungi) away from the hellbenders. There were a lot of animals – from small to large. The smaller ones were in aquariums…the larger ones were in artificial streams mostly hidden under large rocks. There were two species: eastern hellbenders (dark skin) and Ozark hellbenders (mottled skin). The hellbender keeper conducted the hour-long tour….talking about the environmental requirements (water temp in the low 60s, rocks or tubes to hide in as the animals begin to grow, filtration of water, different kinds of food, and egg collection (both in the center and in the wild….and releasing the animals into the wild to shore up populations in stream clean and cool enough to support them.

The pictures I did take were from elsewhere in the zoo when I arrived early (not wanting to chance being late…or getting caught in heavy rain (it did rain a little but my umbrella was adequate)). There were pictures on the way into the zoo from the parking lot.

There were pelicans, wood ducks, and trees  to see along the walk looking out over the water.

The flamingos were very active…and two appeared to be sitting on a nest!

After the Hellbender tour, I headed back to the car and noticed some clumps of rattlesnake master. I hope eventually I have a clump in my garden since my current single plants seem to be challenged to keep their stalks upright!

It started raining as I headed back to the conference venue…I was glad I was in the same building for the rest of the day.

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

My second field trip associated with the Missouri Master Naturalist state conference was to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. The tour guide summed up the mission of the center was to ‘feed the world’ – more formally: improve the human condition through plant science. Photography is not allowed in the work areas of the building – so the only picture I took inside the building was in the entry area where there is a display of flags of countries around the world that the center has engaged.

The building is recent enough to have features that make it easy to reconfigure electrical equipment (outlets in the ceiling!) and appealing with lots of natural light. There are a lot of green houses and controlled plant growth environments.

Much of the research is focused on striving to address current plant growth issues plan for a hotter/drier future. One example was with the cassava plant; their research has created a plant that is more resist to viruses that often reduce production and it is on the cusp of being rolled out in African countries most dependent on the cassava as a food staple.

The organization is very conscious of preserving and renewing our environment as well.

Outside the building – they have recreated a native Missouri prairies….with a lot of plants I recognized!

Lake Springfield Boathouse Garden – June 2026

I am learning to recognize weeds more easily as I’ve volunteered to help maintain the Lake Springfield Boathouse garden….and it is also a great way to observe the garden plants as they develop through the weeks. I walked around and took pictures last week before I started work.

The sloped garden has a wild look – but not as wild as a prairie. It becomes a background for special event pictures, and the Boathouse terrace looks over it to the lake. It needs to look good from every direction! There are rock paths through the slope to allow for easier maintenance.

It is a great place for some macro photography of native wildflowers.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 13, 2026

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.

06/1/2026 Science Daily Your kitchen sponge is releasing microplastics every time you wash dishes – Use sponges with lower plastic (or no plastic) content! Using less water for dishes has and even greater environmental impact.

05/30/2026 Clean Technica Illinois First Great Lakes State to Enact Plastic Pellet Pollution Law - Just days before the end of the 2026 legislative session, the Illinois state legislature passed HB4418, which defines pre-production plastic pellets as a pollutant and gives the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency the authority to establish policies to prevent them from being released into the environment. eople complain about government overreach and faceless bureaucrats, but the truth is that without legislation such as this and governmental organizations like the Illinois EPA to enforce it, the world would be a much more toxic and dangerous place. It is long past time to stop giving polluters a free pass so they can maximize their profits.

05/11/2026 RNZ Is it really possible to live a plastic-free life? - Our lives are riddled with plastic, and growing evidence suggests it is affecting our health in myriad ways. (New Zealand)

04/27/2026 Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology Endocrine-disrupting chemicals in breast milk and early life exposure for infants in the United States – Melamine, cyanuric acid, BPA, BPS, and triclosan were detected with high frequency in breast milk samples in the study, and our study suggests that breast milk is an important exposure pathway for these chemicals among nursing infants. Given the importance of breastfeeding for infant health, our study highlights the need to investigate potential health effects of these chronic exposures.

04/26/2026 Earth.com Plastics are entering food crops and stunting their growth - Farmers, waste managers, and regulators now face a harder truth: plastic in soil can slow crops, gather around roots, and enter plants. The next step is tracing whether weathered nanoplastics reach edible tissues at harvest and deciding which plastic inputs should be cut first.

04/02/2026 Medical Xpress Seven days without plastic contact slashes phthalates and bisphenols in body – A clinical trial investigating levels of plastic chemicals in the human body has found that a low-plastic diet could be a fast and effective way to reduce exposure. (Australia)

05/31/2026 The Conversation Trees and greenery can cool cities by as much as 18°C – but only if it’s the right type - Field measurements from Melbourne, Munich and Hong Kong were compared to test how different kinds of urban planting changed the heat people experience outdoors. Layered vegetation – where trees are combined with shrubs and ground cover – often cooled cities more effectively than trees alone. We also found local climate and street design strongly shaped whether greening worked well. Cities need planting strategies tailored to local conditions rather than universal greening formulas. In parks and open green spaces, layered vegetation can provide strong cooling while also supporting biodiversity. In dense streets, planners may need to balance shade with ventilation.

05/28/2026 My Modern Met Hand-Colored Photos From 19th-Century Japan Offer a Glimpse of Traditional Life - Photography arrived in Japan very early—a little less than a decade after it was invented in Europe. Throughout the 1850s, as Japan opened up to foreigners, the images from this time capture not only a nearly forgotten moment in history but also a rare transitional time in which traditional Japanese life was being affected by rapid modernization.

05/20/2026 BBC Chile's Atacama Desert is one of the darkest places on Earth. But now the light is intruding - The battle against encroaching artificial light in the Atacama is a microcosm of a global problem. As electric bulbs have proliferated, around 80% of Earth's population now lives under light-polluted skies. A recent study of star visibility found that, on average globally, the sky brightened due to light pollution by almost 10% a year between 2011-2022. If a person could see 250 stars at the start of the period, the researchers found, they would only spot 100 by the end.

5/28/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Giant, Destructive Hail Is Becoming More Common with Climate Change - A new study finds that these giant hailstones will become more common as the climate warms from human-caused carbon emissions. In models of predicted future warming, the researchers found that the frequency of hail larger than a marble will increase 47 percent by 2100 in a worst-case scenario. Even in a more optimistic model of future climate change, the potential for storms producing giant hail will rise 38 percent.

Yard Work – June 2025

This time of year, all the grasses are growing well. I have reduced the amount of yard with grass…but mowing is still the most time consuming form of yard work for me over the whole season.

My goal is to cut back on the area I mow and skew the ‘yard work’ toward establishing my native plant gardens. My shade garden is close to being the way I want it. Recently I’ve cut down pokeweed and pulled poison hemlock that was growing in the area near the young pawpaw trees. I took a picture of the compost pile the day after I added the debris from that effort. The stems of the pokeweed are still identifiable by color. The more delicate curls of vegetation are the poison hemlock.

In the new native plant garden in the front yard, I am digging out dandelions that are growing through the mulch….keeping the area clear for the native plants to spread and fill the space.

The area under the shortleaf pine was crowded with pokeweed up to the lower branches. I cut quite a few down and will let them rot where they fell!

On the plus side, I discovered some blackberries growing under the pokeweed!

The hackberry that was growing in the yew hedge was cut back – I don’t want a tree growing there. I couldn’t get to the root so it will likely return.

My goal in June is to do as much as I can to get the yard in great shape so there won’t be much aside from mowing in the hotter part of the summer.

Butterfly House Trees

I decided to document the trees in the Roston Native Butterfly House during one of my recent shifts. All of them are there to provide food for certain caterpillars. So here is a tree tour of the house…starting on the right side as you enter the trees are

Wafer ash for Giant Swallowtail caterpillars

Hackberry for Hackberry Emperor caterpillars

Spicebush for Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars

Pawpaw for Zebra Swallowtail caterpillars

False Indigo for Silver Spotted Skipper caterpillars

Black Walnut for Luna Moth, Polyphemus Moth, and Red Banded Hairstreak caterpillars

(turning back toward the front of the house…looking at the trees on your right)

Tulip poplar for Tiger Swallowtail caterpillars

Black Willow for Red Spotted Purple caterpillars

Of course, there were lots of butterflies and a just-emerged Cecropia Moth that I couldn’t resist photographing too!