#plant knowledge

[balkanradfem]

I've been learning the differences between spruce, pine, fir and yew tree this morning; it's important to know because the first three have edible needles, and yew is deadly poisonous, ingesting even a few needles can end you. You can also use spruce, pine and fir's young shoots to make medicinal syrups and tinctures, while doing the same with yew would be lethal.

I realized while absorbing this knowledge that I do not, in fact, have a great base of knowledge about trees; I've never taken a class on trees. I can recognize all of the fruit and nut trees because of my foraging habits, and I can recognize oaks, lindens, willows, birches, poplars, black locust, ginkgo, and maples. Last year I learned to recognize beeches, elms, and hornbeams. But there are still so many trees, even close around me, that I do not know the name of!

A few months ago, while walking around the park, I noticed it was filled with trees that were beautiful, tall, had smooth but layered bark and gorgeous maple-like leaves, and I couldn't figure out what that tree was, because it was not maple. Most parks here are filled with wild chestnuts (which benefits me a lot, since I use wild chestnuts as a laundry detergent), and I've seen oaks and poplars used as a park tree, but I had no idea what this was, and there was a lot of it.

I took pictures, and set out to research; eventually I found an old article that described the town's initiative to create all of the parks, and the tree I was wondering about was maple-leafed plane tree! It's a mix of american sycamore and asian plane tree, and it's not native to us, but very resistant to air pollution and drought, so it's a popular tree to import and cultivate in city parks.

I actually had never heard the name of this tree until finding it in the article, and all of other people I asked about it, had no idea what I was talking about. I was a bit offended there was a tree with origin and name completely unknown growing everywhere in the city.

Learning about trees makes me extremely pleased and inspired, so I thought I would create a little game; I go out, then confront every tree I see and figure out if I can recognize what it is; if I can't, I would take pictures and research until I know what it is. There are trees I already know and love around the building, like the poplar I can see from my window (and everyone complains about because it's horrible for people with allergies), black walnut trees that are a great foraging resource, pear tree that is most beloved because it provides me with fruit during the summer, couple of wild plums, and cedars that the nearby hotel planted for decoration. But there are probably 20 more tree varieties around me that I cannot recognize.

I was about to head out, when I realized, it's actually February, and none of those trees have any leaves on them, which makes my mission difficult. I could still potentially research them from the bark and the branch formation, but, it is much easier if I can see the leaf as well. Fruit trees are the most easy to spot in the spring, because they will flower and that makes them stand out, chestnuts and magnolias will flower as well. It's how I found a lot of fruit trees around the banished settlement.

But to do a more thorough tree research around the city, I will have to wait a few months. I'll make a post about how many trees I recognized, and how many I had to research! I am almost certain to learn about all of the uses, food, and medicine these trees can provide as well, information on any tree is like information on possible food and medicine source, and that makes it incredibly worth knowing.

Also, if you're still wondering how to successfully recognize spruce, fir, pine and yew tree, here's a video for you.

#on trees #tree types #learning about thee varieties in the town #park trees #plant knowledge #tree knowledge #maple leaf plane tree #tree recognizing missions #how to learn information that is immediately useful and practical

[sweetcloudsheep]

How to Choose Plants for Survival: digestible or Deadly

Methods of Plant Identification

If you really need to understand how you can identify a specific plant, follow the below-explained ways: 

Identify the Plant’s Family – The identification of the unknown plant’s families constitutes the initial step. Once the family name is known, the keys to genera can be used to determine the generic name, and the species key can be used to identify the specific plant. Since the obtained plant’s identity and name may be incorrect for a variety of reasons, it is always safe to verify that the plant’s description reasonably matches the observed characteristics.

Area Where the Plant is Found – The use of the most recent flora and a checklist specific to the area is the second method. These typically include a list of the plants that are known to be in the area and other pertinent habits, distributional, and frequency data. An unidentify plant can be place in a genus with one or more species by elimination, and identification can be complete by comparing its characteristics to those provided in any standard work.

          Learn more about this Post for Click Here

#plants for survival #survival plants #edible plants #wild edibles #foraging #plant identification #wilderness survival #plant foraging #plant knowledge #survival skills #wilderness plants #plant classification #plant selection #plant uses #plant resources #plant benefits #plant properties

[changeling-rin]

idk about anyone else but i wouldn't object to my dash being filled with Plant Knowledge

Bold words, my friend. You have no idea of the amount of Plant Knowledge I can give. I once went on a appreciation rant for carnivorous plants and I spent forty minutes on the asian pitcher plant alone. I didn't even get to the american pitchers within the hour, I was so excited to infodump about the asian ones.

That said if anyone wants to know about pitcher plants, I have cool facts for days

#Changeling Answers #sketchs-trashcan #Plant Knowledge #within my hyperfixation on plants is my EXTREMELY SPECIFIC hyperfixation on carnivorous ones #I adore them #the best way to get me talking about plants is to ask me which ones eat things #ALSO DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE'S AUSTRALIAN PITCHERS TOO??? #and they're unique to themselves like the american pitchers are unique to themselves like the asian pitchers are unique to themselves #I just love pitcher plants so much you guys

[reasonsforhope]

In the Willamette Valley of Oregon, the long study of a butterfly once thought extinct has led to a chain reaction of conservation in a long-cultivated region.

The conservation work, along with helping other species, has been so successful that the Fender’s blue butterfly is slated to be downlisted from Endangered to Threatened on the Endangered Species List—only the second time an insect has made such a recovery.

[Note: "the second time" is as of the article publication in November 2022.]

To live out its nectar-drinking existence in the upland prairie ecosystem in northwest Oregon, Fender’s blue relies on the help of other species, including humans, but also ants, and a particular species of lupine.

After Fender’s blue was rediscovered in the 1980s, 50 years after being declared extinct, scientists realized that the net had to be cast wide to ensure its continued survival; work which is now restoring these upland ecosystems to their pre-colonial state, welcoming indigenous knowledge back onto the land, and spreading the Kincaid lupine around the Willamette Valley.

First collected in 1929 [more like "first formally documented by Western scientists"], Fender’s blue disappeared for decades. By the time it was rediscovered only 3,400 or so were estimated to exist, while much of the Willamette Valley that was its home had been turned over to farming on the lowland prairie, and grazing on the slopes and buttes.

Pictured: Female and male Fender’s blue butterflies.

Now its numbers have quadrupled, largely due to a recovery plan enacted by the Fish and Wildlife Service that targeted the revival at scale of Kincaid’s lupine, a perennial flower of equal rarity. Grown en-masse by inmates of correctional facility programs that teach green-thumb skills for when they rejoin society, these finicky flowers have also exploded in numbers.

[Note: Okay, I looked it up, and this is NOT a new kind of shitty greenwashing prison labor. This is in partnership with the Sustainability in Prisons Project, which honestly sounds like pretty good/genuine organization/program to me. These programs specifically offer incarcerated people college credits and professional training/certifications, and many of the courses are written and/or taught by incarcerated individuals, in addition to the substantial mental health benefits (see x, x, x) associated with contact with nature.]

The lupines needed the kind of upland prairie that’s now hard to find in the valley where they once flourished because of the native Kalapuya people’s regular cultural burning of the meadows.

While it sounds counterintuitive to burn a meadow to increase numbers of flowers and butterflies, grasses and forbs [a.k.a. herbs] become too dense in the absence of such disturbances, while their fine soil building eventually creates ideal terrain for woody shrubs, trees, and thus the end of the grassland altogether.

Fender’s blue caterpillars produce a little bit of nectar, which nearby ants eat. This has led over evolutionary time to a co-dependent relationship, where the ants actively protect the caterpillars. High grasses and woody shrubs however prevent the ants from finding the caterpillars, who are then preyed on by other insects.

Now the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde are being welcomed back onto these prairie landscapes to apply their [traditional burning practices], after the FWS discovered that actively managing the grasslands by removing invasive species and keeping the grass short allowed the lupines to flourish.

By restoring the lupines with sweat and fire, the butterflies have returned. There are now more than 10,000 found on the buttes of the Willamette Valley."

-via Good News Network, November 28, 2022

#butterflies #butterfly #endangered species #conservation #ecosystem restoration #ecosystem #ecology #environment #older news but still v relevant! #fire #fire ecology #indigenous #traditional knowledge #indigenous knowledge #lupine #wild flowers #plants #botany #lepidoptera #lepidopterology #entomology #insects #good news #hope

[trials-of-a-spirit-worker]

Love the fact I have an anon name now<3 thank you hihi

Regarding the plant ask, I believe the spiderplant and boston fern are safe for pets and pretty easy to take care of! (Do please do some extra research this is just of the top of my head) but maybe you can try installing hooks into the cealing to hang your plants? That way your cats can not reach it.

I believe snake plants are toxic when ingested incl the sap from the leafs so be careful if one breaks. I'm not sure if it's fatal but it can cause sickness, vomiting, stomach pains etc when chewed on or consumed.

I do also like natural ways of purifying the air, but if your pets are real trouble makers with your plants, getting a purifying machine may be the best option

🐶🐶

Ha, yes you have an anon name now. :3 You're welcome.

Yeah we're gonna have to discuss what to do around those fluffy bastards. Two of them are just... mischievous little shits and I'm not even 100% sure hooking the plants will keep them away. It'll probably take a lot of reinforcement and spray bottles.

I know my partners very attached to their aloe plant so as long as that's not poisonous I think we're good. We might just have to get an air filter though just because all the critters we do have are mega fluffy. But I just want the air as nice as possible in our home. They suffered an environment with heavy smokers while they have asthma. It's... unpleasant.

But yeah, lots of plant research for us. Thank you though.

#doggo anon #plant knowledge #plant advice #plants for pets #answered asks

[vintagewildlife]

Venus flytrap By: Unknown photographer From: Disney’s Wonderful World of Knowledge 1986

#it's an honorary animal :) #carnivorous plant #plant #1986 #1980s #Disney’s Wonderful World of Knowledge

[just-your-average-cryptid]

most of us have heard of the red car game. you’re on a road trip, you’re bored, you start looking for red cars to do something.

and then they’re everywhere. you notice them nearly every few minutes.

there aren’t suddenly more red cars now, of course. you were seeing them already, but you weren’t noticing. you weren’t looking.

I am noticing things.

there is a plant I notice everywhere now, a small bushy plant in suburbs, along streets, by shops on the highways. dwarf umbrella bush is what the internet tells me when I look for it’s name. I did this because I wanted to know why,

every time I ever saw it, every place,

it was always dying. always the leaves turning yellow, the branches small and scraggly. inside out - nitrogen deficiency. their soil drained.

I am noticing how many of these landscaping plants are yellowing, how small and sickly they look in just a few years. I am noticing how often the grass outside the house is replaced when it once again turns brown and dry, how the type never changes and the cycle starts again. I am noticing how the unmowed, unkempt spaces on lakesides and roadsides look more alive than this. how the preserve I grew up next to was miles of “messy” unmanicured nature and the ground was covered in leaves instead of grass and there was life.

I am noticing the birds that come by the lake. there was a flash of blue wings and red chest - eastern bluebird, male, relatively common. I had never seen one before. there is a family of ducks that appear every spring; i cannot say if it’s successive generations or different ducks, but I can always look forward to ducklings. there are little brown birds with white heads whose names I do not know - are they some kind of piper? why don’t I already know?

why is it so hard to learn about my native plants (accurately, that is)? why are so many gardening sites littered with people who think a plants value is based on how pretty or useful it is to them, who think a tree shedding leaves is “messy”?

why is knowing about the world we live in so… odd? why is it a hobby and not vital knowledge? I learned about polar equations. I taught myself about mycorrhizal networks and species of insects.

(did you know there are shiny green bees? a special species of wasp pollinating figs? that white flowers bloom at night for moths? do you know? have you looked?)

I cannot look at a lawn and see life anymore. it is a wasteland, devoid of life, dying slowly itself. everywhere is grass, grass, doused in water that runs over into storm drains, soaked in fertilizer and pesticides and a hundred other poisons and sending one clear message:

this is a place of death. life is not welcome here.

I do not think I could live in a city. too loud, yes, too busy, yes, too many people, yes, but the plants would bother me. a tree allotted only a convenient square, surrounded by dead stone and metal.

a forest cleared for this, for burning asphalt streets and racing cars and shops whose bathrooms are “for paying customers only”.

this is a place of death. life is not welcome here.

and now I am noticing.

#it speaks #idk man this is stream of consciousness and it’s midnight lol #I’m having thoughts about plants and people and how much I hate lawns #anti lawn #firmly believe that nature knowledge should be taught in school #yeah there’s biology but biology won’t teach you what plants are edible or deadly #or what birds live/migrate in your area and what they depend on #they teach civics bc even if you’re not politically active you should know how the government works #if you live in a world you should know how it works #bc even if it feels like it doesn’t matter. it does. it will. and if you notice it now you can do something about it

[happyheidi]

Introducing…

𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚍, 𝚂𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜, 𝙺𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚘𝚎𝚜

4𝑐𝑎𝑡

ig: heidiwranglescats

#*in 50s commercial voice* #the days of worrying over the lack of cats in todays school is now a thing of the past with 4cat! #cottagecore #cats #kittens #now u can teach your kids basic anatomy knowledge using a cat #ur welcome parents of tumblr #how to: incorporate cats into everything teaching edition #the face is AMAZING. the shoulders is basically nonexistent. the Knees (hands. WIDE!) the Toes looking like the Nike logo #I realize I just basically made a nike ad #ur welcome #funny #cat meme #teacher #cute #plants #soft aesthetic #green #green interior

[the-crimson]

Aight thoughts on todays bbh lore cuz we got A LOT. Just stay with me through my nerding about trees it’ll be worth it XD

We pretty much got 100% confirmation that he is intentionally hurting Baghera and Forever and that he thinks of himself as expendable. What fascinates me the most is when Bad asked Foolish this

“Is there anything wrong with burning the forest to save the trees?”

At first glance you might think YES if u burn the forest then there won’t be any trees??!! However it is a custom on fire risk zones to create controlled fires that burn up brush and dead trees so that the risk of a natural and far more devastating fire is reduced. Additionally, if a fungus infects a forest, burning the infected trees may be the only way to prevent the spread to the rest of the forest.

On top of that, there is a specific type of tree species that requires fires in order to reproduce. These are often Pine trees that drop pinecones. Pinecones hold seeds inside them that only germinate when immense heat is applied to them: the heat of a forest fire. When they are within these temperatures, the seeds germinate and the pine cones pop, scattering the seeds on the forest floor. These trees adapted to form a symbiotic relationship with fire one of if not the most destructive natural forces on the earth.

Do you know one of the trees that has developed this adaption? Redwoods.

Do you know which tree bbh brought up when giving Jaiden a PINECONE gift for her birthday today? A Redwood.

I’m like actually going insane. This can’t be a coincidence right????? I’m not going crazy right???

The whole reason I noticed this scene is because I live near the redwood forests in California and I know all about the way these trees depend on fires for their survival. It’s something that’s always fascinated me. That’s when I assume Bad was going to ask foolish the above question before Jaiden and Teana cut their conversation short while they were talking on the Titian . He literally had these specific trees on his mind when he was going to ask about burning down the forest.

Let me tell you another thing about Redwood trees. They are ancient. They are massive. They are sturdy. Natural fires are a common phenomenon here and a majority of the redwoods survive with barely a scratch, maybe an inch or two of its outer bark scorched. Nothing it won’t grow past in a year or two when these trees easily live for 500+ years.

(Side note, if there is one place in America you should visit it’s the redwood forests of California. It is literally like entering a portal to another world. These trees are 10-15 ft in diameter easily and you can just feel how ancient the forests are. It’s one of my all time favorite places to go)

So, in the situation Bad is proposing, burning the forest to save the trees, he is actively thinking about Redwoods in this hypothetical. Not only trees that are extremely resistant to fire but trees that depend on fire to survive. That completely changes the way he is approaching this question.

In his hypothetical, the forest will burn. The animals will die. The brush and non redwoods will turn to ash. The land will be scarred and the trees themselves may look dead, branchless and black. But. But. A season will pass and new branches will peel through the charcoal. Seeds deep in the soil will surge forth as the soil is fed nutrients from the ash. Animals will return. Pinecones will shed their fertilized seeds to give birth to a new generation of trees. And by next year, the forest will look just as vibrant as it had before the fire. Trees may bear the scars of the flames but life continues and it continues and it continues always.

I might actually be going crazy bbh makes me crazy cc!bbh makes me crazy I’m losing my mind

#qsmp #crimson speaks #badboyhalo #look #biology and ecosystems was a major hyperfixation in high school #like science in general has been one of my special interests since I was a baby #and I just so happen to have an intimate knowledge of redwood in particular #cuz I used to spend my summers camping in these forests #also #don’t tell me they are called sequoias #we use redwood and sequoia interchangeably #and I grew up calling them redwoods #but seriously I’m actually losing it over BBH’s lore today #he planted that pinecone and redwood mention INTENTIONALLY #KNOWING HE WAS GONNA ASK FOOLISH ABOUT BURNING THE TREES #AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHA #SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP #he’s so fucking insane #and amazing at planting and pay off #omfg

[headspace-hotel]

What feels so strange about growing plants, and making friends with plants, and generally being aware of my ecosystem, is that it's not a "head" knowledge, it's a "hands" knowledge.

It feels strange for me, at least. My formative years were spent in a homeschool co-op that was roughly 50% anti-vaxxers, so in spirit, I'm the sort that has yelled "just believe science!" until my throat hurt. I've clung to peer-reviewed papers, as an abstract concept, as the sole beacon of truth in a dark world, and found Facebook groups full of people that thought just like me: if it's not proven, if it's not science, it's false, and science is truth.

There are online communities of people who "believe in science," and t-shirts that affirm the wearer to "believe in science." This is not the worst place you can be, in a world where people believe things like "eating lemons makes your blood more alkaline, which cures cancer" and "polio was renamed to ALS in order to hide the fact that polio vaccines don't work."

However, science is not a doctrine. It's a process. It points to truth, but it doesn't produce truth as an end result. There is no end result. The results are endless, actually.

What word do I use to describe what I've been doing? I'm gardening, sure, but that makes it sound like I do things to plants, when mostly, the plants do things to me. I'm learning about the living things already around me. I've learned to identify so many plants, and I know about what role they serve in the ecosystem.

"Gardening" is a difficult word because it means planting things in the ground and tending to them, but plants plant and tend themselves. So since we have to use the word "gardening," we have to think of plants as either belonging to a garden or not, depending on whether a human put them there. Plants either grow on their own or a human, a "grower," "grows" them. Isn't it weird how that verb is transitive?

However, I understand now that even knowing the name of a plant is, in some way, "gardening" it, because it affects my behavior toward that plant, which is the thing that "gardening" is, just in a different amount.

Humans can transport seeds and plants, supplement nutrients and water, but this is just participation. A gardener doesn't create plants, they help them to grow. So it follows that any act of "helping" is also gardening—thinning out a stand of wild plants, moving a wild plant from one spot to another, choosing not to mow a wild plant down.

I have more of something than I used to. The thing that I have more of now is knowledge, but a lot of this knowledge isn't facts. Ecology is a science. Scientists study ecosystems. It is possible to know facts about ecosystems. But ecosystems are not made of facts.

I know that most people desperately need to know more about the ecosystems around them. They need to know about the plants and trees near them. I think this is literally essential to saving the world as we know it. But they don't need to learn facts—not just facts. They need to learn something Else.

For the past several months, I have been learning things that are not facts. I hesitate to call them skills. But they are like skills. Both gardening and plant identification are impossible to fully teach from a book or a written resource, because you have to know not what something is, but what it is like.

I rely on my senses—feeling the suppleness of a twig, the dampness of potting soil. Identifying plants is so hard starting out because the qualities that identify them best have to be experienced.

Back when I was first learning to identify trees, I discovered that there was a black walnut tree at the end of our road. I was just then entering the extremely frustrating reality of how many plants there are and how few photos of them at all growth stages exist on the internet. I didn't know what a fucking "petiole" was. Leaves all just looked like leaves and I wanted to cry.

But I tore a twig from one of the trees down at the end of the road, and I instantly knew it was a black walnut tree! And I couldn't describe to you how. I caught a whiff of the smell of the crushed leaves, and it pulled up a memory of the walnut trees at the farmhouse when I was a child, dropping their heavy green fruits all over the grass. I'm not even sure how to describe the smell. It's very fresh and spicy, but earthier and less "clear" than the word "fresh" would suggest.

And I identify a lot of plants in ways that you can't just...depict. Alianthus altissima, tree-of-heaven, is hard to draw or photograph in a way that lets you see through the picture what makes it distinctively Alianthus altissima. The best way to identify it is by its odor. Tear off a leafy twig and smell it—it smells exactly like peanut butter and the mustiness of a damp basement.

I am learning things that don't exist in books, that are specific to my immediate surroundings. The specific community of organisms found in my backyard, what they're doing. How my plant and animal neighbors are related, and how their relationships change.

I am learning just how little we know. There are so many plants, so many local plant communities. There are more relationships in an ecosystem than there are scientists that could possibly study them. I look up a question about a particular plant and there's just...nothing.

I have to use my own knowledge, my own observations. I have to do tiny science every day, where Big, Capital S Science can't help me. "Is this non-native plant harmful enough that it is better to get rid of it even if I can't replace it yet, or is it providing enough benefits to other organisms that it is better to let it stay?" Sometimes no website or book or article can answer this. Constantly I encounter this kind of question, and I have to observe and decide myself. I have to trust that I can be taught by my ecosystem, and that this knowledge is, in its own way, valid.

It is uncomfortable to be here. I want to convey my knowledge to others, but it sometimes feels almost pseudoscientific, superstitious. I want to be rational and rely on the experts, and teach other people to do so; I know that what "seems" right often isn't, and that personal observations are flawed, even useless, in many areas. But not only are these fuzzy, instinctual observations sometimes all we have, they are an essential skill that is needed to save our world.

There's also the fact that research doesn't happen fast enough to function all alone as a guide. Invasive species lists on state websites are basically decades out of date and not regionally specific enough. The Callery/Bradford pear tree, bane of my existence, is not "officially" designated an invasive species to my knowledge, and there is relatively little research on its role as an invasive species, but it is declared invasive, primarily by common consensus that it's Satan in tree form. Crowding and shading out other mid-succession shrubs and trees, forming thick, almost monoculture masses of ugly glossy foliage replacing whatever else would have grown there.

And the severe threat of the Bradford pear is specific to my region; its particular severity may be specific down to the square mile of land I live on. Some scientists may be studying it, but they're not studying my state, my county, my neighborhood.

It's insane how many TYPES of forests there are. You would think that within a specific biome and climate, a forest is a forest is a forest, but no. There are a bajillion specific associations of trees with specific relationships that form special ecosystems. It's insane how many types of moth there are, too. And it really blows your mind to look up a moth's host plants and read that we're not really sure of the full range of plants its caterpillars can eat.

You'll be reading something and it will say "We don't know this" but you will know, because you've seen it—and then you think to yourself, well, isn't that what people say about Nessie and Bigfoot and little green aliens? Can we trust what we observe for ourselves? Can we trust people to know what they see?

Maybe not—but we have to.

#learning #trees #plants #ecosystems #native plant gardening #gardening #science #knowledge #questions

[catkindness]

разрыв-трава

#digital art #digital painting #illustration #fan art #oh how i love putting crucial pieces of knowledge in the tags #the weed here is a plant basically called “a weed that tears things apart” #it's a mystic plant common in slavic fairy tales that can break iron and show hidden treasures to the one posessing it #it's also notoriously hard to find and the majority of tales revolves around people searching for it #and you know. sqh. him. yeah #svsss #scum villans self saving system #shang qinghua #mobei jun #moshang #artists on tumblr #my art

[balkanradfem]

Loved your tree story. Can children really develop extra senses when their home is troubled? As a toddler I predicted my brothers birth, i knew my mom was pregnant about a week before she did. One time in college I did mushrooms and walked past some trees in an apartment complex, I swore they said hello to me and laughed a bit at the state I was in. I have this book called.... "the secret language of plants". I never got too deep into it (easily distracted) but the whole thing is kind of about talking to plants and how they can communicate with us, and tell us their potential medicinal uses, and things like that. Have you heard of it? If you ever read it I would love to know your thoughts ❤️

Yeah I do believe that kids can develop extra senses when they're in a troubled environment very young! What you're describing is another layer of extra senses, I've never been able to predict anything like that, that's very cool. I've never managed to ask a plant about medicine uses, but I knew instinctively that yarrow is medicinal as a kid, I just didn't know what for (but I collected it anyway).

Thank you for sharing your story!

#plant lore #plant knowledge #tree knowledge #tree communication

[sweetcloudsheep]

Right plants for survival with experts. Enhance your survival skills & ensure your well-being in the wilderness with the right plant choices.

#plants for survival #survival plants #edible plants #wild edibles #foraging #plant identification #wilderness survival #plant foraging #plant knowledge #survival skills #wilderness plants #plant classification #plant selection #plant uses #plant resources #plant benefits #plant properties

[jojossillywalk]

this guy has been running around europe by himself with nothing but a gym bag for 3 entire years :) methinks that he is structurally a man and functionally an unrelenting species of weed.

#he's literally like an unkillable invasive species he is literally a mint plant. i hate him. #jean pierre polnareff #like. #avdol makes me place my head in my hands for extended periods of time because of how forbidden his knowledge is BUT. #CREDIT WHERE CREDIT'S DUE! i can comprehend how he's been doing alright thus far #whereas polnareff. something something stand symbolism something something that man kind of tanked crossfire hurricane huh :/ #he just. doesn't go away.

[reasonsforhope]

"In response to last year’s record-breaking heat due to El Niño and impacts from climate change, Indigenous Zenù farmers in Colombia are trying to revive the cultivation of traditional climate-resilient seeds and agroecology systems.

One traditional farming system combines farming with fishing: locals fish during the rainy season when water levels are high, and farm during the dry season on the fertile soils left by the receding water.

Locals and ecologists say conflicts over land with surrounding plantation owners, cattle ranchers and mines are also worsening the impacts of the climate crisis.

To protect their land, the Zenù reserve, which is today surrounded by monoculture plantations, was in 2005 declared the first Colombian territory free from GMOs.

...

In the Zenù reserve, issues with the weather, climate or soil are spread by word of mouth between farmers, or on La Positiva 103.0, a community agroecology radio station. And what’s been on every farmer’s mind is last year’s record-breaking heat and droughts. Both of these were charged by the twin impacts of climate change and a newly developing El Niño, a naturally occurring warmer period that last occurred here in 2016, say climate scientists.

Experts from Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies say the impacts of El Niño will be felt in Colombia until April 2024, adding to farmers’ concerns. Other scientists forecast June to August may be even hotter than 2023, and the next five years could be the hottest on record. On Jan. 24, President Gustavo Petro said he will declare wildfires a natural disaster, following an increase in forest fires that scientists attribute to the effects of El Niño.

In the face of these changes, Zenù farmers are trying to revive traditional agricultural practices like ancestral seed conservation and a unique agroecology system.

Pictured: Remberto Gil’s house is surrounded by an agroforestry system where turkeys and other animals graze under fruit trees such as maracuyá (Passiflora edulis), papaya (Carica papaya) and banana (Musa acuminata colla). Medicinal herbs like toronjil (Melissa officinalis) and tres bolas (Leonotis nepetifolia), and bushes like ají (Capsicum baccatum), yam and frijol diablito (beans) are part of the undergrowth. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

“Climate change is scary due to the possibility of food scarcity,” says Rodrigo Hernandez, a local authority with the Santa Isabel community. “Our ancestral seeds offer a solution as more resistant to climate change.”

Based on their experience, farmers say their ancestral seed varieties are more resistant to high temperatures compared to the imported varieties and cultivars they currently use. These ancestral varieties have adapted to the region’s ecosystem and require less water, they tell Mongabay. According to a report by local organization Grupo Semillas and development foundation SWISSAID, indigenous corn varieties like blaquito are more resistant to the heat, cariaco tolerates drought easily, and negrito is very resistant to high temperatures.

The Zenù diet still incorporates the traditional diversity of seeds, plant varieties and animals they consume, though they too are threatened by climate change: from fish recipes made from bocachico (Prochilodus magdalenae), and reptiles like the babilla or spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus), to different corn varieties to prepare arepas (cornmeal cakes), liquor, cheeses and soups.

“The most important challenge we have now is to save ancient species and involve new generations in ancestral practice,” says Sonia Rocha Marquez, a professor of social sciences at Sinù University in the city of Montería.

...[Despite] land scarcity, Negrete says communities are developing important projects to protect their traditional food systems. Farmers and seed custodians, like Gil, are working with the Association of Organic Agriculture and Livestock Producers (ASPROAL) and their Communitarian Seed House (Casa Comunitaria de Semillas Criollas y Nativas)...

Pictured: Remberto Gil is a seed guardian and farmer who works at the Communitarian Seed House, where the ASPROL association stores 32 seeds of rare or almost extinct species. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

Located near Gil’s house, the seed bank hosts a rainbow of 12 corn varieties, from glistening black to blue to light pink to purple and even white. There are also jars of seeds for local varieties of beans, eggplants, pumpkins and aromatic herbs, some stored in refrigerators. All are ancient varieties shared between local families.

Outside the seed bank is a terrace where chickens and turkeys graze under an agroforestry system for farmers to emulate: local varieties of passion fruit, papaya and banana trees grow above bushes of ají peppers and beans. Traditional medicinal herbs like toronjil or lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) form part of the undergrowth.

Today, 25 families are involved in sharing, storing and commercializing the seeds of 32 rare or almost-extinct varieties.

“When I was a kid, my father brought me to the farm to participate in recovering the land,” says Nilvadys Arrieta, 56, a farmer member of ASPROAL. “Now, I still act with the same collective thinking that moves what we are doing.”

“Working together helps us to save, share more seeds, and sell at fair price [while] avoiding intermediaries and increasing families’ incomes,” Gil says. “Last year, we sold 8 million seeds to organic restaurants in Bogotà and Medellín.”

So far, the 80% of the farmers families living in the Zenù reserve participate in both the agroecology and seed revival projects, he adds."

-via Mongabay, February 6, 2024

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[trials-of-a-spirit-worker]

Remember that snake plants are toxic for cats and dogs! (No hate, just a heads up<3)

Anon, thank you for that heads up, got three cats and a dog. I'll be sure to let my spouse know so we don't accidently kill em.

Seriously, thank you, cause I would've never known.

Also, if anyone has any knowledge on plants that are harmful to animals, any of them, cause my spouse is fucking determined to make our house a zoo, I'd appreciate you letting me know so we don't have tragedies. Cause I want plants for the sake of better air, and I know they'll bring home creatures.

#anon answered #anon <3 #thanks anon! #plant knowledge #animal care