#pressing plants

[sunflowersareonfire]

Nature Memo #1

I decided to go on a little adventure over the weekend since I had three days off (I generally work on the weekends and am almost always on-call for crisis situations). I picked up a new journal so that I could collect plant samples and press them. I've been intending to do this for way too long (2011) but have not gotten around to doing it until now.

I find nature to be mesmerizing and way too often taken for granted. Parks are great, and those with unpaved nature trails are even better. But even then, they are taken for granted.

In any event, below are the list of observations that I made. This is incomplete because I did not include the trees and shrubs that were observed. Of the 29 listed items below, 10 were ones that I had not previously recorded, so I'm pretty excited about that. The total number of living species (plants, insects, birds, reptiles, fungi, arachnids, mammals, fish, mollusks, amphibians, and other species) that I have recorded (as in, photographed, dated, and confirmed the species of) is now 276.

Plants observed (all pressed!)

Oxalis triangularis, False Shamrock

Narcissus poeticus, Poet’s Narcissus

Achillea millefolium, Common Yarrow

Muscari neglectum, Grape Hyacinth

Galium aparine, Catchweed Bedstraw

Stellaria media, Common Chickweed

Oxalis violacea, Violet Woodsorrel

Vinca minor, Lesser Periwinkle

Bowlesia incana, Hoary Bowlesia

Narcissus tazetta, Bunch-flowered Daffodil

Veronica persica, Bird’s-eye Speedwell

Valerianella locusta, Common Cornsalad

Allium vineale, Wild Garlic

Cardamine hirsuta, Hairy Bittercress

Ranunculus hispidus, Bristly Buttercup

Ornithogalum umbellatum, Common Star-of-Bethlehem

Houstonia pusilla, Tiny Bluet

Viola bicolor, American Field Pansy

Claytonia virginica, Virginia Spring Beauty

Insects observed

Camponotus pennsylvanicus, Black Carpenter Ant

Papilio rutulus, Western Tiger Swallowtail (Butterfly)

Coleomegilla maculata, Spotted Pink Ladybeetle

Polistes Carolina, Red Wasp

Eurema lisa, Little Yellow (Butterfly)

Celastrina ladon, Spring Azure (Butterfly)

Amphibians observed

Pseudacris crucifer, Spring Pepper (Frog)

Fungi observed

Trametes versicolor, Turkey-tail

Cladonia evansii, Evan’s Deer Moss

Arachnids observed

Oxyopes salticus, Striped Lynx Spider

Next step is to let the pressed plans dry, followed by labeling, dating, notes on GPS coordinates for each sample, as well as information on whether it it is edible, seasonal growth, and if I am feeling particularly brave I will attempt to draw them.

All of these samples were taken in Arkansas between Siloam Springs, Pea Ridge National Battlefield, and Bella Vista.

#plants #pressing plants #hiking #arkansas nature #oklahoma nature #pea ridge national battlefield #insects #fungi #arachnids #amateur naturalist #biology #personal #nature memo #nerd #nerd alert #nerd stuff

[musicmattersmedia]

(Music Matters Media)

Record Store Day 2022 announced Taylor Swift as its first-ever global ambassador, for its 15th-anniversary celebrations that took place on April 23rd. Another Record Store Day will take place on June 18th, 2022 to release items that were either delayed in production or could not be made in time for Record Store Day in April. Jack White has addressed this issue by calling out major labels who are overloading the pressing plants to invest in their own pressing plants. Listen as we discuss the issue and possible solutions, we talk about Erick's Record Store Day experience (for part 1), and we give Record Store Day advice for new collectors.

Jack White reference article:

https://www.stereogum.com/2179538/jack-white-record-pressing-plant-major-labels/news/

Visit the Music Matters Media website at:

MusicMattersMedia.com

All Music Matters Media Links: https://linktr.ee/musicmattersmedia

#SoundCloud #music #Music Matters Media #Music #Podcast #Music Podcast #Record Store Day #RSD #Record Store Day 2022 #RSD2022 #Records #Vinyl #Record #Collector #Jack White #Third Man Records #Taylor Swift #Major Labels #Pressing Plants #Alternative Rock #Alt Rock #Pop Punk #Pop Rock #Heavy Metal #Metal #EDM #Pop #R&B #Rap #Hip Hop

[opal-apples]

at a plant pressing workshop at my school. last year i made hualian and wangxian themed pieces... this year..... bingqiu time

#jo talks #school stuff #pressing plants

[nikswonderland]

taken by me

#i collected so many flowers to press today:) #aes #cottagecore #cottage aesthetic #photography #flowers #mine #nature #naturecore #trees #plants #roses #aesthetic #fairycore #garden #cozy #scenery #moodboard #flowercore

[happyheidi]

#this kinda reminds me of the secret garden #esp pic nr 3 #cottagecore #nature #naturecore #flowers #flowercore #plants #greenhouse #books #illustrations #herbs #pressed flowers #staircase #forest #forestcore #dark cottagecore

[thankstothe]

MMM YEAH.

many interesting questions right here!

#house md #gregory house #james wilson #screencap #s04e13 “No More Mr. Nice Guy” #of course wilson would drink martinis i should've known #mental image of house going back to bonnie gossiping and pressing her for more details about wilsons sex life #they're like friends who low-key hate each other but do have the connection and good time #(wilson dates bad bitches only) #“one or more” yeah leave that room for doubt keep him on his toes #also house planting the idea that wilson is the one who doesn't want to have sex w amber #okay. you evil bisexual. i see you #long post #longpost

[inmytreehouse]

Some pages from my old art journal (2015-2021) // part 2

#art journal #artists on tumblr #mine #my art #my artwork #drawing #art blog #artwork #small artist #collage art #art book #art journaling #traditional art #mixed media art #mixed media #pressed plants #pressed leaves #colored pencil #colored pencil drawing #art #illustrators on tumblr #illustration

[sinbrook]

Vash and the Melca Border Ship Plant. [Episode 21]

#I had to crust these to hell to make tumblr upload them lmfao #Trigun #Vash #Vash the stampede #Trigun 1998 #Anyway yeah I keep seeing people say that clip of him helping out that plant is the 98 version of #the scenes in trimax and stampede where he presses his face against the glass #and like no #he had one of those scenes too #here you go!

[erbacealab]

Botanical Ceramics impressed by hand. We love wild flowers and plants, these are plants we found in our garden:

forget me not, wild carrot, thyme, yarrow

Available in our Etsy Shop >>

#botanical art #botanical #botanica #ceramics #ceramic art #blu #ceramica #fiori #natura #pottery #blue lover #wild flowers #wild flower plants #flower preservation #flower pressing #etsyseller

[field-guide-to-mud]

let the rain fall and bring life

#junk journal #scrapbooking #craft #pressed plants #mudposting #i need to start posting more #this page was rly fun to make i used some watercolour paint in large droplets to add to the effect #and id finally gotten some pop-up adhesive squares for some extra texture!! #i love how i keep learning new techniques #i also just love this artform for its ease of access #like im sooo not an artist in terms of like. drawing things from scratch #but i know i make nice pages #tbh this photo was taken when the page was still a bit wet #which if anything enhances it but it doesnt look like that anymore

[sunflowersnsage]

#nature #naturecore #witchy #faery witch #faerycore #witchblr #faery aesthetic #witchcore #witchcraft #witches of tumblr #dried flowers #tulips #plants and herbs #plantcore #plantblr #plant photography #pressed flowers #witchy decor #cottagecore #cottage aesthetic #floral #pink aesthetic #pink moodboard #paganblr #pagan witch #pagan #plantlife #flowers #cottage witch #witch aesthetic

[sidewalkchemistry]

#g #recipes #food centric herbalism #juicing #cold pressed juice #holistic leveling up #leveling up #true nourishment #wfpb #whole food plant based #vegan #nutritarian #plant based lifestyle #vegan recipes #healthy eating #fitblr #clean eating #self care #wellness journey #herbalism #glow up #sidewalkchemistry

[solarpunkani]

I logged into iNaturalist for the first time in like 10000 years on my computer and

Y'know how I made that 'Naturalists of Color' project? Literally just an impulsive thing for fun? Not even like a high pressure thing I don't even talk in there it's literally just a group I made for the funsies?

Apparently all the way back in September sent me a private message being all like 'ohhhhhhh but diversity is so important so why don't you include white people'

Like. ma'am. Do you do this any time an inkling of the phrase 'Person of Color' or "(Blank) of Color' comes up???? You haven't figured out what it means by now????

Literally in the project description I talk about how sometimes it feels like people of color are excluded from naturalist places or made to feel like they don't belong and yet you're sliding into my DM's like 'okay but what about me though' ma'am this wasn't about you until you made it about you

#out of queue #ani rambles #delete later #maybe #the message is from like september so im not gonna respond to it but like. hoooooomie. #like genuinely i dont even do anything with the project #and all you really do on inat is post pictures of liek Creatures and Plants anyways its not like you're missing out on anything #theres like a gazillion other groups one could join why are you pressed about THIS ONE

[lionfloss]

NMNH - Botany Dept.

Dichapetalum ugandense Moss

#nature #plants #pressed plants #green #1913 #uganda #Africa #botany #antique #vintage #scans #smithsonian #art #science

[lycomorpha]

Eivor's herbarium: Page 5 - grasses and yarrow from a cursed zone meadow

~

“From a hill-top meadow west of Grantebridge, where the land breathes again”.

~

Before changing county, I've been thinking about meadows and how agriculturally important they would have been to settlements like Grantebridge or Ravensthorpe. Handily there's a meadow not far from our previous stop outside Soma's longhouse, on a cursed hill-top just west of town.

Cursed zones are small areas on the map where a black roiling fog gathers, horses freak out, and Eivor talks of malevolence and cursed troll magic.

This horse is questioning its life choices...

To dispel the curse you need to find and destroy a skull covered in glowing symbols. Shoot it and the dark fog dissipates, with Eivor saying that the land can breathe again.

The cursed troll magic symbol

Cursed zones are a slightly odd feature, in that it’s not clear how the ‘magic’ of the curse works. There isn’t an obvious link to Isu tech. We find some notes/snippets of story around suggesting they’re being placed there by Saxons in an attempt to hex away the Danes. In the Wrath of the Druids DLC, the druids are using a recipe that creates hallucinogenic vapor to induce visions of werewolves etc, so the cursed zones could work in a similar way, with the fog being part of the mechanism. But it’s not clear to me unless I’ve missed something.

However they’re supposed to work, cursed zones are good places to find fungi, plants, and honking great big trees. So I quite like them. (I know some gamers hated them and felt they were pointless collectibles; if that’s you, maybe some video game botany will improve them?!)

Aerial view of the hill-top cursed zone west of Grantebridge

The hill-top cursed zone west of Grantebridge has a particularly nice view from above and is surrounded by meadow. Since Eivor is helping run a settlement with farms, I’m sure she’d appreciate the importance of hay meadows to agriculture, and as a source of herbaceous plants for medicinal uses.

In the long grass

What is a meadow?

A meadow is an area of grassland where the vegetation is allowed to grow tall and isn’t cut in spring and summer. In late summer/autumn, the meadow is mowed to make hay, which then feeds farm animals over the winter. Until then, cut meadow is grazed by animals (sheep, cows, maybe goats) which poop as they go, dropping some handy fertiliser around the place. When gets too cold and wet for livestock to be out grazing, animals are brought in and fed on the hay, with the meadow left until spring for the cycle to start over again. This is in contrast to pasture, which is grazed in the growing seasons rather than allowing grasses to get long.

The un-cursed meadow, ready for hay-making

Hay meadows are full of diverse grasses and wildflowers. In AC Valhalla we particularly see yarrow, ox-eye daisies, and grasses like Yorkshire fog (4th pressed grass from the left) and meadow foxtail (2nd from left.)

On this page I’ve centred yarrow, mainly because I’m saving the daisies for another page! The grasses are from a couple of square metres in my back garden that I keep as a veeeery smol meadow. I’m lucky enough to have some outdoor space, and my priority in life is generally insects. So I leave some grass to get tall, and encourage a range of local wildflowers and grasses that serve as food for bees, moths, and beetles. In the un-cursed meadow, Eivor might have also seen clover, yellow rattle, lady’s bedstraw, and I’d bet on sweet vernal grass and crested dogstail too (3rd grass from the right.)

Ox-eye daisies in my local cemetery meadow

Hay meadows are an amazing reservoir of wild plant and insect species, but are now a rare habitat. Apart from the obvious changes in agricultural practice, capitalism doesn’t value biodiversity in spaces it could build on, extract from, or intensively farm the crap out of. But hope is not lost for meadow species. Many conservation organisations here work with farming communities to restore former meadows or to create new ones. Churchyards and church lands that haven’t been developed are also important spaces for meadow preservation – and in AC Valhalla we see meadows around the monastery at Meldeburne.

Meadow grasses and flowers around Meldeburne monastery

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Super-common and very tough, yarrow is a component of meadows but is found anywhere grassy – it’s found in lawns and verges all over the UK. In my area you'd be hard pressed not to see any in summer.

Yarrow in my backyard

Feathery, finely divided leaves gave it another common name, milfoil or millefoil, meaning 1000 leaves. It has clusters of small white or pinkish flower heads with an interesting structure. The flat-topped clusters of flowers look like they’re made out of daisy(ish) shaped individual flowers...

...But take a look at those daisy shapes and you’ll see that each is actually a cluster of many smaller tiiiiny flowers that just LOOK like a daisy. The centre is made of a bundle of tube-like ‘disc’ flowers that have 5 petals fused together. These are surrounded by a few ‘ray’ flowers, each with one large petal. So cool!

Yarrow: flowers inside flowers

Ecologically, it’s an important source of nectar and pollen for bees, and a food plant for many other insects, including moths and beetles. Some cavity-nesting birds use it as lining material. I encourage it to grow in my lawn along with clover, self-heal and black medick, because it’s a lot hardier and more drought tolerant than any lawn grass.

Historically, yarrow used to be used medicinally to staunch bleeding, but weirdly was also called ‘nosebleed plant’ because of a myth that it caused nosebleeds. It also used to be used as a good luck charm.

Yarrow and ferns

I'm going to move onto the autumnal ferns of Ledercesterscire for page 6, but I'll probably come back to Grantebridgescire for some of the other mysteries.

#eivors herbarium #Eivor's herbarium #video game botany #videogamebotany #ac valhalla #assassins creed valhalla #assassin's creed valhalla #lady eivor #eivor wolfkissed #eivor varinsdottir #botany #plants #pressed plants #book herbarium #herbarium #meadows #grasses #yarrow #virtual photography

[swiftcast-selene]

Day 5: Hobby

"...maybe I should stick to just drawing plants." <you think?>

#miqomarch #miqomarch 2024 #ffxiv #ffxiv miqo'te #seeker of the sun #negi's penmanship is impeccable #he has grimoires full of lovingly handwritten notes on plants and what locals use them for #he has pages full of leaf pressings and diagrams of plants he draws himself #but as soon as he tries to draw anything else? #well. #it's not quite as nice is all i'm gonna say. #(selene talks a big game for someone who can't do either...)