floating

there are days when i think i could be very happy tethered to solid ground while i float on the surface, staring up at the sky.

water lily (Nymphaea leibergii)

linnaeus gets an update

my routine when i post here on STILL blog is to pull up and read the wiki page on my subject before i begin writing. in the ten years since i have started STILL i have noticed a very interesting trend: as genetic testing has become more and more routine, our linnaeus taxonomy of plants, based historically on close observation, are being updated and reclassified with increasing regularity. by example, here is the wiki page for milkweed:

The genus contains over 200 species distributed broadly across Africa, North America, and South America. It previously belonged to the family Asclepiadaceae, which is now classified as the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the dogbane family, Apocynaceae.

when i started STILL, i rarely saw entries like this. now, i think i see them maybe 30% of the time. sometimes, like above, whole new families need to be created, and sometimes it is just a modification of the genus or species. it’s interesting to think about–an entire genetic mapping of all the flora and fauna of the world has quietly been happening over the past decade.

milkweed in bloom (Asclepias)

everlasting torch of summer

a close-up of one of yesterday’s musk thistles. i see a torch, the torch on the statue of liberty to be specific. the olympic torches are too sleek. the thorny bracts on this musk thistle look like the filigreed observation platform on the original statue of liberty torch. musk thistle–an everlasting torch of summer.

musk thistle flower (Carduus nutans)

bad ass thistles

it’s thistle season and these monsters are my favorite. once again, they are considered a noxious weed, but i don’t care, i still love them. they grow up to 5 feet high, the flowers fill your palm, and leaves are aggressively sturdy and prickly. you can’t miss them. these are bad ass thistles.

musk thistles (Carduus nutans)

awkward grace

these chubby little dancers in tutus are prairie coneflowers native to north america from mexico up to canada. i grabbed these from an off ramp in suburban minneapolis. they had been spared from the roadside brush cutters only because they were growing between the legs of a sign. it makes me wonder, what is we all stopped our good intentions (aka landscaping) and just let the native plants return. what would our cities look like then? perhaps then, i might be able to know if i was in pittsburg, or cleveland, or minneapolis. because right now, the suburbs in those cities are indistinguishable–each strip mall containing the exact same sun sandwich shop, dry cleaner, nail salon, and coffee shop. i am aching for more regionalism. more idiosyncrasy. more uniqueness. i want to know what’s unique here? how is this place different from my place. and how is it similar? returning to native flora and fauna seems a good place to start.

upright prairie coneflowers (Ratibida columnifera)