Plants – Page 5 – a curious nature

February 24th ……….. National “I Hate Coriander” Day!

February 24, 2024

Honest …. You can’t make up this stuff! You’ve got to wonder what the person or persons who began the National social media movement, “I Hate Coriander” Day, have against an innocent little herb.

“National I Hate Coriander Day, celebrated annually on February 24th, is a social media movement to express disdain for the herb coriander (also known as cilantro) and its taste and smell.”

“Hate” is such a strong word under any circumstances, but to “hate” an herb? … What do these Coriander “Haters” find offensive about the look of this bright green leafy plant? What is it about the taste and/or smell of Cilantro that elicits such a strong reaction? Now I’m not a Coriander (aka Cilantro) addict ….. a bit now and then as garnish or to flavor a fresh salsa is perfectly fine with me. I’ve even grown Coriander in my garden and marveled at the plant’s growth rate, intense leaf and stem coloring, bouquets of delicate flowers and abundance of seed. So my curiosity was definitely piqued when I came across this peculiar National Day. Just what is it that has and keeps these people all riled up over Coriander?

Coriander – The Plant

Not to be confusing, but Coriander and Cilantro are actually the same thing, Coriandrum sativum. However, in the U.S. we tend to refer to the leaves and stems as Cilantro; the seeds (whole raw or toasted, or ground) as Coriander. But because the National Day is about hating Coriander, I’ve made a leap in assuming they hate the entire plant, including the roots, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds (all of which are edible; all of which are eaten).

The plant is an annual that grows up to 20” tall. The bright green leaves are variable in shape, broadly lobed at the base of the plant, and slender and feathery higher on the stems. Flowers are arranged in umbels (like a wind blown, inside-out umbrella), are white to pale pinkish-mauve. Each asymmetrical flower has longer petals pointing away from the center of the umbel than those pointing inwards. And each flower produces a dry globular fruit (schizocarpic cremocarp) about 1/8 – 3/16” diameter, which splits when mature into 2 mericarps, each mericarp with a single seed.

Coriander – The Seed

The name, Coriander, is the common name used around the world, for the seed of Coriandrum sativum. There are two cultivated varieties of Coriandrum sativum grown around the world. Although the plants of both varieties appears the same, it’s the seed where the visible differences occur. C. s. var microcarpum is the small-seeded variety found in temperate climates, such as in Europe and the U.S. Its seeds are about 3 mm in diameter, round, and very potent as a spice. C. s. var macrocarpum (aka C. s. var vulgare) is the large-seeded variety found in hot, subtropical areas of Asia and India. It’s seeds are 5 mm in diameter, football shaped and have a very delicate flavor.

If you’ve ever grown Coriander from seed, you probably planted one seed at a time, being careful to follow the spacing instructions on the package. Then when your seeds germinated, sending up those first immature leaves (cotyledons), you noticed that for each seed planted there are 2 little plants! “What the heck?” you say. When you sowed the seeds in each well-spaced spot, you obviously planted an entire globular fruit (both mericarps at once) resulting in the germination of both seeds!

Is There a Consensus of Opinions on Leaf Taste and Aroma?

Nope! Opinions are far from consensual. As a matter of fact, they are frequently polar opposites. Coriander has been described as the “Marmite”*****!!! of herbs; either you love it or hate it. This great analogy reflects how strongly people do feel about flavors of their food.

Opinions on leaf taste and aroma: The good – tart, lemon-lime, fragrant, pleasant, distinctive, spicy hot, peppery, aromatic. The bad – bitter, stinky, unpleasant, nasty, fetid. And the bleh – The leaves smell and taste like dish soap!

Is There a Consensus of Opinions on Seed Taste and Aroma?

Again, Nope! But curiously, most of the opinions about seed taste and aroma were fairly positive, provided the correct variety of C. sativum was properly prepared and used. For example, all seeds contain 1% volatile essential oils, but the quality of oils is different between the two varieties. For some reason the smaller European variety seeds (C. s. var microcarpum) have far superior essential oils resulting in far superior flavor and yield when compared to the larger India variety seed (C. s. var macrocarpum). The larger India variety seeds are preferred as a spice, both whole and ground.

Opinions on taste and aroma of fresh or dried seeds: Spicy, earthy, cumin-like, orange peel, aromatic, dried seeds have full flavor, fresh seeds are undesirable.

Opinions on taste and aroma of toasted seeds++, whole or ground: Fruity, Fruit Loops, lemony, floral, mild perfumy, aromatic, bitingly pungent, delightful bouquet, distinctive flavor.

Now it’s your turn! Where do you stand on the issue of Coriander; it’s taste and smell? Are you celebrating today’s National “I Hate Coriander” Day? Or are you a regular Coriander Connoisseur, savoring the taste, smell and texture in all of your favorite dishes, from sauces and marinades, curries, meats and seafood, stews, to pastries and desserts?

***!!! Marmite! Invented, made and sold in England, this stuff is a sticky, dark brown paste made from fermented yeast. It has a very salty and powerful (understatement) flavor, and is frequently slathered on toasted breads like jam. If you haven’t experienced Marmite, perhaps you’ve dared to taste its equally unappetizing knockoff, “Vegemite,” found all over Australia? If you’ve tasted either or both (wow, you’re tough), what was your reaction? If you’ve never had the culinary pleasure, consider this fair warning! Wonder if there’s a social media group that’s declared “International I Hate Marmite (Vegemite) Day?” I would happily eat a bushel basket of cilantro greens, than dare give these yeasty products another go. (No offense to the marmite and/or vegemite lovers of the world.)

++Toasting Coriander Seed: In a non-stick skillet, over medium-high heat, add the seeds. Keeping the skillet in constant circular motion. When the seed’s aroma is released, toasting is complete! Cool completely and grind with mortar/pestle or in a small electric grinder. Store ground coriander in a cool (refrigerated) location, away from light and moisture. It’s best to toast and grind seeds in small amounts, on an as needed basis, to experience the full flavor.

November Littles: Seeds, Pods, Silk, and Wings

December 14, 2023

As the Fall season rapidly came and went, and the first snows blanketed the landscape, I focused my hiking time (and some of my drawing hours) on collecting local native seeds. Always careful that plenty of seeds remained available for overwintering birds, I still managed to harvest hundreds from about 25 plant species. All sorted and packaged in separate pill containers, my collection is now stored in the refrigerator at 40 degrees, until growing conditions are optimal for planting. This treatment method is referred to as stratification.**

Why collect native seeds? All throughout the Spring, Summer and Fall, a diverse assortment of pollinators visited our locally blooming wildflowers and shrubs. Along with these butterflies, moths, bees, wasps, beetles and flies, were the insects, spiders, and birds that prey on unwary pollinators. Such an amazing show; a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes! The air was a buzz with activity. My goal is to mimic the native banquet in hopes of attracting these pollinators and predators.

Also, seeds are absolutely fascinating. I like to think of them as gift-wrapped, living plants-to-be. Tucked neatly inside of the seed coat are food stores enough to feed the makings of a complex root system; flowers, leaves, stems, branches and even a trunk. Seeds can be tiny, some microscopic and some as large as a softball. Seeds come in a variety of shapes, colors, textures and decor both inside and out. Some seeds have “wings” to fly; some have silky or puffy “feathers” to float; some are like “lead,” heavy enough to intentionally sink under water.

So I pulled out my 10x hand lens to investigate, drawing most of the seed species in my collection. It was very cool to compare seeds of different species that are in the same family (like the composites of the Aster family and the penstemons of the Plantain family). Until creating this journal page, I’d never held the seeds of 3 different species of yucca in one hand at the same time. Observing the similarities and differences, I finally confirmed in my mind that the genus Herperaloe and Yucca are indeed in the Agave family. And then I found examples of seeds from completely different families that evolved similar dispersal mechanisms (convergent evolution). This phenomenon was visually obvious in the delicate feathery, silky, and poofy hairs or bristles attached to grass, aster, and milkweed seeds, facilitating seed dispersal by wind.

Finally, I felt the need to draw the seeds in case they happened to spill into one big jumble while being planted! Yes, I would be clumsy enough to create chaos out of order. Should that happen, I’ll be able to sort the mess by species by referring to my field guide page.

** Seed-producing plants pass along to their seeds the specific requirements(s) necessary to break dormancy and germinate. These genetic codes determine if optimal conditions exist for seeds to sprout and hopefully grow to maturity. But key to successful germination depends on seed ripeness (in most cases). Knowing the plant species from which a seed is produced; whether the plant is an annual, biennial or perennial; habitat, moisture needs and the type of “treatment” method(s) are all important bits of information tied to successful germination.

I’ll have to create a future post describing the variety of treatment methods (germination patterns) inherent in the seeds.

Are you a seed collector? If so, share your why’s and how’s!

Nature Sleuthing Resumes ….. Sunflowers and Fibonacci; Natural Spirals

November 26, 2023

After a well deserved rest from Inktober and from my self-imposed pressure to create something every day from a list of random prompts, I’m happy to be out again nature sleuthing. Curiosities in nature sometimes stare us in the face. But more often than not making discoveries require keen observational skills, noticing something new to you, and an ability to look for clues to a mystery with wide open eyes.

Double page post with an extra add on; all art work done with Graphgear 1000 loaded with 0.3mm 2B lead and all inked lettering done with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen Fineliner, 0.3mm.

It was during a hike on an unseasonably warm day that I paused to admire the dried flower heads from one of the late blooming sunflowers. Have you ever noticed how they look like another kind of sunflower? Papery textured “petals” circle a central disk where a few weeks ago it was crammed full of puffy parachute-topped seeds. After the seeds become airborne, all that’s usually left is a slicked off surface punctuated with dots arranged in spirals radiating out from the center.

Click the link below to read more ………

Late Bloomers …. Fall’s Flowery Foothills

September 26 & 27, 2023

It’s hard now to imagine how extremely hot and dry the summer was this year. Without even a spittle of rain, the 100+ degree temps for weeks effectively suppressed the usual mid-season bloomers in and around the Albuquerque foothills/East Mountains. Even invasive plants, like goathead and tumbleweed, remained dormant or failed to germinate all together. It looked like winter browns had arrived early.

Then in less than a week, a small rain followed by several long downpours flooded the parched landscape, transforming browns to greens. You’ve heard this from me in a few earlier posts, but it was magical, and a reminder about the resiliency of desert vegetation.

Here’s a few pages highlighting a handful of the Late Bloomers I recorded in only 2 days. More than 2 dozen species had sprung back to life, setting flowers at all stages of accelerated vegetative growth. The landscape seemed wide awake. If plants could talk, I imagined them laughing while excitedly chanting, “hurry, hurry, hurry!” Only their roots prevented them from dancing!

In addition to the species on these journal pages, there are many (more) composites, native grasses, shrubs and sub shrubs, small forbs from Spring and early Summer actively growing and blooming right now, and (of course) the weedy invasives are growing and blooming with wild abandon.

Random thoughts and wonderings ….. are pollinators still hanging around …… or ….. how many of today’s bloomers are self fertile …… are local birds, insects, reptiles and mammals that depend on earlier summer pollen and/or fruit and seed production stressed with this timing change/availability of food sources … will there be noticeable shifts in species composition, including plants, insects, reptiles and animals (including birds) ….. what species can and will adapt to changes, and how quickly ….. etc. The answers to these and many more questions are probably best answered in coming years, if it’s even possible to answer them at all.

Have you observed vegetation anomalies that may be influenced by changes in climate? If so, please share your observations and where these changes are taking place. Meanwhile, keep your eyes wide open.

“Closing your eyes isn’t going to change anything. Nothing’s going to disappear just because you can’t see what’s going on. ……….. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won’t make time stand still.” – Haruki Murakami.

published October 2, 2023

September “Littles” …. featuring a “Little” Road Trip Full of Fun Discoveries

September 17, 2023

Ahhhh, September! The month of slowing down, hints of crisp morning air, tree leaves turning ever so slightly from green to golden, a bit of wanderlust satisfied.

Instead of creating “Little” paintings of a month of highlights, and there have been many, I decided to focus on a single “Little” road-trip down the east side of the Manzano Mountains. My goal was to take a fresh look at, well, everything …….. and watch as the story of rural life unfolded.

As we wound our way along scenic backroads, I mentally sketched out our route map to depict some of the historic and present day highlights across the landscape. My imagination envisioned the full, prosperous and peaceful village life of the Tiwa Indians, and their conquest and struggle to survive Spanish occupation. There was evidence of the optimistic outlook of early settlers who came west to build a life centered around dryland farming and ranching. And today, modern day ranchers live on the land adjacent to land grants where indigenous peoples live a rural lifestyle on their native lands. I hope you enjoy my route map with some of these highlights, ranging from serious to funny, natural to commercial.

I’d love to know what story unfolds for you as you travel along on this September “Littles” Road-trip. Be sure to pack a lunch!

Once again, a big shout-out to “Made by Fay” for the inspiring “Littles” idea! These pages are fun to create, and remind me of monthly highlights and the random road-trip as I revisit my previous “Littles” posts. Hope you’re enjoying them too, along with the ending days of the season.
Stay tuned for the next installment of “Littles.”

September 26, 2023

No Small Galls this Fall! Oak galls, then and now, the sequel…..

September 16, 2023

This is a little story about a fascinating discovery I made over 2-1/2 years ago, when in the second winter of the pandemic and in dire need of a belly laugh, our usually drab brown landscape appeared dotted with little reddish colored orbs. An insatiable curiosity sprinkled with a smidge of fantasy led me to some surprising answers to many questions, which continue to pop up to this day.

Open my full blog post and take a small detour with me into the recent past. Learn how observations, connections and similarities in nature ensure there’s always dots to connect and mysteries to solve, no matter how many times you travel the same path.

August “Littles” …. Horned lizards and Sphinx moths, a sleepy wasp under the Super Full Blue Moon, and nature through the eyes of a 15 year old!

August was a busy month, filled with high elevation camping in Colorado, and a lot of cool mountain hiking back home. Even though the lower elevations took on a hot and parched look, at 9,000 feet and higher the wildflower season was far from over as evidenced along roadways and trails, where fresh, colorful blooms could still be found.

The highlight of the month was a 3-1/2 day visit from my brother Bob and grandniece Livi. At 15 years of age, Livi is already a fine artist, and took to nature journaling like a pro! It was great fun discovering and sketching nature on our daily hikes. She even got a chance to hold one of the adult ornate short-horned lizards we see frequently along various trails, and then found a baby lizard on her own, hiding nearly motionless under a small plant. Her smiles were priceless!

Despite the high temps, it was a month of good days and nights, ending perfectly with the rising of a rare Super Full Blue Moon! If you missed it, there’s plenty of time to prepare for the next …… which occurs in March 2037.

Once again, a big shout-out to “Made by Fay” for the inspiring “Littles” idea! These pages are fun to create, and remind me of monthly highlights as I revisit my previous “Littles” posts. Hope you’re enjoying them too, along with the ending days of the season.
Stay tuned for the next installment of “Littles.”

September 14, 2023

July “Littles” ….. Blooming flowers attract famished butterflies

June’s hot, dry weather slipped stealthily into July as we became mired in one of those infamous heat domes for weeks. Our rabbitbrush shrubs, usually late summer bloomers, burst into piles of brilliant yellow flowers a full month before normal, and for the first week of their premature bloom, not a single pollinator was in sight. I was so concerned the over abundance of nectar would dry up, pollen would blow haphazardly away, and seeds wouldn’t form. Then one morning I woke to find hundreds of butterflies, weevils, flies and bees flitting, crawling and buzzing about, nearly covering the shrubs completely in a pollination frenzy! How did they know? Where did they come from? What a relief for me, but it must’ve been an unimaginable relief for all of those pollinators that happened upon our oasis in the desert.

And so it went, all month…. bursts of early blooms rapidly completing their floral life cycles, thanks to urgently feeding pollinators.

This is how I remember July, with everything in bloom at once, the air full of pollen and pollinators. It was quite a sight!

Once again, a big shout-out to “Made by Fay” for the inspiring “Littles” idea! Stay tuned for the next installment of “Littles.”

September 4, 2023

Rocky Mountain High!

August 10-14, 2023

After sitting idle for many months, The Felix was begging for a short adventure! So we loaded up and off we headed …… north into high elevation Colorado, to enjoy some cool temps and breathtaking scenery.

A quick 822 mile loop in 4-1/2 days met all of our goals plus we enjoyed afternoon thunderstorms and a few rain showers.

Follow the link below to read about our trip as I narrate my daily journal pages.

June “Littles” ….. a buzzy, buggy, snake-y month

June was hot, Hot, HOT

Two-page spread with 14 June Littles + Flambé

June was dry, Dry, DRY

June was the month of bugs (from the big tarantula hawk wasps, to the microscopic gnats), withering flowers, disappearing birds, and snakes! We seemed to encounter an extraordinary number of snakes this month, including gopher (bull) snakes, diamondback rattlesnakes, patch nose snakes, garter snakes, and one very scary prairie rattlesnake. Read on for that story.

Luna and the Prairie Rattler! Our scariest encounter was with a 3-foot prairie rattlesnake right in our front courtyard. One day he had crawled out from the shade of a blue spruce to warm up in the morning sun. It was Luna that had changed his demeanor from placid to pissed off. Prairie rattlers don’t typically alert trespassers; that’s the secret to their hunting success, and Luna didn’t recognize the danger. She began sniffing around and unintentionally violated his personal space. The snake responded by instantly coiling and violently rattling his tail. The noise seemed deafening and was definitely alarming. As I came running to Luna’s rescue, Roy noticed the commotion and quickly arrived with snake stick and bucket in hand. By this time the snake had backed into a corner, furiously rattling, but was relatively easy to capture. Snake temporarily out of the way, we then carefully checked Luna for signs of snake bite (none detected! Lucky Luna).

Now back to the snake in bucket. It had taken less than 30 seconds for Roy to capture and slip him into the 5 gallon bucket. It was then that I was able to take my first photos, from a respectable distance just in case the snake decided to leap clear of the bucket!. If looks could kill, well ………….. About 15-20 photos later, the bucket lid was secured in place, and we took the snake for a little ride about a mile from home where he was carefully released in an uninhabited area, unharmed.

Again, a big shout-out to “Made by Fay” for the inspiring “Littles” idea! Stay tuned for the next installment of “Littles.”

July 27, 2023