I just got an email from my local #rockgarden society notifying the death of a member. In fairness I did not know the person, but here's why it's sad:
When I attend, I am the youngest person there.
I'm 43, and the youngest person in the room.
This is true in many niche clubs. In the Dallas #Orchid Society, I was the youngest. In the #Bonsai I'm one of a few under 60.
The median age of these groups has to be somewhere around 70. As they dwindle, we lose valuable experience. There will be no one to digitize their archives, no one to teach hands on skills, no one to pass the passion down.
I can't stress it enough, join the clubs. Access to their old magazines is worth the money and time.
I have opened 50 registrations for the Elsica.Social instance. The site needs some further polish but is ready for you to explore. Elsica.Social is your cosy home in the fediverse with a mild thematic focus on #botany, #nature, #wildlife, #horticulture, #bio and #earth#sciences, nature #photography, #exploring and #travel. If you know Latin names of random #plants, get up at 3 a.m. to walk into remote valleys to take #landscape#photos, spend all day in your #garden, like reading #science books or watching the latest #documentary about the #birds of Patagonia, you will feel at home here.
A forest in Utah made of a single tree known as Pando has 47,000 stems and has amassed 6,000 metric tons of life in its thousands of years on Earth. It’s the largest living organism on the planet in terms of mass. Naturally, something that large and old has something to say, and recordings released this year let us “hear” it like never before. More from Science Alert: https://flip.it/PSwxIA #Science#Biology#Trees#Horticulture#Utah#Forest
#Salvia elegans 'Scarlet Tangerine'. One of the plants I really regret losing when a late spring frost scorched us two years ago. Its common name is pineapple sage and the leaves smell distinctly like pineapple plus mint. The tea is fantastic. Hummingbirds love the flowers. This cultivar is somewhat compact and blooms profusely from midsummer on.
Forest communities in southwestern Ghana use 70 species of medicinal trees to treat up to 83 ailments, according to a recent study. These plants contain high levels of bioactive compounds with pharmacological benefits, but many are also threatened by factors including overharvesting and agricultural expansion in the area that...
Have you ever heard of #haskaps? (You may also know the plant as #honeyberry, or (blue) fly honeysuckle, depending on where you come from!)
I hadn't until probably a year ago.
They're a species of #honeysuckle, essentially, with edible #berries, and some growers cultivate them as a commercial crop. They're quite niche in the UK still (but there are a few specialist growers), but more prominent elsewhere. (Apparently, though in some countries they're believed to be toxic!)
Buying plants online,:a short thread. There's no substitute for a good plant nursery/garden center near where you live. I'm lucky to have several. But not everyone does, and sometimes if you're after something specific, something rare, you can find what you want online. But will you get what you paid for? Will they survive?
Buying plants online, part 2. First, sellers need a license to ship plants across state lines in the US. There are some restrictions state-by-state. This is to prevent invasive species and diseases from spreading. Make sure any online vendor you work with follows these rules. Shipping internationally is even more restrictive, for very good reasons. Sellers on eBay often flout these rules, please don't use them. Ditto with Amazon.
2/x #gardening#gardeningMastodon#Plants#horticulture
Ghana’s Medicinal Plants, the ‘First Aid’ for Communities, Are Under Threat (goodmenproject.com)
Forest communities in southwestern Ghana use 70 species of medicinal trees to treat up to 83 ailments, according to a recent study. These plants contain high levels of bioactive compounds with pharmacological benefits, but many are also threatened by factors including overharvesting and agricultural expansion in the area that...