Plants Archives

Puerto Varas, Chile … A Long Ride to Get Here

December 16, 2025December 26, 2025Posted in blogging, environment, history, Plants, Travel, writingTagged environment, history, Nature, outdoors, parks, travelLeave a comment

We drove from Bariloche, Argentina to Puerto Varas, Chile. We made record time because the custom line between the two countries was short. Our hyper, funny guide had us leave early enough, 20 minutes before his usual time, to beat the crowd. Yeah! If we did not take this long drive and flew instead, here would be the 3 flights: Bariloche to Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chile to Puerto Varas!

Between the two countries, as we crossed the Andes Mountains from Argentina to Chile, the paved road becomes unpaved. There we entered “no man’s land” until we reached border patrol and checked in at Chile. Back on the once again paved road. Our Argentinian may be creating some of the stories versus his Chilean friends … but I do find them similar, yet different in personalities. Anyway…. Short drive to stop for lunch, sort of in the middle of nowhere, and a visit at an auto museum in Moncopulli. So many studebakers! And other vehicles and stuff!

We arrive eventually after this long day of driving at Puerto Varas, a town of 66,000 people with a fantastic view of a volcano! Look across Llanquihue Lake and see Osorno volcano. During our drive I learned: Chile is large exporter of tulips and salmon. Main industry is mining copper and lithium. Agricultural products are cherries, plums, potatoes and blueberries. The country imports gasoline and oil. There are 3,000 volcanoes with most active 14 volcanoes. They worry when the earthquake is over 8.0. Last major eruption was in 2011.

We had a nice hike in Vincente Perez Rosales National Park. Weather was perfect for hiking as long as you dressed appropriately. Not a difficult couple of miles hike in a forested area. Loved the hike!

We visited a music school for talented violin and other string students. The students performed for us. It was great to see these at-risk students receiving music and general education.

Our home-hosted dinner was with a lovely couple. He is a landscaper with 10 employees and she is a physical therapist. We were welcomed with a pisco sour, talked on many topics, made our own cheese empanadas and had corn stew for dinner. Delicious Carmenere wine and dessert. We were entertained with guitar playing and singing. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet local people and ask questions about any topic we wished. Always nice to hear from locals.

House constructed with freight containers

Off to Chiloé Island. I’ll be back in a day or so.

Nature Journal: Our Backyard November 2025

November 13, 2025November 2, 2025Posted in Animals, Birds, blogging, Plants, wildflowers, wildlife, writingTagged Arizona, birds, Nature, wildlife2 Comments

Nature abounds in our backyard as I watch almost 100 Western honeybees at one of 2 Baja fairy duster plants! Look closely to see a bee:

We are also very excited when we see hummingbirds stopping at our desert willow trees and Baja fairy duster plants. Especially when they rest on a tree branch since one rarely sees a hummingbird not moving. The javelina continue to walk past my bedroom window and coyotes are in the neighborhood, as are bobcats. I’m soon off on another adventure so I will return with backyard 2026 nature journals.

The woodpeckers have been noisy at the feeder.

Smell Flowers & Watch Wildlife While Mountain Biking

October 5, 2025September 24, 2025Posted in Animals, bicycling, blogging, environment, Plants, Travel, wildflowers, wildlife, writingTagged Arizona, bicycling, Nature, travel, wildlifeLeave a comment

Mountain biking requires me to truly focus on what I am doing while pedaling various trails. Some are smooth, others rocky. Some uphill, some downhill. Some steep and others even less enjoyable! But as seasons change I take notice of the wildlife, plants and animals. I actually find myself stopping to photograph the flowers that sprouted after a monsoon rain:

When especially lucky, I may see a squirrel or on this particular day, elk moving through an area! I know elk migrate here in northern Arizona, but rarely do I get this opportunity to see them. By the time I pulled my camera out, they were a distance away, but still seen:

What a great day!

Are You a Citizen Scientist?

August 28, 2025August 8, 2025Posted in Animals, blogging, environment, Plants, wildlife, writingTagged birds, Nature, wildlife2 Comments

The natural world is one step beyond your front door. Do you notice any living thing within your first footsteps? Is there a flower, an insect or something else living that you notice?

If you snap a photo, share it at the iNaturalist app, you have just joined the other citizen scientists around the world. What does this mean?

With the minute you took to observe the natural world, photograph a living thing and share it within the iNaturalist app, you are providing information where others note your observation. Once it has been accepted, through their very easy process, other people, especially scientists see the entry. What’s interesting about this? Some people around the world have actually photographed, unknowingly, rare plants and/or animals! Or maybe it is a plant or animal not observed in decades at your location.

Scientists cannot travel the world, year after year as they do their research. Instead, they can comb through what others are sharing, such as through this app, iNaturalist, along with their first-hand observations.

I submitted this photo on the app:

Recorded the date, location and looked at the suggestions listed. Then chose what I thought was what this lizard would be identified as. Submitted it all easily through the app. Once a couple of other people agreed with my assessment or I changed to agree with them, then research grade allows my information to be used by anyone in the world! (I think it is a desert spiny lizard. Awaiting others to agree or not so I can go from there.)

So, you have the iNaturalist app and use it? Kudos to you! Keep at it! If you do not have the app, and wish to, then download it on your smart phone at the app store, for free, iNaturalist. Or, check out the website for iNaturalist. Either way, get involved and become a citizen scientist.

Nature Journal for July 2025

July 24, 2025July 20, 2025Posted in Animals, Birds, blogging, environment, Plants, wildlife, writingTagged birds, Nature, travel, Tucson, wildlifeLeave a comment

Nature, the animals, plants and world around each, is a joy for me. Thus, I spend time whenever I can in nature. Recently I decided I should journal some of the observations made while I am in nature. Maybe even chronicle some locations on a regular basis. Here is my first nature journal from a local park, Agua Caliente in Tucson, Arizona this month. As my nature journal grows, I’ll see what I discover about nature and my art with hopes you’ll find something interesting too!

A Day with Kichwa People in Ecuador

March 13, 2025February 28, 2025Posted in blogging, environment, Italy, Plants, TravelTagged Ecuador, environment, Family, food, travelLeave a comment

After our school visit we stopped along the Napo River to visit with one of the 40 Kichwa families. Our hosts showed us their garden where they grow many fruits and vegetables. I learned how to plant yucca once the grown ones are collected for a meal. (Put the yucca stalk into the ground at a 45 degree angle, then cover the stalk with soil.) Some of the plants grown here are for medicinal purposes. The children, in the family we had lunch with, walk a half hour to school each day.

The women showed us how catfish is folded into gigantic green leaves of the bijao plant and put on the fire to cook. We also tried some beetle larvae … head squished off … the insides of the body can be eaten raw, but we chose to let the rest of the body to be grilled first. The first person eating the grilled beetle larvae announced it tastes like bacon. Yes in some ways it did! Our lunch included plantains, yucca and catfish… all eaten with our fingers. A delicious meal with tea.

We had a chance to use a traditional blowgun. The poisoned dart, only lethal to small animals, was more difficult to use than it looked. A couple of people hit the target! We had some discussion about the oil and timber companies deforesting the Amazon. We saw the natural gas flames across the river from where we are staying at an eco-lodge. The Kichwa families are raising chickens and turned to ecotourism as a way to supplement their subsistence economy.

Here are some photos from that family visit:

Catfish pieces onto the leaf, then wrapped

Lunch: catfish, yucca and plantain… all eaten with your fingers

Fibrous Material Put To Use … From Pineapple?

February 6, 2025January 20, 2025Posted in blogging, environment, history, PlantsTagged environment, Nature, pineappleLeave a comment

Using natural fibrous material to weave into footwear or clothing is not new; think agave leaves used hundreds of years ago for such needs. However, using the fibrous waste product of pineapple leaves is a new use. There are 20 – 30 leaves per plant now being put to use, from what I recently learned.

Within the Earthshot Report of 2024 was mention of Dr. Carmen Hijosa. This Spanish entrepreneur developed a material to be used as an alternative to leather. Time in the Philippines in the 1990’s was where she saw the abundance of pineapple leaves. She worked to create a textile using that waste product. Many years later she has a company, Ananas Anam. I like their website quote from Dr. Hijosa: “Design is not just about the product. Design is about responsibility.” Pineapple leaves are being used, many local people are employed and there is less waste product as an alternative material is made.

Check out Piñayarn and Piñatex fabric at the Ananas Anas website. While I was thinking to find various fabrics, I was pleasantly surprised to see some BOSS sneakers made with Piñatex.

Palms: Fan versus Date

January 23, 2025December 31, 2024Posted in blogging, environment, history, Plants, TravelTagged Nature, palms, travelLeave a comment

So I mentioned I would write a blog about fan and date palms … and here it is!

First off, palms are not trees!! Now I found that interesting because I always referred to them as a palm tree. Yet technically, palms are grass that have leaves growing from the trunk and lack bark. They are considered also as large, woody herbs. Lots of science available to read all about it, if you wish, just not here!

My interest in palms happened when in California last month. All of a sudden I realized there was a difference in the palms I was looking at. As I drove around parks and golf courses, I did not take notice. Often I was looking at date palms. I buy my dates at Shields Date Garden in Indio, California, no wonder I saw them most often! Yum!

By the way, date palms were brought to California by Spanish missionaries in the 18th century. Here is a date palm with its feather-shaped fronds and its unpicked, dried out dates:

Then we were at Anza- Borrego Desert State Park. I learned there is only one palm native to the state of California, and it is not the date palm. California’s Washingoni filifera is the native palm. It can grow to 65 feet tall, with fan-shaped leaves and small, black fruit. Once you observe palm leaves closely, you’ll notice a fan palm has fronds from the top forming a crown. Each frond actually looks like a fan.

The native California fan palm has been around since forever, whereas a similar looking Mexican fan palm is considered invasive. You will see the Mexican fan palm all around southern CA and Los Angeles! And you’ll notice, I did not get a photo of a California fan palm.

Here is an invasive Mexican fan palm, notice the fan-shape:

Take notice of the next palm you see … one does learn something new every day!

What is a Cristate Saguaro?

January 5, 2025November 29, 2024Posted in blogging, environment, Plants, writingTagged cacti, Nature, travel, Tucson, wildlife4 Comments

You may discover a strange looking cacti, a cristate Saguaro, or crested Saguaro while on your hike in southwest USA. It is still unknown whether the crested formation on the cacti is a result of a lightning strike, freeze damage or a genetic mutation.

Amazingly the crested formation can be found in other cacti, such as a barrel cactus. I will have to keep my eyes open for them! You’ll notice in my photo of the crested (cristate) Saguaro, arms did grow on it and there will be flowers in time. Have you seen a cristate?

Why Drooping Cactus Arms?

December 29, 2024January 1, 2025Posted in blogging, environment, Plants, wildlifeTagged Arizona, cacti, Nature, Tucson, wildlifeLeave a comment

Often cacti are photographed or sketched with their arms pointing upward, but in reality one can find cacti with arms drooping. On a recent hike, there were a few cacti with drooping arms and we got talking and asking the question, what had caused this?

My research seems to indicate two possible causes: a freeze and/or dehydration of the plant. When our temperature drops into a freeze zone, the point where the arm meets the cacti trunk is vulnerable. As a result it is weakened and the arm will droop as it continues to grow. Another possible cause is lack of water. It is very obvious when a cactus has enough water as it looks a bit plump and when with not enough water, shriveled. So now you know why one cactus will have arms upward and another may not!