"We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Those are the words from Pogo (Walt Kelly) from the 1st Earth Day poster, an event that TPP doesn't really remember well because the campus was in the throes of anti-war demonstrations and he was finishing a tough schedule of courses for a hoped for graduation.  Wasn't sure what to do blog-wise for Earth Day 2018, but attended a great lecture last night by Doug Tallamy, and his thesis (see the link) is that biodiversity is only going to be saved if everyone gets involved.  He advocates a small scale, grass roots (sorry, he earns TPP's admiration for hating grassy lawns.) approach using native plants, especially trees.  At his website you can get his book (of course) and get a list of plants that promote biodiversity.  The huge attendance at his lecture was most impressive.  He argues that most land is privately owned, so public "wild" areas are not enough to reverse the loss of biodiversity.  Get rid of grass; plant an oak.  The biggest problem is that finding a good source of native plants isn't easy.  That's why us native plant people are working to set up a nursery.  

Biodiversity in the maize and soybean desert

TPP has long joked about living in the maize and soybean desert of the upper midwest. Sadly this does a grave injustice to deserts because even the harshest desert has more biodiversity than our agricultural fields. 200 years ago this was tall grass prairie which has a surprising and substantial biodiversity and this same grassland community built some of the richest soil in the world. Here in Lincolnland the tall grass prairie is all but gone, less than 1% remains, and it was largely displaced by maize, and later soybeans. In a photoessay of the world's biodiversity, David Liittschwager would document all the biodiversity in a one-cubic foot volume found in a day. In a Costa Rican rain forest, 150 different species were found in his one-cubic-foot placed in the canopy of a strangler fig tree. And all over the world he found surprising biodiversity, and it's mostly surprising because humans pay very little attention to the little organisms. But in a maize field here in north central Lincolnland he got quite a different surprise. Sadly, he found nothing, nothing but maize. In our zeal, in our passion, in our desire for maize, our agricultural methods have come as close as possible to creating a complete monoculture. It's no wonder that more wildlife lives in our cities and towns than outside the city limits because out there it's a biological wasteland, except for crops.  This represents nature bent entirely to human will, and again because little attention is paid to this, it's been estimated based on measurements here and there, that half of this marvelous prairie soil is gone, and so is the community that made it. So how smart are humans anyways? Do you need a crystal ball to see what the future may bring?

What do botanists do when not in their office or lab?

Field work!  Protecting biodiversity is a tough job, and biologists are racing against extinction, mostly from habitat loss, and now perhaps from climate change.  To help document and preserve plant biodiversity requires documenting species with specimens and in the case of rare species collecting seeds.  Usually you don't find important specimens growing in city parks, so field botanists end up in very remote areas where access can be difficult.  Sit down at a table of field botanists, buy them some beer, and ask them how many vehicle axles they've broken.  Ask them how many times they've been bogged down in the mud.  Ask them how many times they've been drenched trying to keep their specimens safe and dry.  Ask them about the worst illness or parasite they ever picked up in the field.  Everyone of them will have a story.  Even TPP has his blood enshrined in the CDC for bringing home a disease organisms fortunately without its vector.  Here's a nice promotional/educational film of a field expedition out of Kew Gardens on a plant collecting trip.  A short segment starting at about 6:30 shows you some views of the spiny forest in Madagascar.  HT to Agricultural Biodiversity who always finds the best stuff.

Tree Diversity Day - some days past

How can they do these things without alerting TPP?  October 11 was Tree Diversity Day and who knew?  Biodiversity International didn't put anything on their webpage until Oct. 18th.  Nothing would please this blogger more than to support Tree Diversity Day, but someone needs to figure out PR because clearly the information highway was moving pretty slowly on this one.  Well, better late than never.  Here's a tree that might be new to you, a celebration of diversity, the candle tree.  The long (up to 1 m), fleshy, many-seeded, yellowish fruits are quite distinctive (and unusual in this family) and supposedly edible, but TPP cannot verify this.  Like many tropical trees Parmentiera cereifera (Bignoniaceae) flowers on old wood.  The flowers are large, white and open at night, and that along with the floral shape, and other features (thick flower stalk, buldge on lower side of perianth to hold nectar) clearly indicate pollination by nectar-feeding bats. 

Top 10 New Species for 2011

National Geographic has constructed a list of the top 10 new species for 2010: it consists of one bacterium, 2 fungi, and 7 animals. This is about par for things in biology these days: no plants. Now don't get the Phactor wrong here; some of these are pretty cool organisms. The iron metabolizing bacterium is actually sort of ho hum, but it was found "feeding" on the Titanic. This is not really an unusual metabolism. One of the fungi is an aquatic mushroom, and who knew they could do that? No question that's one creepy leech. But no plants. It's a good bet that they didn't even try very hard to find one.
So here we go, Yasunia is not a new species, it's a new genus with 2 new species, a member of the laural family from South America. How about them apples? A new genus! New genera you don't just get every day like new species. Hope that evens up the score a bit!