Posts made in June, 2014

Is Poison Ivy Shiny?

Posted by on Jun 23, 2014 in adaptations, leaves, poison ivy, summer, Unmowed Blog | 2 comments

Is Poison Ivy Shiny?

True or false? You can always spot poison ivy because it’s shiny. True, sometimes, especially in spring. False, most of the time.

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Happy National Pollinator Week!

Posted by on Jun 19, 2014 in flowers, great ideas, insects, spring, Unmowed Blog, wildlife | 0 comments

Happy National Pollinator Week!

Seriously. It’s National Pollinator Week, June 16 – 22, 2014. It’s a national…well, not exactly a holiday–a national time to stop and think about it. Of course they have National Everything Week–not a day goes by but it’s National Something Day or Week or Month. National Women’s History Month (we only have enough history to fill up one month). National Jazz Appreciation Month. There’s National Pig Day (March 1, put it on your calendar for next year). National Ice Cream Month, a worthy cause indeed, officially designated in 1984 by Ronald...

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Dandelion Seeds: Prickly Fluffballs

Posted by on Jun 6, 2014 in flowers, seeds, spring, Unmowed Blog | 0 comments

Dandelion Seeds: Prickly Fluffballs

Dandelion are a little like porcupines. Each dandelion seed is a dry, hard, brown speck an eighth of an inch long, known in botanical terms as an “achene.” They’re stuck into the puffy top of the dandelion flower head, like pins stuck into a pincushion, or quills that are loosely attached to a porcupine’s skin. Tiny barbs zig-zag along each edge of the seed. One puff of air, and the seed pulls loose from the plant and heads off into space. The wind blows the little fluffy parachutes for thousands of miles, over rivers and oceans and mountain ranges–or over the...

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