(Boletus bicolor?) rises dramatically from a curtain of spent fronds. Identifying the boletes is a bit of a chore, due to similarities among related species – variations in individual species themselves can complicate matters even more. Many are edible, but some are not. A helpful breakdown of similarities and differences can be found here.
Appalachian Summer, 2018, Volume Twenty-Seven: Wild Bergamot. A familiar summer wildflower of Appalachia’s dry, open woods and fields and certainly one of its most versatile plants, wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) is a tall, showy perennial herb with a long history of use as a medicinal herb, tea plant, honey plant, and garden ornamental. During its summer bloom time, it’s also one of the “go-to” nectar sources for a wide variety of insects and hummingbirds. One of the little bugs I most love – the hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe) – is a frequent visitor, attracted by its preference for pink or lavender flowers; swarms of these darting sphinx moths descend on wild bergamot patches during the hottest hours of the day. The plant produces flower heads, which rest on a whorls of gray-green, leafy bracts, at the ends of its long stems; tubular, double-lipped flowers, pink to lavender in color,
begin blooming from the middle of the head outward, giving a wreath-like appearance. The leaves grow in opposite pairs on the stem and are
lanceolate, finely-toothed, and give off an oregano-like odor; they can be used to make an aromatic tea. Also known as wild bee balm, this sun-loving plant in the mint family spreads aggressively both by branching rhizomes and self-seeding. The leaves were used by Native Americans to treat respiratory ailments and to prepare a poultice to treat minor wounds and infections. Nowadays, it’s often planted as a garden ornamental and a honey plant.
Appalachian Summer, 2018, Volume Twenty-Two: Swamp Milkweed. As the first milkweeds of summer – Asclepias syriaca and tuberosa – fade away by mid to late July, swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) rises to assume their important roles within Appalachia’s summer ecosystem. A gorgeous perennial herb of wet meadows, marshes, and stream edges, swamp milkweed bears upright clusters of pink flowers at the top of a tall, branching stem, whose leaves are narrow,
lanceolate, and opposite with smooth edges. As with those of its relatives, swamp milkweed’s flowers are arranged in a “hoods and horns” structure with five downward-swooping petals surrounding a central crown of five upward-pointing horns. The petals are a light pink to deep rose shade and contrast vividly with the pinkish white to cream-colored crown. Swamp milkweed, also known as rose or pink milkweed, plays a critical role in the life-cycles of the monarch and queen butterflies, both as a food source for their caterpillars, which eat the foliage, and their adult forms, which consume the nectar from the flowers. The flowers attract a wide variety of butterflies, bees, and other insects, as well as hummingbirds. You can find a good resource here for growing milkweeds as monarch and queen butterfly host plants.
one of my favorite things is how badgers and coyotes will hunt cooperatively. as in not just like happening to go after the same thing at the same time but actually combining efforts to bring down prey; coyotes are faster and can chase down prey species, while badgers are adept at digging them out of their burrows
A First Nations woman working to revive a threatened language in her traditional territory of northern British Columbia says she’s being forced to leave the country on Canada Day.
Mique’l Dangeli belongs to the Tsimshian First Nation, whose territory straddles the border between Alaska and British Columbia. She says Canada won’t recognize her right to live and work in B.C. because she was born on the American side on Annette Island Indian Reserve.
Her visa expires July 1, she said.
“For me, what I consider home is my home community and my people’s traditional territory, which is northern B.C.,” she said. “We’re not immigrants to our people’s traditional territory.”
“The colonial border between the U.S. and Canada dissects Indigenous territories in ways that sever the lifelines between First Nation families, communities, languages and ceremonies,” Dangeli’s petition says.
Dangeli says she considered applying for Indian status in Canada, but learned the two-year process hinged on the baptismal record of her great-great-great grandmother in Prince Rupert, B.C., in the 1860s.
“So if she decided not to convert to Christianity I would not be considered an Indian under the Indian Act. The whole process is about one colonial institution affirming the power of another. It has nothing to do with our inherent Indigenous rights that predate colonial law,” Dangeli said.
This whole article is worth a read but this part deserved highlighting.
Photo of the Day – The Blue-winged Parakeet (Psittacula columboides) is endemic to the Western Ghats of southern India. The male and female can easily be told apart by the colour of the beak: the female’s being grey – as seen here – and the male’s being red.
I think it’s worth saying that there’s a difference between someone not doing something because they’re entitled and just assume someone will do it for them
vs. someone not doing something because they’re exhausted and long ago resigned to the fact that they would just never get to have the benefits of that thing being done
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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