Here be milkweed (and other native plants)

[cool-plant-locations]

Yeah, I don’t use this blog anymore because iNaturalist exists and it’s WAY better at this than I was, lol.

[rjalker]

If you do not stand with Palestine, leave this blog.

[cool-plant-locations]

Two small-flower pawpaw plants at Mohawk Park, Savannah, Georgia.

[ID: A satelite view showing part of a lake marked “Mohawk Lake”, with a stand of trees on either side, with the trees on the right marked with two yellow circles around green markers. White text in a small clearing notes, “(A playground was built here since the satelite image was taken) End ID.]

The first one, which is easier to get to and more obvious, is in the little separate path of trees that separates the playground and field from the road. It’s on the side facing the playground, and very bushy, with at least three stems, and looks like it should flower in 2022.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/87320372

[ID: A photograph of a small-flower pawpaw plant standing amidst many other plants, with many bushy, dark green and smooth leaves pointed upwards. End ID.]

The second one is smaller and might be harder to see, it’s further into the woods (like 10 feet or so). I put some logs around it to make it easier to see (after I took the picture).

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/87320370

[ID: a photograph of a small-flower pawpaw against the first floor, standing upright with its dark green, smooth leaves facing towards the camera. A smaller vine grows beneath it, and a young hickory grows off to the side. End ID.]

[cool-plant-locations]

Small-flower pawpaw (asimina parviflora) Savannah, Georgia, on Roger Warlick Drive

Google Earth link showing where the walking path starts

iNaturalist obseveration

On Roger Warlick Drive, there are walking paths on both sides of the roads, with one made of black tarmac, and the other sidewalk, and the one with the sidewalk is separated most of the way from the road by a chain-link fence. (It’s a public sidewalk, idk what the fence is for)

At the intersection of Compass Point Drive and Roger Warlick Drive, is an entreance to the sidewalk path.

[ID: A photograph of a small-flower pawpaw stem. The leave are large and medium green, with smooth edges and slightly pointed tips. The stem is grey-brown, with small round buds at the base of each leaf, and in a zig-zagging shape. The leaves are alternate, appearing in a zig-zag pattern to match the stem. At the tip of the stem is a small fuzzy leaf node. There are leaves and grass in the background End ID.]

As of July 4th 2021, it is has at least five fruit! 

this is the best picture I could get, I’ll take better ones tomorrw.

[ID: A slightly grainy photograph showing the fruit on a small-flower pawpaw tree. The fruit is clustered near the trunk, and is light green, with four fruits emerging from a central point, held away from the trunk on a very short stem. The fruit is small, with the largest about the size of a golfball. End ID.]

There are what appear to be multiple seedlings around the base of the plant, too! :D

If in the fall I can manage to get even one fruit to start seeds from I will be happy. 

Pawpaws are the only kind of plant Zebra swallowtail butterflies can lay their eggs on! 

EDIT July 15th 2021: oh my god there are literally over 30 different plants along this walking trail AND more on the other side of the road!

[cool-plant-locations]

There’s literally so much stuff down here I don’t even know where to start lol.

[rjalker]

[rjalker]

Renamed "pennsylvania-milkweed-locations" to @cool-plant-locations since we no longer live in PA.

[rjalker]

[ID: three pictures of a white hand holding small blackberries. First there are only three, then half a dozen, then a handful. The berries are small, black, and very shiny. End ID.]

Found while walking since they're still apparently painting our appartment so we can't go there yet.

Found them on King George Boulevard, Savannah Georgia.

It's next to the Georgetown Elementary School. There's a long sidewalk with trees a few feet away from them, and the bushes are on the far side from the school. When I can use my laptop I'll add a Google earth screenshot.

I'm not going to eat these ones, I want to save the seeds from them so I can grow my own to give away the plants to people.

There are a ton of berries and multiple plants all spreading out.

There are also a lot of grapevines, some of which had flowers, but no grapes yet.

[cool-plant-locations]

Guess I have to rename this blog since we've officially moved to Georgia.......

[rjalker]

Pawpaw seed planted locations April 16th 2021. They're all marked with little bamboo stakes except the first one because I forgot it.

This is a long the Hanover Trolley Trail, in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

Pawpaw trees (asimina triloba) are North America native fruit trees, and is North America's largest fruit tree!

The trees and fruit to appear tropical, because they are the only tropical fruit tree that survived the Ice Age this far north! And along with them survived the zebra swallowtail butterfly, a tropical looking butterfly, that, like the papa, is the only species of its type of found of this far north because they survived the Ice Age. Zebra swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on a pawpaw trees, and the caterpillars eat the leaves. It's the only kind of tree they can lay their eggs on. These two fucking stuck it out through the ice age together. And they're still around. I love evolution.

Since these are seeds, they will take at least five or six years to start producing fruit, maybe longer.

I was going to buy some older plants online to plant here, but now I'm moving away so I won't have time to do that :(

The seed locations:

1)

A foot or two behind this bullcrap, near the benches at the curve. At least they thrive in shade as babies.

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2)

Down the hill a bit near the possibly multiflora roses that someone should kill if they have a positive identification. There are two trees visible in the first picture that are growing right next to each other as a landmark.

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3)

Next to the concrete little thing woth the creek, on the Right side if you're facing out towards the fields. Currently there is a little memorial set up there, so if I have time I'm going to plant some native flowers.

The seed is planted on the left side of the stream, down the hill a bit.

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4)

Uh. Already forgot where this one was. Oops.

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So four more planted today, plus the three I did in the winter. If in ten years you can collect pawpaw fruit here, you're welcome. Pay it forward by planting the seeds in other areas :)

(according to people on youtube you can literally take the whole fruit and smush it into the ground and cover it with leaves or mulch)

[rjalker]

Observations

Observations by Rjalker

includes pictures of bugs, so here’s a link that only has plants: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=rjalker&verifiable=any&iconic_taxa=Plantae

[cool-plant-locations]

all the things I’ve found so far! I’ll slowly add them to the blog

[rjalker]

[ID: A screenshot from google earth, showing the streetview of a three way intersection, with a small area of trees making up the fourth side. End ID.]

99 Forney Avenue, Hanover, Pennsylvania.

do you know how many different species are in this one spot

Black Walnut tree

American Elm Tree

Bitternut hickory tree

Boxelder maple tree

Unidentified blackberry

Black raspberry

unidentified goldenrod

Blackhaw viburnum

Unidentified grapes

unidentified mulberry

Invasive species:

-Wineberry (invasive)

-Garlic mustard (invasive)

-Japanese honeysuckle (invasive)

Stuff I planted April 2021:

Butternut tree

Pawpaw tree

wild bergamot / beebalm 

common milkweed

Liatris

[cool-plant-locations]

RIP we’re officially moving to Georgia because of a whole bunch of stuff so like. I’ll keep posting the locations of plants but it won’t be for pennsylvania, lol, so I guess I’ll have to rename this.

Feel free to submit plant locations as always

[cool-plant-locations]

If you're wondering it's not really warm out yet so this will mostly be updated in spring and summer when I don't have to wear three layers to ride my bike to find new stuff lol

[rjalker]

How to make paper pots with newspaper (or any kind of paper I guess!)

I made a video but it’s too long to post to tumblr and I’m too lazy to upload it to youtube because youtube is annoying and weird.

What you need: 

Paper of some sort. 

I’m using flyers from Aldi that my sister gets for free when they expire, because otherwise they just get thrown out. If you live near a grocery store that has weekly fliers, ask a manager if they have any old ones that you can take. They’ll probably say yes. Try to avoid shiny paper!

Something to roll the paper around, as wide as you want the pot to be, and taller than you want the pot to be. I’m using a can of spray paint, but water bottles, soda cans, wine bottles, anything you can think of would probably work fine.

[ID: A gif showing a white person kneeling with their head out of the frame, holding a can of purple spray paint over a half sheet of newspaper, gesturing to show off the can of paint before sitting it on the edge of the paper. End ID.]

Line your base up with the edge of the paper, leaving enough room at the bottom to fold, and roll it as straight and tightly as possible to the edge.

[ID: Three gifs. The first shows the same person pointing at the can and paper, before the camera zooms in, while they adjust the paper to be straighter. The second shows them rolling the paper around the can, and adjusting the paper once to keep it straight. The third gif shows them finishing rolling, and holding up the can to show the bottom, which has a few inches of paper longer than the can of paint. End ID.]

Fold the bottom down firmly, starting with the seam where the paper overlaps itself.

[ID: a close up of the person’s hands as they point to the edge of the paper, before pressing it inward, folding it down to the bottom of the can, and then going around in a circle and pressing the rest of the edges down as well. End ID.]

[ID: Two gifs. The first person presses their hand to the now folded edges to makre sure they’re tight, then turns the can of paint right-side up, and slowly pulls the paint can out of the paper. The second has them turning the paper at different angles to show it off, then begins to stand as the gif ends. End ID.]

This will be my first time sing these, so I’m going to use them with seedlings that I’ll water with a spray bottle until they get enough roots to kinda hold the paper together.

These will be so that people who come and take seedlings will be able to bury the entire thing, so that they have to do less work, and the seedling won’t have to deal with transplant shock. The paper will degrade in the soil as the plant grows, and the roots will have no problem poking through it when they’re big enough!

I also still have my seedling bags that do the same thing, but I wanted some taller pots for transplanting baby trees so they have some room to grow a taproot. Mainly for the black walnut and butternut seedlings that should be appearing this year :)

also whatever acorns I remembered to plant! I know I put at least 4 pin oak (small super pretty stripey acorns) acorns in a pot, so hopefully they’ll grow. They were drying for a year because I put them in a box and then forgot about them! 

Also might use them for pawpaw trees so that I can plant them directly in the ground! I’m going to keep some, give some away, and the rest will be planted in wild areas to help restore habitat!

I’ll update this post with the results when I’ve actually used these. I think they’ll work pretty well, since there’s several layers of paper because they’re being rolled. And unlike the stupid cardboard pots you buy at the store, these will actually break down and actually let roots through. (don’t buy those cardboard pots. they’re stupid and I have NEVER seen them work)

by the way my pronouns are she/her and I’m the one in the gifs, I’m just so used to not knowing people’s pronouns that I was automatically using they/them without even thinking and by the time I realized it I was more than halfway done lol.

PS: if you post pictures or gifs, please consider adding image descriptions to them to make them accessible to people who can’t see them! You can also add image descriptions when you reblog from someone else, and if you can’t, or aren’t confident enough to start, you can check the notes to see if anyone else has added one you can reblog!

Here’s the link to the youtube video where I learned this! 

[cool-plant-locations]

It’s not a plant location, but I’m gonna use these for guerilla-planting baby trees once they sprout :)

[cool-plant-locations]

I don’t have any pictures, but there are a bunch of small oak trees in the parking lot for Aldi. I haven’t seen any acorns on them, but they’re absolutely covered in galls and I think it’s cool.

391 Eisenhower Drive, Hanover, Pennsylvania.

[cool-plant-locations]

Two oak tree locations in Hanover PA

[ID: A screenshot from google earth, showing a satelite view of a house, with a large yard, and two trees on either side, marked with blue location markers that read “Oak” and “Oak2″. End ID.]

Oak 1:

[ID: A screenshot from google Earth, showing a street view of a tree next to a sidewalk, with green and orange leaves, and a few on the ground. End ID.]

Oak 2:

[ID: a screenshot of google earth, showing a street view of a tree, with all of the leaves green, and the branches reaching far over the sidewalk. End ID.]

[ID: A screenshot of google earth, showing a section of road next to a patch of grass, with a few scattered leaves and small round objects on both. End ID.]

____________________

405 Dart Drive, Hanover, Pennsylvania.

There are a few oak trees along this street and I never remember which ones come from where. So these might be pin oak (which is confirmed to be on this street) or might be something else (I feel like I found northern red oak acorns along this road but I don’t remember).

The trees themselves are obviously in someone’s yard, but the acorns fall on the sidewalk, the grass next to the road, and the road itself. You should be able to collect some for seeds or food, depending on how fast the squirrels (of which there are many) are. 

I know there are more oaks along this road, but I’m still looking for their exact locations on google maps.

EDIT: Lol omg. Directly across the street from tree #2 is A MASSIVE oak tree and the leaves are thinner so I’m pretty sure that’s the pin oak tree. Wow. That’s really convenient. Pin oak acorns are super small, but super pretty. They have stripes. 

Here’s what they look like fresh:

[ID: A photo of a white hand holding about a dozen small acorns. The acorns are round in shape, almost complete circles except for the pale, flattened end where they used to have a cap. They are dark green in color, with brown stripes going from top to bottom. End ID.]

Just look at them. Look how pretty they are.

_______________________________________

[ID: a screenshot from google earth, showing a street view image of a large tree in grass next to a long hedge that follows part of the sidewalk.End ID.]

[ID: A closeup photo of a white hand holding four reddish-brown acorns. End ID.] 

2 McKinley Avenue, Hanover, Pennsylvania.

like before the tree itself is in someone’s yard, but the acorns fall onto the sidewalk, the grass beside it, and the road itself. There are so many that the sidewalk becomes practically unusable. No idea what species it is.

according to the timestamps on my blog, these acorns here were collected in super early October, 2017. And then I got a different job so I didn’t bike that way anymore, so I haven’t gotten any for the past three years. But I’ll collect some this year.

anyways did you know oak trees are host plants as well as sources of food for wildlife and people??? I didn’t until last week! 

[rjalker]

So many black walnut treeeeeeeeees

March 3rd 2021

->

[cool-plant-locations]

[ID: Ten photographs, showing black walnut trees in very early spring, before they have grown any leaves. Behind them is a creek, with plastic bags and other trash visible in some sections in the grass or along the bank. The second photo shows a closeup of a black walnut on the ground, where the grass is still dead, still in its husk, which is now black. End ID.]

332 Wilson Avenue, Hanover Pennsylvania.

The entire strip of trees along the road here is black walnut trees. The trees themselves, along with the creek, is behind a short fence that I assume marks private property (I haven’t actually noticed any signs that say so for sure, but there could be some further down), but most of the branches stretch out over the fence and over the road, so there are TONS of black walnuts on the ground on the grassy strip next to the fence, and on the road itself.

Like.

There are literally so many that not even the squirrels get them all. I’ll see if I took any pictures in the fall and I’ll post them here. 

Here’s the link to my observations on Inaturalist, eventually the wild ones will all be added to here!