#non native plants

[seabeck]

This is so fucking bad, the snow in the mountains is almost melted and I’m seeing plants starting to wilt already from the heat 

[wiley-treehouse-gardens]

[howstrangethemusicsoundstome]

Video via Sacramento Food Forest on Instagram

Planting a highly flammable tree like eucalyptus in a heavily chaparral environment like much of the state of California was a terrible idea. Many California native trees, like the famous redwood, are fire resistant. You may have seen some people explain that California naturally has fires (that's what chaparral is, people who didn't take some 100-level Earth Science class as a GE or something), which is true, but with native trees, they aren't nearly this devastating. Combine this flammable tree with the recent drought and that's a recipe for disaster.

[antimony-ore]

I'm about to have so many bittersweet nightshade seeds, the little berries are full of them.

I picked about 8oz and sifted through like 4 berries worth and got bored of picking them out.

Such pretty flowers though, one of my favorite finds so far for sure.

[los-plantalones]

Def not thrilled to see them this early, but was still heartened because… spring comin’.

[thors-daughtersthoughts]

Spearmint (probably)

Mentha spicata

Aka. Garden mint, common mint, lamb mint, mackerel mint, spire mint, sage of Bethlehem

Spearmint is native to Europe and Southers Asia. It has naturalized in temperate parts of Africa, North America, and South America. Flowers from June to frost. It likes wet, well drained soil and full sun to part shade. It can be super invasive.

Spearmint was used to relieve gas and cover bad taste. It was also used for stomach aches, diarrhea, nausea, colds, headaches, cramps, and fever.

Spearmint is mentioned as early as the 1st century AD and is included in mythology. For example, Mentha coming from the name of a nymph who tried to seduce Hades but she was turned to mint by Persephone.

Spearmint oil is toxic if taken internally. It's used to kill mosquito larva and as a fumigant it's used to kill moths. It's raised as a cash crop in the midwest United States and other places worldwide.

Spearmint tea is popular and spearmint is used in drinks like the mojito and sweet tea.

Spearmint symbolizes wisdom

Sources

Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America 3rd edition. By Steven Foster and James A Duke

Wikipedia spearmint

Encyclopedia.com spearmint

[thejaymo]

Non-native species aren’t all vandals. It’s time to rebrand them | The Guardian

Naturalist Mark Avery has written about his hatred of “feral” daffodils anywhere wilder than gardens or suburban verges. They’re like graffiti in the countryside, he says, triggering a debate about belonging and beauty – particularly pertinent in what is Invasive Species Week. This may sound like an obscure sub-genre for botany geeks, but invasive species – from rhododendron to Japanese knotweed in Britain – raise big ethical questions, and practical challenges for our ecosystems. Invasive species are one of the prime contributors to extinction, after habitat loss.

Does the fungus that causes ash dieback have a right to life too? But the language is problematic. “Invasive” suggests the species is to blame, when it is usually moved by globetrotting humans. Protecting “native species” sounds like nativism, or even racism, which is why many people instinctively side with animal rights campaigners against proposals to control (ie kill) non-native species.

We need another word for species moved by humans on to islands or continents where they cause harm. And “weed” won’t do either. Killing destructive exotic species is not analogous to anti-migrant prejudice (although, intriguingly, history suggests that native species protections increase in times of anxieties about human migration)

(via Non-native species aren’t all vandals. It’s time to rebrand them | Patrick Barkham | Opinion | The Guardian)

This article doesn’t go far enough in the defence of non-native species imo, and the decolonisation of botany has much further to go, but its nice to see it being discussed in a major new paper. BUT, i do agree with it’s conclusion 

A pragmatist would scientifically measure the damage caused and act to stop extinctions. So splashes of domesticated daffodils beyond suburbia get a reprieve because they’re not decimating other species. And there’s another benefit: if they’re not dug up, they may stop the needless scalping of roadside verges that destroys so many wilder flowers.

[antimony-ore]

Some random Daffodils I found on our property 4/25/25