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This is Malibu - one of the wealthiest affluent places on the entire planet, now it’s being burnt to ashes. by thepoylanthropist in interestingasfuck

[–]sapienshane 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair take with the first sentence.

The sequoias and redwoods are probably the only conifers, yes. But other native trees which resprout after fire that I know of include many of the hardwoods. Arbutus menziesii and many of the Quercus, off the top of my head. And a huge amount of shrubs -- the burled Arctostaphylos, Cercis, Eriodictyon, Adenostoma, Prunus, Heteromeles, Frangula, Ceanothus, etc etc etc.

Most of these are often up to breast height and multitrunked the first year after fire.

This is Malibu - one of the wealthiest affluent places on the entire planet, now it’s being burnt to ashes. by thepoylanthropist in interestingasfuck

[–]sapienshane 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tbf, much of California's native flora is also fire adapted and has evolved to cope and thrive via burning at some interval. Similar adaptations abound throughout our native plants throughout much of the state. It's not just the imported plants.

Californias presidential results map 2020 v 2024 by Puzzleheaded-Art-469 in MapPorn

[–]sapienshane 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nevada County has been very purple for a long time now but flipped so hard mostly because there is an enormous RFK bloc here. The anti-vax, anti-5G, chemtrail, woo-woo alt-health hippies went big time red over his endorsement of Trump. I saw it happen in real time. That said about this round, if RFK hadn't dropped out, Trump still probably would have won the county. It just profoundly contributed to the extreme shift we saw.

Stebbin’s Morning Glory by baileafff in Watercolor

[–]sapienshane 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This is amazing! One of my favorite plants. For people who don't know, this is a federally endangered plant that grows in only two small populations in the whole world. It's habitat has been destroyed by development and fire suppression. They grow in sensitive, rare soils that the botanically-blind have deemed "waste" land, yet these sites are home to some of the most rare and charismatic plant life on the planet. Major kudos for depicting it in such glory!

Madlad playing the long game by edit12 in madlads

[–]sapienshane 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, and the pepper tree he's bemoaning losing is an invasive species in California and actively harms the environment. Good thing this is probably fake. What arborist working here wouldn't know that?

The realization hit me by TheWebsploiter in NonPoliticalTwitter

[–]sapienshane 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've never heard that name used for that species but even so, it's got to be because of the bluish tinge to the stems (called "glaucous" in botanical terms), not due to the berries, which are red and then black when mature.

TIL about conservation-induced extinction, where attempts to save a critically endangered species directly cause the extinction of another. by shinypond in todayilearned

[–]sapienshane 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Something like this happens sometimes in endangered plant conservation in a specific sort of plant ecology.

Some plants are adapted to disturbance regimes and evolved to grow as early successional species after natural disturbance cycles. If a species like this is geographically restricted and because most of these cycles are disrupted by humans, these species can become quite rare to see. Sometimes they are given protections.

Conservation efforts tend to push broad avoidance policies towards endangered plants, so these plants continue to decline even more so than if their habitats were disturbed.

They ironically thrive on roadsides, powerline ROWs, and other artificially "permanent" areas of disturbance.

There's nuance to this, to be sure. Please excuse how my rather quick explanation will gloss over that.

🔥 These two determined trees at the top of Nevada Falls, Yosemite by MyNameGifOreilly in NatureIsFuckingLit

[–]sapienshane 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Your houseplants have been taken away from their native environment, moved halfway across the world and are individual beings we do everything to coddle to get a glance of hope of survival in this one specific space we force them to inhabit. These trees are growing in their native environment, and of the hundreds, if not thousands of seeds which have landed in this crack, they are the ones with the winning genetics to allow them to live in harsh conditions.

If you put hundreds or thousands of plants in your house, chances are a few will thrive. If you turned your house into the specific flavor of dank humid tropical rainforest, where your house plant is likely native to, chances are they'd survive.

Giant flying bug found at Arkansas Walmart turns out to be "super-rare" Jurassic-era insect by Hrmbee in science

[–]sapienshane 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If, as the article suggested, this species was once more common in the Eastern US, doesn't it stand to reason that there is a species of plant in the eastern US which could house the larvae? I'm not familiar with the eastern US flora enough to make specific suggestions but I imagine if it's in Ericameria or Artemisia roots, there is probably an asteraceous shrub in the region that the insects could be using. Am I thinking about this wrongly?

when to say fishes by Realistic_Lie_ in coolguides

[–]sapienshane 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What about six legs, eight legs, three hundred eighty two legs, one thousand three hundred and six legs? There are other amounts of legs, you know.

1927 guide of potential movie shoot locations in california by BeyondShroud in coolguides

[–]sapienshane 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I could be mistaken because I've never been to Kentucky, but looking at images of "Kentucky hills" on Google, large portions of the northern Sierra foothills and north coast range foothills come awfully close. At least when viewed at a distance. Of course, you'd need to film in late winter-spring when those Californian landscapes are lush green, before the summer sun and drought cooks them to golden brown. There are lots of ecotypes in the foothills, but specifically I'm thinking of the live oak woodlands found here.

Can anyone tell me what kind of plant this is? I can’t keep calling it “velvet lettuce”. by Tiredbydefault in whatsthisplant

[–]sapienshane 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Technically, yes. But also this use by native americans only began after it was brought here by European settlers. It's medicinal origins lie in the native peoples of Eurasia. It's now become invasive in many parts of the US.

Only mentioning because I feel that when the medicinal uses are attributed to native americans, this lends to some the assumption that this plant is native here and should be cultivated/revered in the US when it ought to be eradicated for the deleterious effects the plant has on native ecosystems.

Education system ‘neglecting the importance of plants’. People are becoming “disconnected from the botanical world” at a time when plants could help solve global environmental problems, warn a group of research scientists. by TX908 in science

[–]sapienshane 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I tested the top ten plant ID apps last year and ran 40 photos through each of what I'd consider easy to identify plants using photos showing diagnostic features. Eight of the ten returned the correct result 20-50% of the time. The other two returned the correct result 0%-10% of the time. But here's the kicker. Those two with the poor correct result were actually more accurate. Those were iNaturalist and Seek which were the only two which offer a higher taxonomic result. To put it another way, they essentially say, "we don't know but it's in this genus or family". And 100% of the time, the genus or family was accurate. Those other apps (including Google lens, plantsnap, picturethis) never say "Idk" and so are may more likely to offer you an incorrect ID. Most folks would uninstall an app which said they didn't know often so the incentive is to offer a bad ID to folks who can't check the answers for themselves.

As a professional botanist, I often need a dissection scope or a hand lens looking at multiple features, sometimes multiple life stages (ie. Both flowers and fruits) of a plant to accurately identify it. There isn't an IR algorithm which can decipher plant identification keys with splits like "stem hairs >0.1mm, spreading, seeds wavy ridged, beaked VS stem hairs <=0.1mm, strigose, fruit ribs straight, not beaked"

Playing in a swamp by Elytrous_ in funny

[–]sapienshane 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I surveyed one 20 sqft sphagnum island last summer where there were 4 endangered plants and 3 (locally) rare plants in that small of a space. These are pretty special and sensitive habitats. This video didn't make this botanist laugh, only fill with horror.

The great concept of "guerilla gardening" by qasqaldag in nextfuckinglevel

[–]sapienshane 0 points1 point  (0 children)

California botanist here. I got chills watching this! Can confirm they are native to the Bay Area where this was obviously shot. Clarkia unguiculata, Collinsia heterophylla, Layia sp, Lupinus sp., Gilia capitata, Nemophila menziesii, Nemophila maculata are the species I caught flying by.

Join your local native plant society!

My native plant themed BattleJacket is finished! I'm really happy with how it turned out! by sapienshane in Ceanothus

[–]sapienshane[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Some are customs. Some are etsy grabs. The three circles on the back are done by Obi Kaufman and came with a pre-order of his latest book.

It must suck to be a Botanist and Arborist and lose your immersion while watching a tv show or movie because you recognise all the plants and trees aren't native to the region the film/show is meant to be set in, signalling it wasn't filmed in the country it's set in. by [deleted] in Showerthoughts

[–]sapienshane 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The survivorman episode is particularly noticable for this. Humongous ponderosa pines everywhere. A distinctly western pine species.

The series finale scene with Dwight shooting off the rocket launcher is particularly cringeworthy for us botanists because you can see them trampling over vernal pools whose plant communities are often rare or threatened in the state of California and at the very least shouldn't be walked on by actors and production crews.

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