Little but Tough!

Picture courtesy of Wikepedia

Listen my children and you shall hear about the toughest animal in the world, Tardigrades. The word tardigrade comes from the latin word tardigradus meaning slow moving. Tardigrades, otherwise known as water bears, are microscopic animals that live in the water and in the soil. Tardigrades can be found all over the world from the highest reaches of the Himalayan mountains to the deepest ocean depths. There is little doubt that Tardigrades can be put into a category of being one of the earliest animals on planet earth.

Tardigrades, range in size from 0.05mm to 1.5 mm, which is about half the size of an Argentine ant. Despite their small size, Tardigrades can survive the harshest of environments. Tardigrades can survive up to 1000 times the radiation that other animals have been known to survive. They can tolerate extreme temperatures from close to absolute zero at -459 degrees Fahrenheit to as hot as 304 degrees Fahrenheit. Under total dessication they have been reported to survive for up to ten years but may survive much longer. Tardigrades can enter a state of crypotbiosis which is a state of suspended metabolism. Cryptobiosis allows tardigrades to essentially live forever until the environmental conditions can once again support the animal.

Tardigrades have been the subject of intense study as scientists try and understand how they have been able to inhabit the entire planet in some very extreme conditions. Tardigrades have even been taken to space and survived the dry conditions of deep vacuum and the harmful solar and galactic radiation. Research into what makes these animal tick is ongoing.

I was lucky enough to see tardigrades under a microscope while I was working in the department of nematology at UCR. We were working on a project to report on the nematodes that were found in the soil with reference to pathogenic forms. The tardigrades were captured incidentally while using a specific method of extraction to isolate nematodes out of the soil. I had only read about tardigrades up to that point. I was delighted to see them with my own eyes. It was a pleasure to find the tardigrades in the same filtration process as the nematodes. I look forward to finding out more about tardigrades as new information comes to light.

The Pomegranate

Pomegranate season is upon us. Until recently Pomegranates were a member of the monogeneric family, punicaceae, meaning that the family contains only one genus. The punicaceae family is characterized by a floral structure consisting of four sepals, four petals and a large number of stamens with a superior ovary. New molecular studies have suggested that the genus Punicaceae be moved into the larger family, lythraceae.

Pomegranates are becoming quite popular as an edible fruit and also as a juice. Aside from their sweet, tart flavor and juiciness, flavor health advocates laud the value of pomegranate juice which is full of antioxidants. However, one thing that is often overlooked are the health benefits of the seeds. The seeds contain a very nutritious oil. The oil found in the seeds of the pomegranate is botanically, closely related to evening primrose oil. If you are going to juice the berries you will have a bag of seeds left. The seeds are not digestible as they are and need to be ground or masticated before ingestion.

There is only one cultivar of pomegranate that tends to do well here in Southern California and that is the cultivar called wonderful which is where most of the juice comes from. Other locally found cultivars of pomegranate are less popular. They tend to have pinker skin and juice,lower acidity and the flavor is often less intense. Other cultivars are also more susceptible to internal rot which is almost bound to occur if there is an early rain.

There is only one efficient technique for separating the fruit from the pomegranate. You first want to remove the berries from the skin and white membranes by breaking it apart in several pieces. Then place the pieces in a large pot of warm water. Working under water will prevent the berries from popping out all over the place. This also makes it much easier to seperate the berries from the membrane since the berries will sink and the skin and white membranes will float and can be easily skimmed off the the top. An additional benefit from this technique is that the seed coat is hydrophobic, water resistant, which makes it possible to decant the water by putting in a barrier at the lip to contain the berries before draining off the water. After draining off the water the berries are totally dry because of this hydrophobic effect.

Topa Topa

Topa Topa (Percea americana var. topa topa) is an avocado that when classified by the fruit they would be listed with their nearest relative mexicola. In general Mexicola avocados tend to be round. Topa topa differs from Mexicola in that it has a neck.

Originated in 1907 in Ojai, Topa Topa has a vigorous rootstalk chosen for it's seed. It has a very big seed and the seed in turn produces a very robust sprout which means field budding is more successful because of it big size. This also makes it very easy to work with. They are not often planted as a source of fruit but they are often very productive.

The fruit matures completely black and shiny. The skin on the fruit is thin and delicate and can be eaten along with the flesh which is quite tasty. However, because of the large seed it is not grown commercially. As far as the avocado season goes they are among the earliest to mature. The leaves, when crushed, are very aromatic and have an aroma resembling anise.



The Topa Topa in my fruit orchard arose as a sprout from below the bud union of an existing avocado tree that was not very vigorous. The sprout appeared about eight years ago and I knew by the odor of the leaves that it was Topa Topa and decided to keep it. The original tree did not show the vigor that it should so I thought I would take a chance on the Topa Topa and let it grow. It recently came to my attention that it has a very heavy crop this year which we will be sharing with our friends and neighbors. Last year it bore no fruits but the year before it had a good crop. This performance leads me to believe that it may be alternate bearing.

From a child of Christianity to an old atheist

My early resistance to the whole concept of god started to develop, around the age of 13, from too much pressure to be "born again" so that I would go to heaven.
That did not seem right to me in spite of my mother's pleading. I knew what my Mother had been teaching me was not right and I moved further and further away from Christianity. I had a good training in the Bible and many of the proverbs and the twelve commandments have remained meaningful to me and my life and are certainly applicable to our daily living. I find myself using them in everyday conversation. For example "let him who is without sin cast the first stone". However, the miracles which deny reason such as Jonah and the Whale,pushed me away from Christianity. I have more faith in reason than the passed down stories of miracles that deny scientific principles.

I moved into agnosticism because it was the only term that I knew to describe how I felt about God. I did not know. Agnosticism served me during the greatest period of my life and was to an extent an escape clause from the pressures of fundamentalism that were all around me. I did not develop any antagonism towards Christianity in those early years and this did not interfere in personal or warm friendships with people that had strong religious connections to Christianity, particularly among my friends in the Seventh Day Adventist faith who were often active field biologists and very interested in natural history. They have, to this day, remained active associates and friends.

I could never understand what faith meant and how I was supposed to have faith in something when I have no reason for accepting it's existence. How do you believe in something when there is no evidence of its existence? Many people look to nature for examples of God's existence such as the beautiful flowers. God did not create the flowers they evolved from non-flowering plants such as fern cycads and pines. The flowers combination of color shape and size were selected to attract pollinators and ensure successful reproduction.

In my later years I have gradually moved into what has to be defined as atheism. This is because I now feel that there is no evidence that god exists and that the miracles that we have attributed to God and that have been repeated over and over for thousands of years appear to be false. Miracles such as Noah's Ark defy the laws of nature.I have faith in the laws of nature. The laws of nature are experimentally repeatable and if they are examined and found not to be repeatable they do not become a law of nature. As of yet, nobody has ever shown any evidence to support the existence of god. While the bible is thought to be a written historical record supporting the existence of god, it is a collection of stories reproduced again and again by many different people.

Even though it is my own personal belief that there is no god, there never was and there never will be I have respect for people whose faith is well founded in their own lives. To these people I say with all sincerity, "God Bless You"

I am always open to discuss my thoughts in more detail and explore the thoughts of other thinkers. I invite you to share your thoughts and comments with me.

Observation of ovaposition on the Cactus fly Volucella mexicana

This blog is about the Cactus fly only, the other flies in the photograph are for comparative gross morphology.

1. Family Syrphidae. Volucella mexicana, AKA Cactus fly.
2. Family Stratiomyidae. Hermetia illucens, AKA Solider fly.
3. Family Muscidae. Musca domestica, AKA House fly
4. Family Drosophilidae. Drosophila melanogaster, AKA Fruit fly

The process of egg laying for the cactus fly is unique. One day I witnessed a cactus fly resting on the spine of a cactus with its two front legs fully extended and touching the skin of the cactus, presumably for orientation. I could see that it was preparing for ovaposition. The ovapositer was feeling toward the tip of the spine. Before the Cactus fly could begin laying the egg an aggressive male fly interrupted the female and she flew away. After witnessing this I searched the area and found several other spine tips which had a foamy deposit on them. This observation for me made clear of what I had seen. Below the foamy spine tips layed several decaying cactus pads.

Lets Talk Turkey

The American origin of the turkey was not known to the people of Europe and Asia, so different names were applied to the Turkey. It appears that the word turkey was a result of a miss understanding of its origin. The name turkey was chosen by the thought that its origin was of the area Turkey, and that choice of name was compounded by the fact that the Turks were introducing it to the rest of Europe. It is known that the European population of turkeys were derived from Mexico (Doubtless north east Mexico). The early confusion has led to many different names for the same animal in different languages. For example, in Mexico the common Aztec name Guacalote is still used today. Where as in Spain, it is known as Pavo (Pavo Real is Peacock). In German, Türkei;Italian, Turchia; French, la Turquie; Russian, Турция; Chinese, 土耳其. As you can see almost every language uses a modification of the word turkey.

Starch, Why and How?.....Keyword 23 Degrees

As we all know the earth revolves around the sun at a 23 degree angle creating life zones with major seasonal climate change. Over the millenia plants have taken advantage of this situation and accommodated for its extremes. There are periods throughout the year where seasonal plant growth gives away into dormancy. In preparation for this dormancy these plants must prepare for next years growth. They store up energy safely through the cold and wet winter in the form of starch. When a molecule of water is removed from a molecule of sugar it becomes starch. Starch is a non soluble product which during wet periods will not drift away such as sugar would. The period of growth termination in autumn necessitates the storing of energy for the ensuing growth season (spring). The energy that accumulates in the form of sugar in the months of photosynthesis moves into the tissues chosen for storage such as seeds, wheat, potatoes as tubers, sweet potatoes as roots, and finally bulbs such as onions and garlic. Through dehydration synthesis the end product is starch. In this situation, this insoluble starch remains there safely stored in a manor that water cannot remove it. In spring the starch through the process hydrolysis is turned back into sugar (Glucose) and is used as energy to allow sprouts to grow through a short period until their there leaves have grown enough to develop their own photosynthetic tissue.

In the tropics there are dense Forests where there is no great seasonal change and their plants are created in greater density where rain is available. Plant growth in these areas is almost uniform every year. It appears that the need for starch in this environment is less than in temperate zones. In this particular post we will not be going into detail about the differences of tropical life, but I will cover it in another posting in the near future.

Spider Phobia

Female Black Widow spider

Within ourselves there our countless phobias and they are not trivial. they can have a large influence on the way we conduct our lifes. For example, a woman will scream and jump on a chair when a mouse is observed. Some of the more common phobias are snakes, bats, bees, cockroaches and claustrophobia. the most common phobia to our American society is arachnophobia. Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders.

When I was a small child I developed a strong case of arachnophobia.
This phobia affected my life quite a bit when I was a young boy. I was a carpenters assistant in my late teens and I was forced to crawl in small spaces infested with many spiders to do work such as wiring. I remember crawling under lots of daddy long legs which would frighten me. As I got older I forced myself to study the whole life history of spiders and their relationships all over the world. This modified my phobia to the point where I could be in the presence of these animals without being freaked out, but even though this phobia has been modified, it still exists within me.

My spider phobia was passed onto my daughter. She is afraid of spiders and especially the long legged house spider in the family Pholcidae, referred to by several common names such as Daddy Long Legs and Cellar Spider. This contains an ambiguity because of a terrestrial similar looking animal that lives on the ground outside also called the Daddy long legs. Many people fear this animal and incorrectly think it is a spider. Daddy Long Legs refers more correctly to a group of spider-like animals which hare not like spiders at all. Scientifically Daddy Long legs are referred to as phalangioides. They have body parts that are suggestive of a giant mite. Daddy Longs Legs do not have an abdomen or web glands like spiders.

Spider phobia is often fueled by the belief that most spiders are harmful and poisonous. However in our environment very few of them are and most should not be feared. The black widow is the only reported poisonous spider in the southern California landscape. Female black widows can deliver a poisonous bite if they become threatened and somewhat immobilized. If she were simply crawling on your skin she would rarely bite unprovoked. Black widow bites are rarely fatal and are very treatable if caught early.

Many people also have a great fear of Tarantulas, which are also found in our Southern California landscape. People often fear tarantulas because of their size and ominous demeanor. However most people incorrectly assume that they are viscous and poisonous. For the most part unless they are harassed they are docile and harmless.

Spiders are a very important and well integrated part of the fauna of the world. They are very beneficial predators and keep many populations of insect pests in check. Spiders are also a valuable food source for birds and small mammals, particularly in the winter. Despite their infamous reputation they should not be feared but treated with respect and caution. Like many animals they will not bother you unless you bother them. Spiders are an important part of our giant web of life.

Disambiguation of Smoke Tree

Smoke Tree is used in our language in two ways. Those who reside in Southern California usually only know it as the Psorothamnus Spinosa, a much photographed and spoken of native plant mainly found in shallow washes in the Sonora desert area. Smoke Tree is very common to be seen while driving through the arid regions of southern California. The late Ansel Adams is well known for his photographs of Smoke Tree and did an excellent job of popularizing this desert tree. Although our local deserts would refer to the Smoke Tree as P. Spinosa, The rest of the United States and throughout the temperate world, Smoke Tree refers to Cotinus Conggygria.

The Smoke Tree of our local desert, P. Spinosa, is a member of the pea family and the flowers would reflect this floral structure.

Photo:Wikipedia

On the other hand, the Smoke Tree common to the World, C.Conggyria, is a member of the Anacardiaceae. This family includes the cashew, pistachio, and mango.

Photo:Wikipedia

Expanding the Details on Ehrharta Erecta

In part this blog entry is a response to an article on Wikipedia. This article contains some valuable information with the exception of the horizontal rooting at the nodes and the total height. Only rarely do horizontal rhizomes develop roots. At least 99% of the environment where I live, in Riverside CA, reproduction occurs by seeds only. I was aware of the very first appearance of Ehrharta Erecta Lam. in our vicinity. Ehrharta first appeared in the University of California, Riverside botanical gardens. Its source probably Arrived from University of California, Los Angeles inadvertently from transplants. Within four or five years it had invaded the fifty acres that were under cultivation. The wider spread seed dispersal mechanism is not completely clear to me. There is one mechanism however that is realistic and not debatable. Early in the plants life it begins to produce long lax horizontal culms (the flowering portion), which are up to two and a half feet in length and settle flat on the ground. As the seed matures it drops directly to the ground. The conditions to produce further dispersal are not obvious. At time of seed release the enfolding gloom and lemma firmly contain the single seed. The seed shrinks to a very small size and rattles in this enclosure. These two enfolding bracts are completely smooth therefore limiting wind dispersal. From what I have seen, I would accuse the cottontail rabbit for a portion of the dispersal. The trivial name E. Erecta, chosen by the author is enigmatic. I know two other species of Ehrharta that are found in California, E. longiflora and E. calycina. These two species grow completely erect, whereas as the E. erecta is prostrate. It is puzzling why the author chose Erecta for a plant that is prostrate, when other species are basically erect.

P.S. I have a small flock of pullets and I am training them to eat the widest possible range of food materials, wild plants and kitchen left overs. There is no plant that is more eagerly consumed than E. Erecta.

The little understood webspinners

Last night a flying male came in the kitchen, encountered the light over the table and fell on the table. This was a familiar event for the hot season, so I thought it would be appropriate to write about it now. When observing these insects walking on a flat surface one can notice that they are very sensitive to touch (if you touch their head end, they will run backwards at a rapid speed, several time faster as their meandering speed). This particular feature is reflected in their Latin name Embioptera that means "lively wings", although this refers to their movement rather than their flight. Only embiopteran males have wings, females and nymphs are wingless. Males get out of the galleries where they live and fly around looking for a potential mate at night. They are dark colored, almost black, reaching the size of a small house fly in length.
Their forelimbs resemble arms of Popeye the Sailor Man with the forearms conspicuously enlarged. In webspinners numerous silk glands are situated there, about 150 glands in each leg.
These are my personal observations, and if they have boosted your curiosity you may find more information using references compiled in a Wikipedia article on Embioptera: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embioptera
Photo:Dave Scriven

The little wonder: Petalonyx

Petalonyx nitidus (Photo courtesy Steve Matson)

I would like to discuss the plant, Petalonyx, from the family Loasaceae.  Petalonyx exhibits a unique and unexpected characteristic in the botanical world. If you have the curiosity to look at these tiny flowers you would be in wonderment over the floral structure because the stamens appear to be outside the corolla. a  ranging from our desserts in North America down as far as Southern Andes. The diversity appeared to me to be greater in South America than it is in our dessert areas. I will discuss this family in more detail later.
In our book "Flora of the Santa Ana River and Environs" I mentioned Petalonyx in dedications because of its overtly unusual flower structure. In many old and recent botany books and floras this fact is not emphasized, although today the Wikipedia articles on Petalonyx do point out this characteristic.  Even inexperienced observers of flower structure might realize that in any flower the stamens (male parts) are confined within the corolla (petals). However this one little genus has broken the rule: stamens appear to have originated outside the corolla. They actually are outside at the time of flowering, this is accomplished by five anthers pushing outward through spaces between the five petals bases during bud development and eventually elongating and becoming very conspicuous.

Begonia and Bignonia - who knows the difference between these?

How about straightening them out? Here is a real answer. Both genera were named after 2 Frenchmen and they have in been in the botanical language over 300 years. If one's interest is in the green house plants he will be very familiar with Begonias both fibrous and tuberous, some of which have flowers as big as rose buds and others are hardly thumb size. Begonias are monoecious, they have male and female flowers on the same plant. This difference is easily observed since the female flowers have 3 projecting wings, which fuse together to form the inferior ovary. Male flower is nothing like that, they are irregularly dispersed on a single inflorescence - cluster flowers. There are few other plants that are monoecious: carob, date palm, alders, and few others. The nearest relative of begonias is the cucumber family - Cucurbitaceae. Close internal scrutiny of the curcurbit flower parts would reveal that relationship.
Looking at Bignonia in its broadest sense shows that they include well-known flowering woody and some herbaceous plants throughout the world. Probably all their flowers are bilaterally symmetrical and most frequently have bivalve fruits. For example Jacaranda, trumpet vines, catalpa, snap dragons, monkey flowers, and many more.

Chicory tribe - part 2

There are few distinctive features that help to identify this group. Lets take a typical common sunflower and look at the center portion: it is composed of tiny florets, their structure is: 5 little petal-like appendages; to avoid confusion they are referred to as corolla lobes since they are not independent from each other and form a tube - those are known as disk flowers. The rays are produced by corolla tube splitting on the top surface, and as they advance outward in development they are tongue-like and referred to as ray flowers. At the very base where they join the top of the forming seed they are still tubular (see the illustration at http://montana.plant-life.org/families/Asteraceae.htm).
Unlike common sunflower the chicory has every floret formed as if it were a ray flower, all the way to the center and often becoming smaller toward the center. The other characteristic feature of the tribe is the presence of latex - milky juice. Because of the latex uninformed people will often refer to them as milkweeds, knowing that milkweeds are poisonous. The third distinctive feature is little less conspicuous: when chicory flowers bloom the phyllaries (the flower heads also known as capitulum, and phyllaries are little leaf-like bracts at the base and often surrounding the capiulum) usually fold downward and wrinkle unlike most of the other sunflowers.

Chicory tribe

It has been shuffled back and forth between tribal position and a subfamily position. Most currently the APG III (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) has covered every categorical position as being a subfamily, and the tribal designations are not used by them. On Wikipedia within this tribe they are showing 100 genera worldwide, out of this 100 I am familiar with 23. The reason I am familiar with them is that they are all found in the Interior and Coastal Southern California. About half of those would be considered as aggressive weeds. As food plants they are very important, starting with lettuce and endive, and oyster plant (Tragopogon - goatsbeard). I have no knowledge of any toxicity within this group. They all contain latex mostly bitter, but herbivores of all types seem not to be deterred by it. There are about 3 plants that are generally obnoxious to gardeners, because their seeds blow everywhere and they come up continuously, these are: Sonchus oleraceus (derived its name from its value as a food source in early history of human food in the Mediterranean, the world "oleraceus" means vegetable), Lactuca serriola - prickly lettuce and Taraxacum officinale - dandelion. For human's usage the dandelion is well spoken of as a healthful green and a flavoring for wine. The young plants of prickly lettuce in late winter that have not bolted yet are a very nice salad vegetable. Older plants become bitter.
To be continued...

An unusual inflorescence position - internodal flowers

For many years I have been aware and have shown to numerous people tomato flowers - Solanum lycopersicum, which have an unusual inflorescence position (see the photo).

I made a special effort to search through the various other species and genera of Solanacea, checking for this anomalous condition. I found none. My further thought was: does this occur in any other group of plants? And none came to my attention, until a few days ago we were walking in the orchard and scrutinizing some vigorous weedy plants, and suddenly it became evident that we were seeing the same structure that I have been looking for many years. This plant was Phytolacca americana, family Phytolaccaceae (see the photo).

Now I am curious if there are more plants of this nature in the world flora.

Inadvertent pollination

Cordyline stricta - slender palm lily is an infrequent ornamental plant in our locality, and it is the only one I know of in the Agavaceae family and in related families that is colored, otherwise they are while or cream, with the exception of Hesperaloe parviflora, which flowers are red. I have a plant of Cordyline stricta in my yard close to our front door. There one limb has intruded into the normal pathway into the house. In a last two years it has made fruit. However this fruiting occurred only on this branch that is permanently disturbed by people entering the house. This branch has been about the only one of several inflorescences up higher that set fruit. No flower-visiting insects have been observed. So, it looks like the inadvertent fruit set is caused by trauma resulting from passing people.

Enygmatic stylops (Strepsiptera)

Strepsiptera - twisted-winged parasites have held my curiosity for many years. Now when the more recent work has been highly definitive many of their secrets were disclosed. This fascination I thought would be worth of sharing with you. Stylops are mostly endoparasites (internal), although there are a few free-living forms. Since I was young I have heard of these animals and I always wanted to see one, but as yet I never had. Entomologists have told me that they have seen a little protrusion between the abdominal segments of bees, which I have searched for in vain.
For those of you, who are interested Wikipedia gives a very thorough description of the unusual features and detailed life history of these animals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strepsiptera

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Notes on insect vivipary

Many years ago I captured flesh-flies (Sarcophagidae) for close observation. Slightly smaller ones - males had a conspicuous reddish bulbous structure at the end of their abdomen, lacking in the female. Once gently holding a female between my fingers, I have noticed that she was pushing out a dozen or more of crawling larvae. That has remained in my consciousness for many years without any explanation, in exception of the thought that female feeling that she might be destroyed tried to leave offspring in an immediate manner. I just have looked up at Wikipedia and found out that vivipary (in animals - ability to give birth to live offspring instead of laying eggs) is a characteristic of the family Sarcophagidae.
The question came up if there are other insects that have vivipary. I immediately recalled that aphids do. In late summer when the food source for aphids goes in dormancy males are reported to appear, and those females, which have been copulated by the male with lay a hard-shelled egg that will winter over. During the rest of their life cycle aphids are viviparous and parthenogenetic.

Back to school

When I was young I didn't enjoy going to school, because the material that was taught seemed insignificant to me. My education was out in the field, in nature with real things: plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, even little animals involved into the decomposing of carcass. I thought of the concentration of energy in the decaying flesh as being redistributed over the environment by flies, beetles and coyotes. A pointing case that sorrowed me most, when they had to have a teacher to teach biology they couldn't find one, and the closest one turned to be a football coach. The gym teacher was qualified to teach biology, because his resume included that he has taken a course in human body.
At my advanced years I have developed a strong fascination for the subjects of chemistry and physics that I did poorly with in the lower grades. To fill in with these gaps I found a series of high quality educational materials made available by The Teaching Company (http://www.thegreatcourses.com/). At this time we have acquired 3 of their numerous courses: Understanding the Human Body (by professor Anthony A. Goodman), The Joy of Science (by professor Robert M. Hazen), and How to Listen to and Understand Great Music (by professor Robert Greenberg). I hold all of them in awe, since they are the greatest bunch of teachers that I have ever encountered. I look forward to evenings when I can fit one or two lectures. They are so full of information that more than 2 would be more that I can assimilate. I would like to assign 5 starts to all these three courses that I am familiar with.

The remarkable breeding activities of white throated swifts

A friend of mine who is a rock climber was here yesterday and shared with me his observations at the tip of the arrow in this picture.
Echo cliffs Malibu - Santa Monica mountains (found on Google images)

While climbing the rock he could hear a din of many birds voices emanating from inside the crack. Looking away from the rock, he saw pairs descending, not tumbling, but rotating as if they were a seed of a maple. The rotation retards the rate of descent. I watched this many times and the pairing of the two swifts occurs high in the air, the timing of them being in copula would be about 0.5 min, and the pair would break up just few feet above the ground. Before the copulation was observed one to several dozen of birds were milling around in a fairly compact group and then suddenly you will see a pair come together and start the descent. The nest is built on vertical surfaces and glued to the wall with adhesive saliva. The well-known edible bird's nests in China are produced by another species of swift.
The order Apodiformes (a - without, podo - foot - without well-formed feet) includes 3 families: swifts, tree swifts, and humming birds. Their feet are designed for clinging to the vertical rock surfaces. Their feeding is confined to catching insects in the air. Unlike most birds their humerus is very short and proportionally very long radius and ulna. this group of birds can be separated easily in flight from swallows, in which the ulna and the forewing are almost of the equal length, providing what you might call a "graceful flight pattern" with wings folding and opening, contrasted with the rigid beating-like motion of the swifts that is similar to the movement of humming bird wings.

-ology chart - part I Zoology

We would start with Zoological disciplines. Logos - study, discourse from Greek.



To be continued...

Mustards at their breadth

Mustard family is among 7-8 most important families to human beings. One species dominates in the diversity of food cultures - Brassica oleracea, and this is represented by cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, collard greens, Crops of the genus Brassica are often referred to as Cole crops.

Although there are native mustards in South-West United States, nearly all that you will see in urban areas are introduced species. They are represented by approximately 7 genera: Sisymbrium (5 species), Brassica (6 species), Raphanus (~ 1 species), Cardamine (1 species), Eruca (1 species), Capsella (1 species), and Hirschfeldia (1 species). Close to the littoral zone there could be found Cakile (2 species).
In most flowering plants the first thing you look at to identify them is the flower. While in mustards the flowers are very similar and not particularly useful in identification. Flowers are defined in this way: 4 sepals, 4 petals and 6 stamens, 2 of which are shorter than others. They are dominantly annuals and the perennials are not woody. I only know of 1 exception to that - Lepidium fremontii that is a desert plant. The most useful structure for identification is the fruit.
To be continued...

Attention!!! 3 little words.

There are 3 errors in common speech that have been bugging me for many years. I would like to share them with you.
1. Poin-set-a - wrong! That word contains 3 syllables, but there should be 4 syllables instead: Poin-set-ti-a - correct. This famous Christmas flower is known the world over, and is in the spurge family - Euphorbiaceae. Incidentally this family includes a large diverse number of pants throughout the world: specifically tapioca (genus Manihot), castorbean (Ricinus communis), and many prostrate small weeds in your garden with milky sap.
2. Yam - commonly refers to a sweet potato - wrong! The true yam is tropical vine that produces small starchy tubers that are not known to reach the US market. The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) has traditionally been referred to as a yam in parts of the United States and Canada, but it is not a part of Yam family - Dioscoriaceae.
3. Night Blooming Jas-mine - wrong! What should be said is night-blooming jes-sa-mine - the night shade (family Solanaceae). While Jasmine is in the Olive family and is not related to the above.

Topsy turvy leaves

Topsy turvy or resupinate structures are more common in the plant world that is generally perceived. Adjective resupinate is used in biology to describe inverted or seemingly upside down structures, as flowers of most orchids. There are a few people who are sufficiently meticulous to pick up subtle anomalies of plant anatomy, so they remain unnoticed. Here I have some of these to share with you, such as: resupinate leaves of various species of the South American family Alstromeriacea, Allium triquetrum, Arctotheca caledula. The rationale for this inversion is inexplicable as far as I know. Although for Arctotheca it is obvious that dense light hairs on the lower surface of the leaves will reflect heat and the fragile green upper surface then is turned downward. This movement is starting with the lobes of the leaves bending inward, and in many cases nearly the entire leaf will turn over (See the picture below).

This happens in conditions of high heat and droughts.
In Allium triquetrum the upper position of midrib caught my attention, and after careful examining we learned that leaves are resupinate (see the picture below).

As well as Allium triquetrum representatives of the family Alstromeriacea have naturally resupinate leaves (Follow the video below).

New taxonimic position of redwood

Redwoods (genus Sequoia and genus Sequoiadendron) have been until recently covered under the family Taxodiaceae. This family included the famous bald cypress Taxodium distichum of the Mississippi basin as well as Mexican species Taxodium mucronatum.In ornamental plantings in Southern California of the genus Taxodium the species seems to be only T. mucrontum. Recent research resulted in merge between families Taxodiaceae and Cupressaceae, thus 9 genera from the family Taxodiaceae were included in Cupressaceae.
To be continued...

Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) in women.

A common malady in men of older age is prostate cancer. Nowadays a lot of attention is given to the monitoring and treating of this condition in men around the age 40. One of the biochemical markers for this condition - Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) can be detected in the blood serum. This form of cancer is known to be less life threatening than other forms. In early detection treatment can be accomplished through the radiation therapy. Before it was thought that PSA is exclusively produced by prostate gland (that's how this biochemical marker has got its name). I have learned that there are false positive results that reveal no cancer in the prostate. The thought passed through my mind if this biochemical marker could be find in women, so I googled "PSA in women". And to my surprise a lot of research was done on that matter and PSA is found in many female tissues. In 1999 in Journal of Louisiana State Medical Society a detailed research was published: "It was believed that PSA was produced exclusively by the epithelial cells of the prostate gland, but a large body of evidence demonstrates that PSA is not a prostate-specific molecule. PSA has been shown to be expressed in many forms of female tissues. The breast is a major female organ able to produce PSA. PSA is detected in both normal and abnormal breast tissues, as well as in various breast fluids including milk, nipple aspirate, and cyst fluid. Androgens and progesterones, via their receptors, regulate the production of PSA in breast tissue. Clinical studies demonstrate that PSA in breast cancer is associated with the expression of estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor. Women with PSA-positive breast cancer have better disease-free survival as well as overall survival than those with PSA-negative breast cancer. PSA levels in nipple aspirate fluid may be indicative of breast cancer risk. High concentrations of PSA are found in amniotic fluid and the levels change with gestational age. Pregnant women have elevated serum PSA. PSA levels in serum also vary during menstrual cycles and increase in women with excess androgen." (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10234897).
Since women do not have a prostate gland there may be a need to change the name of this biochemical marker.

Irrevocable Annuality

With the early autumn rains bare patches in older deteriorating lawns frequently are filled in with annual bluegrass - Poa annua. It is paler green than most of other grasses, and by mid-spring it is mostly dead and turning straw colour. Thus, its annuality is irrevocable in spite of Loving Tender Care (LTC) bestowed on it. It may interfere with other grasses coming up. During close observation one can often notice a number of minute foldings near the base of the leaf blade. For your information Poa pratensis s a well-known Kentucky bluegrass. Poa is a very large genus with about 500 species worldwide.

Discourse about House Finches

Old time birders like me will remember this bird known as linnet. It didn't take long for the AOU (American Ornithologists Union) to become aware that one can not use one name for two different organisms in the same language. In Europe, especially in England, there is a similar and related bird called linnet. So, our bird had to be given a new name. Since this bird frequently nests in and about houses on crannies and vines the Committee chose House Finch for its name.
Going back to the early years of taxonomy a German Zoologist Phillipp Ludwig Statius Muller has described and given the Latin name to this bird: Carpodacus mexicanus, in 1776, and this name is translated into English as: Mexican fruit-biter or Mexican fruit-pest (carp from Greek meaning a fruit, and dakos also from Greek - noxious animal, from daknien - to bite). The House Finch is a bird of Western North America, but it has been migrating eastward and it is rapidly becoming more common in New England, and there it is often considered to be a nice little song bird, because it is not numerous. The California Department of Food and Agriculture in 1974 has reported that the total damage of all bird species to commercial crops in California was $12.75 million, and there is no doubt that significant part of this damage was because of House Finch.
There is a lot more what I would like to include in this post, however the wikipedia article on House Finches is very complete, and I support its accuracy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Finch

Hyperglycemia in cedar waxwings

Many active birders have noted that cedar waxwings had been found on a ground in a temporary torpor after eating Pyracantha berries, which are high in sugar. It is generally has been referred to as to be drunk from alcohol in the fermenting berries of overripe Pyracantha. This is untrue. The fruit is internally aseptic, and yeast that is responsible for fermentation process will not develop in lack of moisture. Hyperglycemia has been noted in various animals, even people can get dizzy and fade with too much sugar. A possible explanation concerning the waxwings is that their normal diet during nesting and rearing young depends on insects, which are high in protein and low in sugar. Their nesting takes place in the northern country, where berries are not available until late in the autumn. When they arrive far south from their breeding habitat, the insects are scarce and they resort to these berries, which are common throughout much of Southern California. Pyracantha is one of the most readily available foods during this time of the year in urban regions.

Little known way of seed dispersal - regurgitation

We all know that plants develop seed dispersal mechanisms in numerous ways, such as: wind dispersal, hooks on seeds, fleshy delicious fruit, etc. (see Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_dispersal), but there is one more way that often remains unobserved, when small fleshy fruits contain seeds with hard indigestible coat are eaten by small passerine birds. The fleshy part is digested in the stomach, while the seed is not. The lower alimentary canal is that small that seeds would not pass as part of the feces, so regurgitation, following the digestion process, is the only way of their elimination. Plants that use this seed dispersal mechanism are: Pyracantha, Washingtonia palm, Lonicera (?) - honeysuckle, and probably numerous others. If anybody knows other plants, please put a note on my blog in comments section. The birds that I have observed personally with seeds falling from their mouth (that occurs when they are resting and presumably digesting their most recent meal of fruit) are: cedar waxwings, mockingbirds, and bluebirds.

A close look at an interesting sunflower: Baccharis

At first glance Baccharis does not seem to be a sunflower, because talking about sunflowers one thinks of ray flowers. But it is a member of family Asteraceae (see general information about genus Baccharis on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baccharis).
Male and female flowers are situated on different plants, and this condition is referred to as dioecious (from Greek - two households). The difference between male and female flowers is easily recognized. The mechanism of pollen dispersal within the sunflower family depends upon the elongated pistol that pushes through the anthers ring carrying the pollen to the surface (such flowers are called synantherous: 5 stamens are united by their anthers forming a ring). To facilitate the movement of pollen to the surface in male flowers of Baccharis an unusually large vestigial pistol at time of flowering elongates through the anthers ring. That's why male flowers look like female flowers carrying large pistol (the only function of which is to deliver the pollen) and confusing an untrained person. The female flowers have a comparatively minute, but functioning pistol (see the picture: male flowers on the left, female - on the right).

Another distinctive feature of Baccharis salicifolia (mule fat) is the presence of 2 lateral veins parallel with the midrib (see the picture).


Baccharis salicifolia has a conspicuous gall forming Eryophyid mite. Small galls are distributed over the leaf (see the picture below).

A second look at figs and mulberries

In our book on Flora of the Santa Ana River we gave special attention to the two very different appearing fruits, which in reality are closely related.
Here is the direct quotation (see page 186):
An amazing morphological transformation in this family (Moraceae) is the jump from the mulberry to a fig. Mulberry has a crowded bunch of flowers on a single short stem, each flower producing a single drupelet, a single seed with a hard coat surrounded by fleshy tissue, which in the aggregate fruit is the mulberry. (During the evolution drupelet has appeared as a way to disperse the seed: fleshy fruit was eaten by animals, but hard coated seeds were not digested and dispersed with the feces.) Fig flowers occur on the inner surface of the synconium, which is the name for the unique form of fig fruits. One way to envision how these two relate is a s follows: imagine someone wearing a sleeveless, turtleneck sweater to which dozens of little balloons are attached all around. This represents a mulberry. When the sweater is pulled off overhead by turning it inside out, the little balloons end up inside. This represents the fig. The shirt draws inward and tightens to form a small opening as would be seen at the tip of the fig (operculum). The hole for the head becomes the stem of the fruit. Dorstenia, a tropical American plant, is an intermediate in form between mulberry and fig.