Loaded Pistil

03/22/2024

Iris virginica, Southern Blue Flag is a native to the wet southern United States. Often spotted in mudbug ditches, bayou edges, marshy spots of cattle ranches, and those places where pinholes permit sunlight to pe*****te the deep swamps, this beautiful speciman puts the blue in bayou. Like a siren dancing gracefully in a Cajun kitchen despite having sea-legs, she is simultaneously anchored while maintaining freedom to sway with coastal winds throughout centuries. But Iris virginica is not a Louisiana Iris per se. It is part of the same Iridaceae family and is indeed a non bearded iris but is a sub clade of a sub clade if that makes since? The perennial facultative wetland beauty prefers soils with a pH of 6.0 or slightly less… not uncommon for gumbo dwellers really. Still, these voodoo hoodoos can hang in nearly any situation and put on a show in late spring. The blue to violet 6 ray flowers boast 3 outer falls with white marks and yellow crests coming off the 3 more erect blue inner standards atop a naked stem that rises from strappy lanceolate leaves possessing distinct midribs even as they bend toward the water. After the show is over, capsule fruit packed full of hard half moon shaped seeds form enduring a continuation of the tough breed. As with any alluring creature, there’s a fine line between medicinal and lethal due to roots(rhizomes), sap, and seeds containing irisin, iridin, or irisin. Pollinators are drawn to the flower signals and pheromones triggered while horses and cattle instinctively graze way around them.

03/01/2023

Join us tomorrow for The Photo Society Presents Ami Vitale. This event is free and open to the public and made possible with the support of our friends at Competitive Cameras. Please feel free to share the link tinyurl.com/tpsami

Photographer and filmmaker Ami Vitale has been creating unique stories that amplify the work of communities on the front lines of . She has traveled to more than 100 countries, documenting the heartbreaking realities of war to witnessing the inspiring power of individuals making a difference. Her award-winning work illuminates the unsung heroes and communities working to protect wildlife and finding harmony in our natural world.

Ami is the 2022 Conservation International Innovators Fellow. In 2022, she was awarded with prestigious prizes from both the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service and the Lucie Humanitarian Award. Instyle magazine named Ami one of fifty Badass Women, a series celebrating women who show up, speak up and get things done. Ami has been named Magazine photographer of the year in the International Photographer of the Year prize, received the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting and is a six-time recipient of World Press Photos.

Ami is also the founder and Executive Director of the women-led non-profit Vital Impacts, which supports humanitarian and conservation efforts around the world.

The talk will be followed with a Question-and-Answer session moderated by TPS Communications Director Alex Snyder. 

This event is free and open to the public. It is made possible with the support of our friends at Competitive Cameras. Please feel free to share the link.

03/01/2023

Beginning in 2020, CPC began monitoring grassland bird populations on a restored prairie. Join expert birder John Berner for an informative talk on the team's findings and ongoing work with CPC, including ways you can get involved!

Friday, March 10th from 12:00 to 1:15 PM via Zoom. Register for FREE at https://www.coastalprairieconservancy.org/cpc-events/tcpi-lunch-and-learn-conservation-easements-101-m2jfg.

01/30/2023

01/30/2023

COMMON FIG, Ficus carica:
Along Galveston Bay, is a small community known for fishing and drinking. But between World Wars, this salty fish bowl we call San Leon was known for its citrus and FIG production. Remnants of history are scattered along shorelines where Magnolia, aka Brunswick or Madonna figs, stand like relics of shipwrecks facing sea spray and the occasional drunkard’s p**s still producing one, sometimes two viable crops per year. These silver barked delicacies are one out of numerous varieties referred to as 'Common Figs'. It was grown commercially along the Gulf coast mostly for preserving - a good post harvest destination for the 'fruit' (not really a 'fruit' by definition, figs are actually inflorescences - but we'll stick with calling it fruit and not go on some botanical nerdy tangent). It did well in the subtropical environment minus being prone to splitting and souring. Better to harvest just before it reaches full maturity and preserve than to leave them on the tree and increase risk of souring. It's a tricky dance considering figs have to be pretty damn close to fully ripened before picked!
There are four main types of figs: Common, Caprifig (or 'male' figs), Smyrna, and San Pedro. Common figs don't require pollination (this is what it means to say it develops parthenocarpically). Caprifigs are not edible but provide pollen to the Blastophaga wasp 'who' delivers that pollen to Smyrna and San Pedro trees requiring fertilization. Regardless of what type of fig we’re talking about, the history is rich dating back 11,000 years when they were first cultivated in South Central Asia. From there to the Mediterranean to Rome and Greece and Spain, the fig was a hit! The Spanish brought the fig to Texas and other American states. Padres grew them at their Missions and others started fig orchards from cuttings of those trees deemed the ‘Mission fig’. Most figs grown in the South can be traced back to the missions. Like the Lone Star Coast line, the delicious ‘fruit’ is a mixed bag of strength and mmmm, sweetness that puts us right back in grandmother’s kitchen spreading homemade fig preserves across our buttermilk biscuits.
Note: Loaded Pistil Host Lyndsey A. Ware has added Ficus carica to her list of plants that require more than one stop. Drawn to such perennial crops, research is underway and updates will follow.

01/28/2023

Regional cider identity is an important part of the current industry in the U.S. While yours truly may be a skosh biased towards the Northeast, is indeed an integral part of the U.S. cider revival!

To learn more see linktree in our bio our follow this link: https://www.ciderdays.org/about-cider-days

01/20/2023

11/14/2022

BALD CYPRESS, Taxodium distichum:
While Loaded Pistil’s ‘host’ is knee deep in researching Texas grown apples, a 70ish year old Bald Cypress keeps her company.

Southern grandparents may have called them Swamp Cypress, Gulf Cypress, or Southern Cypress. Regardless of what they were called, these deciduous conifers live to be 600 on average. Some double that lifetime given the right conditions and can reach 120 feet.

They’re unique among conifers with sphere shaped cones and annual shedding of needles. Often first to lose leaves in fall and last to bud in spring, stands are established by both seeds and sprouts with a good seed production happening about every three years. The cones hold anywhere from two to 34 seeds each. Seeds are dispersed more often by flood waters and best germination takes place in wet-muck than well drained soils.

One could wax poetic about every part of this tree that rises from swamps all along the Gulf Coast… the tapered & buttressed trunk, the horizontal roots stretching far out like tentacles from the tap root, the odd shaped ‘cones’, the winter nakedness, the blood red resin, the quintessential elegance that binds generations- Spanish moss strung about their branches in gardens of ‘good and evil’ where herons nest and hurricanes leave their marks. But perhaps most enchanting of all are the ‘knees’ protruding from the horizontal roots-a source of contingency among those who insist on keeping neatly mowed flat lawns, an enigma among plant scientists!!

Most have adopted the theory that the ‘knees’ are pneumatophores. These specialized roots are common for woody plants inundated with water. But the knees of our beloved Swamp Cypress don’t fit that bill physiologically -no lenticels to allow gas exchange, no aerenchyma to transport gases etc. There have been a handful of other hypotheses: ‘methane emission’… vegetative reproduction… mechanical support… nutrient acquisition… carbohydrate storage… But the function remains a mystery.
Uses include treatment of malaria and liver diseases, heart disease, gout, ulcers, bronchitis, and diarrhea.

10/16/2022

https://www.facebook.com/100078192026527/posts/168886392394427/?app=fbl

10/05/2022

Seaside Goldenrod, Solidago sempervirens

There are more than 120 species of goldenrod in the world. A hundred of them are native to the United States and Canada. Coined ‘Solidago’ by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 ‘Species Plantarum’, the genus helped drive the acceptance of binomial nomenclature that shortened some long-ass plant names used prior. Solidago comes from the Greek word ‘solido’. It means ‘to make whole’. Fitting. Goldenrod is known to remedy inflammation of the mouth and throat when used as a rinse. It has been used to treat tuberculosis, asthma, internal bleeding, enlarged liver, gout, arthritis, diabetes, and hemorrhoids.
Seaside Goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens) cast golden sunlit hues throughout most places east of the Mississippi River from Canada down to Florida and west into Texas. The perennial Asteraceae member blooms from August through October tantalizing the human eye with dense cluster spikes of yellow flowers larger than those of other goldenrod species. In winter the somewhat succulent green lance shaped leaves whiten then turn a red that's low lit by deep dark fucshia in February.
The salt, wind, and drought tolerant species is stunning in all seasons, serves as a food source to birds and butterflies (RECENTLY ENDANGERED MIGRATING MONARCHS rely primarily on them in fall), and basically an old fashioned ‘cure all’ of sorts. It’s NOT the cause of allergies. Ragweed is owed that blame. It’s also an important resource to overwintering, gall-producing insects. Predatory wasps beneficial to have near crops as a biological control are examples of gall-producing insects. (Natural predators are foot soldiers for small farmers!)

Other interesting tidbits on Seaside goldenrod:
- It’s a ‘short day plant’. This means it needs a good amount of uninterrupted dark periods to trigger blooming. Thus the bloom stages coincide with the time of year when the sun begins to set a bit earlier (shorter photoperiods).
- Supposedly, Thomas Edison experimented with the latex of the species in an effort to produce natural rubber.
- There’s an ongoing ‘debate’ among experts in the south (Florida to Texas) over whether or not the Solidago sempervirens found here is actually a different species or a variety of this single species. So some refer to it as Solidago mexicana. Others call it Solidago sempervirens var. mexicana.

10/02/2022

Commonly known as ‘Seaside Goldenrod’, Solidago sempervirens is a fascinating species found along shorelines facing salt spray, high winds and drought with poise.
Stay tuned to Loaded Pistil for more on Seaside Goldenrod. In the meantime, don't blame this beauty for your sneezes. That credit goes to Ragweed. It doesn't 'let loose' of its pollen to the slightest breeze and cannot be inadvertently inhaled like the pollen of Ragweed. Contrary to the 'word on the street', it does not contribute to days riddled with allergies. To be cont...

09/20/2022

SEA OX-EYE DAISY, (Borrichia frutescens)
From 'The Halophyte Club'
As a readily recognizable seaside flower, it makes sense to kick off the ‘Halophyte Club Series’ with the Sea Ox-eye daisy. This charming member of the asteraceae family grows up to 3' tall and can be found on coastal wetlands and prairies streching from Maryland to Texas and Mexico. Large colonies emerge from sandy soils, brackish bayou borders, crumbling asphalt, and Rip Rap up and down the Gulf Coast shoreline. Each conspicuous ray & disk flower atop silvery green stems blooms during July and August. Once mature, the 15-30 lighter-yellow ray florets drop off and the orangier-yellow central disc flowers become dark brown hardened versions of their younger selves. Sharpness acts as protection from predators while those tiny needles transform into indehiscent single seeded fruits. These fruits are sometimes referred to as achenes or cypsela. All accurately describe the tough-as-nails fruit. Although bitter to the taste, the leaves of this salt loving species can be eaten raw or cooked. It was first documented to have medicinal use in the 1400’s when it was discovered as a remedy to whooping cough, colds, asthma, malaria, and back pain. Perhaps most interesting, considering where this perennial likes to live, an infusion of the leaves was a well known antidote for folks who had eaten poisoned fish!
This beauty is also a reliable favorite among nectar bees and butterflies. Another common name for Borrichia frutescens is Bushy Seaside Tansy.

09/13/2022

OSAGE ORANGE (Maclura pomifera):
There's a funky fruit tree native to the Red River region (Arkansas, Texas, & Oklahoma). The Osage Orange does indeed resemble an orange. But due to its unpalatable pulp and infamous rash inducing milky sap, one would have to be damn hungry to dig into the green lump. Most wildlife even bypass the fruit, seed seeking deer and squirrels being the occasional exception. The 200-300 seeds within are more edible. I've heard the toasted seeds can be quite tasty and contain antioxidants.
The thorny barked tree was more widely known for it's use as natural fencing that heightened its popularity in the past. This resulted in an increased population across North America. Rumor has it that barbed wire was modeled after the relict species. Among the slew of nicknames, 'Bow-wood' takes you back in time to when the Osage used the wood to make bows and arrows. Nowadays Osage Orange trees are somewhat rare. Modern fencing material took its spotlight and people perceive it to be less than useful. Perhaps its pesticidal properties could turn things around for this prehistoric species? The fruit contains tetrahydroxystillbene compounds known to repel ants, fleas, and cockroaches! Credit to my dad, Mike Sherley who spotted these trees while dove hunting in the Texas Hill Country. He has a knack for spotting such things and a curiosity about nature that has long inspired me. Stay tuned for more on the Osage orange and other plant species! ....

08/29/2022