Podcast Episodes

Borderlands Mulberry

I walk by a native mulberry every day when I go to my office, the Books and Bones Retreat. I planted that Morus microphylla years ago and actually grew it from seed we had collected. That may be the …

Published on 9 hours ago

America's Onion

The genus Allium has had quite a taxonomic journey and is at this time (stay tuned!) in the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae, where it had once been, so welcome back Allium. There are over 400 specie…

Published on 6 days, 16 hours ago

Lunch in an Open Shady Forest

I like this paragraph from The Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness: “Psacalium decompositum is a distinctive plant that apparently reaches its most northern distribution here in New Mexico and Ari…

Published on 1 week, 6 days ago

Flora, Fauna, Friends and Butterfly Weed

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) makes up for its lack of milky sap with the copious amount of nectar found in the flowers. Stand back and let the pollinators in! The photos are mine of the “clust…

Published on 2 weeks, 6 days ago

Shrine for the Desert Box Turtle

The better common name for Terrapene ornata luteola is the ornate box turtle. The name desert box turtle is old like me….not Miocene old…maybe early Holocene. Hey, I recently read some nice essays ab…

Published on 3 weeks, 4 days ago

Fallugia in a Book

Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa) is common around our little homestead and beyond. There are even thickets of it all along the banks of the Ol’ Guajolote. It tends to spread by roots to create those …

Published on 1 month ago

Mountain Nine Bark

I meant to talk a little more about the leaves of Physocarpus monogynus. I did say that they resemble the leaves of a currant or a raspberry…they have a toothy or crenate margin, but not only are the…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

A Petey Reminiscence

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Sonoran Desert Milipede

This poem was originally written as part of the 2012 poetic inventory of the Saguaro National Monument East. Writers, poets and at least one radio personality drew a species name from a hat and were …

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Snoozing Squash Bees

Squash bees are out early in the morning and moving pollen around well before honey bees even arrive. Research done by the Department of Agriculture found that squash bees “are largely responsible fo…

Published on 2 months ago