CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt

Information on how and where to watch KYL Season 2

click this link and download them all before it gets taken down...

Thanks to D for uploading these. This link contains the entirety of Season 2. As many of you know, the show that Al and I made is nearly impossible to watch because EarthX (the failed tv network) sold it to cable...a show with a built-in audience and they sold it to cable. The only other way besides this link to watch it is to sign up for a "free" trial at a handful of no-name streaming services or to get a room ...

Grasses Get Me Hot - A Day at Kissimmee Prairie

The Andropogon diversity is outta control in this episode on Kissimmee Prairie in Central Florida. We also see the pine lily, Lilium catesbaei, blooming it's incredible blooms in the middle of this hot, fire-dependent sand prairie. Later, we ponder why the hell so many plants from central and south Florida seem to converge on the "spiriform habit" and if nutrient-poor soil has anything to do with it.

Bristol Mountains Buckwheat Crawl

in this video we start off at lower elevations in the Mojave Desert, scoping out smoke bush (Psorothamnus spinosus) then slowly ascend past the 80,000 year old Amboy Crater stopping to check out some halophytes along the way. The video ends at the junction of limestone and igneous rock, where a buckwheat species+genus Eriogonum) grows that is new to science and still lacks a formal scientific name since it haant been described yet. A lot of rare plants and some epic scenery are covered in thi...

Reed Booth, the Killer Bee Guy

Reed Booth and his assistant Hosh are killer bee removal specialists based out of Bisbee, Arizona. In this episode we talk about the ferocity of the scutellata hybrid (aka "killer bees"), the fact that this hybrid doesn't occur in nature ANYWHERE, why most feral honeybee colonies end up being dominated or taken over by the scutellata hybrids, the reductions in native bee and plant biodiversity that the presence of both feral and domesticated honeybees results in, and why it may just...

Native Bee Diversity w/ Krystle Hickman

Krystle Hickman is a biologist, native bee researcher, and conservationist from Los Angeles, California and author of the book "The ABCs of California's Native Bees".

In this 2-hour conversation we talk about how to identify bees to genus, different groups of native bees (IE longhorn bees, cactus bees, leaf cutter bees, sweat bees, Euglossine bees, and more), specialist relationships between native bees and native plants, how native bees could be utilized to pollinate human crops simpl...

Black Forager : On Connecting with the Living World

A 2 hour conversation with Alexis Nicole Nelson aka Black Forager about connecting with the living world, ethnobotany, lawn-killing, native plants, hopefulness and humility, using native plants for fibers, and a sh*t ton more.

Paleoforaging - The Ethnobotany of Some Texas Plants w/ Cyrus Harp

Cyrus Harp is an ethnobotanist, ethnobiologist and author based out of Cetral Texas. In this episode we talk about a number of different plant species, chipping chert, using Agave & Yucca for fiber, Agarita (Berberis trifoliolata) as dye, Mescal Beans and the history of pre-European human settlement and botany in Texas.

How to Love a Forest with Ethan Tapper

Ethan Tapper is a forester, author and ecologist out of Vermont, USA. He advocates for a practice called "Ecological Forestry", as opposed to the short-term-gain/long-term-loss management style that has seemingly dominated the lumber industry for decades (centuries). He is the author of a book called "How to Love a Forest", released on Broadleaf Press in September 2024. In this conversation we talk about the Northeast Woodlands, how climate change is affecting tick populations, and how chang...

Fire-loving Florida Scrub Mint

Dicerandra modesta is the focus of this episode. it is an extremely rare and critically endangered species only known from this single site in Polk County Florida, where coincidentally there are plans to try to build another dreaded toll road.

Fire-suppression, land clearance and invasive species are the three main threats to this plant and this entire scrub community full of extremely cool Florida endemics. Volunteers are needed to help with invasive species removal. If intere...

The Florida Pain Clinic

Split Oak Forest near Orlando is on the chopping block to have a toll road built through the middle of it due to some sleaze bag developers that need a way to shuttle human cattle between the depressing cul-de-sac community they built and the airport. As a result, the entirety of this remaining crumb of habitat could one day be partially demolished despite being in a conservation easement.

in this habitat we explore some of the sand scrub communities and talk about the fire depe...

Plants As Infrastructure - Long-Form Vid

Banned from Mobot Vol. 2 - Herbarium Labels & Cheilanthoid Ferns

In this episode we return to Missouri Botanical Garden to hang out with Peter Bernhardt in the herbarium and nit-pick herbarium Labels. Then we get a brief look at a greenhouse full of horticultural atrocities, which is then remedied by a glance at some cool Euphorbia from the Horn of Africa and how to grow Cheilanthoid Ferns.

KYL LIVE @ The Hideout, CHICAGO

A live recording of the KYL show at the Hideout, September 14th, 2025.

KYL TOUR PODCAST

Rants about KILL YOUR LAWN tour in the Midwest, River Geography, Hemp Farms in Wisconsin, Prairies, Bison, upset affluent suburban ladies in St Paul, horticultural atrocities, Lincoln vs Omaha Nebraska, Feral Paht and more.

Thanks to the all the venues that put us up and thanks to everyone who came out for the shows/presentations in Milwaukee, St Paul, Omaha, Lincoln, Kansas City, Omaha, Lincoln and the Quad Cities.

The Bison, the Lead Plant, & the Fossils of the Loess Hills, Iowa

The Loess Hills are deposits of wind-blown "glacial flour" hills that line the Little Sioux and Missouri River near the Iowa/South Dakota border. In this episode we take a look at the bison herd on the Broken Kettle Grasslands, the ocean of Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) and Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), and the stands of lead plant (Amorpha canescens) that thrive on top of the ridges. This landscape is a treasure that allows us to glimpse an idea of what mu...

Chicago Lawn-Kill Follow-up

in this episode we follow up with a lawn that was originally killed in 2023, and what we find is a dense assortment of highly diverse prairie plants thriving and producing metric fck tons of seed.

The homeowner does very little maintenance (which is kind of the point), but even a small amount of trimming with some hedge clippers would make even the roughest and most turgid of squares relax at the site of "weeds" (an absolutely insane designation) and admit this yard is covered i...

Chicago Coyotes, Prairie Psychedlia, Landscape Architect Hell Podcast

Ad-free version of today's podcast episode.

Wisconsin Hemp Flower

This episode consists of a 20 minute visit to a hemp farm in Central Wisconsin.

High Elevation Oak, Hickory & Fir Forests of Northern Mexico

I did four videos on this habitat but each video highlights different species, some of which are almost impossible to find any information about online, such as Malacomeles paniculata and Abies vejarii, both of which are featured here.

Bristlecone Pines & Sedona Herbal Enemas

We combine two different episodes in one here. The first one takes us to the higher elevations of southwestern Utah in Iron County to check out Cedar Breaks National monument and the bristlecone pines. We see Physaria hitchcockii growing matted as hell on the edge of a steep cliff at 10,000' elevation. Then we expound on how Phlox condensata smells like a jasmine coconut milkshake while getting an up close view of the bark of an ancient bristlecone pine.

The last seven minutes take us ...

Salvia darcyi, in habitat

Salvia darcyi has become common and cultivation due to how easy it is to root cuttings of Salvia and to the fact that plants are self fertile, yet no photos of it exist in habitat. Imagine how stoked I was to come across growing in a remote limestone canyon of the Sierra Madre in Nuevo León at 6,000 feet (1800 meters) with pines draped in Tillandsia Hunnemania fumariifolia and Brickellia laciniata.

Also appearing in this episode are the rare Eremosis obtusa - a Vernonia relative in A...

Don't forget to access the course materials folder for downloadable material

Here's a folder full of textbooks that you should find immediately useful as well as useful for the next 10 years. If you have questions about any of the material please comment below or message me directly.

Trouble in the Food Forest

Why is there such a strong correlation between invasion biology denial, anthropocentrism, ecological illiteracy and permaculture? How can permaculture move forward while at the same time acknowledging the functionality of native plant ecosystems and why the designation of "native" is not some frivolous, arbitrary, or puritanical designation? In this 40 minute conversation between myself and Lilly Anderson-Messec we talk about what permaculture is, its focus on functionality (to humans) and wh...

Nuevo León Oak Forest Blitz

In this episode we slowly ascend to the 7,000 foot elevation Oak Forests of Nuevo Leon. Presenting abundant fungal diversity and draped in Spanish moss, these calm peaceful oak forests feel like going back in time 100 years, and the floristic diversity that they hold is almost unimaginable. Agave montana, Quercus mexicana, Tamaulipan Rock Rattlesnakes and more await us at the top, while tropical plants like Dioon edule and Decatropis bicolor greet us down below.

"Spiritual Remedies of Nuevo Leon"

In this episode (after a 30 minute societal rant) we talk about Dioon edule and cycads of the foothills of the Sierra Madre, why hemiparasitic members of the paintbrush family frequently have red leaves, Mexican Oak Diversity, Tillandsia usneoides in Oak woodlands, Calochortus marcellae, Malacomeles denticulata ecotypes, why Crotalus morulus (Tamaulipan Rock Rattlesnake) possibly one of the coolest members of the genus.

 FLORA OF NUE...

50 minute rants on Sierra Blanca

In this episode we chase a number of species, including a blue staining new species of bolete that associates with blue spruce at 9000 ft in the mountains outside of Ruidoso New Mexico. We we also see numerous cases of moth pollination as well as a flock of angry Rufus hummingbirds.

Adam Haritan from Learn Your Land (Ad-Free)

This episode is a conversation with Adam Haritan from the youtube channel Learn Your Land, which covres a diverse variety of topics related to the ecology of Eastern North American Forests - Fungi, Plants, Insects, & more. In this episode we talk about how fire suppression has caused an explosion in tick populations, along with a multitude of other factors. We also discuss medicinal mushrooms of Eastern North America, surviving stands of American Chestnuts, the importance of geology,...

Rants about Compost Sh*tting, Compensation Point, Florida Public Land Grab, & more

Today's episode consists of rants about compensation point, idiotic spelling mistakes, C3 and C4 photosynthesis, why nighttime temperatures prevent growing some plants in some areas, public land grab in Florida by sleazebag developers embedded in state government, Kill Your Lawn Tour 2025,  calcareous shale exposures of Pueblo County, Colorado.

Achlorophyllous Thieves of Desert Sky Islands

VeIn this episode we check out the Capitan Range of Lincoln County, New Mexico, documenting the flora as we ascend to an elevation of 9200' fe

In this episode we check out the Capitan Range of Lincoln County, New Mexico, documenting the flora as we ascend to an elevation of 9200' feet where we find Monotropa hypopitys and Pterospora andromedaea, two mycoheterotrophic plants that "steal" (oh, the tendency to lazily anthropomorphize!) from mycorrhizal fungi. Along the way we see plants li...

Concrete Botany Audiobook Intro

The first 20 minutes (as read by me) of my book Concrete Botany, due out for publication in April and available now for pre-order at : https://geni.us/ConcreteBotany