CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt

Central Mexico Recap Episode Ad-Free

This episode sponsored by Fiberpad, where you can glue duct-taped wheatgrass and fiberglass to your face in order to clear up any blemishes nice. What can limestone do for you and how does it form?

A long, winding rant through the mountains of Queretero about habitats and species encountered at elevations between 6,000' and 10,000' including:

Karwinskia humboldtiana (Rhamnaceae)

Baccharis conferta (Asteraceae)

Penstemon campanulatus (Plantaginaceae)

 Ariocar...

Rattlesnake Conservation in Mexico City

Rockwalls are for Lovers

Some recent Mexico photos

Some recent photos and only a fraction of the ones I've taken during a brief stint recording in Mexico the last few days. I was invited to join some friends on a trip they had already planned.

The giant cacti are Isolatocereus durmortieri, at an elevation of 5'000 feet.

The mountain scenes and the Pinguicula moranensis were at an elevation of roughly 10,000'

Chicago Cicada Bonanza

Thornscrub Destruction for Cattle Grazing

Gunnera is just so goddamned Weird...

For those of you unfamiliar with this long lonely branch on the Angiosperm family tree, take a look at these photos. AFterwards, go find Gunnera on the angiosperm phylogeny poster at www.plantgateway.com/poster  

This is a genus I fell in love with years ago after being exposed to Gunnera tinctoria at UC Berkeley, which hosts colonies of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria in its stems and can produce leaves...

A New Species of Asteraceae in West Texas

A Yucca and Moth Love Affair

Desert Landscaping with Native Plants...Professional Jahb

Fake Redwood Forests of New Zealand

....and Geothermal Mushrooms

Carnivorous Plants Unedited Video (Patreon-Only)

Hey All,

I've been super short on time lately, as usual since I'm always burning the candle of both ends, but this was such a great operation to visit that I wanted to share it immediately since it will still be a few weeks before I can get around to editing it. The work that Drew and all his employees are doing at Carnivero Nursery is incredible. This goes far beyond just corny collector stuff into the realm of education regarding evolution, natural selection, and ecology. This ...

Limestone Sinkhole Botany

Part Two of the Edwards Plateau Series sees Salvia roemeriana and a cool limestone ridge above a limestone pour off that drains to the Pedernales River (and the aquifer beneath, as well).

Monster Cacti in a Geriatric RV Park

Montezuma Cypress in Central Texas

Death Valley Botany Podcast with Matt Berger

In this episode we talk about limestone endemic plants, death valley ecology, a newly discoc species of Asteraceae, desert shrimp, cool bugs and more with botanist Matt Berger.

Edwards Plateau and Austin Photos

Some photos from the last few days

In other news, we are putting a down payment on over 100 acres of Thornscrub Habitat on Tuesday. We should be full owners (with a mortgage, but whatever) within three weeks. Thanks everyone who donated for making this possible.

Peyote Pollination

Thornscrub Sanctuary

Prairie Demolition in Texas

The Other 99% of the Tree of Life Episode Ad-Free

Thornscrub Sanctuary Update

Well, we've looked at three properties so far. The first one, and the initial one I originally did the video about ended up being way too much money. The landowner wanted 7500 an acre for it, and I just couldn't justify it with the amount of buffel that needed to be removed (half the parcel had been root-plowed twenty years prior) and the proximity to a road. The second parcel was owned by 3 squabbling sibblings who had inherited the property from their parents and were also asking way too mu...

Collecting Prunus texana seed

Total Eclipse Plant Walk

Convergent Leaf Traits in Minas Gerais Brazil

In this episode we make a trek to see the recently-described xerophytic bromeliad Encholirium agavoides in the mountains of Minas Gerais, Brazil but get distracted by the evolutionarily-convergent leaf morphology exemplified by all these incredible goddamn plants. Plants take on otherworldly forms on the nutrient-poor, ancient metamorphosed sandstone in this unique habitat, many of them possessing sessile leaves that clasp the stem and overlap each other like snake scales or roofing shingles,...

Podcast #188 Ad-Free

Rants about riding trains in Mexico, trying to settle cactus beef between different friends, neighbors of killed lawns coming over to the right side, AA sponsors, good wisdom & samurai swords, etc

The Texas Almond and Associated Rants

Baja Fungus Jaunt

In this episode we check out the fungi growing in the Southern End of the Southern California Floristic Province as well as the odd breeding system of Lemonade Berry, Rhus integrifolia.

Sandsheet Endemics

Filmed over a year ago but finally stitched together and edited. Better late than never.