It was very hot in our area of Missouri in September (near Springfield)…but I still enjoyed being outside for visits to central Missouri and the initial field trip with the Master Naturalist core training class I am helping run. The Roston Native Butterfly House, local parks and my house also offered some interesting subjects to photograph!
Continuing my collection of tree leaves/twigs….
American Sycamore
Bald Cypress
Black Walnut
Downy Serviceberry
Eastern Redbud
Eastern Red Cedar
Flowering Dogwood
Hackberry
Honey Locust
Ohio Buckeye
Osage orange (note the thorn near where the leaf attaches to the twig)
Pawpaw
Persimmon
Red Mulberry
Sassafras
Short Leaf Pine
Sweet Gum
Yellow poplar (Tulip tree)
Willow
At the end of the class, it was almost dusk. We walked around until it was dark looking at tree like Bur oak, pawpaw, Osage Orange, and Black Cherry.
As I headed home, it occurred to me that maybe I should have brought my leaf press and put some of the specimens in it since they were probably headed to a compost pile!
I arrived early enough for a Native Tree Identification Workshop at the Springfield Botanical Garden to take some pictures of butterflies and thistle seed ready to float away.
The workshop was to start in a classroom and then end with seeing some trees. The classroom was set up with round tables – some with cuttings on them; I chose to sit at one of them with cuttings. The main part of the class was passing around those cutting and I took pictures of most of them!
American Elm
Red Maple
Silver Maple
Sugar Maple
Black Oak
Black Jack Oak
Chinkapin Oak
Northern Red Oak
Pin Oak
Post Oak
White Oak
The series is continued in tomorrow’s post…
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
09/22/2026 The Conversation Bangladesh has lost 900 children to measles – a warning to other countries where vaccine rates have slipped - Almost 900 people in Bangladesh are suspected to have died in a measles outbreak that began in March. Most of those affected are children. Vaccines only work if people actually receive them. The science has already done its job: measles vaccines are safe, effective, and have protected children for decades. What’s missing is trust, access, and the urgency needed to close the gap – until that changes, outbreaks like this one won’t be the last.
09/18/2026 Yale Environment 360 Microplastics in Soil a ‘Trojan Horse’ for Toxins - To protect long-term food production and soil health, policy must catch up. We urgently need standardized plastic monitoring, full manufacturer transparency, and risk assessments that evaluate through different species how microplastics interact with co-pollutants.
09/17/2026 Science Daily This popular fermented food may help flush nanoplastics from the body - A kimchi-derived bacterium can bind to nanoplastics under gut-like conditions and may help carry them out of the body. In mice, the probiotic more than doubled the amount of nanoplastics detected in feces, pointing to a surprising potential use for microbes from fermented foods.
09/16/2026 BBC Future To save scarlet macaws, scientists are rescuing chicks from their lethal parents - Scarlet macaws are an iconic but declining tropical bird…and they intentionally starve their youngest chicks. Wild fostering techniques for those rejected chicks might contribute to the faster recovery of some populations.
09/19/2026 The Prairie Ecologist A Simple Guide to Identifying Red-Tailed Hawks – A one page identification guide.
09/22/2026 NPR Abortion is on the ballot again as post-Roe policies continue to evolve – Again in Missouri - the state's Republican-dominated legislature is asking Missouri voters to overturn the abortion protections they recently supported. The conflicting measures even have the same title: Amendment 3. But while a "yes" vote in 2024 supported adding protections to the state constitution, a "no" vote in 2026 would keep them. (A citizen with a 2024 sign) covered the "YES" on her yard sign with a "NO" made from black duct tape before placing the sign back in her yard.
09/21/2026 Smithsonian Magazine An Armadillo Found in Ohio Is the Latest Surprise in the Armored Animals’ Expansion North. Where Are They Now, and What’s Driving Their Movement? - Over the past decades, scientists have tracked the armadillo’s steady northward crawl, from Texas to wider expanses of the South, Southeast and Midwest. Now, the recent discovery indicates that the mammals might soon gain a foothold in the Buckeye State. The animals moved across the Rio Grande in the mid-1800s, passing from Mexico into Texas. From there, they generally expanded north and east, reaching Louisiana by the 1920s and Kansas by the 1940s. With their strong leg muscles and long front claws, the mammals will root through soil in search of insects and create extensive burrows that can reach several feet underground. This behavior can damage gardens, agriculture, building infrastructure or golf courses. The burrows have positive effects, too. In a 2022 study in Arkansas, researchers used motion-triggered cameras to find 64 other species interacting with armadillo burrows—19 mammals, 4 reptiles, 1 amphibian and 40 birds.
09/15/2026 My Modern Met Amazing Winners of the 2026 BMC Ecology and Evolution and BMC Zoology Image Competition - The photo contest is an opportunity for people in biology to showcase their research to a broad audience. Ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and zoologists worldwide submitted work for the 2026 competition.
09/17/2026 Yale Environment 360 Why Germany Is Building an Ark for U.S. Climate Data - As researchers around the world begin work on the next U.N. climate assessment, fears are growing that the Trump administration could meddle with critical U.S. climate data. In response, scientists are preparing to transfer vast troves of that data to repositories in Germany. In a world where political upheaval is growing, storing data in one place is increasingly thought to be precarious. Assumptions that U.S. government agencies will store data long-term “are proving tenuous at best.”
09/15/2026 Archaeology Magazine Landslide Exposes Pre-Roman Burial in Eastern Italy - A landslide in central Italy has exposed a Picene burial estimated to date to the sixth century B.C. The Picenes are known to have lived near the Adriatic Sea and imported pottery, bronzes, and other goods from Greece.
Sarah J. Eddy’s Alexander and some other cats was published in 1929 with black and white photographs. Many of the pictures are dated by the clothes of people with the cats….or backgrounds. The three sample images I chose could have been taken today. Cats are photogenic! The book is available in Internet Archive and is my eBook of the week.
The author – according to her Wikipedia entry – was a artist, photographer and activist. “In 1894, Eddy wrote and illustrated a short article "A Good Use for the Camera" for The American Annual of Photography. In the article, Eddy concludes that the personal interactions she had with her photographic subjects were as rewarding as the finished images.”
In 2024, I was on the receiving end of Missouri Master Naturalist Training; this fall I am guiding the Core Training sessions…and am the primary point of contact for the 30 students. It is a very different perspective!
Each week there is a 3-hour class on Thursday evening and a 4+ hour field trip on Saturday. The first class was hectic. I was thrilled that I had enough helpers to realize that the bags of materials on the chairs was better than handing the bag to each student as they signed in. There were sign up sheets for bringing snacks for upcoming classes and some volunteer opportunities coming up fast. It was a little chaotic during and between classroom activities – but subsequent classes will benefit from what we were able to get done in those first 3 hours.
The field trip was to Rockspan Farm which I visited last May – reconnoitering for this training. I coached the Nature Journal activity for 4 groups (there were also 3 other activities: karst geology, forest ecology, and dichotomous key for trees). It is very different leading an activity rather than participating! When we started the day there was a concern about it getting too hot by the afternoon (forecast was for the mid 90s) but a breeze and plenty of water helped us through. I didn’t wander far from the gathering area for the beginning and debrief for the activity. There were new plantings of dawn redwoods, bald cypress, southern magnolia…big trees: pecan, black walnut, and hackberry to name a few.
There were a few of the trees with small arboretum signs.
I wondered what the story was behind a stump surrounded by another tree.
The sounds of the water in the river called for exploration in its direction. Several people drew frogs and dragonflies.
I noticed that the opposite bank was scoured…probably during times of heavy rain.
There were not a lot of wildflowers – but there was drama at everyone with insects very active.
The slower pace of the day and keeping to shady areas helped make the heat bearable for me …and I enjoyed just being at Rockspan!
Fall riches abound. Goldenrod is blooming – providing food for pollinating insects. I didn’t cut mine back in June, so it got very tall – fell over onto other vegetation. Trimming plants that will get too tall early enough that they will still bloom and be shorter overall is a lesson learned to be applied next year.
I’ve been watching the growth of my native plant garden during its first year – pulling weeds as quickly as possible. There were a couple of plants that I left for a little while so that they could get big enough for identification. It turns out that they are sassafras! They are ‘bird planted’ on opposite ends of the garden. They are the food plant for spicebush swallowtail caterpillars – so I am leaving them in the front yard garden. I have spice bush in the backyard so I expect to see more of these butterflies in coming years. They are not old enough to produce seeds but might be winter food for birds in coming years.
I trimmed pokeweed to keep it short and there seem to be even more fruits than usual. They will be eaten by birds – mostly songbirds and mourning doves. The dry weather since midsummer has caused some of the plants to already start dying back. I’ll cut a lot of the plants after the first frost, but they will come back from the roots next year!
The chives that I grew from seeds produced in my mother’s garden several years ago are more prolific each year. They aren’t native but they provide another texture among the violets and black raspberry…and they are edible. These are a plant that I grow for the memories associated with visits to Texas over the years.
The American Spikenard blew over in a storm, and it has been so hot since midsummer that it looks like the fruit is going to dry out very shortly after it ripens.
On the plus side – the American Beautyberry did very well this year. Its leaves are lush and the fruits is maturing. They will be food for songbirds too!
I have a few small hackberries but they don’t seem to have any fruit. Maybe they are too young. It will be great when they start to produce…more food for birds.
So much for birds and other wildlife in the fall garden…getting ready for winter.
Previous Suburban Savanna Posts:
August 2026 – Controlling too much growth
July 2026 - Water
June 2026 – Shade Garden
May 2026 – Planting Natives
April 2026 – Overview
The day before the Woodland Management Field Trip, we dove toward Jefferson City and stopped at Ha Ha Tonka State Park along the way. It was before lunch and was already a hot day. The air was very humid too. It was the first time my husband had visited; I was there last October on the way to and from a conference in Jefferson City. We started at the ruins – lucked out that there was an available opening in the closer parking area. I took different perspectives of the ruins than I did previously….noticing the way light came through openings, some deterioration in one of walls, and the undermining of the low wall around the ruins.
Of course, the vantage point from the castle is spectacular - high over the spring; you can hear the water below. There was a tree trunk that looked ‘wrinkled’ at the base that I noticed…among some stumps of other trees inside the wall around the ruins.
We hiked along the paved path and boardwalk toward the spring. I used my phone for some insects on fall wildflowers and
My bridge camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) for some ‘intimate landscapes’ and a wood-nymph.
The highlights of the walk toward the spring were birds:
A green heron looking for lunch,
A female wood duck in the water and then in the grasses along the bank,
A pileated woodpecker that we heard before we saw (and was never well positioned for a photograph),
And a blue heron that was flushed by some kayakers and landed just across the water from where I was on the path!
It was a great stop….we kept it short because of the heat and humidity but were both glad we made the visit.
After lunch we opted to make a short walk about the Columbia Audubon Nature Sanctuary before we headed to our hotel. We didn’t make the full loop because of the heat – but realized that if we lived in the area, it would be a place we would visit frequently through all 4 seasons (in the early morning rather than the afternoon in the summer/early fall)!
I started my drive at dawn and decided to think of a few Haiku…two were good reminders of moments during the 6+ hours driving from my house in Missouri to Lewisville TX.
Dark pink horizon
Driving into the morning
Dark chocolate treat
Adaptive cruising
Google navigation says
Object in road deer
I got to the memory care facility and located my dad in the activity room trying to rub him back on the chair. It eventually became apparent that he was itching and very uncomfortable….but that was after I got him back to his room and looked at his back. It had red splotches. The hospice staff had gotten zinc oxide to put on the rash and he seemed a lot more comfortable after I put some on the part that seemed to be bothering him the most.
I saw him two other times and he was uncomfortable every time I was there. There were other people that seemed to have the same itching problem. It didn’t look like bites but the facility was treating at as a mite problem for all the residents by the time I was heading home. I’m still concerned since it there might be allergic reactions to the treatment…or that it isn’t mites at all but some other issue (like a change in laundry detergent).
I hope whatever it is can be successfully treated before I go back in a month.
The stay at the hotel was odd. The Bradford Pear ree that was dead last time I was there had been cut down. That translates to less shade in the parking lot and the temperatures in the afternoons were still over 100 degrees.
The big oddity in the hotel – the same one I stay in every time I go – was that once the water in the shower got hot, there was no making it less hot…it was like all the water was coming straight from the hot water heater…and was very hot. I tried to take my shower with quick splashes rather than standing in the stream of water.
As I was leaving on the last morning I saw a small fluff of feather on the parking lot near my car…took a picture of it with a crack in the asphalt and a pine needle. It felt good to notice some small thing to appreciate when so many other things are not quite right.
Continuing my look at Life Magazines on Internet Archive….
As I looked at the issues from 1950, the Korean War was becoming more dramatic as the year progressed. The 75% reduction in pneumonia deaths between 1930 and 1950 was a stunning statistic. Advertisements from Life Savers, Howard Johnsons, American Airlines, General Motors, Christmas cards, Coca Cola and American toys captured my attention. Natural events – frozen redwing blackbirds, lots of snow in the Sierras, dust bowl in Texas, albino deer, Mauna Loa erupting, an owl nest, and Dutch Elm Disease - also were in the news. They were all part of what the publishers thought was newsworthy in 1950!
Life Magazine 1950-01-02 - Acceleration of Science
Life Magazine 1950-01-09 - Einstein
Life Magazine 1950-01-16 - Frozen Redwing blackbirds in Oklahoma
Life Magazine 1950-01-23 - Children on Will Rogers statue
Life Magazine 1950-01-30 - Natural childbirth
Life Magazine 1950-02-06 - A winter battle in snowy Sierra
Life Magazine 1950-02-13 - Pneumonia death toll dropped 75% in 20 years
Life Magazine 1950-02-20 - Disney’s Cinderella
Life Magazine 1950-02-27 - Atomic explosion (cover)
Life Magazine 1950-03-06 - St. Louis Museum shows art of the Mississippi River’s great past
Life Magazine 1950-03-13 - Fireworks in Port-au-Prince for the inauguration of the bicentennial exposition
Life Magazine 1950-03-20 - Familiar house and garden bugs
Life Magazine 1950-03-27 - Peppermint stick life savers (advertisement)
Life Magazine 1950-04-03 - Owl nest
Life Magazine 1950-04-10 - Dust Bowl Look in Texas
Life Magazine 1950-04-17 - Hopper paints the city in stark lonely moments
Life Magazine 1950-04-24 - 3 albino deer in Wisconsin
Life Magazine 1950-05-01 - Coca Cola advertisement
Life Magazine 1950-05-08 - American Airlines advertisement
Life Magazine 1950-05-15 - Edward Steichen (when he was 71) photography
Life Magazine 1950-05-22 - Sand sailing
Life Magazine 1950-05-29 - Olmec stone face
Life Magazine 1950-06-05 - Poison ivy
Life Magazine 1950-06-12 - Spring’s rain splashes away the soil
Life Magazine 1950-06-19 - Mauna Loa splits its seams
Life Magazine 1950-06-26 - Amish school children
Life Magazine 1950-07-03 - Building of the Eiffel Tower
Life Magazine 1950-07-10 - Korea – bracing climate and depressing proverbs
Life Magazine 1950-07-17 - Howard Johnson’s advertisement
Life Magazine 1950-07-24 - Marine muscle heads to Korea
Life Magazine 1950-07-31 - Yanks hit a beach in Korea
Life Magazine 1950-08-07 - Wounded GIs flown from Korean front
Life Magazine 1950-08-14 - Greatest meteor crater? (north of Quebec)
Life Magazine 1950-08-21 - General motors advertisement
Life Magazine 1950-08-28 - Present plants will handle 4 to 1 expansion (military aircraft)
Life Magazine 1950-09-04 - In Korea the supplies stack up and roll on to fighting front
Life Magazine 1950-09-11 - Life savers advertisement
Life Magazine 1950-09-18 - The Korean air war in color
Life Magazine 1950-09-25 - New chemical may halt ravages of Dutch Elm Disease
Life Magazine 1950-10-02 - Small size separates
Life Magazine 1950-10-09 - Historic church burns
Life Magazine 1950-10-16 - US is building new schools but is facing a serious shortage
Life Magazine 1950-10-23 - Photograph to raise funds for a non-profit
Life Magazine 1950-10-30 - October in the Southwest
Life Magazine 1950-11-06 - Churchill Christmas cards from Hallmark
Life Magazine 1950-11-13 - Thanksgiving (insurance advertisement)
Life Magazine 1950-11-20 - Arthur Siegel photographs
Life Magazine 1950-11-27 - Give American toys (advertisement)
Life Magazine 1950-12-04 - Christmas cards and wrapping paper (advertisement)
Life Magazine 1950-12-11 - Eva Peron
Life Magazine 1950-12-18 - Great retreat in Korea
Life Magazine 1950-12-25 - Christmas in Korea
The Roston Native Butterfly House is open until the first week in October and there are still plenty of butterflies to see: Tiger Swallowtails, Diana Fritillaries, Giant Swallowtails….and more. It has been very hot even for my morning shifts but there are still plenty of people visiting – some from out of town. It is still one of my favorite volunteer gigs.
The usual cecropia moth caterpillars are still eating and, more recently, there have been Imperial Moth caterpillars too.
There are stilt-legged flies around too – looking at ants…until they fly!
The pawpaw fruit is ripening and falling from the trees. I brought one home and ate it last week. I’m keeping the seeds damp and will plant them in my yard – not in the place where I already have 7 young trees!
I’m hoping that my upcoming shifts will be a little cooler….and will miss spending time with the butterflies and their visitors when the house closes.
September has started out very hot – days still reaching into the 90s. We haven’t gotten much rain recently either. We do have a sprinkler system which I have kept running to help the native plants that I planted early in the season become well established….with the plan to water less next year.
In the front yard….
The edging around the native plant garden is making it easier to see/pull any encroaching grass and to use the weed eater to trim just outside the stones. There are frequently mushrooms on both sides of the stones! The one yarrow in the garden is blooming and I am optimistic that enough of its seeds will land in the garden for more plants to be there next year.
The elderberries are thriving – two better than the third one but they might all survive and be the thicket in the middle of the garden.
Missouri Evening Primrose has bloomed at various times….the new plants blooming better than the larger one near the mailbox (they are in a better place than the small triangle between the box, sidewalk and driveway where the original one is planted. The Rattlesnake Master is thriving only 1 of the 3 plants has stalks still upright; they should do better next summer will some other plants around them (and some strategic staking).
In the back yard…
The shade garden is my favorite part of the yard. The 7 young pawpaws (from seed, MDC seedlings, and Ozark Soul) are doing well and some insects have found them too (note the ‘bites’ out of the leaves). There is a pokeweed growing with them….violets and iris underneath…a spicebush a little further down the hill.
I go around with my pruners cutting down small oaks and maples in the areas where I don’t mow any more.
The chives I planted from seeds collected in my mother’s garden are blooming – providing for some pollinators before the goldenrod started blooming. Those plants coming back every year prompt good memories.
The pokeweed fruit is ripening. I have cut the plants to keep them low this year and might have prompted more fruit! They do get competition from the violets under the pine.
The funnel spiders like the violets!
I have two rose bushes that came with my house. They have not fared well during the winters. I’ve trimmed out dead stems each spring and am tempted to trim the bushes back in this fall - to create the chance for a more regular shape for next year. The stems are probably from the root stock rather than the more ornamental rose that was grafted to it since the roses look mostly wild – without the layers of petals of ornamentals. Still – they have simple beauty. Sometimes I cut one for a windowsill vase even though the stems are short and they have little fragrance.
I find myself photographing spent blooms too. It is interesting how the color changes as the flowers fade. Sometimes the red deepens and other times it becomes almost pink…before they turn brown and brittle. And the petals curl into interesting shapes as well.
There have been times I have been tempted to dig out both bushes and plant some native in their place – but it won’t be this year!
I visited the Phelps Grove Park Stumpery for the first time recently. It is a 2025 addition to the park and one that will become even more interesting over time as the plants become more established and the stumps decay further.
I enjoyed the fungus that is already growing on the decaying wood.
It was a hot day, and I welcomed the big trees along part of the stumpery path….and the plants growing there.
It is appealing to have a place to leave parts of trees that have fallen in storms. The stumpery was initiated with logs and wood pieces from the April 2025 storm….and will probably be replenished or enlarged in future storms. The neighborhoods surrounding the park have a lot of large trees.
This has me thinking about some pieces of a rotting redbud trunk that my daughter had removed. Maybe I will put them in my native plant garden to form a mini-stumpery that will only be visible until the native plants fill the bed completely (probably will happen before they completely decompose).
One advantage of volunteering in the Roston Native Butterfly House is the opportunity to see caterpillars as various stages of development. Recently I was lucky that one of them was eating while there weren’t visitors in the house….so I was able to capture a short video. It was a medium sized cecropia moth caterpillar, and it appeared to only want to take little bites of the wild cherry leaf going in one direction!
The American Spikenard that I see from my office window blew over during a thunderstorm but the stem didn’t break since the leaves are still very green. If you click on the image below to see a larger view you can also see the clumps of fruit that are beginning to ripen! The small spheres turn dark purple to reddish-brown (they remind me of garnets).
I planted the small plant in fall 2023 and thought in spring 2024 that it had not survived because I mistakenly thought American Spikenard was a woody plant but dies back to the roots each winter. It was a pleasant surprise to discover it growing a few weeks after I thought it was gone! So far, it has gotten bigger each year because the roots are getting more established. It is very happy in my shade garden surrounded by violets and the occasional pokeweed which I trim back periodically. The leaves are compound and the leaflets are large.
I used my camera’s zoom to photograph the clumps of fruit without wading into the violets. Most of the fruits will go to the birds. A few I might plant in pots (in the refrigerator to scarify and then in a sunny window) … and plant them outside next spring. I wouldn’t mind having more American Spikenard in my shade garden!
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
08/24/2026 The Washington Post Leaked memo shows how U.S. aims to weaken global limits on plastic pollution – Depressing and sad for so many reasons.
08/25/2026 Inside Climate News The Biggest Carbon Polluters Are to Blame for Half of U.S. Western Water Lost to Climate Change - Dozens of states and cities across the U.S. have sued large oil and gas companies for environmental damages associated with emissions from their products. This study supports plaintiffs’ position in those cases as they seek to put a price tag on climate change for fossil fuel companies.
08/26/2028 Yale Environment 360 Access to Urban Woodlands Linked with Lower Use of Antidepressants - A study from Scotland found that living near an accessible urban woodland significantly lowered the likelihood of being prescribed antidepressants. A host of prior studies have found that living near green spaces can reduce stress, improve moods, and lower the risk of developing anxiety or depression. Some research has even found that exposure to nature can help reduce violent crime. Considering the well-documented benefits of living near green spaces, the World Health Organization recommends urban planners establish at least 1 acre of green space within 1,000 feet of every home.
08/26/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See 16 Stunning Animal Images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards - The 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London.
08/26/2026 NWF Blog U.S. Workers Deserve Protection from Extreme Heat - Comprehensive heat rules that protect all workers require shade, paid rest, and cold water along with a written heat stress prevention plan that includes science-based temperature triggers, annual training, acclimatization, retaliation protection and emergency response procedures. America’s workforce keeps our country moving—delivering mail, teaching our children, constructing new buildings, maintaining infrastructure, and more.
08/26/2026 The Conversation Tiny house villages are increasingly responding to the homeless crisis in America’s fast‑growing cities - The proliferation of tiny house villages across the U.S. is occurring at a time when many cities are attracting new residents and investment, while struggling to provide housing that remains accessible to all.
08/23/2026 Science Daily Scientists left this farm field alone. Thousands of orchids appeared - An abandoned farm field became a flourishing wildflower meadow within little more than a decade, with plant diversity doubling and thousands of orchids appearing naturally. Aside from a traditional annual hay cut, the field was largely allowed to recover without intervention. The discovery suggests that simply giving nature time to recover could be a powerful and inexpensive tool for restoring biodiversity.
08/24/2026 Smithsonian Magazine ‘Only One of Its Kind’ Jellyfish Museum Astounds Visitors with Awe-Inspiring Displays of Sea Nettles Safely Behind Glass - The Florida-based museum opened in the spring and was founded by two aquarium experts who fled the Russia-Ukraine war.
08/26/2026 Clean Technica Photovoltaic Windows Have Been Heating Water in a Bucharest Apartment for Two Years - Solar electricity produced over several hours during the day is converted directly into heat and stored as hot water for use later. There is no photovoltaic battery and no solar inverter between the photovoltaic glazing and the heating element. The PV side operates off-grid and does not inject electricity into the public grid. When solar energy is insufficient, the controller switches the same water heater to the normal AC grid after sunset so that it can reach the thermostat setpoint.
8/27/2026 Yale Environment 360 A Hard-Won Rule to Cut Chemical Plant Pollution Is Being Unraveled - For decades, regulations on emissions of hazardous chemicals such as benzene, ethylene oxide, and vinyl chloride have been weaker than restrictions on more common pollutants, such as those emitted by vehicles. Toughening requirements on six different pollutants at more than 200 petrochemical plants, it was one of a slate of regulations enacted beginning in 2024 on air toxics, each covering a specific industry, from steelmaking to tire manufacturing. Recently, the EPA has invited companies to request exemptions from hazardous pollutant regulations. Also - an online data tool created to give communities located near petrochemical plants information about their operations, including their accident history, emergency response plans, and the chemicals they handle has been removed.
Twenty more books were added to my botanical print eBook collection in August – all are available for browsing on Internet Archive. There are 14 volumes of Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft (Communications of the German Dendrological Society) published from 1893 to 1925 followed by 6 books that continue the Carnivorous Plant Newsletters; there are 4 volumes per year, so this month includes 2021 to 2022; I’ll continue browsing this periodical in September.
My list of eBotanical Prints books now totals 3,423 eBooks I’ve browsed over the years. The whole list can be accessed here.
Click on any sample image from August’s 20 books to get an enlarged version…and the title hyperlink in the list below the image mosaic to view the entire volume where there are a lot more botanical illustrations to browse.
Enjoy the August 2026 eBotanical Prints!
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1925 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1925
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1902 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1902
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1899 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1899
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1915 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1915
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1921 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1921
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1905 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1905
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1906 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1906
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1905 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1905
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1918 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1918
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1893 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1893
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1912 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1912
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1896 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1896
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1895 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1895
Mitteilungen der Deutschen dendrologischen gesellschaft 1924 * Deutsche Dendrologische Gesellschaft * sample image * 1924
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.50:no.1 (2021) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2021
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.50:no.2 (2021) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2021
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.50:no.3 (2021) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2021
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.50:no.4 (2021) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2021
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.51:no.1 (2022) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2022
Carnivorous plant newsletter v.51:no.2 (2022) * California State University, Fullerton. Arboretum * sample image * 2022
I hadn’t thought much about Rattlesnake Master being a plant for pollinators until I saw the insects on the plants! They were mostly skippers and scolia wasps. The plants look too prickly, but that doesn’t seem to deter the insects!
These are plants that were new last spring. The first bloom stalks tended to fall over because there were no other tall plants around to help support them. Now the stalks are in a clump and seem to stay upright. Next year there will be more stalks and it’s good to know that they will provide nectar for insects in the hottest part of the summer.
Rattlesnake Master is a prairie plant, and it is often planted for prairie restorations. It has certainly thrived during the first year of my native plant garden.
I didn’t stay up last Thursday night (August 27,2026) for the Lunar Eclipse – but my husband did! He shared a picture taken from our back yard the next morning.
Copyright © 2026, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from last month:
Copyright © 2026 Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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