Botany, Travel, and Art, Oh My!
A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston, Illustrated by Silvia Long and geared toward children aged 5-8, or Kindergarten reading level. This book is designated as children’s non-fiction. This book goes through different types of seeds and gives examples of each. Unlike some children’s books the illustrations are photo-realistic botanical watercolor paintings.
The book is described as a mix of The Hunger Games and The Handmaid's Tale, but with bees and while I've not read either, from what I have heard and seen that would be accurate. The story itself was engaging and well written. However, while it is well written and engaging, describing insect society in a manner that you would a human society gets rather grim, incredibly fast.
Today, we’re talking about the only plant to currently have “rainbow” in its scientific designation: The Arctostaphylos rainbowensis, or Rainbow Manzanita. This dicot shrub is native and endemic to California (4,5), existing exclusively in the far southern portion of the state, specifically between northern San Diego to southern Riverside counties.
In honor of today being Earth Day, I thought I would share some of my earliest memories of ecology and the need for ecoactivism. Some of you might remember the 1992 film, Fern Gully; some of you likely weren't yet born. I didn't know there was a sub-header for it until I was looking up information again, but it's "The Last Rainforest."
