Somerville Biodiversity Walk

Yesterday's walk was fun. The focus of the organizers was invasive plants--a topic I'm honestly a little weary of. But I did learn some new things, even though it's material I deal with almost daily at work. It was good to be with people whose main obsession was plants, and knew what they were talking about. Of the many weeds in the city, only a handful are considered invasives. Garlic Mustard, Black Swallowort, Japanese Knotweed, and of course my favorite urban tree Ailanthus altissima were the most reviled invasives. That leaves both kinds of plantain, dandelion, pineapple weed, burdock, lamb's quarters and the many other familiar sidewalk-splitters safe. The walk leader had a strange hatred for poke--apparently it's contains carcinogenic agents (then don't mess with it, thinks I).

The most useful information for me was the identity of that tall indistinct very common weed (heart leaf aser) and the really tall one (evening primrose). We also found two specimens of a non-weed amongst the weeds: forget-me-not.

People suggest this all the time at my work (we don't do it)

Zookeepers feed surplus zoo animals to their families

( If they paid us more we wouldn't think so seriously about it... )

Mini review of "Deep Blue Sea"

( I liked it--but then I like most movies with animals eating people. )