3:00 snapshot #2004: Saturday

Me and my old man.

280 days of Urbpandemonium #53

The far back corner of Contentment Cottage's yard is full of a low creeping mint that bears purple flowers and little fruits that look like testicles. The plant is ground ivy, or "creeping Charley" Glechoma hederacea* and the little ball bags are galls that protect tiny wasp larvae.

Both the plant and the wasp Liposthenes glechomae** are Old World species. The plant, like many mints, has a long history of culinary and quasi-medical uses. It grows well in shady yards that get mowed fairly infrequently, but is sometimes grown as a potted plant. Europeans brought the plant with them to New England, and the plant brought the wasp.



* "Glechoma"is a reference to Pennyroyal, a related plant, while "hederacea" implies that it is in the ivy family, a biological lie.

** I'm going out further on a limb than I usually do with this one, and that's saying something. "Liposthenes" seems to mean "fat palms (of the hands)" which has to be wrong--this wasp has fat parts, but not its hands. "Glechomae" refers to the wasp's relationship to genus Glechoma.

280 days of Urbpandemonium #54

Lamb's quarters Chenopodium album* is a very common North American weed, and a close relative of spinach and quinoa. It is prized by the foraging community as an abundant and nutrient-dense green, found in suburban yards as well as urban sidewalk cracks.

The shape of the leaf and the tiny white-green flowers help identify it, but those red dots are the dead giveaway. Those are left by the nymphs of the Chenopodium leafhopper Norvellina chenopodii,** a small attractive insect that pierces the leaf with a tiny beak, sucking the juices of lamb's quarters.

* Chenopodium album literally means "little white goose foot."

** I couldn't find any reason for the name "Norvellina." It was probably named in honor of someone named Norvell. "Chenopodii" refers to the insect's host plant.