Author: Anita Westervelt
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Anita’s Blog — The Hoppers
The naming of things — humans are the only species (as far as we know) compelled to put a name to things — even the tiniest of things . . . .
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Anita’s Blog — Out of Sync
Sudden environmental changes disrupt the nature of things, but in the natural world, the beat goes on. . . .
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Anita’s Blog — It’s a What Kind of Wasp?
Who doesn’t love those shrill summer serenades when the sun goes down?
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Anita’s Blog — Moths are Important!
Extra! Extra! In honor of National Moth Week — here’s a little extra about the importance of moths and plants to consider for a Moth Garden!
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Surprises along the edge of the road
The City Nature Challenge 2021 has come and gone. More than 1,270,000 observations were uploaded to the www.iNaturalist.org database from individuals in 419 cities from 44 countries worldwide. The challenge is in its sixth year and the fourth year that the Lower Rio Grande Valley participated. This year, 146 local participants logged 7,966 observations of…
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Horridulum — what kind of name is that for a pretty plant?
Latin plant names, we’ve learned, often clue us in about the nature of a plant. See Eileen Mattei’s article, page 13, “Enough Latin Names to be a TMN,” at the December 2020 Chachalaca newsletter: https://rgvctmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Chachalaca-Winter-2020.pdf The Latin word horridulum isn’t as bad as it looks; it translates to: “somewhat rough; unadorned,” according to latin-is-simple.com. The word Cirsium derives from the Greek…