Literature and Plantlife

I've always loved legends because they explain the world around us in exciting and thought-provoking ways. Recently, hiking in Rock Canyon, I saw a lot of my favorite Utah wildflower, the Indian paintbrush (genus Castilleja, Figwort Family), and was reminded of a children's book by Tomie dePaola called "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush."

According to Native American legend, there once was a young boy who loved to paint.
dePaola's story begins with him...
"Many years ago, when the People traveled the Plains and lived in a circle of teepees, there was a boy who was smaller than the rest of the children in the tribe."
"The boy, who was called Little Gopher, was not without a gift of his own. From an early age, he made toy warriors from scraps of leather and pieces of wood and he loved to decorate smooth stones with the red juices from berries he found in the hills."
"When Little Gopher was older, a Dream-Vision came to him"
"A young Indian maiden and an old grandfather carrying a brush made of fine animal hairs and pots of paints"
"The grandfather spoke: 'My son, these are the tools by which you shall become great among your People. You will paint pictures of the deeds of the warriors and the visions of the shaman, and the People shall see them and remember them forever.'
"The maiden unrolled a pure white buckskin and placed it on the ground. 'Find a buckskin as white as this,' she told him. 'Keep it and one day you will paint a picture that is as pure as the colors in the evening sky.'"
The next day, he began his duties as record-keeper for his People.
He painted the sunset many times, but reserved the pure white buckskin he had found for that special moment when he would paint the evening sky.
"One night as he lay awake, he heard a voice calling to him. 'Because you have been faithful to the People and true to your gift, your shall find the colors your are seeking. Tomorrow take the white buckskin and go to the place where you watch the sun in the evening. There on the ground you will find what you need.'"
"The next evening as the sun began to go down, Little Gopher put aside his brushes and went to the top of the hill as the colors of the sunset spread across the sky."
"And there, on the ground all around him, were brushes filled with paint, each one a color of the sunset. Little Gopher began to paint quickly and surely, using one brush, then another."
"And as the colors in the sky began to fade, Little Gopher gazed at the white buckskin and he was happy. He had found the colors of the sunset. He carried his painting down to the circle of the People, leaving the brushes on the hillside."
"And the next day, when the People awoke, the hill was ablaze with color, for the brushes had taken root in the earth. And every spring from that time, the hills and meadows burst into bloom."
"And every spring, the People danced and sang the praises of Little Gopher who had painted for the People. And the People no longer called him Little Gopher, but He-Who-Brought-the-Sunset-to-the-Earth."

Something I wrote earlier this year to start it off.

Spring always brings surprises. My favorite surprise this year was found in every riparian area I wandered through. Every willow I saw seemed to have a different type of flower. Some had the familiar soft pussy willows, others had spiky, bright-green catkins, and perhaps the most confusing of all, a few appeared to have cones. This is my attempt to make sense of all the surprises willows brought me this year.

Willows are part of the family Salicaceae, genus Salix. (If I ever have a cat, which is not likely, I think I'll name it Salix.) They generally grow in wet areas and have flexible, thin branches and narrow leaves. Some species are shrub like while others can grow into larger trees. Reproduction in willows is the main point of interest here. Willows have male plants and female plants, in scientific words, they are dioecious.

The flowers of the male plants have catkins, long narrow clusters of flowers that have no petals. When these catkins first emerge, all you can see are the silvery hairs that come with each flower, or carpel. The silvery hairs are like a fur coat for the developing flowers, they allow heat in when the sun is shining and then protect the delicate flowers when it gets cold at night by trapping warmth inside. As the flowers develop, they emerge as little stamens full of yellow pollen to be distributed by insects attracted by strongly scented nectar in a gland at the base of the stamen. There are no showy flowers to attract insects but they are not needed in early spring when the market for nectar is hot.
The female flowers are also catkins, they have a a flat nectar gland and an ovary on the base of each scale that makes up the catkin. When the ovules are fertilized, seeds begin to grow and the catkin swells. When the seed capsules in the catkin burst, tiny seeds with fuzzy white hairs are released to bring us more willows next year.

At this point you may be wondering what those cones I mentioned had to do with anything. The answer is nothing. The cones are not really cones at all but galls formed when a tiny insect takes up residence at the end of a growing stem forcing the leaves that want to grow to become scales surrounding is very fortified home.

Point of clarification: There is a species of willow called the pussy willow, but the term usually applies to the furry catkins on any species willow.

References:
http://www.naturenorth.com/spring/flora/pwillow/Fpwillw1.html
http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/MES/notes/entonotes2.html

Hi. My name is Abby and I sometimes feel stupid...

The inspiration for this blog happened several months ago while eating dinner with some friends. The conversation meandered from favorite philosophers to music theory to politics to food science. I did not feel able to contribute meaningfully to many of the topics and looking around, I realized there were others who felt the same way. That launched a side conversation about the incredibly large number of topics that I am pretty much ignorant of and possible strategies for overcoming my ignorance.
My vision for this blog is a space dedicated to overcoming ignorance. I intend to occasionally post about topics that have piqued my interest. I will probably not address things that I am already knowledgeable about, but rather ideas that I would like to know more about and have researched just enough to write about. I would love to have others post to this blog as well, thereby expanding the number of topics addressed and helping me to further overcome my ignorance.
Thank you for your support and please join me in this experiment in overcoming ignorance.