#invasive species 101

[eggtrolls]

Invasive species of the day is: Japanese knotweed!

Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica; Japanese name is 虎杖) is a perennial, clonal plant in the knotweed/buckwheat family native to Japan, Korea, and China. Reaching a maximum height of 3-4 m (10-13 ft), it forms dense thickets of canes which are hollow like bamboo (but not related), although plants that have been cut/mowed have shorter and thinner stems that are no longer hollow - neat, eh? It was introduced from East Asia as an ornamental plant and to help stabilize streambanks. The young stems are edible as an early spring vegetable and taste a lot like rhubarb with a lemon twist so it is actually cultivated for food in some places where it is both native and invasive. Its flowers also apparently make great honey, similar to buckwheat honey.

As an invasive species, holy shit. Japanese knotweed is basically Godzilla – one forest restoration old-hat told me that it is the toughest invasive species to deal with which is why it is also called Godzilla weed. "Fast-growing" is an understatement – this plant can grow up to 30 cm (6 inches) PER DAY and it will grow in the most mediocre soils on the planet. It's also nearly impossible to remove by the roots, which can extend about 7 m (23 ft) horizontally and 3 m (10 ft) deep. That root system can survive salt, temperatures as low as -40, and will damage retaining walls; if you leave a few centimeters of root it will start to reshoot. You literally cannot kill it in any way that matters. Controlling it, for those of us without a backhoe or heavy chemical weaponry, is a matter of controlling the above-ground shoots for years to weaken and kill the entire patch, while trying futilely to do something about the roots. Be careful how you dispose of it though – in the UK, knotweed is classified as controlled waste and its disposal is regulated by law. There's a whole discussion to be had on the effects of Japanese knotweed on home mortgages in the U.K. (?) but I'll skip that.

Bonus – remember how I said it was imported to help with streambank stabilization? It's actually really bad at doing that compared to native vegetation AND it worsens water quality. Suffice to say, this guy sucks and all my friends hate him.

[diana-thyme]

Greek Gods 101: Styx

Styx is a Goddess of the River Styx and hatred. Excluding the universal offerings, some common offerings include:

Water

Symbols of Death (Skulls, Gravestones, Vultures, Etc.)

Symbols of Change and Metamorphosis (Butterflies, Phoenix, Etc.)

Coins

Underwater Gemstones (Any Gemstone Found Underwater)

Planting Flowers or Plants on by Riverbanks (Be Careful! Invasive Species Could Ruin an Ecosystem)

Depictions of Wars (Swords, Shields, Armor, Etc.)

For devotional acts, some activities that can be done for her include:

Doing Things You Hate or Don’t Like

Writing (Private) Hate Letters

Keeping Promises

Bathing

Visiting Rivers or Other Bodies of Water

Making Oaths (and Keeping Them!)

Practicing Anger Management

She is not celebrated in any Athenian holidays.

[fellstcr]

⚔️ // rain dripped down from the eaves of no. 101. although it was frigid - half-way between snow and rainfall , byleth eisner circled the perimeter of the townhouse gardens , donned in little for cover besides her own coat and a small black umbrella. eventually , rounding the corner and peering closely at the flower beds , she found what she was looking for. black tendrils of moss had snuck within the crevice of soil , and tiny pink flowers glowed eerily in the dark of the gloomy night.

byleth tore the invasive species from the ground without a second thought.

soon enough , it joined the rest of its brethren in a compost bin , where it would ROT with the rest.

after one last perimeter check , byleth entered the townhouse , careful to close the door quietly behind her. but it seemed that the her caution was largely unnecessary , for upon the couch was the very reason she had tread so carefully.

after something of a comically long pause , byleth shed her coat from her shoulders and folded it over her arm.

"... it's late . you should be sleeping."

@magiccuco / hypnum insomnum

[stationintern]

WIP Snip Saturday!

Thank you @tackytigerfic for tagging me!

This is from my Ilvermorny AU that i’m perpetually working on and daydreaming about, where I basically take the entire wizarding world and transfer it into America. Hermione is from Brooklyn, Draco is from Charleston, Harry Potter is from Atascadero, and Ron is from Kentucky etc. It’s been very fun to write so far!

On the intersection of Highways 41 and 101, nestled on the Central Coast of California, there is a town called Atascadero. You take the El Camino Real– past the car wash and the food bank– and take a left on Rosario. Take the second left after that. If you see the Episcopal church, you’ve taken the first. Go back. Go three houses down, and you’ll be at 5428 Olmeda Ave.

Don’t bother with the stairs– Petunia refused to live in an upstairs apartment, if she had to live in one at all– and find the apartment with the brass number Four. The other houses have simple black metal, but Vernon promised Petunia he’d class the place up and made sure to secure a brand new number from the hardware store one week after they’d moved. The number is rusty now, as much as Petunia tries to polish it. The black metal of their neighbors’ still gleams.

If you’d arrived a year earlier, you would have found a wall of California Privet lining the sides of the modest, faded-cream apartment building– white blooms exuding their sweet odor, leaf spots turning the once beautiful shrubbery infected and yellow.

Harry Potter always liked watching the birds that the black berries within attracted. But, he was young then– too young to understand invasive species. In the years to follow, he would come to understand the term invasive in a way that had nothing to do with birds or berries. In ways that had to do more with the soul and the mind.

The landlord ripped them out of the ground three weeks before Harry’s eleventh birthday, lamenting the excess of bird droppings.

So excited! A lot of folks i’m familiar with have already been tagged, but here’s a few I haven’t seen! @drarrycoded @teledild0nix @toxik-angel

[thequietmanno1]

TheLreads, Vigilantes ch 108, Replies Part 2

1) “Well, his body is, as he said himself, fine-tuned to this specific environment, so I fail to see where you’re going with that. Unless he forgot something pretty important and he has a limited time boosting himself like this”- Where he’s going is that Koichi’s current self exists in this hostile environment naturally, and has long since adapted to it, to the point that Nomura’s man-made enhancements can’t match up.

(Vigilantes ch 87) 2)“Interesting to know that, because that means that if we deprive McBee of oxygen, say, with a blast wave or a big fire, we can turn him into a sitting duck”- He’s aware of that weak spot, which is why he’s been biologically designed to minimise it as much as possible whilst maximising his advantages gained from a single ‘dive’ into the oxygen- less environment.

(Vigilantes ch 101)

3) “Yeah don’t worry it’s just McBee doing his McStuff. Just ignore him and he’ll get pissy and leave.”-Not this time I’m afraid. Nomura’s had enough of Koichi, so he’s sticking around to finish this fight to the bitter end one way or another.  

4) “Yeah… I don’t know… Although Koichi was fast we never saw him go that fast before, I wouldn’t say he’s exactly part of this environment, it’s more like he got thrown into it and turned out to thrive into it, becoming a truly invasive species, a super-predator that none in this biological niche can hope to surpass.”- Koichi didn’t ask to get thrown in the deep end, but it turns out there’s no better teaching method for becoming the deadliest son-of-a-bitch on the block possible. If Koichi only had some proper bloodlust in him, he’d have iced Nomura at least 5 times over by now, bio-enhancements or not.

5) “Ah, so he does have a spider-sense, I see. Well, it’s better than being able to see the future at least”- Learning how to take a blow is a combat response most of us have some kind of experience with. Koichi’s just trained that part of himself up past 11 over these long years. 6) ““combat experience” aka “getting his shit kicked in for the last three years””- It’s kinda hilarious how Tulpa O’Clock is praising Koichi for a long streak of utter failures in fighting people. Never throwing an actual attacked worked out for him, because it allowed him to hoard all that exp for this moment, and now he’s unstoppably level-grinding to counter everything Nomura throws at him.

7) “But Koichi is, of course, not a hero nor a cop, and he always let the opponent makes the first move, meaning that fight against him is trying to hit someone that trained how to counteract anything you throw at him”- I’m pretty sure Koich may have subconsciously used his Quirk a few times in a fight to deflect any serious damage coming his way, but in such a manner that neither he nor his opponents realised it at the time. Nomura pushing the edges so far here in order to kill Koichi is just making his real potential abundantly clearer to them both. 8) “He developed an immunity to it, it’s like a vaccine. Even if you do stab him, it won’t do anything, because his immunological system is that strong”- And Nomura is currently stabbing Koichi, only to find it being markedly less effective than he expected.

9) “Koichi zoned-out so hard right now he had to use his quirk to move his head out of the way

Alright, so now we found how Koichi is so powerful: weed.”- The repulsion field doesn’t just move his head slightly fast enough to avoid Nomura’s strike, it also blocks the hit itself from touching Koichi, a focused mini-shield to precisely nullify that hit to the vital area he was aiming for.

10) “I think that now it’s time for Koichi to shift into a higher gear. Way higher I must say.”- Nomura attacking so fast means there’s basically no room to breathe for Koichi which means that these repulsion fields aren’t being generated by him holding his breath to consciously use them- Koichi’s just willing the fields to where he needs them without expending his usual effort, the “other guy” having a more precise and controlled understanding of how Koichi’s ability works than he does, and can thus use it without the limits Koichi imposes on it and himself. 

(Vigilantes  ch 76)

11) “Huh. That`s… not the idea I got from his power. I mean, sure, every time he went up a wall was when he had built some considerable momentum, but… Wait, this doesn`t seem right, especially considering the fight at the Sky Egg.

He was still on a horizontal surface, but he was under the strain of moving from side to side while sticking to the ceiling, that seems like a way more taxing situation than just moving up a wall in a straight line.”- A hint that this stillisn’t his real limits, but rather the self-imposed limitation he puts on himself to remain in control of his powers. Pushing it this far lets him do it more, but it’s implied the repulsion effect could start to reach levels where Koichi struggles to safely handle it if he keeps pushing it more and more. In a bizarre way, him losing focus on his powers actually makes his powers not only stronger, but improves said control as well, as long as he lets his body do what comes naturally. (Vigilantes ch 76)

12) “Huhhhh- Was I mean, the Sky Egg? You saw how long he stayed there, while shooting at a Nomu? When did you suddenly don`t have the lung power to just move up a wall Koichi? Also, when did that even became a established point of your quirk? My memory is pretty bad, so it probably was said somewhere back then, but as far as I remember, we only had some theories that you inhaled to build power for the shots, not even for the slide and stick around.”- My impression of the ‘lung power’ thing is that it’s like Koichi’s version of a Mana bar. A subconscious habit he adopted and now uses as a restraining bolt to enable him to manage his repulsion, forcing it out whilst he holds his breath and stopping it when he runs out of oxygen, In a similar principle to swimming – strenuous exercise that is offset from going too far by running out of a necessary substance, forcing you to take a brief rest. Using this, he’s able to keep his repulsion going when he needs it without it becoming uncontrollable, and uses the breathing thing as a means of ‘hitting the breaks’ on it- all without really realising it, so he assumes the breath-holding is necessary rather than a subconscious reaction. 13) “I’m starting to think Koichi has truly left the building and something else has taken over, because this almost doesn’t look like my boy anymore”- It’s like Bruce Banner and the Hulk, with as much a corresponding power boost between them.

14) “I love that Koichi’s true power is that he doesn’t think

absolutely fitting to him as a character, he’s like an Undead + Unluck character, he negates thinking and that’s what makes him powerful”- You can’t outsmart somebody who doesn’t smart at all.

15) “okay so the weed-fulled Koichi stepped down for a while, we’re back to regular Koichi again. Completely oblivious to what the hell just happened.”- It’s just salt in the wound for Nomura, because now he’s completely aware that when Koichi out-performs him, he’s doing it  without all the effort he himself put in to achieve the same results.

16) “What the fuck are you even saying O'Clock tulpa? Isn’t this phase supposed to be “go apeshit, return to monke”? That’s the vibe I got at least when McBee became a fucking beast and started attacking with not sense of rationality

what the fuck you mean this is the first step of keikaku*?”- I guess Nomura’s body-shifting can still be applied to this new form, so presumably he can try different strategies and tactics at this new “higher gear” stage if one isn’t enough to do the job.“Well, at least for now things are going down a cool road. Especially now that McBee actually feels threatening. My god we had to turn him into the loch ness monster so he finally felt like a villain worth of the final arc. And I’m not complaining, that form looks rad, truly feels like an actual nomu out to kill everyone.”- Nomura’s human self was always a façade, so discarding that egotistic visage to showcase his real self without any such attachments automatically makes him more dangerous and threatening. @thelreads

[ontimetreelopping]

Land Clearing 101

If you have land that is overgrown with brush, weeds, and other vegetation, clearing it can be beneficial. It will allow the grass, trees and other plants to have more access to water and sunlight, allowing them to grow and thrive. It can also help with soil erosion, which is a big problem in some areas. Clearing can be done on residential or commercial property, and there are several different ways to do it. One way is to use machinery, such as bulldozers or excavators. This is typically the fastest method, but it can cause significant damage to the soil and is not ideal for sensitive areas, such as steep slopes or fragile ecosystems. Another option is to use herbicides, which are chemicals that kill the vegetation. While they are effective, they can be harmful to the environment and may affect other plants and animals. Finally, manual removal is a time-consuming but precise method that allows for more selective clearance. The best time to do land clearing is in the late fall or spring, when the plants are dormant. This will minimize the risk of poison oak and other noxious plants. It will also be easier to see where you’re working, so there is less risk of injury. Before beginning the clearing process, you should consult your local land planning agency to determine if a permit is required. If it is, you’ll need to provide specific details about the site and what you’ll be doing with it. You may also need to submit other documents or information, such as a survey or map of the site and any environmental assessments or studies. Once the clearing process is complete, the land should be inspected to ensure that there are no hazards. For example, dead limbs from trees can pose a fire hazard and are also a nuisance for passersby. They can also harbor airborne viruses that could affect the health of nearby people or animals. Clearing, along with regular maintenance, can prevent these problems. In addition to removing invasive species, weeds and brush, clearing can also be used for agriculture. The clearing process will remove any accumulated vegetation that is taking up too much space and preventing crops from getting the nutrients they need to thrive. This is particularly important in fields where a lot of the land is covered with bushes and other plants that can compete for resources with crops. In these cases, clearing can be a lifesaver. via https://ontimetreelopping.wordpress.com/2024/04/08/land-clearing-101/

[mclcontracting]

Lawn Care 101: Understanding Fertilisers, Watering, and Mowing Techniques

Having a well-maintained lawn not only enhances your home's curb appeal but also provides a space for relaxation and recreation. A lush, green lawn can be a source of pride for homeowners, but achieving and maintaining it requires knowledge and proper care. 

This blog post will explore the important aspects of lawn care Christchurch nz, including understanding fertilisers, watering techniques, and mowing techniques. By the end of this guide, you will have the knowledge and tools necessary to create a beautiful and healthy lawn.

Understanding Fertilisers

Fertilising your lawn is an essential aspect of lawn care Christchurch and beyond. It provides the necessary nutrients that promote healthy growth and vibrant colour. Two main types of fertilisers are available in the market: organic fertilisers and synthetic fertilisers.

Organic fertilisers are derived from natural sources such as compost, manure, and bone meal. They release nutrients slowly over time and improve soil health. Synthetic fertilisers, on the other hand, are manufactured chemical compounds that quickly release nutrients. They are easily accessible and can be tailored to specific nutrient requirements.

Choosing the right fertiliser for your lawn depends on various factors. Firstly, consider the soil type and pH level. Different grass types thrive in different pH ranges, so it is crucial to test your soil's pH before selecting a fertiliser. Secondly, understand the nutrient requirements of your grass type. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are the primary nutrients necessary for healthy lawn growth. Different grass species have different nutrient requirements, so choosing a fertiliser that suits your grass type is essential.

Watering Techniques

Proper watering is crucial to maintain a healthy lawn. It ensures that the grass receives enough moisture to survive and thrive. Watering your lawn deeply and infrequently is generally recommended to encourage deep root growth and drought resistance.

The frequency and duration of watering depend on various factors such as climate, soil type, and grass type. Generally, watering your lawn deeply once or twice a week rather than shallowly every day is best. This allows the water to penetrate the soil and reach the roots, promoting strong and healthy growth.

Timing is also an important aspect of watering your lawn. Watering during the early morning is ideal as it allows the grass to dry before the evening, reducing the risk of diseases. Avoid watering during the hottest part of the day, as it can lead to excessive evaporation.

Water conservation is an important consideration when it comes to lawn care. To conserve water, consider using a rain barrel to collect rainwater for watering your lawn. Ensure that your sprinkler system is maintained correctly to avoid water wastage.

Mowing Techniques

Proper mowing is essential for maintaining a healthy and attractive lawn. It promotes thick and dense growth, prevents weed invasion, and improves overall lawn health. The recommended mowing height varies depending on the grass type.

For warm-season grasses like Bermuda grass and Zoysia grass, a mowing height of 1.5 to 2.5 inches is recommended, for cool-season grasses like Kentucky bluegrass and fescue, a mowing height of 2.5 to 3.5 inches is recommended. Mowing at the appropriate height ensures that the grass can photosynthesise efficiently and develop a strong root system.

In addition to mowing height, there are other tips for effective mowing. Firstly, choose the right mower and blades for your lawn. Different mowers and blades are suited for different grass types and conditions. Secondly, vary your mowing patterns and direction to prevent soil compaction and promote even growth. Lastly, avoid mowing when the grass is wet, as it can lead to uneven cuts and potential damage.

Conclusion

Maintaining a healthy and vibrant lawn is a rewarding endeavour that requires proper care and attention. Understanding fertilisers, watering techniques, and mowing techniques is crucial in achieving a beautiful lawn. By choosing the right fertiliser, watering deeply and infrequently, and mowing at the appropriate height, you can create a lush and healthy lawn that will envy your neighbourhood. Remember, lawn care Christchurch is an ongoing process, so consistent maintenance and regular monitoring are key to a successful lawn. Start implementing these techniques today, and watch your lawn flourish!

Source By - https://tinyurl.com/ykns9mzc 

[thepoetoaster]

PROWLERS 101

PROWLERS 101

The different types of malevolent alien species that plague the Earth - from least to most Malevolent. All of them want to publicly execute innocent people. They started off as animals on our planet before they became people.

Baboons - baboons are monkeys from Mars. They started out very creative and original and started turning their back on Creator by conforming to the ways of Saturn/Jeff. Very often they do stay true to Creator, which makes them seem strange to some of the other different types of species. They have a scummy vibe to them and are often criminals or involved in criminal activity. They badly care about fitting in, but not as much as some of the other species, which is why they’re at the top of the list. Baboons started off as one colony of men and women but eventually were split into Mars and Venus because they turned on the opposite gender and started belittling each other. The Martians were planning a violent invasion and hostile takeover of our planet before Creator stopped them and now they’re seeing their horrific karma from it. Some examples of Baboons are Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Oprah, Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber.

Dogs - dogs are from Saturn. The people from Saturn were divided into two different species depending on their level of karma. Dogs have lesser and varying degrees of karma than a snake but they’re still evil. They’re very brainwashed and turned their back on creator badly by not staying true to their nature and conforming to the ways of Saturn. Saturn is very much about following traditions, old rules and paradigms. They love to gossip and whisper behind peoples’ backs in a malevolent way. Very often they mean well and are kind people but the second you step out of line they judge you harshly and would send you to the pillary or whipping pole for doing something “weird”. Many of the brainwashed people in the suburbs are dogs and the police that think they’re doing the right thing are dogs but they’re actually stupid and evil bad spirits. They’re competitive in a very toxic way.

Prowlers - prowlers are a type of black ground squirrel that went extinct that was supposed to be benevolent and protective of different species here on Earth especially cats. They ended up being something of a horribly failed science experiment. When we say someone is possessed by a demon very often it’s a prowler.  Prowlers are very very psychic and move very quickly which makes them extremely dangerous. When they possess people they act very awkwardly. It’s like they’re trying so hard to be “normal” it makes them seem very messed up and strange. They prey upon peoples’ insecurities and weaknesses and are the ones we see putting curses on people like the stickers on the car window. They don’t think they way regular people do and aren’t as smart, they’re just like pure evil and VERY psychic. 

Snakes - Snakes are the people from Saturn that completely went off the deep end being evil and totally turned their back on Creator. They have a very dark feeling to them and very bad karma. They’re very much in favor of preserving the status quo. They’re usually murderous and violent and often end up in jail or with a horrible life. They often seem “trashy”. Taylor Swift is a snake. Jeff is the king of the snakes who seeks to dominate and have control over all lifeforms by means of threats and coercion. 

Spiders - Spiders are another failed science experiment meant to protect us from evil insects that started turning into evil insects themselves. To give you an example Alex C. Is a spider who lures people in with her good looks and preys upon your weaknesses like wanting to have sex then she literally drinks your blood. Also known as vampires. 

Linux - the people from Linux are the absolute worst. They’re from a distant planet that started out insanely benevolent and then turned their back on Creator completely. They wanted to use us as lab rats and experiment on us to further their own interests in an intergalactic space race. They’re very competitive in a toxic way. The scary thing about the people from Linux is they’re actually very smart. They very much agree with Jeff/Saturn about conforming to rules and traditions. They have large eyes and a strange look to them. They prey on peoples’ young and like to use psychological torture as a way of hurting us. They’re responsible for the creation of Western medicine as a way to keep us enslaved and in suffering. Kind of like this psych ward/evil doctor vibe to them. Many of them are in the Illuminati, the cult that ran the world. 

[witch-of-the-world]

I posted 424 times in 2022

101 posts created (24%)

323 posts reblogged (76%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@senseiwu

@glacecakes

@kdinjenzen

@cute-animals-only

@happyheidi

I tagged 216 of my posts in 2022

Only 49% of my posts had no tags

#ninjago - 16 posts

#lego city adventures - 6 posts

#singing ghosts - 5 posts

#i love it - 4 posts

#lca - 3 posts

#the economy sucks man - 2 posts

#allen koenigsberg - 2 posts

#i mean assuming the kids are mathing out their expensee and charging accordingly you can't blame them - 2 posts

#oh my goodness - 2 posts

#my art - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 127 characters

#three friends were split into different illusions and they knew it was an illusion and they were given the choice to stay there

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Zane baking for, not just his friends, but also his friends’ parents.

Pixal goes to see Cyrus and Zane sends a loaf of fresh-baked bread with her. Kai and Nya head out to Ignacia and Zane gives them a box of cookies to take along. Jay comes back from visiting his parents and tells him “they loved the muffins, my mom baked you a pie in return, she says let her know if you want the recipe.”

27 notes - Posted February 21, 2022

#4

Kay I found this article about cats being classified as an "invasive alien species" in Poland and the captions on the pictures they've put with it are just

See the full post

27 notes - Posted July 26, 2022

#3

Why is it that whenever I try to Google a conversion from milliliters to tablespoons, it thinks "ml" means "miles" instead??

Like yes, I need 40 miles of milk for this recipe.

29 notes - Posted June 26, 2022

#2

Do you think maybe, even decades later, Wu still held on to a tiny flicker of hope that Morro would come back?

Do you think that maybe that made leaving the burnt-down monastery even harder because not only was he losing his family home and many of his possessions, but now Morro wouldn't know where to find him?

37 notes - Posted September 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Jeez I've only seen the Rebooted finale twice (cause sadness) but I just watched it again today and I had COMPLETELY forgotten the scene where Cryptor just...throws Cyrus on the ground and is like "well you're useless to us now so you get to WATCH YOUR HOME CRUMBLE AND BOW DOWN TO THE OVERLORD" and like...damn. As if they hadn't tortured him enough.

53 notes - Posted January 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[laurelnose]

on the topic of lying about drowners: like i said in the tags, the post is actually truefax about kæstur hákarl, fermented greenland shark. the shark flesh itself contains a poisonous oxide (TMAO); if you eat it fresh, it might outright kill you, and symptoms include vomiting, dizziness, and loss of balance—“shark drunk”, as it were. 

the thing about humans is "omnivorous” describes both our digestive capabilities and our tendency to try eating literally anything given half a chance, and there isn’t a lot of variety in the stuff native to iceland, so icelanders were undeterred by the initial toxicity of hákarl. fermented for six to eight weeks and dried afterward, hákarl is perfectly safe to eat and an icelandic delicacy and holiday food, though foreigners often can’t stomach the strong ammonia flavor at all. 

the preponderance of drowners (muire d’yaeblen, as the skelligers call them) in skellige would be an abundant food source for any village with enough warriors to take out their nests! skelligers would definitely try eating them and figure out how to succeed, even if a bunch of them ended up d’yaeblen drunk in the process. 

so eskel, a grown witcher with full-fledged toxicity resistance, who regularly drinks potions where drowner brains and tongues are primary ingredients, can absolutely hold down a chunk of raw drowner meat for the look on the trainees’ faces when geralt hands him the opportunity.

[eggtrolls]

I was checking on my seed-sowing area this morning (no growth yet) and found the invasive species of the day: garlic mustard!

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is a biennial plant in the, yes, mustard family Brassicaceae (that also includes cabbages, and radishes) that smells like garlic when its leaves are crushed. It's native across Europe, the Maghreb, and as far east as Pakistan and western China. Garlic mustard was introduced to the United States by European settlers and it has since spread across the East Coast into the Midwest and southeastern Canada. It was introduced for erosion control but mainly for culinary purposes - it's one of the oldest herbs in Europe with a history going back to 4000 BC. That being said, young garlic mustard plants contain a level of cyanide that is toxic to most vertebrate life, so be sure to chop it first to release the cyanide gas. They might not have beat Jesus with this thing but they might have fed him with it.

Garlic mustard has a few key properties that make it an excellent and dastardly invasive species. Like porcelainberry (see previous post), it cannot be composted and has to be removed by the rooted, bagged, and thrown in the garbage.

1) It's a biennial so it lives for two years in two distinct stages. In its first year of life, it stays close to the ground in rosettes (think of the circular shape of dandelions) and grows an extremely deep taproot, so out of sight, out of mind for people who want to remove it or animals who might eat it (more on that below). In the second year of life, the rosettes turn into small white flowers and the plants shoots up with new growth, up to 39 inches (about 1 meter) in height; the biggest plant that I pulled this morning was about as wide as my shoulders. The plants grow what's called a silique (basically a bean pod with confidence) that contains hundreds of seeds which can be yeeted several meters from the parent plant. These seeds can survive, dormant, in the soil for five years. Neat, eh?

2) Garlic mustard is simply so nasty that no one wants to fuck with it. The taste of garlic mustard is horrible to most browsing animals (i.e. deer), so they avoid it. In fact, deer trampling the plants instead of eating them helps the seeds spread more effectively. Insects won't lay their eggs on it and the leaves are actually toxic to some native moth and butterfly species. Below the ground, garlic mustard releases what are called allelochemicals that suppress the mycorrhizal fungi that helps tree seedlings grow and thus reduce competitive pressure from other plants. While the plants in garlic mustard's native range are adapted to these, the plants in North America are not. It can and will completely dominate an understory and then persist because of the long-term seed bank survival + weakened mycorrhizal fungi. It is simply a huge pain in the ass to get out and keep out.

However if you are not a moth or other species of Lepidoptera, garlic mustard is edible and garlic mustard pesto is a classic foraging recipe. And if you really want to get wild, you can make this garlic mustard...martini.

There was a lot more garlic mustard pulled that didn't make the photo shoot but here's the above area post weeding:

[space-emperor]

a small sample of some of the publications in Callis Inyek Tra-Kal Sesaris Gadrigani’s library:

Erogenous Zones and Where to Find Them: A Guide to Interplanetary Pleasure

The Complete Guide to Xenophilia

The Hero With a Trillion Faces

If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit: A Critical Response to The Hero With a Trillion Faces

A New Approach to Research Ethics on Uninhabited Worlds

Halting the Spread: A Guide to Invasive Species of the Mumikiti System

Bioforming for Lunkheads

Mammalian Anatomy

Rayguns, Germs, and Shields: The Fates of Planetary Societies

The Ecology of Tidally-Locked Worlds

Progenitor Planets: The Origins of Life

The Bioformer’s Journal: Issue 3,446

The Zan Bidizeed Institute for Bioforming: Updated Best Practices

An Ecological Reconnaissance of MER-78

Modern Standard Oureenian

Radiophagy and You

Writing for Scientists

Comparative Mythology

So You Want To Fuck An Alien?

Interspecies Dating 101

Leave No Trace: The Traveler’s Guide to Interplanetary Recreation

The Private Lives of Algaes

Restoration Outlooks for Irradiated Worlds

Memoirs of a Saphian Princess

Compendium of Viridian Folklore

Robots Ripped My Flesh: Six New Thrilling Adventures

The Gamer’s Guide to Romance

Mass Extinctions, Great and Small

Encyclopedia of Venereal Disease

Creation Myths From Around the Galaxy

The Nature and Properties of Oceanic Worlds

Applied Edaphology

Recognizing Trauma: A Toolkit for Friends and Families

Management of Interspecies Societies 

Equity in Bioforming: Competing Access Needs

Your Ship Is Spying On You!

Anthology of Epic Poetry

Funerary Traditions of Primitive Planets

Erotic Adventures of Zev-Zin-Zera, Episode 5

[thiswasinevitableid]

Laying in Wait (Indruck)

The prompt for the third was:Legend of Hag Hill

When you’ve lived somewhere your whole life, you develop one of two relationships with local legends: complete and utter belief, or the belief that the legend is utter bullshit. 

For Duck, Hag Hill is solidly in that second category. Weird lights, sudden, disorienting fog, ghostly laughter; he’s hid out on the hill smoking or making out or killing time and never seen any of it, no matter how dark the sky is when he’s there. 

He’s here for a slightly new reason tonight, as some kids from his Comp 101 class at Kepler Community College asked if he wanted to hang out and pull some mild pranks on the hill. Sure, hardly anyone comes on it this time of year, because Halloween looming on the horizon always gives the tales about the hill more substance in people’s minds. He mentioned this, hoping he could sway them towards a night at the Wolfe Bar and Grille or maybe just chilling in someone’s apartment or dorm, rather than freezing their asses off on a hillside, but they all insisted. So here they’ve sat, for over an hour, under a midnight moon, with not a soul passing by.

Then again, what else would he be doing? Sitting in his shitty apartment, swearing at the heater and watching some late night, bargain bin movie? The only thing he likes doing at home he can do here. Well, kind off. Odds are the other guys would complain if he started jerking off. 

See, there’s this guy in his entomology class. Tall, with a weird face and a weirder demeanor, and only taking the class because he needs to fulfill his breadth requirements. He sits at the back next to Duck, didn’t say a word to him until two weeks ago, when he asked if Duck would help him study for the upcoming quiz. Duck assumed it was because he was the closest person to ask, but once they sat down in the coffee shop on H Street, it became clear that Indrid, his new study buddy, had another reason.

“Thank you for agreeing to help me. You, ah, you clearly know your stuff.”

“How the fuck can you tell?” He barely spoke in class. 

“I see you filling in the slides with the correct answers well before the professor says them. You know some of this already.”

“You gotta know a decent amount about bugs if you wanna work for the forest service.” He mumbles, bracing for the Smokey the Bear joke.

“Oh! Oh of course, that makes perfect sense. I imagine invasive species, and symbiotic ones, are of interest in that field.”

They hadn't gotten to the notes for the quiz, because Duck got going about invasive insects, which lead to a discussion of moths, which lead to Indrid showing him his Deaths Head Moth tattoo, proudly explaining he’d designed it himself. They met at the cheap Chinese buffet the next night, and did actually study between trading stories about how they came to be in Kepler. Indrid laughed at once point, dyed-silver hair catching the warm light in the dim room, and Duck suddenly found that strange face strangely handsome. 

It’s nice to have a crush, it’s been awhile since he had one on a guy who might one day reciprocate. He’s pretty sure Indrid’s been checking him out this week. It’s hard to tell with those red glasses he wears. 

“Fucking finally.” Colton, he’s pretty sure that’s the guys name, shushes them into position, shattering Duck’s fantasizing.

“Can’t believe he fell for it.” Says the guy next to Duck

“I’m a pretty smooth talker when I wanna be” Colton whispers. 

Duck suddenly has a bad feeling about this, tries to back up only to snap a stick and have Colton grab his arm. 

“Hello?” A voice carries from the other side of the outcropping of grey stones. 

“What the fuck man, let go.” Duck hisses, leaves rustling under his feet.

“I really hope that is a deer.” The voice mutters.

“Now.” Colton pops up, dragging Duck with him, all the boys letting out their most blood-chilling screams.

There’s a responding yelp, followed by a cry of pain as their victim falls backwards into bramble. Duck recognizes the pink and yellow sweater as soon as he sees it, and his heart tries to crawl out his toes when the frightened gaze lands on him.

“You get it?” Colton looks to his left, where one of his friends is holding up his phone. 

“Yep. Fuck, man, you really think we’d invite you to chill with us up here? You’re such a fuckin weirdo.”

Indrid doesn’t even look at the others, his eyes remaining on Duck.

“Is, is that what you truly think of me?” 

“Pfft, see, this is what I mean. That weird way of talking, those glasses, even heard you talking to yourself, which is even fuckin weirder than that thing you do with your hands.” 

Duck likes it when Indrid flaps his hands; it means he’s excited, and an excited, happy Indrid is a sight he’s rapidly grown to adore.

Without a word, he grabs the offending phone, deleting the video before the others register what's happening. 

“What the fuck?”

“You wanna see a funny prank? Fetch, dipshit” He hurls the phone as far as it will go, the others flipping him off and calling him every name under the sun as they run after it. 

Indrid is gone when he turns back, but he’s in time to see a flash of color disappear around the next curve in the trail. The taller man is picking thorns from his sweater, and freezes when he hears Duck’s footsteps. 

“I swear, if you try anything like that again, I will push you down the hill.”

“‘Drid” Duck reaches out, touching his arm to stop him, “I’m so fuckin sorry, I had no idea that’s what they were plannin, I thought we were hanging around to do some silly jumpscare on anyone walkin by, not that they fuckin lured you out here.”

Indrid is clearly contemplating pushing him down the hill anyway. 

“C’mon, I’m tellin the truth. Remember what happened the last time I tried to lie?”

The other man blinks, then snickers, “Ah yes, the abysmal attempt to blame cockroaches for your missing homework.”

“I’m still real fuckin sorry. And, uh, I deleted the video. Hope that phone broke on the rock when I threw it.”

Indrid raises an eyebrow, “Valiant.”

“Hush, I’m tryin to help.”

“I know.” He grins a little wider, “it's a pity, I’ve never lived in a place with a haunted hill before. I was looking forward to observing it with friends.”

“Eh, you ain’t missin much. Place is about as haunted as my apartment.”

Indrid elbows him playfully “Come now, don’t ruin my fun. Is it true people have seen strange lights?”

“That's what they say.”

“And that you get lost in a fog never to be seen again.”

“It's a tiny hill in the grand scheme of things. Hard to get that lost. Uh, where are you goin, by the way?”

“Back to my car.”

“But the parking lot’s-” he turns, finds  low, thick fog behind him, “thataway?”

“I thought it was this--oh, oh dear.” The fog is all around them, seeping into Duck’s skin.

“Okay, uh, well, we now it’s at the bottom of the hill, so all we gotta do is follow the slope.”

“...What slope?”

“The fuck?” The ground is flat, no matter how far he feels out with his feet.

“I propose we keep walking until we either get out of the fog or find the road.” He seems incredibly calm. 

“Good, uh, good plan.” He falls in just behind him, keeps his ears open for cars or other signs of life. He’s starting to worry, gets so distracted by it that he collides with Indrid’s back.

“Duck, are the lights associated with Hag Hill red and orange, by chance?”

“Yep.”

Indrid points to where two lights hover in the distant, dark fog, like the eyes of a waiting beast. 

“Well, fuck.”

“Run!” Indrid shoves him back the way they came, sprinting behind him on his long legs. It isn’t even two minutes before they hit a dead end.

“What the fuck, this cliff bit is on the other side of the fuckin hill from where we were!”

“Somehow I doubt the spirits care where we began, merely where we end up. Quickly, down here.” He tugs Duck behind a large, dying tree, the two of them huddling close together. 

“Dare I ask what happens to people who see the lights?”

“Never seen again.”

A bitter chuckle, “of course.” Indrid scrubs his hands up his face, tilting his glasses up as he does. Then he hisses, “Ouch, damn it all” and pulls a thorn from his finger, “gah, it still stings.”

“Here, lemme see.” Duck gently takes his wrist, “huh, yeah, looks like you got it, so at least it ain’t gonna fester. As for the sting..” Quickly, he dips his head and kisses the skin. Looks up to find Indrid blinking his brown eyes in confusion.

“What was the purpose of that?”

“To, uh, to make you feel better?”

“Are you trying to flirt right now?”

“No, uh, fuck, uh, I mean, I, uh, fuck, Indrid, if we’re gonn get eaten by ghosts or some shit, there’s somethin I wanna do.” 

With that, he grabs Indrid’s forearms and pulls him forward, kissing him. Indrid sighs against his lips, then hums happily as Duck works his way into his lap. He growls a little and Indrid shivers, breaks the kiss to nip and kiss at his neck while Duck brings his fingers up to his mouth, kissing his knuckles before drawing the pricked finger between his lips and sucking.

“Duck” Indrid purrs, nuzzling his cheek.

“Right here, darlin.”

Chills skitter up his spine and Indrid goes dead still in his arms, eyes wide as they stare over his shoulder. 

“Oh dear, our apologies young gentlemen.” The red light forms into a woman as it speaks, the orange light doing the same. Both are dressed like they belong at  a living history museum.

“Yes, we did not know you were lovers. Those for whom our hill was meant.”

“Your hill? But don’t that make you-”

“Hags? Yes, by the language of our fellow townspeople, we were such things due to our magic.”

“I lost my life to them.” The orange-eyed sighs.

“And I mine avenging her. They buried us here, unmarked, not knowing it had always been our favorite space. A space we wished to be for others in love, in our absence.”

“I’m sorry they were so cruel to you.” Indrid says softly. 

“In the end we triumphed, our love stronger than death. We live eternally in our beloved hill, they rest uneasy and miserable in their graves.” Red eyes waves her hand, and the fog clears.

“There is your way to town, should you wish to depart now.” Orange eyes smiles, “and if you wish to tarry, around that bend you will find a place better made for privacy.”

“Thats’, uh, that’s mighty generous of you, but I’m gettin cold.”

“And I ought to check on my rats.” Indrid stands, helping Duck up before bowing a bit awkwardly, “thank you both for your, ah, help?”

The women share an enigmatic smile, and then they’re gone. 

“Let’s get the fuck outta here.”

“Agreed.” 

As they wind their way down to the parking lot, Indrid looks at Duck shyly, “Was your desire to kiss me purely near-death experience related?”

“Nope. Been thinkin about it all week. You, uh, wanna go on a date this weekend? One with less fog and mortal terror?”

“I’d be delighted.” They reach Indrid’s beat-up compact, “would you like a ride home?”

“Sure, thanks ‘Drid.” 

Indrid opens his door, then pauses, fingers drumming on the car, “or you could, ah, could spend the night at my place?”

Maybe it’s a leftover adrenaline rush, or maybe it’s just Indrid, but Duck’s suddenly feeling pretty damn brave.

“Hell yeah, darlin. Let’s go.”

[cedar-glade]

UHHMM ? Sphagett!

Dodder, mainly holoparasitic in nature with interesting ecological ramifications on local populations wherever it might be found.

Cuscuta gronovii is perhaps the most abundant species in our region, with seemingly rugose texture, a habit of colonizing stream beds and riparian systems including herbaceous flood plaines, this plant can be distributed by water fairly easily and reduce competition around the boundry of the plant by signifigantly reducing the vigour of it’s host. It’s known for tageting specific species after germination through chemical signalling factors and then getting less picky with host specific hunting as the plant gets bigger. Impatiens capensis and I. pallida are great examples of plants easily targeted by this species.  I say seemingly rugose as a characteristic because this plant is legitemently glaborous but forms a rugose texture wherever it touches an object. Plants that rapidly twine or react by auxin and growth response to touch after receiving positive pressure are acting by thigmotropism. You may know of phototropism and gravitropism from any Bio 101 course; these are growth due to auxin transport from light stimulous or growth due to protein stimuli from gravity respectivly. These bumps will form from touch to aid the plant in stabalizing it’s self and gripping it’s surroundings primarily, after they form though they have the ability to specialize again if they come in contact with a proper host. Haustorium form from these sites and penatrate into the phloem and xylem of the host where they can feed off of the hosts nutrients freely and as well as their water reserves; but something else is going on here with these haustorium in the genera Cuscuta that adds even more interest, this is gene sharing, or Horizontal Gene Transfer(HGT).

 HGT is most common in Bacteria and in Viruses. In viruses esspecially we see HGT formation from a number of different ways and Transposable elements or transposons(hopping genes) are the most recognizable in organisms. How do we recognize these, blasted sequences from organisms show small variation from individual to individual, these variations are capped with palandromic base pair sequences, also known as inverted repeats in the tails. These sequences can hop around once translated fully as they do they may be recognized and cause mutations or be deleted out right, sometimes they don’t do anything. Transposase is the enzyme capable of lifting these coding regions and moving them else where and is found within the structural gene/ coding region of these gene complexes. Most transposons are located near the centromere where they are not as easy to detect. Again these are very common and are a potential reason for variable mutations if they are accidentally duplicated or fall inbetween specific genes and disrupt the gene from making proper amino acid sequences. Many errors become deletarious over time but the ones that are beneficial for the organism can be preserved and beneficial(selected for).

Plant to plant HGT is very rare though unlike virus- organism or bacteria to bacteria HGT. With one genera though, it is commonplace and that’s Cuscuta.

While most HGT detectable in genes from blasted sequence comparison seems to do little in most plants functionally, it is theorized that if gene disruption potentially occurs on a large scale we can see interesting things like cliestogamous flowers becoming uncliestogomous and vise versa or over production in different hormones by dosage compensation events,) even full gene disruption in a specific population or individual (again these are theorized and not fully accepted as what is going on). This concept of HGT disruption would be very rare, and in many cases HGT is not breaking a coding region or landing in an exon, so nothing happens to cause functional mutations. In genetics we can compare these to the many types of mutations and their corrisponding issues. The types of mutations commonly spoken of are: point mutation, duplication, deletion, insertion, and frameshifts. Each may have different evolutionary signifigance and are studied to specificity.

For the most part, Cuscuta spp. are mainly trying to lower plant defenses in their host species, reduce vigor and make it harder to fight off an invasion.  The horizontal gene transfter that is purposeful and does work is known as functional HGT (fHGT), This type of HGT is increasingly being recognized in heterotrophic parasitic plants, hemi and holo. In one recent paper, the ecology is described for common fHGT mechanism in C. campestris.

“transfer of genomic DNA-rather than retroprocessed RNA-as the mechanism of fHGT. Many of the C. campestris genes horizontally acquired are also frequent sources of 24-nucleotide small RNAs that are typically associated with RNA-directed DNA methylation. One HGT encoding a leucine-rich repeat protein kinase overlaps with a microRNA that has been shown to regulate host gene expression, suggesting that HGT-derived parasite small RNAs may function in the parasite-host interaction.” - Abstract section

Yang, Z. et. al. 2020

“Convergent horizontal gene transfer and cross-talk of mobile nucleic acids in parasitic plants”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31332314/

Real quick, to clarify, DNA methylation is an epigenetic change to DNA where a a methyl group is added to cytosine to make 5-methylcytosine and stop promotion. Epigentic changes do not directly affect the coding region.  Methylation is essentially used for gene repression and prevents transcription events.  

Anywho, next time you see some german egg yolk vine aka dodder aka speghetti vine, stop and give it a look. their is a lot going on...

[ooops-i-arted]

@just-add-butter said:  But consider this, one planet has a frog problem. Totally invasive species, completely choking out all local life. They bring in Din and the 101. Voila, problem solved, and the kiddles have had their snack for the week.

Din is insanely proud of his clan and makes a scrapbook to commemorate Babies’ First Bounty Hunt.  Everyone who gets within a meter of him has been forced to look at it.  Suddenly every Sorgan villager has accidentally left their stove on and has to go home right now.

[jinxedeyes]

You realize these living things are actively driving other living things extinct right? Those carp have already caused the extinction of one amphibian species in the wild. No one wants carps extinct we want them OUT OF WHERE THEY DONT BELONG. If you care more about the lives of an INVASIVE eating machine than the native animals it destroys and will continue to destroy until they are all gone then guess what? You've fucked up caring about animals 101

W

WGHAT