And we have a winner! As Karen guessed, these are lichens on decomposing granite:
This photo is from the Fortynine Palms oasis area in Joshua Tree National Monument. These lichens (symbiotic amalgams of fungi and algae) could be decades or centuries old – they are very slow spreading.
Most creative answer goes to TT, who thought it looked like sweet potato casserole! The quartz does look like marshmallows.
Another close-up photo for you to analyze and identify:
A more inclusive photo on Monday will solve the mystery. (Sorry for the brevity – I’m on the road and internet access is variable. I’m taking what I can get!)
Enjoy your spring weekend!
I’m spending this week in Palm Desert, CA for a little R&R in the sun. In the morning, with my pot o’ Earl Grey, I read the local paper (The Desert Sun). Last Sunday’s paper provided me with an article about an “intelligent water incubator” (all material in quotes was taken from the article). Pieter Hoff, a “Dutch scientist, author, and major exporter of lilies and flower bulbs” has invented the Waterboxx, which “produces and captures water from the air through condensation and rain.” … Continue reading this article “Another fine product…”
So many interesting answers to Friday’s puzzle – thanks to all of you for putting out the effort! It most certainly is an abiotic problem – but was it temperature, suggested by Deb? Water, suggested by Foy, Gayle and Ed? Light, suggested by Nancy? My plan was to have an extensive soil test run to address the possibility of pollution (suggested by Jim, Heather and Paul), except we discovered the source of the problem last summer when we finished digging our pond:
As you can see in this photo, we have solid clay about 12″ below the surface. … Continue reading this article “Friday puzzle answer”
Now I could have sworn I’d posted this puzzle before, but after searching through all the previous postings I can’t find it. Here it is.
I planted this Cornus kousa in 1999 (removing the burlap, clay, etc. prior to installing). We removed the turf (still attached to the $(%&$ plastic mesh) and planted the tree in the existing soil. The first photo was taken in 2004, and the second was taken in 2007:
Here are some specifics about what was done to the landscape during this period: we replaced all the turf with wood chips and put in the fence as shown. … Continue reading this article “Friday quiz time!”
I just got back from a trip to Pullman where I guest lecture once a year for the Landscape Plant Management class. It’s also a chance to get some new photos for my Wall-O-Shame. Here’s my latest:
Pin oak (Quercus palustris) doesn’t drop its leaves in the winter – instead, they hang on until the following spring. So it’s really easy to see which part of this tree is alive (i.e., has last year’s leaves). … Continue reading this article “Protecting existing trees – what a concept!”
Good sleuthing over the weekend! As John, Karen, Jimbo and Al suggested, there is something stuck on the side of this Norway maple (Acer platanoides, which is Latin for “maple that takes over the planet”). In fact, the reason that I, with my pathetic ID skills, know that it’s a Norway maple is because it’s a nursery tag stuck in the tree:
This type of injury really bugs me, because it’s entirely preventable. One of the cardinal rules of transplanting trees and shrubs is to remove all foreign material. … Continue reading this article “Friday mystery revealed!”
Today’s photo is courtesy of Photoshop technology. I’ve edited the damaged area so you can’t see what caused, or at least contributed to, the damage:
Now before you complain that I’m cheating (which I am!) keep in mind that what I edited out could have been removed before you were asked to diagnose this injury. I will tell you that it’s not due to pests or disease. As is so often true in real life, there could easily be multiple correct answers. … Continue reading this article “Friday mystery photo”
Yesterday I got an interesting email about a new product – a Tomato Automator. Briefly, this square, red plastic disk slips around the stem of a tomato plant to suppress weeds and pests. Most intriguingly, we’re told that the color “triggers a natural plant protein that makes tomatoes mature faster and product more fruit.”
Given this is a red product, it’s likely that the protein referred to is phytochrome (literally, “plant pigment”). Phytochrome activity is maddeningly complicated to explain, so we’re going to keep this simple and refer (somewhat inaccurately) to “active” and “inactive” forms of phytochrome. … Continue reading this article “You say tomato, I say phytochrome”
Lots of brainstorming over the weekend, and all the answers were legitimate. A few people came close with the observation that the roots looked like they had grown over something. And that’s exactly right:
This is a great example of nurse log decomposition. When the tree on the right first began growing (and it could have been decades ago), it sent lateral roots out, over, and around the nurse log to reach the soil. As the nurse log degraded, the tree’s roots were left high and dry, outlining the girth of the original log.… Continue reading this article “Friday puzzle solved!”