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At the Arboretum, there are three plants (trillium, bleeding heart, and the inside-out flower) with seeds that have a white, oil-rich appendage known as an elaiosome, which is attractive to ants. They will collect the seed to eat the elaiosome and then discard the seed, thus helping to disperse it.

This week: An introduction to a small gem of a wasp whose vibrant colors will sometimes take your breath away. 

It’s morning.I am sitting by the river on a small gravel bar.Sunlight brushes across the tops of the cottonwoods.A light, upstream breeze is blowing in from the ocean.The air smells sweet and freshly laundered.In front of me, a thicket of willowslightly sweep back and forthin eddies of wind.The willows grow from an anchor of stones—a cobbled bed, smoothedover centuriesby elemental

Snakeflies are prehistoric little creatures that we’re lucky to have on the West Coast. 

Birds have an upper and lower eyelid to protect their eye. They also have a thin, translucent covering called a nictitating membrane that functions as a sort of third eyelid.