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TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: December 2025, #3

Good Morning Neighbors,

As promised, today we’re going to talk about a plant that is deeply entwined in our American holiday traditions. #Holly

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Today we’re talking about the Hollies; no not the band, the perennial plant. The holly family which is collectively known as Ilex, have members of its immense family on pretty much every landmass except for Antarctica because, well it’s cold as heck down there. In our region you can get a Holly in a surprising number of shapes and forms but generally you will seed just a hand full on repeat in the urban landscape. Typically you will see Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitorium), ‘Sky Pencil’ Holly (I. crenata), Chinese Holly (I. cornuta), Gallberry (I. glabra), American Holly (I. opaca) and, Winterberry (I. verticillata) in our Carolina landscape but there are many more options. Also I do need to mention that the herbal ingredient Yerba Mate (I. paraguariensis) is also a Holly. While we’re on that the Americas have several other native Caffeine-bearing Holly relatives as Yaupon Holly and, Guayusa (I. guayusa) with the latter being hardy in North Carolina so we do have a caffeine alternative to Coffee if needed. The specific member of the family we are here to talk about is Chinese Holly (I. cornuta) which is abundant in the landscape and can be found in incredibly prickly forms like ‘Rotunda’ or ‘Needlepoint’ which are viciously unapproachable but excellent habitat for wild birds who often make nests in the bushes. The variety in the included photographs are a less painful type called ‘Carissa’ which are a dwarf or semi-dwarf variety that was named for its foliage’s resemblance to the Natal Plum’s foliage. What makes these perennial, evergreen plants great in the landscape is that with age they will form a nearly impenetrable barrier. In the case of ‘Carissa’ though their slow growth and a normal upper height of about four feet is great for making a natural fence.
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Carissa also shears well into shapes and is very tolerant of abuse however since it is a slow grower drastically heavy pruning will leave it looking bad for a long while. As a weird note here, Hollies are considered a hardwood plant, and a mature Holly trunk can absolutely wreck a car. So as a “soft” vehicle barrier mature Hollies are an effective way to guarantee that if you have problems with bad drivers they might not have a vehicle to cause mayhem with. As an environmental note here, Chinese Holly does produce red berries that are attractive to wild birds, and its flowers attract all sorts of Native Bees and Solitary Wasps. Chinese Holly foliage is very resistant to damage by Deer and dense hedges of hit may act as a deterrent to deer. It is also important to mention that Chinese Hollies are resistant to Phytophthora Root Rot. Garden considerations aside, Hollies are a common theme in Christmas decoration; if you go to arts and craft stores you will see the plastic garlands with imitations of their leaves and their berries. In various paper decorations you will see that they are represented there too as well as Wreaths, and sometimes they are incorporated in gift wrapping. Hollies have an interesting history in regards to the holidays, according to an article written by Dixie Sandborn at Michigan State University the use of Hollies in holiday ritual as we know it may have started in Northern Europe with the Pagans. The Druids wore it as ceremonial head wear when they went into the forest, The Romans used as an offering to the god Saturn during the festival of Saturnalia. The Romans placed such a high value on the plant that it appears in most if not all images of Saturn. Christians placed it in decorations that adorned doorways as a method of preventing persecution. It was thought that hanging holly on the door of one’s home would prevent the entry and attack of supernatural specters that attacked during the holy days.
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Other sources indicate that Christians further adapted the meaning of holly, and its symbolism became something more direct. The Holly’s red berries came to represent the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross, while the pointed leaves represented the crown of thorns placed upon Jesus’s head. It is fairly well documented that in ancient European traditions specifically Celtic and Druidic, Holly was considered a masculine plant with characters such as the ‘Holly King’ representing the power of winter. Humorously they did not know that a lot of species of Holly are dioecious meaning the plants are male and female. So, we now know that their Holly King might have been a Holly Queen. In contrast though Ivy (Hedera helix), was considered Feminine, which is also pretty funny because English Ivy is hermaphroditic. Also English Ivy takes decades to reach a state of maturity changing into a plant that barely resembles the plant we thought we knew. From these two plants, and their use in Celtic/Druid ritual eventually a Christmas carol was created called “The Holly and the Ivy” in the 18th century and formally recorded by Cecil Sharp in 1909. But as always, the Holiday traditions you hold are based on what you’ve been taught by friends and family and what you determine is acceptable in your home with those you care about. Hollies are one of those plants that have become significant over the ages to mankind and every so often they manage to surprise us. Before I end this article I’ll leave you with one interesting fact about a local species of holly you probably never think about. Remember the Carolina Blue Honey? The color in part or whole comes from Gallberries (I. glabra) which are native to our region and typically found in the forests. It is thought that Honey bees go after the juices of the berries which transfer their color to the honey making it blue. Thank you all for reading and please have a happy and safe Holiday.
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December 19, 2025 at 12:34 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The only people who say stuff like "mind your own business and stay out of US politics" are the same sort of people who think tariffs are levied against foreigners and that Mexico will pay for the wall. They're the intellectual anus of the GOP or, in short complete and utter morons.

Canadian Liberal @cliff229.bsky.social · 14d

Almost daily someone wants to tell me that I should mind my own business and stay out of US "politics". So almost daily I have to remind them that Trumpism affects global economics, environment and peace. I'll do what every concerned global citizen should do. I'll express my opinion. Loudly.

December 12, 2025 at 5:19 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: December 2025, #2

This is a follow-up post for the normal TWHD, I ran out of character space to do the American Mistletoe article so the rest of it is in the alt text of the image.

There are some studies that seem to suggest that American Mistletoe is far less poisonous than its European counterpart this is not an endorsement to start doing anything crazy like making a Mistletoe salad, but you should know and act accordingly with good information. I do have to note here, that European Mistletoe is an ingredient of Biska a pomace based brandy made in Istria, so even the poisonous one can be used for something. Also there is some Cancer research that uses Mistletoe extract to affect the immune system and may be able to kill certain types of cancer cells. Either way when seen in nature around town, our native population of American Mistletoe is one of the best indicators that winter is here and with it the holidays and soon the New Year. Stay tuned folks, next week I’ll be talking about another plant that gets very famous during the holidays.

(Toxicity study information)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9270395/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2877602/

December 12, 2025 at 12:08 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: December 2025, #2

Good Morning Neighbors,

Today we’re going to talk about a plant that is deeply entwined in our American holiday traditions. #AmericanMistletoe #HistoricPlant

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We have tons of it around Fayetteville but we only really notice it now because the host trees it grows on are deciduous and have dropped their leaves. The perennial evergreen plant in question is classified as a hemiparasite. Hemiparasitic plants are plants that live as a parasite under normal conditions but retain some ability to photosynthesize while being reliant on the host plant for water and mineral and or organic nutrients. So if you look up at tree canopies while travelling about downtown Fayetteville right now it is certain you will see a few with strange green blobs of color, this is American Mistletoe, (Phoradendron leucarpum). You read that right; we have our own native species of Mistletoe, which is also commonly called Eastern Mistletoe, Oak Mistletoe and sometimes rarely False Mistletoe. American Mistletoe also had two prior botanical latin names (P. flavescens) and (P. serotinum) In regards to that last common name it’s pure nonsense, it implies that American Mistletoe is fake when in fact it and the European Mistletoe (Viscum album) both belong to the Santalaceae family. There is also a west coast species known as Pacific Mistletoe or Western Mistletoe (Phoradendron villosum). The name Mistletoe comes from Old English “Mistiltan” which comes from two Anglo-Saxon words “Mistel” meaning dung and “Tan” meaning twig, which aptly names the color and texture of where Mistletoe attaches to its host plant. The name Phoradendron comes from Greek, “Phor” which means ‘a theif’ and “Dendron” or ‘Tree’. The specific epithet Leucarpum means either “white berry” or “white fruit”. Speaking of those white berries, there are some who do claim that our Mistletoe is the European type but a close inspection especially when our plants have berries prove that wrong as our species has clusters of white berries in greater numbers than its European counterpart.
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With that said Mistletoe has been intertwined in human culture for ages and I’m going to cover some of that here but, it will be short from and I urge you all out there to look into it for more details. In religious cultural tradition Mistletoe had significance in several cultures; both Ancient Greek and Roman cultures regarded it with significance. In Greek Myth it was used to access the underworld, specifically a golden bough of it was used as protective charm and a means of access. Ancient Romans on the other hand thought it to be the Golden Bough or Aeneas the ancestor of the Romans. The Romans associated Mistletoe with peace, love and understanding. In ancient Celtic rituals druids would climb a specific and sacred oak tree to harvest Mistletoe with a golden sickle. They would then sacrifice two white bulls to their deities and the elixir made from the plant after was thought to cure infertility and was an antidote to all poisons. In Austria, Mistletoe was placed on a couple’s bed to encourage fertility and conception. The Ainu would distribute cut up Mistletoe in their fields to increase soil fertility and thus better harvests in the following year. The Welsh also had a tradition regarding Mistletoe; they believed healthy growth of it in trees meant they would have a good crop in the following year. This one might actually have some truth in that if the trees are healthy enough that the Mistletoe isn’t doing any real harm, and then it’s likely you had a good year of weather and next year might benefit from that. Sick trees often take a few years to decline and that will cause a mismatch in the health of a hemiparasite and the host which is visibly obvious. Then there’s its presence in Norse Mythology, the god Baldur was killed by an arrow or possibly a spear made out of Mistletoe because it was the one plant that did not promise to his mother Frigg to do no harm to Baldur.
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In Christian tradition it is used as a Christmas decoration, though its use wasn’t really written about until the Eighteenth century or so. Traditionally when harvesting some Mistletoe the cut pieces must not ever touch the ground between its cutting from the host tree and its removal as the last of the greens during Candlemas. For those who don’t know what Candlemas is, it’s also known as the Feast of the presentation of Jesus Christ, or Blessed Virgin Mary or the Feast of the Holy Encounter and typically occurs on February 2nd in New Year. The tradition of kissing under the Mistletoe which endures to this day and is also the source of many pranks has is believed to have its roots in the song “Two for One” which was published in 1784. A few sources indicate that Washington Irving was responsible for the popularization of kissing under the mistletoe in the United States. He wrote about the tradition and it was included in a collection of his essays called The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. In specific it’s the passage “The mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses and kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When all the berries are plucked the privilege ceases.” If this account is accurate then the European tradition in England at the time is very different then what our tradition is now.

With the traditions covered it’s time to talk science, specifically how Mistletoe is a deadbeat. As I mentioned earlier, Mistletoe is a hemiparasite meaning that it specifically produces its own chlorophyll as it is a very green plant. What it doesn’t have is a normal root system; instead it has a special biological structure that is called a Haustorium. A Haustorium is a root-like structure that grows into or around another living structure to absorb water or nutrients. In the case of Mistletoe it burrows into the living flesh of the host
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and grows between the cells using enzymes to break down cell walls to it can obtain water and nutrients without necessarily killing the host. These roots in some Mistletoe species can go as far as three feet into the host plant. To make matters worse these roots can even dig into a tree’s heartwood and in bad infestations this can cause dead areas allowing fungal rot to move in which may over time kill a tree. There’s more problematic information I have to share, American Mistletoe is spread by birds that eat the little white berries. The berries contain a compound called Viscin which makes them extra sticky; this gets some of them stuck to the beaks of birds who then rub them on trees and other hard surfaces to get them off. What berries do get eaten will pass seeds in the normal expected way. Despite this primarily deadbeat means of spreading its offspring Mistletoe is still a food course for wild birds in the winter and its foliage can provide a nesting site for birds, insects or wild animals. Finally, I have to talk about the misconception that American Mistletoe like its European cousin is ‘kill you dead’ poisonous. There is no doubt that American Mistletoe is toxic, it contains Amine, Tocalbumin, Pharatoxin Vicscumin and the Viscin that makes the berries sticky is toxic by itself. However you have to eat a large quantity of the plant and/or its berries to be in danger of death. Symptoms of American Mistletoe poisoning include stomach and intestinal irritation with diarrhea, vomiting, difficulty breathing and lowered blood pressure and a slow pulse. In specific the berries and the leaves are noted as the most dangerous parts. I personally would say the berries are the worst because a child or pet might find them more enticing, and the berries are toxic to cats and dogs so you might want to think before you decorate with this plant.
(See Follow Up post for the end of this Article)
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December 12, 2025 at 12:05 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

Unrelated to today's TWHD post but finally I got the goods! The lion's Mane was about a month late since the weather had bee warm and dry. On Tuesday we had a day of cold rain and then on Wednesday I found this in one of my fave forage spots. Two pounds of Lion's Mane!

December 5, 2025 at 2:05 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: December 2025, #1

Good Morning Neighbors,

I hope all of you out there had a happy and safe Thanksgiving/Indigenous People’s Day last week. Just in case some of you out there missed it, there was no post last week due to the holiday being on a Thursday. #NoBradfords

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I hope all of you out there had a happy and safe Thanksgiving/Indigenous People’s Day last week. Just in case some of you out there missed it, there was no post last week due to the holiday being on a Thursday. The same will be true for Christmas week, but not the case for New Year’s week. So today, we are taking a look at a plant is a bit notorious, some folks love this plant, and the rest of us think those people are weird. The Callery Pear was at one point in the last sixty years planted all over the urban landscape because it had a large number of advantages. It didn’t heave the sidewalks and roads, it grew fast, it had pretty good fall color, its leaves are great for composting, and it has a ton of white flowers in spring followed by useful but tiny fruit in the fall or early winter. The flaws of the Callery Pear are numerous also, its flowers stink; some liken the odor to [censored] or rotting fish and that odor is unfortunately intentional. Studies have found that the odor of the flowers is meant to attract flies which pollenate the plant and not Bees or other more desirable pollinators. Another issue with the Callery Pear is its soft wood and poor branch angles which often cause it to self-vivisect at random the moment a decent wind or storm looks its way. In colder climates it is not a rare sight to see a Callery pear torn asunder by the weight of ice in a winter storm making them a local hazard.
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Attempts to fix this problem were tried and resulted in the Cleveland Select Pear cultivar but, I for one am reluctant to trust this plant, it’s already got the word ‘cleave’ in the name and does anything good ever come out of Cleveland? Worse yet the Callery Pear is considered Invasive as it has readily escaped cultivation and entire stands of this plant can be found in the wild choking out native species. The more common name for this non-native deciduous street tree is Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana) and it was first introduced to the United States in between 1909 and 1916 and its first recognition for use wasn’t until the 1950’s. By the 1960’s Callery Pears had become fairly popular but they really got their day in the sun when they were promoted by Lady Bird Johnson in 1966 when she planted one in downtown Washington D.C. Shortly after that they were in every garden enter and nursery and people where planting them everywhere with no idea of the mistake they were making. Granted that it’s pretty rare to find a landscape tree with as many positive traits as the Bradford Pear has, the problem with the plant is that it is deeply invasive. It has been noted in a few records to have escaped cultivation in at least 152 counties in 25 states in the United States. The escaped plants revert back to their original genotype in successive generations making them no longer a Bradford Cultivar.
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{Photo Note: This tree split in a windstorm a few years ago. I joked at the time that finally someone had found a real use for the plant, as a cup holder.}
These plants can produce localized varieties that can interbreed producing further mutations and in some cases the normal spurs one might expect from a member of the Pyrus family can make a reappearance in these wild specimens. For now the spread of this invasive pest-tree is limited by its intolerance for exceptionally cold weather and areas with enough ice and wind to demolish the plants regularly. However as Jeff Goldblum’s character said in Jurassic Park ‘Nature uh, finds a way’ and slowly the wild types are making their way northward. As far as I know only two states have banned the cultivation of Bradford Pears and that is Ohio and South Carolina, while Pennsylvania made it a class B noxious weed and banned its sale and distribution. In our state of North Carolina our agriculture department has recognized the problem with Bradford Pears and started a Tree Bounty arrangement in partnership with several other organizations. (https://www.treebountync.com/ )
Our local Magazine CityView even covered the Bradford Pear bounty program in detail and here’s a link to that article.
https://www.cityviewnc.com/stories/north-carolinas-bradford-pear-bounty-program-came-to-cumberland-county-trading-the-stinky-trees-for-native-species/

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{Photo note: "Silly Bradford, always laying down on the job! You'll never get that street tree promotion with that work ethic! lol}

There is some additional bad news on this front; Callery Pears have been used as root stock for grafted pear cultivars such as Comice, Bosc, Sekel and Nashi. This means you might just have one of these horrible trees in your yard right now and it’s out there planning to take over. So if you’re planning to grow pears for fruit, always double check what the root stock is because you might get more than you planned for. If you have a pear that seems to be producing a whole lot of aggressive shoots from the root stock that might just be a Bradford rootstock grafted to the variety you intended. Aggressively cutting back the water shoots coming off the root of your grafted pear can ensure that the part you want remains healthy and isn’t over taken. This also means being very vigilant as any part of the root system that reaches the surface can also produce shoots that can produce another Bradford Pear. So in closing, The Callery/Bradford/Cleveland Pear is a hot mess. It’s not something you really want in your yard or near your yard but thankfully these trees do not live long and you’re seeing less of them for sale with each passing year.
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December 5, 2025 at 2:02 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: November 2025, #3

Good Morning Neighbors,

Today’s plant of the week is one that will be as new to you as it was to me on Monday. #PlantDiscoveries #GroundCherry #NativePlants

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Good Morning Neighbors,

Today’s plant of the week is one that will be as new to you as it was to me on Monday. The thing about being a professional Horticulturist is that inevitably you travel all over a given range of geography and much to the annoyance of anyone who travels with you, inevitably you stop the car repeatedly to get samples of plants by the roadside. So while moving about somewhere between Fayetteville, Eastover and possibly Vander, I found something very interesting. As some of you regular readers of this continuing series know I have favoritism for members of the Nightshade family because they have gotten an over hyped bad reputation because Deadly Nightshade (Atropa bella-donna) exists and was used to ‘remove’ people for centuries. Then there’s Borracherro (Brugmanisa arborea) which is said to for a time based on dosage suppress free will making one open to any suggestion. Lastly we have the greatly over hyped risk of Devil’s Trumpet (Datura metel), aka Jimson Weed which for some who have consumed the seeds is said to have brought on some incredible hallucinations of a waking nightmare-like nature. So of course caution is warranted but irrational fear really isn’t as you have to consume these plants for them to harm you. Typically nightshades contain some level of atropine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine but also other compounds which give them their effects. Take for instance White Potatoes, which if they go green under the skin of the tubers can start stockpiling Solanine which can make you sick if eaten in an uncooked state. The green color under the skin is an indicator that the tuber is already trying to grow or is preparing to.
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Normal cooking does not fully destroy Solanine, but high heat cooking such as frying and the use of water during cooking can reduce it by leaching it out. Solanine is very water soluble so it won’t stick around in a soup and will wind up diluted to a point of being ineffective at making you miserable. Tobacco is another relative that has a bad reputation. Smoking Tobacco is scientifically known as (Nicotina tabacum) has another compound called Nicotine which is an alkaloid and this can indirectly kill you. There is a condition called Green Tobacco Fever which comes from skin to wet tobacco leaf contact which overdoses your system with nicotine leading to heat illness potentially finishing you off. This is as much due to the time period in which Tobacco plants are big enough for this to be an issue as it is the compound which exists to kill insect pests. Interestingly tiny amounts of Nicotine are also found in Tomatoes and Potatoes.

With a brief look at the Nightshade family covered today's plant was quite a surprise when I located it. At first I thought I’d stumbled upon a patch of Perennial Ground Cherry (Physalis longifolia) -or- (P. virginiana) and I set about taking photos of the plants and noting their location. Originally when I came across the patch it was about a week or two ago and none of the fruit had developed, then we had that minor frost last week and come this week lots of dropped ripe fruit. I took new photographs with frost damage included to see how these plants handled that and harvested more than a hundred dropped fruits to extract the seeds. The property owner said they had never seen the plants before and had no idea what they were.
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So, I told him what he had and what they were used for and then located two ripe fruits and we tried them. Before I go any further, normally I don’t suggest eating anything in the field unless you are absolutely certain, and in this case admittedly I was certain. Ground Cherries look a certain way and grow a certain way so there was no doubt of what I was handling. Flavor-wise they were tomato-ish with a bit of peach, and certainly not like the Ground Cherries you buy at the store. Kind of like a peach tinged Tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica) which is a close relative. Of course these plants were out in the wild growing in super-sandy soil and producing thousands of berries so their vigor in adverse conditions was particularly noticeable. The search for potential crops that might survive future environmental conditions with less need for irrigation, fertilizer and pesticides is kind of important from an agricultural perspective. If those crops are already native then that is double the value especially if they might cross with existing cultivated trains and produce even stronger hybrids.

The fun began once the samples I brought home landed a positive identification. I looked at the same pictures that are included with this post and examined the physical samples just to be absolutely sure. The last thing I want to do is bring an invasive species back by accident. The process of verifying a plant’s identity is straightforward; first the photos and specimens are compared against what was available in the NC Extension Plant Toolbox. This resulted in only the verification of the family of the plants. The plants on the site were Husk Tomatoes but not what I had. The unknown plant’s leaves simply did not match had because if you notice they have tattered looking margins. All the specimens i saw had that trait and the leaf was the only differing trait aside from the yellow flowers lacking the red marks inside the flower.
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It took about an hour to narrow down the options and find a match, Cutleaf Ground Cherry (Physalis angulata). According to the website Flora of the Southeastern United Stated its habitat is Longleaf Pine Sandhills, disturbed areas, open woodlands and agricultural fields. Considering where I found it, the first two apply, the site also says this plant in the wild is observed to be growing between June and October, and that also fits. This large patch of Cutleaf Ground cherries would have had to have germinated in June or late May to have gotten to their current size and maturity. The site also notes that this plant is wildly distributed in Tropical America which we’re in. There is just one hazard to this plant, the foliage is inedible due to Solanine compounds and my sources are mixed about unripe berries being safe. So stick to the ripe ones and you will be ok. In the picture of the berries, the safe ones to eat are yellow but for best flavor you want them to be more orange colored. So I had just located a species of Ground Cherry that is native, requires little care, and is productive and somehow had come up in past attempts to find new varieties. So folks, always keep your eyes out as you travel around, you never know what weird and wonderful things you might find growing by the roadside. It might be that you spot the spongy weird form of a Lion’s Mane Mushroom bursting from a hole in an Oak or a several hundred foot long patch of ground cherries that appeared from nothing. Oh and, next year when I try to grow this plant from the seeds in the berries I collected, there will be an update. Next week is Thanksgiving so I’m taking a week off and will be back here on the 4th of December. Please travel safely for the holiday and have a Happy Indigenous Peoples Day/Thanksgiving folks.
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November 21, 2025 at 1:38 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

This member of the Nightshade Family didn't get the memo that it is supposed to die when frosted. Anyone want to guess what Nightshade this is?

November 14, 2025 at 1:54 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

Wrong Answers only; Whats this?

November 14, 2025 at 1:53 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: November 2025, #2

Good Morning Neighbors,

Today in light of recent weather patterns we’re going to look at a phenomenon that affects your plants. #Frost #ShesaHOARnorman #FrostJokes

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The Wild Harvest Digest: November 2025, #2

Good Morning Neighbors,

Today in light of recent weather patterns we’re going to look at a phenomenon that affects your plants. On Monday morning the temperature at about 2am dipped to the high twenties in our area and a few days before there were frost advisories and warnings issued for our area. The low temperature was caused by a strong arctic air mass that moved southward from the northern plains causing the temperatures on the ground to rapidly drop. The peak of this cold front was Monday morning. Fayetteville due to its location and the arrangement of its streets creating a heat island is on average 3-5 degrees warmer than the rest of the state. So we didn’t have a risk of any sort of frozen precipitation like the mountainous side of the state did. We had a short-lived frosting event that should have made it clear that a killing frost is coming soon. The interesting thing is that there are several types of frost you can encounter in our state. The common types of frost are Hoar Frost, Advection Frost, Window Frost, White Frost, Rime Frost, and, Black Frost. Hoar Frost is also known as Radiation frost or Pruina and it is best known for appearing as white ice crystals on the ground or loosely attached to objects in the landscape such at wires, leaves or spider webs. Typically this forms when ground level radiation cools the air until it flows downward and accumulates in pockets of very cold air in valleys or hollows. Hoar frost can happen despite the higher ambient air temperature being above freezing.
(Picture: Frost damaged Lantana camara, the berries are not edible)
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Advection Frost which is also called Wind Frost is when tiny ice spikes form when very cold wind is blowing over objects in the landscape. The ice crystals of this frost will often point outward against the flow of the cold wind that formed them. This is the type of Frost I observed in the test garden on Monday. Window Frost is as its name suggests; it is the frost that forms on your window panes when they are exposed to very cold air outside and moderately moist air that is warmer on the inside. Water vapor condenses on the glass and freezes forming often intricate patterns on the outside of the window. You see this effect most often on vehicle windows and it’s even more well-known as some window glass for bathroom windows is designed with a faux frost pattern mimicking it. White Frost forms when the humidity is above 90% and the temperature is 18 degrees or less. Rime Frost is a form of ice that technically isn’t really a frost. But it is when ice is deposited rapidly and freezes over something creating a coating of ice.

(Photo: Castor Bean (Ricinus communis 'Zanzibar'), note how the frost damage is worse down low indicating temps were higher at about 8 feet+ above the ground.)
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The final type of frost is called Black Frost which is also commonly called Killing Frost. Black Frost is not really a frost in the technical sense of the word frost. A killing frost is when the humidity is too low for frost to form but the temperature is so low that plant tissues freeze solid then the cell walls burst and then the thaw brings death. Some plants have defenses for this and others need help while others are doomed. This brings us to what happened on Monday, as that was not a Killing Frost. How do I know this? Well, in the same way that I make sure to plant a few plants that rapidly and dramatically wilt to tell me the soil is dry and that I need to water I also make sure to have a few sacrificial plants that are varying degrees of frost and cold sensitive to tell me how bad things are. For instance, Basil will take cold damage at temperatures around 36 degrees, some Nightshades will show damage at about 31-33 degrees, as is seen in the third picture where the pepper was annihilated.

(Photo: Bull's Horn Pepper (Capsicum anuum) has suffered a FATALITY! Sub Zero WINS!)
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In the first photo you can see that the Lantana took some cold damage, not enough to force dormancy but enough that it's a bit crispy. I know it'll come back from its roots next year but it's a sturdy cold indicator plant. My favorite plant for indicating frost damage is the Zanzibar Castor bean because by this time of the year it is at least twelve feet tall and can show where the cold air was based on what leaves took damage. In the last cold event, its upper leaves were ok but the lower ones showed damage. The biggest sign that the frost wasn’t a killing frost and colder things are coming soon is that the Nasturtiums in a hanging grow bag were completely undamaged. This is mainly because they are in a micro climate of high humidity due to the two rain barrels and the dark material the rain barrels are made of. As you can see in the fourth picture they’re happily blooming like nothing even happened at all. So with that, if you haven’t taken your house plants and delicate potted plants in for the winter it’s time to do so because it will only get colder and a killing frost is not too far off.

(Picture: Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum sp.). Not sure which variety these are but they bloom in orange and yellow with red splotching in the flower's throats. They are the happiest flowers I've grown like this. I might have to bring them indoors for the winter.)
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November 14, 2025 at 1:48 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

This looks familiar to how a certain party talks today:

youtube.com/shorts/9qivX...

A WWII Film With a Modern Message

YouTube video by NowThis Impact

youtube.com

November 9, 2025 at 2:55 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: November 2025, #1

Good Morning Neighbors,

Today’s plant of the week takes us back to our roots. (Please look at the Alt Text for more) #WildPlants #BroadleafPlantain #Red-LeafPlantain

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Today’s plant of the week takes us back to our roots. A few of you just tuning into to the Wild Harvest Digest might not remember these posts started by covering plants you can find in the wild that have some use to you be it as food, medicine or for some survival role. Well today we have one of those kinds of plants, but the best part is that it’s a cultivated cousin of a wild one you can find in a few places right here in Fayetteville. Today’s plant is Red Plantain and it is scientifically known as (Plantago major rubrifolia) and the botanical latin breaks down easily enough ‘Plantago’ comes from the classic latin of ‘planta’ or ‘sole of foot’ and ‘ago’ meaning ‘A sort of’. The specific epithet ‘major’ means ‘larger’ or ‘greater’ and ‘rubrifolia’ means red foliage. Everything in that name is straightforward and to the point which is refreshing when it comes to botanical Latin because often the names are nuanced in ways that confuse the casual reader. These Plantains which by the way are of no relation to the little Bananas (Musa acuminata) are native to Eurasia, and thus are non-native. There are species of Plantain that are native to the USA though and they include American Plantain (P. virginica), Rugel’s Plantain (P. rugelii) and California Plantain (P. erecta).
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[Author's Note: Growing this from seed was a pain in the butt. I only got this one plant to grow and it is fabulous. Remember to surface sow the seed with at most a dusting of soil over and keep them moist in a humidity dome. it may take upwards of 20 days or more to get germination.]

There are likely others that are native but Re- Leaf Plantain is a selected cultivar of the much more common Broadleaf Plantain (P. major). This herb is hardy in USDA zones 3 to 12b, and is considered an herbaceous perennial in some parts of the country while in 8b (Fayetteville), it may retain its leaves all year. In terms of soil it prefers soils that have decent drainage but is adaptable to a wide variety of soil types and will accept a pH range between 4.8 and 7.3. Broad Leaf Plantains will grow in full sun to partial shade and are considered a rosette forming plant. A rosette forming plant typically has a growing point that is in the center of the plant that is low to the ground making it resistant to grazing animals and lawn mowers. Typically an intentionally grown Broad Leaf Plantain can have a diameter of twelve inches with a height including flower stalks of about twelve inches.

This plant has a bunch of alternate names such as Fleawort, Greater Plantain, Waybread and White Man’s Footprint. Now those last two are of note, but let’s start with the latter one; the name ‘White Man’s Footprint’ came about because this plant would originally only appear wherever Europeans built settlements as they accidentally or intentionally brought this plant to the New World.
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The former name ‘Waybread’ likely comes from the use of plantain seed to make something like flour in the New World as it is known that a cousin of this plant California Plantain has been used as a food by the indigenous peoples of America circa 6,500 to 1,500 BCE. We know this because there is a period known as the Milling Stone Horizon which is archaeological period where the Indigenous Peoples of what is now California through artifacts left behind were known to be using Manos and Metates to grind seeds into flour. A Manos and Metate is a form of Milling stone that’s operated like a Pestle and Mortar, sort of. The epoch in which this all happened is also called the Encinitas Tradition. So the native Plantains are thoroughly linked to Indigenous traditions and culture and well let’s just say the European ones are no less valuable. Red-Leaf Plantains are useful to us now because they are pretty the red coloration in my specimen really came out in the middle of summer and has gotten more vibrant as it’s gotten colder at night. In the second picture you can see the flower stalks which contain dozens of tiny inconspicuous flowers which are wind pollinated.
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[Author's Note: There is a purple-leaved variety called 'Purple Perversion' but I could not get a good photo online.]

The seed pods follow them and then of course the seeds. I know what you’re thinking, ‘I’d need hundreds of plants to make a pound of flour!’ and you are not wrong. But Plantains have other virtues, Their roots can break hardpan soils and can limit the effects of wind and water erosion of soil. Each plant can produce something like twenty-thousand seeds so they are productive if you want flour or just to use the seeds for their Psyllium fiber for digestive health. If you’re planning to make Psyllium fiber, just soak the seeds and they will create a mucilaginous high fiber beverage that can help with constipation and other digestive issues. Beyond that there is the known use for the leaves, if you are stung, harvest a leaf and chew it up then spit the green mess out and apply it to the sting. The swelling and pain should relieve itself as enzymes in the leave will interact with your saliva to handle the swelling and discomfort. Lastly, the leaves are straight up edible. Young Plantain leaves can be eaten raw like one might do for spinach or other unusual greens while older ones will need to be cooked. Plantain leaves are high in vitamins A, C and K and therefore could be the difference in a survival situation between malnutrition and surviving a bit longer. Most of all, and I’ve said this before, Red-Leaved Plantains add in foliage color to the mix making them extra useful plus the red color means Anthocyanins which have anti-inflammatory properties and are used in the body as antioxidants. Some studies suggest that Anthocyanins also can help heart health by way of lowering cholesterol and may also boost brain function. Lastly, Anthocyanins may also fight cancer by limiting tumor growth. So with all that said, Red-Leaved Plantains are something you should consider including in your back yard Apothecary.
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November 7, 2025 at 12:04 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: October 2025, #5

Good Morning Neighbors,

Today’s plant of the week is one that you really don’t see in gardens that often. Yes, I know I say that fairly often however this time I really mean it. #HardyTapioca #Cassava

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Today’s plant is all about its unique foliage, the botanical latin name for this plant is (Manihot grahamii) and it is in the Euphorbiaceae family which means it’s related to Fire on the Mountain and Poinsettias. In some older publications this plant has a few synonym botanical latin names such as; Janipha loeflingii var. multifida, Manihot dulcis var. multifida, Manihot enneaphylla, Manihot lobata, Manihot loeflingii, Manihot loeflingii var. multifida, Manihot palmata var. multifida, Manihot tweedieana, Manihot tweedieana var. lobatam and, Manihot tweedieana f. nana. So in short this plant has been around long enough to rack up a lot of alternate Latin names. This plant which is a perennial in our area is commonly called Hardy Tapioca, and that name is indicative. Hardy Tapioca originates in South America specifically Southern Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina, but it has done ok right here in zone 8b. While it is not the source of the Tapioca pearls found in Tapioca Pudding, Boba Tea, or Coconut Milk Beverages it is closely related to the true edible Tapioca (Manihot esculenta). I have to mention here, that the edible Tapioca is also called Cassava, and the part you eat is the starchy roots. If you should ever decide to try your hand at growing Cassava/Tapioca remember, there are two types of Cassava, one that is sweet and one that is bitter.
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The bitter one is exclusively used for starch extraction. Hardy Tapioca in comparison is largely unpalatable and noted to be mildly toxic. Hardy Tapioca looks like its edible cousin, has similar flowers and similar little fruits but it’s hardy in the USA from zones 7b through 11 according to the USDA. Some nurseries like Cistus say it’s only hardy to zone 8. Whereas Plant Delights says Hardy Tapioca is hardy in 7b to 10b. In the plant trade with plants that are semi-tropical you’re going to see some difference of opinion on the hardiness of a given plant. This is because of two reasons, the aforementioned nurseries may be consulting different sources to get different numbers and also because sometimes they shave a little off the ends of the USDA zone ranges. Taking a little bit off the range lowers the chance a gardener might plant their specimen a bit too far out of the range it does best in.
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[Photo credit: By SAplants - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=149272297 ]

In our zone which is 8B, this plant is herbaceous, meaning it dies back to the ground unless the winter is super-mild. We’ve only had one super-mild winter that I can recall in the last fifteen years roughly speaking so you should be prepared to see it die back leaving sticks kind of like Cotton Rose (Hibiscus mutabilis) leaves behind in winter. Since this plant isn’t known for its flowers being especially fancy, the foliage which almost resembles an ornamental fan does make it stand out amongst garden plants. That it is essentially a tropical that doesn’t need replacing in Zone 8 is a big bonus. However plants can grow as much as ten feet tall in our climate as they get bigger every year up until a certain point. A pretty cool feature of this plant is its seed pods; if they dry out without bursting I’ve read that they rattle in the wind. However all sources indicate they have a spring loaded mechanism that causes them to burst and fling the seed inside the pod several feet. This bursting is audible and triggered by the slightest touch or nearby disturbance but it is also a dispersal mechanism that you can find a lot fo examples of in the plant kingdom. Impatiens, Squirting Cucumbers, Sweet Peas, Wood Sorrel, are just a few well-known examples of plants with this feature. I have to make mention of one of the largest members of the Euphorbia family, the Sandbox Tree (Hura crepitans) which has exploding seed pods and can lob its seed at 160 miles per hour. Thankfully you won’t have to worry about seeds being flung at you at those speeds if you plant a Hardy Tapioca, but folks wondering where you got the plant and pestering you for cuttings may be another issue entirely.

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October 29, 2025 at 6:55 PM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: October 2025, #4

Good Morning Neighbors,

Today’s plant of the week is one that I had never seen outside of a book until just a few weeks ago. #GloriosaLily

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[Photo Credit: The picture of the flowers is from the NC State Plant toolbox site and was taken by Miltos Gikas.]

Today’s plant of the week is one that I had never seen outside of a book until just a few weeks ago. Photographs of this perennial typically focus on the exceptional blooms however the entire plant is an interesting study into plant biology. That plant I’m talking about is the Gloriosa Lily (Gloriousa superba), which despite the common name is not in the true lily family (Liliaceae), and instead is in the (Colchicaceae) family. That family might sound familiar to you because it’s most medically famous member is the Autumn Crocus (Colchicum autumnale) from which we derive Colchicine which is used to treat Gout. Also this means that Gloriosa Lilies are related to Saffron (Crocus sativus) the culinary herb. With the pedigree of today’s plant out of the way, I do have to mention it has other common names like Cat’s Claw, Climbing Lily, Flame Lily, Glory Lily, Superb Lily and Tiger’s Claw. So, what’s special about this plant? Well, Gloriosa Lily is the only lily in common cultivation that can climb like a vine. Individual stalks can grow up to eight feet long and they readily scramble atop whatever is nearby that allows them to get to brighter light. The leaves of this Lily have little curling tendrils at the leaf tips that allow them to hold onto whatever is nearby.
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[Photo Note: that is a seed pod that may or may not have viable seed in it given the visible damage, Not the curly tips on the leaves, those are used to allow it to climb other plants.]

Other plants that climb have similar adaptations include Garden Peas (Pisum sativum), Sweet Peas (Lathyrus odoratus) and Climbing Aloe (Aloiampelos ciliaris/ Aloe ciliaris) which hooks its leaf tips around other plants it is growing on. While Gloriosa Lilies are hardy in USDA zones 8a through 12b, in our area you can generally expect that they will due back to the ground every fall and start growing again in the spring from their tuberous roots. The flower is what makes this plant truly unique though The picture I’ve included with this article does it no justice, and an internet search will reveal it comes in a fair variety of colors, reds, oranges, yellow, pinks and blends of two or three of the aforementioned colors. The petals are upturned and curled in while the pistils and stamen stick out downward and the whole thing kind of resembles an abstract hot air balloon.
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Of course there are cultivars with curlier flower petals, thinner flower petals so some varieties might also resemble a large colorful spider. Gloriosa Lilies tend to bloom in the mid to late summer into the fall so you have a fair range of time to enjoy them. As far as I’ve seen they tolerate a range of soil, but do best in soils with a lot of organic matter and need good drainage. Gloriosa Lilies also prefer full to partial sun and need regular watering to do really present a good showing. You can thankfully order this plant from a few growers or if you happen to know someone who has seeds or plants taking root cuttings is a surefire way to get one.
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[Photo Note: the bright red seeds are of note here as they might be mistaken for berries and eaten.]

Now we have to talk about the bad side of this plant. It is not native to the USA, and originates in Southern Africa and Tropical Asia. Normally this is not really a problem, but in some places where it was introduced it has become an Invasive plant. In the USA, specifically parts of Florida it is considered and invasive/noxious weed and chances are other parts of the 9 to 10 USDA zones will eventually classify it as such also. We’re in Zone 8B, which means it would be wise to monitor your plant for undesired escapes from cultivation. Unfortunately this isn’t all of the bad regarding Gloriosa Lily as all parts of this plant are very toxic and can be fatal if eaten. The symptoms of poisoning by consuming this plant are Numbness in the lips, tongue and throat. Additional symptoms include thirst, fever, bloody vomiting, bloody bowels, labored breathing, convulsions, shock, multi-organ damage and the suppression of the bone marrow’s function. In short, this is plant that is safe to handle but not to consume in any fashion. This is par for the course for a lot of members of the family so this is something you should consider planting where pets and children cannot get to it.

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October 24, 2025 at 8:12 PM

Reposted by TKG

🦋 ~Bindi~ 🦋

@bindiatthebeach.bsky.social

This is chilling. And it doesn't exist anymore except on the Internet.

October 23, 2025 at 1:06 PM

Reposted by TKG

Rachel Maddow

@maddow.bsky.social

"nearly half..." ???

it's an open book test.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm...

October 23, 2025 at 4:02 PM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: October 2025, #3

Good Morning Neighbors,
Today’s plant of the week is one that has a bit of a story behind it because it is several years in the making. #Crinum #OrangeRiverLily #UrbanToughPerennials

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Today’s plant of the week is one that has a bit of a story behind it because it is several years in the making. As gardeners we have all felt that compulsion where you see a plant somewhere and you don’t know what it is but you know you want it in your garden. A customer at the Farmer’s Market once called this compulsion ‘Sparklitis’ because you’re totally enamored with whatever it is and don’t care about the price, or any other details, you just have to have it. Garden history is littered with tales of this exact compulsion taken to extremes with Tulip Mania, The wealthy’s obsession over rare Orchids or Cycads, the Victorian fern craze, the Victorian Seaweed craze, and I am certain there are others historically speaking. Well that effect has a longer version and it struck me three years ago in October of 2022. The first picture included with this article is the first specimen of its type I ever noticed. This house is located off Dunn Road heading back from Eastover and this plant was perpetually evergreen, I took this photo through the window of my car while stopped at the intersection. I know the photo is of poor quality but sometimes you take what you can get and at the very least it would help me figure out what this plant was so I could get it into my garden. At this point some of you out there are undoubtedly saying it’s a Crinum and you are right, it is a very healthy bunch of Crinum. However the problem arose when I tried to determine which Crinum it is.

You see, the Crinum genus has about 180 species of perennial plants naturally and the number of hybrids one can get though plant vendors only adds to the difficulty of identification. Either way I was not deterred, I needed to know, and well supposedly that’s half the battle so the hunt for information went on. I never did find a satisfactory match for the one in the first photograph...
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but I did at least find a close specimen in the form of an Orange River Lily (Criunum bulbispermum) for sale in spring of 2024 after a reasonable search for information. The flowers were a match for shape and despite the pink tinges were the same color. The overall stature of my plant was exactly like the one in the first photograph but of course the stand of Crinum I photographed was years old and that meant I’d be waiting for a while to see similar effects in the departments of foliage and flowers. Now that plant has developed since I planted it last year but as we all know gardening sometimes is all about the patience as you wait for that huge payoff for your efforts years down the road. I did not have to wait long. In May of this year I saw something down town that was very worthy of a photograph; the Crinum in the second photograph, I think I was headed to Bell’s Seed Store for something or other and saw this amazing specimen poking up through a tiny gap in the concrete by the curb next to that telephone pole. At first I thought it was a new and different species of Crinum, but no, it appears to be a very old stand of the same species of Crinum, possibly from a time before there were so many hybrids. I was able to stop, get out of my vehicle and get a far better picture. Now this plant had short stubby leaves because big long flappy ones were not in its best interest plus being surrounded with all the heat coming off the nearby hard surfaces, it had essentially become a local phenotype. There was no way to get a sample of the plant or extract a bulb due to how tightly packed this specimen was but in a few months I’d get a chance.
This is where the third picture comes in to the story. For those of you who don’t know, I have a habit of spotting and rescuing plants from abandoned properties or ones that are about to be claimed by the earth moving blade of a bulldozer.
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In the last week at an abandoned and blighted property in the city I saw two curious things, a bevy of Hurricane Lilies (Lycoris radiata) which were up for the salvaging, and several plants that I would later identify as Orange River Lilies that were showing the short leaf trait just like the ones in the second picture. Digging them proved to be somewhat difficult as their bulbs were about eight inches to a foot down. I had to use a trenching shovel to carefully dig around them and get under them to get them out. These specimens were easily the largest hardy bulbs I’ve ever handled in the plant trade in my entire career; 5+ pounds each. These specimens were big but that meant they were old, possibly more than a decade old, maybe planted several owners of the abandoned property ago. In my hands I had living city history right there, and if they could talk there’s no telling what sort of stories they might have. But of course looking at them at the time I could not ascertain what species they were, the running theory was that they were mature Red Spider lilies. The issue with that theory was that Spider Lily bulbs were not known to get anywhere near that big, so then the next possibility was Amaryllis proper (Hippeastrum x hybridum). This idea got shot down quickly because the leaves despite being a very local phenotype to escape the landscaper’s methods did not match normal Amaryllis leaves. As turns out I was looking at the right family but the wrong genus, I consulted friends, other gardeners in the southeast and even tried one of those plant ID apps. I remembered the second photo posted with this post, I’d seen this plant before somewhere else in the city. Rummaging through my camera’s digital memory there it was the strange but captivating unknown plant from May of this year, a high probability match. So the mystery bulbs were a Crinum after all, and now all I have to do is plant them and watch that Gardening magic happen.
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October 16, 2025 at 12:59 PM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

It's the greatest thing I've ever known, Ridged Luffa Gourds on a plate made of Watermelooooon! LOL, 200 growing days to finally get luffas....what a pain in the butt this crop was.

October 10, 2025 at 11:02 PM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: October 2025, #2

Good Morning Neighbors,

Today’s plant is one that I’ve covered before but am coming back to because they’re even more impressive looking this year then they have been in prior years. #nativeflowers #NativePoinsettia

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The Wild Harvest Digest: October 2025, #2

Good Morning Neighbors,
Today’s plant is one that I’ve covered before but am coming back to because they’re even more impressive looking this year then they have been in prior years. The plant is commonly called Fire on the Mountain and its scientific name is (Euphorbia cyathophora). The Euphorbia family is commonly called the Spurge or Poinsettia family. The latter name comes from its most famous member the Poinsettia (E. pulcherrima) which was named for Robert Poinsett the United States minister to Mexico who was credited with introducing the plant to the USA in the 1820’s. Due to the activities of conquistadores and colonization the original name for the plant which is indigenous to Mexico and Central America is lost to history. In comparison to its famous cousin, Fire on the Mountain is native to sub-tropical and tropical North and South America.
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I found the original specimen growing that would be the ancestor to all the plant’s photographed in the test gardens growing in a garden bed in the Haymount and thought somehow against all odds a Poinsettia had naturalized in Fayetteville. I was half right in that in assessment but at the time information about the plant was scarce and I initially grew mine in a small 5” black pot like any other house plant in the kitchen window. The following spring I planted it in the garden after the threat of frost passed and little did I know I’d started a real succession of garden annuals. So, what is Fire on the Mountain exactly? Well, it is essentially our native equivalent to a Poinsettia but it has a lot of common names you might hear. Other common names for this plant are Catalina, Desert Poinsettia, Dwarf Poinsettia, Florida Poinsettia, Mexican Fire Plant, Painted Leaf, Painted-leaf Spurge, Painted Poinsettia, Painted Spurge, Summer Poinsettia and, Wild Poinsettia. Additionally it has had a bunch of scientific name changes over the years including; Euphorbia barbellata, Euphorbia graminifolia, Euphorbia heterophylla var. barbellata, Euphorbia heterophylla var. cyathophora, Euphorbia heterophylla var. graminifolia, Poinsettia barbellata, Poinsettia cyathophora and, Poinsettia graminifolia.
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So this plant has been reasonably well-known to botanical science for quite some time. Biologically this plant is considered a very close cousin to the Poinsettia and is generally a short-lived annual or a biennial and it is cultivated for consumer and commercial use but is also considered a weed by some. The name cyathophora originates from two Greek words meaning “cup-bearer” referring to the shape of the flower’s bases. As with other members of the Euphorbia family the colorful structures one might mistake for petals are actually bracts or leaves that serve a similar purpose while the structures at the center of the bracts are the actual petal-less flowers. If you want to grow this one it prefers full sun to partial shade and soil that is moist but well drained and preferably sandy or gravelly/rocky soils. This native plant bears leaves and branches in a opposite arrangement on the bottom of the plant but shifts to an alternate arrangement in the majority of the stem then back to opposite near the tips.
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On average a well-grown plant can get up to three and a half feet tall with a two-foot spread. Also this plant has milky latex sap that can pose an allergen hazard to those allergic to latex. Fire on the Mountain is attractive to native species of Bees, Butterflies and even some species of flies, it is also a larval host plant for at least one species of Moth and its seeds are a preferential food for Mourning Doves. Lastly, Fire on the mountain is viable for growing in USDA zones 3A through 11b. You can get the seeds for this plant at the link below:

https://www.prairiemoon.com/euphorbia-cyathophora-fire-on-the-mountain

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October 10, 2025 at 1:39 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

Polka the farm's overlord has indicated her approval of the catnip crop.

October 3, 2025 at 3:27 AM

TKG

@tkg-nc.bsky.social

The Wild Harvest Digest: October 2025, #1

Good Morning Neighbors,

Today’s plant is one that a bunch of you upon learning exists might say something like “OMG stop talking and take my money!” because I know that’s what I said when I first found out it existed. #CranberryHibiscus