We are prepping a new crevice garden on the site of a neglected pollinator garden. It was overtaken in part by snowberry bushes, a vital winter food source for birds. The original plan was to compost them because there wasn't a site selected for transplanting them. I kept bringing up how many calories that is until I was finally given the okay to just pot up as many as I thought would survive.

Now the city has a surplus of really good native plants that can go anywhere we'd otherwise pay to plant something non-native and ornamental. The problem of not having a site selected is being countered by my solution of converting all undervalued urban greenspace to something better.

That's also only one of two truck-loads. I also got some native rabbitbrush, a long-season flowering shrub that pollinators go monkey for.

Guy builds pond for fishing, sees impact on wider ecosystem, builds pond for wider ecosystem.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6231160

Soliman is a young Palestinian from Gaza who lives under extremely difficult circumstances. Despite his young age, he struggles to balance his education while shouldering the primary responsibility of supporting his family. The burden has become overwhelming, especially after the family lost their only source of income.

They once owned a modest farm with olive and citrus trees, along with a small plastic greenhouse. This farm was not only a livelihood but a place filled with childhood memories—where Soliman and his siblings used to help their father with the agricultural work. Sadly, the entire farm was burned and completely destroyed by Israeli attacks, wiping out the crops, tools, and everything they had built over the years.

The tragedy didn’t end there. Their family home was also destroyed in the recent Israeli bombardment of Gaza, leaving them homeless and without any source of income, amid the long-standing humanitarian crisis gripping the region.

Yet, despite all this, Soliman remains resilient. He continues to pursue his education and works tirelessly to provide even the bare minimum for his family. But the weight of these responsibilities is far too heavy for one young man to bear alone.

In the face of such devastating hardship, you are their only hope after God. Your support can help Soliman and his family overcome this tragedy and rebuild a part of the life they once knew. Any assistance, no matter how small, can make a profound difference. Donation Link:

🔗 https://www.gofundme.com/f/surviving-an-onslaught

NO STRUGGLE SESH THIS IS A GOOD EXAMPLE

It might also be Crucibulum laeve. I didn't have my field guide on me to ID them. Whenever I plant a pollinator garden at work, we can't use chemicals on it. The soil micro/macrofauna become really diverse as a result. The only two places I've seen in this area with populations of this fungi are both pollinator gardens.

Red and green kangaroo paw. I don't see them wild very often so it's always a buzz when I do (they're a common garden species but it's not the same!)

I think phebalium squamulosum is pretty funny to say

Pterostylis recurva. I don't know if I've ever seen one before, certainly not recently! Really cool. Had no idea they grew on campus. There were like five or six plants in a little patch.

The only home we've ever known.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/28117898

The Atlas blue butterfly is found in the mountain ranges of Morocco and northeast Algeria.

While it had been suspected to have the most chromosome pairs in the animal kingdom, this is the first time experts have sequenced the butterfly genome to confirm.

For comparison, a close relative found widely in the UK, the common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus), has 24 chromosomes.

Changes in chromosome numbers are thought to contribute to the process of new species forming and help species adapt to their environment.

These ones are more commonly known as the "slipper limpet", and here's how they reproduce, according to Wikipedia:

The species is a sequential hermaphrodite. The slipper limpet normally lives in stacks of up to 12 individuals, with the largest at the bottom and with increasingly smaller individuals stacked on top of one another. The largest and oldest animals, at the base of a pile are female, the younger and smaller animals at the top are male. If the females in the stack die, the largest of the males will become a female.

They have a fucking SEX PILE and if one of the females dies, one of the males just changes her sex and fills in where the last female left off. How cool is that???

A cowslip (Caladenia flava), a very common flower that is pretty much always the first orchid out where present. The other Caladenia spp. are generally bigger, showier and present flowers higher up (around waist level) and I love all of them, but I have a soft spot for this gorgeous, rich yellow flower.

It's a Sundew, Drosera erythrogine I think. Always get a kick out of them.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6083429

🌱 I am Soliman from Gaza

We are living in very difficult conditions, and my family needs help.

I am trying to buy a tent and winter clothes for my siblings and family.

Every small contribution makes a big difference. 💖

➡️ Donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/surviving-an-onslaught