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Thursday, December 13, 2012

December 11, 2012 garden newsletter


We had some freezing drizzle last night and this morning I drove to town down a road lined with glittery trees and diamond sprinkled tall grasses.  The sun was shining and the roads were fine so it was beautiful.  By the time I returned later today the clouds had returned and it was snowing lightly, not so beautiful.

There’s a Geminid meteor shower that should be spectacular this week.  The moon will be new, which means barely visible, and as we are expected to have clear skies viewing should be great, but cold.  You will be able to see up to 100 shooting stars an hour, a sight worth watching, after 1 am on Friday, December 14, although some falling stars will be visible soon after dusk on Thursday, December 13.  This is the best meteor shower this year and probably for a while to come.  Why not set the alarm and go outside and sit in your car to watch?  Or better yet bundle up and sit in a lawn chair.  Shut off all the outside lights and listen for owls calling.

New garden trends

What’s hot in gardening this year?  Terrariums are back in fashion along with dish gardens designed similar to bonsai as miniature landscapes.   Catalogs are featuring both retro and modern terrariums and lots of figurines and miniatures for designing your own fairyland, medieval farm, or desert landscape.  Small plants suitable for dish landscapes are also being offered.

Moss is also popular this year both as specimens to be planted in pots indoors and as a wrap for the roots of small houseplants.  There are many unusual plants in the moss family that make unique houseplants. Sheets of green moss are tied around the root balls of small plants and then suspended in twine hangers or sat in decorative trays.  Sheets of moss are also being sold for those miniature landscapes mentioned above.

Oddly shaped decorative pots or planting containers are also hot, often in bold colors with metallic trim or designs.  The pot is meant to be an art statement as well as a holder for a plant.  Pots for indoor plants are being featured which hopefully means a return to popularity for houseplants.

Old trees dying in record numbers

Scientists around the world are alarmed at the number of huge old trees that are dying.  Trees that have stood for centuries are dying at an alarming rate, probably 5 times more than the average losses twenty years ago.   A combination of warming climate, drought, severe wildfires due to drought, insect attacks, and increased logging and land clearing all seem to play a part in the loss.

Each large, ancient tree represents thousands of square feet for habitat for wildlife and even other forms of plants, lichens and mosses.  It’s estimated that 30% of the world’s bird species require large older trees as part of their habitat either for nesting or roosting.  All continents are losing the large old trees, including North America and all types of trees are being affected.  Trees sequester carbon, provide cooling, return nutrients to the soil and actually influence the environment in their location.

The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) is calling for an urgent global response to the loss of ancient trees, including locating and cataloging ancient trees as well as working out plans to preserve them.  Each tree can represent hundreds of years of history in their location.  It’s vital that we understand what is happening to them and work to stabilize the losses.

Why the frogs are dying

When I was young I remember the yard and sidewalks being filled with hopping toads after a summer rain.  I could sit in my warm, stuffy school room on a bright spring day and hear a chorus of frogs from the swamps several blocks away.  Now the sight and sound of frogs and toads is becoming increasingly rare.  I still see frogs and the occasional toad in my yard and here in the country we still get serenaded in the spring but even in the twenty years we have lived here I have noticed fewer and fewer frogs and toads, even though we provide plenty of good habitat.

It seems that across the world frogs and toads have declined to alarmingly low population rates and many rare species have disappeared.  Researchers have proposed several causes, including chemicals in the water, stronger UV rays from diminishing ozone layers, loss of habitat and climate change.  There is no doubt that all of those things contribute to the loss of amphibians but now researchers have determined that a fungal disease may be the primary cause of frog death worldwide.

The severe decline of frogs was first noticed in Australia and South America in the 1980’s.  It wasn’t until 1998 that a fungal disease Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) was identified as a possible cause of frog decline.   We know now that frogs in every corner of the world have the disease.  Recent research suggests that Bd is causing much of the decline in the world’s frogs and toads.

Studies by the University of California, Berkley and San Francisco State University found a 95% decline in frog populations after the disease hit the Sierra Nevada area. They found that infected frogs had skins up to 40 times thicker than normal and the thickened skins prevented them from absorbing water and electrolytes through the skin.  The frogs basically died from dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.

Frogs in captivity are easy to treat with common veterinarian fungicides and generally recover.  However it is impossible to treat frogs in the wild this way.  Frogs that are treated and released soon get the disease again.  Researchers are hopeful that a treatment they are developing from normal skin bacteria that live on frogs will eventually be helpful.

It seems amazing that a disease which seems to have emerged in South America could spread across the globe so easily.  Frogs don’t migrate or travel great distances.  I guess they must hitchhike on plants and on boats.  Frogs are the food of other species of animals both as adults and tadpoles and their loss also affects other species of animals.  Frogs also help control insects. Gardeners should do everything they can to protect the frogs and toads in their gardens because they may soon be gone.

137 new species discovered this year

Enough of dyingThis year’s scientific journals have announced that 137 new species of animals and plants were discovered and named this year.  The new species include 83 insects/arachnids, 41 fish, 7 plants, 4 sea slugs, 1 reptile and 1 amphibian.   In 2011 there were 144 new species discovered.  One of the species or actually a new Family of arachnids discovered this year is a clawed spider found in caves in our Pacific Northwest which has been named Trogloraptor, or “cave robber”.

The down side to this is the new species announced may have been identified from specimens locked up in cabinets for up to 20 years waiting to be studied. One of the new species identified this year actually came from a frog specimen collected in the 1930’s.  That’s tragic considering that frog populations are quickly being decimated by the fungal disease discussed previously.   In some cases the whole species may have gone extinct while waiting to be identified since the specimens are often from isolated pockets of territory that were opened up for exploration by being logged or developed for farming and other uses. 

The scientific community really needs to step up their efforts to identify specimens thought to be distinct and new to science.  This is being discussed in many scientific circles and soon we may see a greater focus on quickly identifying collected specimens so populations at risk of extinction can be protected.  By the way specimens discovered by amateur naturalists are often identified much sooner than those collected by professional zoologists and botanists.  That’s because the amateur collector is more eager to identify the specimen, however lowly, and possibly get credit for discovering it.

A good reason to keep cats out of the garden

I spent several hours this week researching and reading about some fascinating new discoveries that link a common cat parasite Toxoplasma gondii with mental illness and suicide in humans.  The protozoan parasite can only complete its life cycle in cats and is shed in cat feces.  People acquire the parasite by eating vegetables and fruits contaminated with it or pick it up when cats contact surfaces where food is prepared or eaten or when humans change litter boxes and handle cats.

In people the parasite often travels to the brain and makes a cyst in brain cells and there is now proof that those cysts secrete a substance that affects mood and emotion.  Research at Michigan State has found that people with Toxoplasma are 7 times more likely to commit suicide than people without the parasite.  The parasite is also linked to bi-polar disease, schizophrenia and other mental illness.   You can read more about this in an article I wrote on Examiner which also has links to scientific articles. http://www.examiner.com/article/common-cat-parasite-is-linked-to-mental-illness-and-suicide-humans

Gardeners should try to keep cats out of gardens, especially if they use them as a giant kitty litter box.  And always keep children’s sandboxes covered to prevent them from being contaminated.  I like cats, I own at least 7- more keep being dropped off- and I don’t intend to let this scare me about keeping them.  But I will be a little more cautious about washing my hands after handling them.

The fascinating history of poinsettias
December 12 is National Poinsettia Day. The day was set in 2002 to honor Joel Poinsett, the first US ambassador to Mexico, who died on this date in 1851. Poinsett was an interesting man, trained as a doctor; he had an avid interest in botany and natural history. While serving as Mexico’s US ambassador (1825-1829) he often wandered the countryside looking for new plant specimens. In southern Mexico the plant we now call poinsettias grew as tree-like weeds up to 10 feet tall. Read more at the link below.

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