Not constant, actually, my professor emphasized that after being completely dessicated, when rehydrated about 80% of the plant will revive perfectly functional

Liverworts are one of the oldest living ancestors of modern plants, their life cycles are kinda weird, they look more like something that grows in a petri dish than a plant, and this one looks like snake skin

I just finished a two week, three credit-hour crash course primarily on mosses, but it included liverworts and hornworts a bit, too. So to find one in the wild was really cool because it’s the first time in my life I’ve seen one.

They’re just weird and I like em

Look up keystone species, they’re the best bang for your buck

I really appreciate that! I made sure to make most of the things I planted look intentional, because my desire for wildness isn’t realistic in suburbia.

So I labeled every species with sharpie on paint sticks and defined borders, in the hopes that the new owners don’t just tear it all out

I did the math, though, and my gardens are roughly 1.8% of the lawn. Nowhere near large enough.

I told my wife that it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to me that at least 20% of our next yard is native plants and (she doesn’t know this) a functional ecosystem.

I read “Nature’s Best Hope” by Doug tallamy this semester and it gave me a glimmer of hope against my almost total conviction that things are beyond saving

Yeeahhh I know, that was there when we bought the house a couple years ago and I never got around to replacing them. We’re moving, anyway, and I didn’t have time to grow bushes to replace them

My phrasing was confusing. The big plant in the backyard that I wanted to be butterfly weed isn’t, but this little plant, in the front yard, is.

Sorry what?

The branching stems at every node make me think it isn’t Goldenrod, but who knows

I just question the aster ID because it doesn’t seem to have the clasping leaves that asters do

I think I got it as a little sprout from a native plant rescue staffed by volunteers, so IDing it was probably questionable

East Tennessee

And the front yard: