I think the latest glass gem popcorn (right) was harvested at a better time. The colors are brighter and the kernels are looser. The plant stalk was completely dry as well as the ear husk.Tuqu wanted to rub her face on it.Gram was only mildly intrigued.Shackleton went under the bed to avoid responding to our survey.Briar only had eyes for Shackleton.
Plant A: the volunteer. It has generated two fruits and Paula wants to eat them. I want to know what this plant is first. Help me not let Paula get sick.Close up of plant A leaf.Close up of Plant A young flower. A more mature flower a few months ago (see below) has more brown/purple on petals but not I think on the anthers?The north central Texas flora keys out to two main groups by hair type. These, on Plant A, appear to be simple, and possibly retrorse (curving down). No hair joints eliminates P. heterophylla.Plant A: the leaf and the two fruits. The fruit calyxes are five angled.I zoomed in on a picture of the previous flower, same plant A. I believe the anthers are yellow. I would like help with that, as it’s been a while since I’ve tried to confirm anthers. Yellow anthers and simple hairs get it to P. longifolia or P. virginiana in the NC TX Flora. The leaves for both species are are ovate to lanceolate, which seems inconsistent with Plant A. Longifolia also is said to often have purple stems. This one has stripes but not fully purple. The NC TX Flora says these two are possibly toxic. The new Foraging Texas book says all the Physalis are fine. Other sources claim virginiana’s fine or may need a frost. One of the sources is this book about Physalis and relatives so I may get it via interlibrary loan.This is the underside of Plant B. Plant B should be a cultivar of Physalis pruinosa based on its location and what I have planted there. It has similar simple, possibly retrorse hairs. Plant B is not flowering yet this year. I had a really hard time finding flower pictures for P. pruinosa, as most people sort of reasonably are interested in the fruit. It does appear to have yellow anthers. Plant C. This is from a probably perennial wild Physalis (I have never planted any Physalis that made it to fruiting in the backyard). Its hairs are distinctly stellate. None of the individuals in the cluster of 2-4 Plant C individuals were flowering, but the hairs seem to narrow it to P. cinerascens or P. mollis. I think P. cinerascens seems more likely on leaf shape, but both are edible and neither have simple leaf hairs.Plant C leaf (left) and plants A (upper right leaf, bigger) and B (lower right leaf, smaller – it’s from a younger plant), and plant A fruits.
So, am I missing anything obvious here? Is this identifiable? Have any of you consumed P. longifolia or P. virginiana and lived?
Update: Mom showed me a few other keys and they get it to P. virginiana too. None of the keys contain P. pruinosa. P. virginiana is also a perennial while P. pruinosa is an annual, so maybe next year will also provide a clue.
Couscous, roasted chicken, and roasted okra from farm share.Noodles with sauce, I forget what kind, but it has garden onions and garden purple bell peppers in it.Cheesy grits with farm share tomatoes, roast chicken, and roast okra.Briar knows about the roast chicken. Mostly farm share veggies here, I can’t remember if garden onions involved?Not sure if Shackleton is here for the chair or the chicken smells.A veggie and chicken omelet with couscous and cilantro. Veggies included garden onions and garden purple bell peppers.
Garden radishes with farm share and grocery store veggies Uncooked pizza with toppings more visible – garden basil as both a topping and as part of pesto that the Chef made a while back, as well as slices of Dwarf Audrey’s Love tomatoes.Cooked pizza. Yum!!
Baby cushaw squash!Recovering from removal of benign sebaceous cysts is more complicated than either of us expected.Purple hulled pinkeye cowpea.I really like the little signs Paula got me for Christmas. They stand out well.A gray hairstreak on a Madhu ras canteloupe flower.Paula’s Coryphantha sulcata is blooming!In fact, it has two. She says it had six earlier this year too.New tiny moth – a spotted thyris!Bee butt in loofah gourd.Paula made Thai green curry for dinner. It contains last year’s garden white currant tomatoes (from frozen, so that works well), garden onions, and garden walking onions.The Texas buckeye is very angry. I put a hose out to soak there. Jeanne has let me know the wild ones do this too, so maybe it will recover.Possibly purple prairie clover from free packet from prairiemoon.com?A second round of standing cypress flowers on a different plant.A volunteer Carolina snailseed in the front yard.Will Rogers Zinnias are looking good in the rainbow garden.Briar loves escorting Shackleton for a walk.Shackleton doesn’t know why we have to ruin a good thing by bringing the dog.We were about to go back inside, but she got up and scooted closer. He turned to glare while she got a treat for laying down.Shackleton says no eye contact.Here you can pretend there is no dog, only lush, succulent grass and corn.
The accidental shot of the week. I didn’t notice this bee kicking a wasp off its foot until I looked at the photo later!The bumblebee is feeding on Echinacea purpurea.Front of the bumblebee face is yellow.A zoomed in shot. The short overall hairs, all yellow on thorax and head, smoky dark wings, and minimal color on abdomen have led me to think it may be Bombus griseocollis, the brown-belted bumblebee. I have entered the sighting and photos on Bumble Bee Watch’s community science website where they can verify or correct this identification. This would be our fourth bumblebee species for the yard if I have identified it correctly. 🤞🤞I found a second partridge pea plant blooming in the “prairie”!An all orangish solider beetle on a Rudbeckia flower.Shackleton the cat enjoyed hiding in brown crinkly paper. He has such big eyes!Paula is experimenting with kombucha fermentation thanks to a culture from Abby. This is the first sample and contains a garden strawberry for added flavor. It was good!Briar helps us observe bees out front. I’ll do a separate post with evening bees if any pics turned out.A baby moon and stars watermelon!!A baby praying mantis on the mint!Paula and I weeded the orange and red section of the rainbow garden. It has a lot of invasive grass in it.
Paula made dinner with kimchi pancakes (with plum sauce) and egg foo young on rice to go with it. Cilantro from the garden is garnishing all of it, plus the kimchi contains walking onions.Red cabbage kimchi makes a mess. More walking onions from the garden here.
