Queer /kwir/</p> differing in some way from what is usual or normal</li> of, relating to, or being a person whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual and/or whose gender identity is not cisgender</li> </ol> Those who are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community have long been labelled as being abnormal or queer. While many of us have since claimed the term and use it with pride, it still carries the weight of a history of being outcast and labelled as ‘unnatural.’ Isn’t it strange, though, that nature doesn’t seem to be at all concerned with what we as humans find natural or not?</p> There are hundreds of documented cases of homosexual behavior in animals. Hermaphroditic animals are plenty as are transsexual animals. And just last year at the Denver Zoo, a Komodo dragon</a> laid a clutch of eggs resulting in two baby dragons all on her own through an asexual reproduction process known as parthenogenesis. All these occurrences might be considered unnatural by certain human values.</p> </picture> </div> </article> Bonobos, commonly known to exhibit homosexual behavior. Source</a> </p> Plants also have a variety of sexual forms and states. A single plant can have both male and female sexual organs, while other plant varieties have separate plants that hold each type of sexual organ. Some plants reproduce sexually through pollination while others reproduce asexually through vegetative propagation, fragmentation, or spore formation. In 2019 it was discovered that Solanum plastisexum</em>, a species of bush tomato, exhibits “breeding system fluidity,” or sexual fluidity: at times the same plant might exhibit only characteristics of the female reproductive system and at others will have only the male reproductive system. What a weird and beautiful plant.</p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> McDonnell AJ, Wetreich HB, Cantley JT, Jobson P, Martine CT (2019) Solanum plastisexum</em>, an enigmatic new bush tomato from the Australian Monsoon Tropics exhibiting breeding system fluidity. PhytoKeys 124: 39-55. Source</a> </p> “Nature” has often been used as the justification for the ostracism and animosity hurled at those in the Queer community. Queer ecology, a fairly recent ideology, attempts to break the understanding of nature that humanity has created, and instead allow nature to just be what it is. Stemming from Queer Theory which challenges the notion that heterosexual desire is “normal,” Queer ecology is about “letting go of the idea of what is natural and acknowledging the diversity of the natural world.” “Natural” is a completely human defined term, and so long as we continue to view nature through our limited understanding of what it should be, it’s likely we will never fully understand it.</p> </picture> </div> </article> Denver Botanic Gardens participating in Pride, 2019.</p> The queerness of humanity and the natural world outside of us provides a beautiful backdrop of diversity. Perhaps we should embrace the Queer.</p> Learn More!</h4> The Helen Fowler Library has many books on environmental justice and topics like Queer ecology. The collection is always growing!</p> "The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World" by Andrea Wulf contains ideas about the interconnectedness of nature similar to Queer Ecology.</p> </p> More Resources</h4> Nothing more queer than nature</a> | Brigitte Baptiste | TEDxRiodelaPlata</li> Queering Botanical Science: A Recap</a></li> How to Queer Ecology: One Goose at a Time</a></li> Feminist and Queer Ecology Reading List</a></li> </ul> </p>
Succulent plants have fascinated gardeners for many decades, and this trend shows no sign of slowing. There are many attributes that make them a great choice for Denver, and although delving into growing them can be frightening, I’m here to give you the 411 on making them thrive as you impress your friends and neighbors.</p> Let’s go over a few definitions and ground rules. Technically speaking a succulent plant is any plant that has ability to store water for later use. Generally, they want a lot of light and a little water. I know, easier said than done. For me, keeping the Gardens’ indoor collection of succulent plants from around the world requires diligence, attention to detail and of course, my trusty old crystal ball. </p> Here are some tips to keep your plants healthy and happy. Keep in mind these are generalizations; not meant to take the place of looking up individual plants for specific details.</p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> Echinofossulocactus multicostatus</em></p> Planting Outside</h4> The general timeline that frost-sensitive plants can be grown outside in Colorado is from Mother’s Day to early October. When it’s time for the plants to fledge your nest, they must be carefully acclimated to brighter light or they will scar, burn or worse! One trick is to put them in partial shade under a tree, etc., or under shade cloth. Try to increase the light steadily for about a week.</p> Containers</h4> Keep it tight, pack it full of plants; it will be easier and prettier. I like pots that are more wide than deep.</p> Soil</h4> Bottom line: Just make it drain well without too much organic matter. Succulents would much rather have lean, fast-draining soil than that rich chocolate cake you grow your other plants in. There is no one good mix for everything. I take regular bagged topsoil (about 50%) and add ingredients like charcoal, perlite, sand and gravel (other 50%) to “chunkify” it to my liking.</p> Watering</h4> Best advice I can give: When in doubt, do without. This is and was the hardest thing I struggle not to do, 18 years into collecting. I love succulent plants and I still tie a ribbon around my finger to not love them to death. Plants grown outside, I water thoroughly once per week. The cycle of soil moisture should look something like this: totally wet for one day, medium moisture for 3-4 days and almost totally dry for 2-3 days.</p> Times of Trouble</h4> Things to look for that will require immediate action are stretching or discoloration. If your once nice, tight, red plant is stretching in every direction and turning green, it needs more light and possibly less water. Rot is another problem you need to act on right away. Pull the rotting plant out of the soil, cut off the rotted portion at least a half inch past the rot. Put rooting hormone on the wound and expose to sunlight for a couple days. Once the wound has sealed place carefully back into soil. Some stems may need to be braced until they grow roots again.</p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> Bulbine torta</em></p> Lastly, buy plants from reputable nurseries and garden centers who employ a trained horticulture staff. I guarantee you will get better plants and advice, and the plant will have a name tag! Spend time with your plants and pay attention to changes and they will tell you everything you need to know. Don’t give up even if you kill a few --I sure have, and that’s how I learned to do it right. </p> </p> This article appears in the June 2021 issue of Life on Capitol Hill.</em> </p>
One of my botanical heroes is the remarkable Alice Eastwood. Although she never had any formal training in botany, Alice was one of the most preeminent botanists in the West in the late 1800s and early 1900s. She began her career as a high school teacher in Denver in 1879, after graduating as class valedictorian from East Denver High School. While working, she saved most of her salary of $475 a year to fund her most passionate hobby – summer botanical explorations in the Rocky Mountains. </p> Alice went to great lengths to pursue plants – she learned how to ride horses so that she could travel to remote, inaccessible locations, and she even designed her own expedition outfits. During this time, Alice also compiled and wrote “A Popular Flora of Denver</a>,” published in 1893, a few copies of which are housed in the rare book collection of the Helen Fowler Library</a>.</p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> Image source</a>. Public domain. </p> Alice moved to California in 1892 and began working as the curator of the California Academy of Sciences herbarium in San Francisco, but she continued to return to Colorado to document the flora. In particular, Alice was interested in the desert country and Mancos clay hillsides of the western part of the state. During her career, she described to science over 700 new species of plants, such as Castilleja scabrida</em></a>, and had many more named in her honor, such as Erythranthe eastwoodiae</a></em>. One new species that Alice described was Oreocarya aperta</a></em>, which she collected near Grand Junction in 1892. Today, this species is only known from her type collection and is otherwise presumed extinct. Alice even received the great honor of having two genera named in her honor – Aliciella</a></em> and Eastwoodia</em>. </p> When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, it destroyed the California Academy of Sciences building and herbarium. Alice bravely rescued over 1,000 type specimens (irreplaceable reference specimens for species) from the building by climbing the broken marble stairs and lowering the priceless specimens to a friend. Unfortunately, most of her own specimens that she had been diligently collecting over many years were lost – but thankfully, some of her specimens were deposited as duplicates in other herbaria.</p> Alice Eastwood’s amazing legacy lives on through the over 340,000 herbarium specimens she collected! The collections she made in Colorado eventually formed the basis of the University of Colorado herbarium. Along the way, a few specimens found their way to the Kathryn Kalmbach Herbarium of Vascular Plants</a> at Denver Botanic Gardens, including this specimen of Solidago </em>collected in Barnum Park, Denver in 1910. Although Barnum park is very different looking now, this specimen provides us with window to what it looked like over 100 years ago.</p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> </p> We are documenting the current flora of the metro Denver area through the Denver EcoFlora project</a> – and will use this data to compare our findings with those compiled by Alice Eastwood over 100 years ago!</p> From the Vault: Wonders and Oddities from the Gardens’ Collections</h4> Inspired by the fantastic stories of collections highlighted in the 2020 exhibition From the Vault: Wonders and Oddities from the Gardens' Collections</em>, staff working with art, library and natural history collections will be sharing wonders and oddities from the collections online. Each entry in this new blog series will feature a staff-favorite object. Enjoy these peeks into our storage vaults to learn more about our varied collections. </p>
Adorning the body with paints and dyes, both temporary and permanent, has been a wide practice around the globe and across centuries. The purpose for these decorations has ranged from culturally significant rituals and ceremonies to simple beauty practices. In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we offer a brief exploration of two historical practices that are still used today.</p> Lawsonia inermis</em> (commonly known as the henna tree, mignonette tree and the Egyptian privet) is a flowering plant native to much of the south of Asia (including the more specific regions of Southern Asia, Southeastern Asia and the Middle East). The leaves are crushed into a fine powder and mixed with water to make henna, a paste which has, for millennia, been used as a dye to color everything from fabrics such as silk, wool and leather to parts of the body including the hair, fingernails and even the skin, resulting in a rich, deep russet tone when finished. </p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> Lawsonia inermis </em>Blanco</p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> Henna for dying hair.</p> While henna is used for a wide array of everyday coloring and dyeing, the tradition of decorating the hands and feet in beautiful intricate patterns has grown in notoriety and popularity. The application of henna has become popular as a temporary tattoo, but the art of henna (or mehndi in Hindi) is an important practice that has been performed for centuries in Southern Asia as a ceremony held the day before a wedding. The bride-to-be, surrounded by her closest female friends and family, is beautified and blessed in preparation for the wedding. In Hindu tradition, this beautification and blessing ritual, Solah Shringar, is a series of 16 adornments applied to the bride, each with an individual purpose and belief behind it.</p> Among these 16 adornments, the purpose of mehndi stems from the deep red color and the long-recognized cooling properties of the henna paste. The color is associated with emotional and fertility-related qualities as well as representing the essence of love; painted on the hands and feet, the intent is to strengthen the bond of love between the bride and groom. When applied to skin, henna has also been known to cool the body, particularly useful in the warmer climates of Southern Asia. It has also been used to relieve stress fever and headaches. These wonderful cooling and medicinal qualities are said to calm the bride’s nerves as she prepares for her new life as a married woman.</p> </picture> </div> </div> </article> Mahendi</p> Body modifications include the permanent tattoos of the Pacific Islands’ various cultures. The traditional practice of tattooing in Hawaii (kakau) had been almost completely lost to time and the colonization of the islands of Hawaii. To keep their heritage alive, some tattooists have dedicated themselves to practicing only the traditional method of the kakau. </p> This method requires the use of chisel-like tools, typically made of wood and animal tusk; not at all like the needles that most who are familiar with modern tattoos would see. The ink would have been made from the soot of the fruit of the kukui tree, and then tapped into the skin by the tattooist. The tools and particular tattooing technique were very similar across many peoples of the Pacific, including Samoa and the Maori peoples of New Zealand. While the tools used for these tattoos today are still much the same, the composition of the ink has now change to modern productions. </p> </picture> </div> </article> Instruments for traditional Pacific Island tattooing. </p> In traditional Hawaiian tattooing, the placement and the tattoo all have a meaning. These tattoos would tell the life story of the individual. Given the lack of antibiotics historically, it was a dangerous procedure to undergo, but the significance far outweighed the risk. The process is a little less risky today, but likely just as painful. </p> Dig Deeper</h4> Learn more about henna</a>.</p> Listen to this interview with Keone Nunes</a>, the man renowned for reviving the art of the traditional Hawaiian tattoo. </p> At the Helen Fowler Library:</strong></p> “Religious & useful plants of Nepal & India: medicinal plants and flowers as mentioned in religious myths and legends of Hinduism and Buddhism” by Trilok Chandra Majupuria</p> “Plants in Hawaiian Culture” by Beatrice H. Krauss </p> There are far too many practices across cultures to name, but if you would like to learn more about the practices of such cultures, particularly those that involved certain plants, the library has a fine selection of books on ethnobotany. The library</a> will be opening again for limited hours in June. All such materials will be available to browse, and members of Denver Botanic Gardens will be able to check books out. Come visit us!</p> All images public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.</em></p>
