#Ulex

[wild-e-eep]

Back with the twisty, dead gorse bushes and a couple of nice fungi: burgundy drop - Mycena haematopus and Polyporus tuberaster which is showing true goblet potential here.

[dadforplaid]

my tabletop characters over the years

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Thursday 12 January 2023

The evergreen shrub Ulex europaeus (gorse) is a native plant in the U.K. and can be seen in all kinds of habitats, from heaths and coastal grasslands to towns and gardens. It can normally be found in flower to some extent throughout the year. The yellow pea-like flowers have a distinctive coconut scent.

Jill Raggett

[drhoz]

#2470 - Ulex europaeus - Gorse

An extremely tough spiky lugume native to Western Europe, now AKA furze or whin.

introduced to many other parts of the world where it's become an invasive fire-prone and fire-tolerant weed. A particular problem in New Zealand, where it was planted as hedges and promptly decided that the climate was very very much to its liking, thankyou. This was recognised as a problem by 1861, but people were still importing and planting the stuff well into the 1900s. Biocontrols are not proving very effective.

The flowers smell of coconut and the seed remains viable for decades.

Curiously enough, an extract of the plant is a remarkably effective binding lectin for H Substance, a surface antigen on red blood cells and the basis of the ABO blood type system - the extract is used to identify people with the rare Bombay Bloodtype, who don't express H Substance at all and will likely die if given a transfusion from somebody who does.

Cape Egmont, Taranaki, New Zealand

[madbirdwoman]

[ysalis-analog]

Ulex

[blogbirdfeather]

Common Gorse - Tojo-arnal (Ulex europaeus)

Lisboa/Portugal (14/02/2024)

[Nikon Coolpix P900; 50mm; 1/80s; F6,3; 100 ISO]

[thatchronicfeeling]

[Image ID: Close up of yellow ulex europaeus (gorse) flowers amongst jaggy green spines. End ID.]

Gorse flowering in spring sunlight

Image available at Picfair

[inliebe-joseph]

Did J.G. call himself Ulex sometimes? Or sign letters with "Ulex" or something like that? Is it true? And if so, why? Was there a meaning behind it and what was it?

Yes. Joseph sometimes used the pseudonym “Ulrich Ulex” when signing personal letters or correspondence. He began using it around the 1920s, though he eventually abandoned it as his political prominence grew. The origin of “Ulex” is not fully understood, but it’s thought to have been a personal or literary choice, likely intended to add an intellectual or mysterious flair to his early writings and correspondence. The name “Ulex” may have held symbolic value, given that Joseph was interested in presenting himself as an intellectual. However, beyond its use as a pseudonym, there’s no clear evidence that it had any deeper or widely recognized significance. It reflects his penchant for constructing alternate personas, something that was not uncommon among public figures of the time who wished to separate their personal and professional lives. I personally like it very much (but I like everything about him atp so..).

[jaimemes]

any info on maple parents

well. i found a TREASURE TROVE worth of info for maple's parents. um. gonna put it all under the cut bc this is genuinely a lot of info.

Venus Cayleb Costa Dias and Ulex Antonio Ramos Vargas are rangers, both of which trained together on vulgrado and have been partners since they first got into ranger school. venus was later transferred to paldea on request when maple got into narauva. venus was also selected to join the experimental area zero ranger force, training and preparing for much of his time in paldea, as well as spending quite a bit of time in and out of the crater to get used to the dangerous environment until the program officially launched fulltime after briar's expedition into the depths almost a year ago. he has an umbreon and glaceon, as well as two garchomp, a corviknight, and a gogoat. venus also has a strong preferance for flabebe, and has an anonymous blog dedicated to talking about them that he posts on occasionally in his (nowadays very sparce) free time. this is likely related to him growing up with a family that owned massive florges gardens and bred the pokemon. venus has 1 sibling

ulex on the other hand is a more standard ranger. he is permitted to use a capture styler when needed, and has an espeon and leafeon. he grew up on a farm in vulgrado, and is overal quite plain. he is very much the straight man to the 3 insane people in this 4 person polycule. he also has 2 siblings

nettle is a neurosurgeon. he has no contact with any of his family, and its unclear if nettle carina maletta is actually his name. it may be a fake name and identity, as there is very little record of his existence until his 18th birthday. he has a comfey and a meganium.

Ivelyne "Ivy" Arai is the severe freak here. heir to the Union of the Hounds, she is the oldest of 3 triplets. when she turned 19, ivy disappeared and was classified as a missing person for several years until she was found at age 27. from what can be discerned, though she was living with a fake name, she had legally identified maple has her kid under her real name, allowing her family to find her through finding out about maple first. in regards to maples birth, ivy is known to have been diagnosed with severe postpartum depression and psychosis, as well as persisting mental health issues that led to her being committed to a psych ward for several months after her being found. in the years since, she has gotten much better, and has continued her practice as a therapist. she has a houndoom, runerigus, haxorus, aggron, beheeyem, and vivillon. the runerigus is referred to by maple as their uncle, and ivy is known to admit it is a dead childhood friend of hers, but has not identified whos ghost exactly.

[wild-e-eep]

Knobbly knees <3

Wind-swept coastal gorse bushes, long since overshadowed by conifer plantation.

[queeranarchism]

Hi where do you learn your facilitation skills? I saw your post and it sounds like something I’d like to develop.

Partly by watching and learning from others. Partly by trying and messing up and learning and trying again. Partly from workshops and trainings by individuals and groups like Ecodharma, Ulex and Stroomversnellers.

[bonefall]

It's clanmew day? Let's go. Here are some translations for my own thing which takes place in the future. I'll do the high roles for each clan ig.

WINDCLAN Star Pebbleflame -> Shai Wibrafyn Cherrybright -> Obeoshayu (I went with shayu bc of the light source and it fits her. She's a ray of sunshine) Shadeberry -> Maemaremwrlepe (Definitely more accurate translation. Him having yew in his name fits well since he grows it) OR Palimwrlepe (Translates directly to belladonna/deadly nightshade berry. I chose it for the nightshade part)

SHADOWCLAN Star Ravenbreeze -> Shai Nyokhrra'a Stonebark -> Bonkarak Blizzardwish -> Os'hauooshaba

RIVERCLAN Star Pearlmoon (definitely an honor name, not sure what for though) -> Shai Rrihishom Finchsplash -> Wibuchyush Frostcloud -> Chikiharryr (Cloud part of her name translate to quickly moving cloud. She's always worried and moves a lot)

THUNDERCLAN Shai Adderstalk (definitely another honor name) -> Shai Sipyahehhefe (I'm not opposed to changing the suffix to something more fitting) Ravenfeather -> Nyokfuffr (Translates to raven down feathers) Flameleap -> Fynluara (Would actually translate more to flame jump)

SKYCLAN Star Perchspark -> Shai ???skop Birchcreek -> Byachshush (Direct translation is silver-birch-stream) Gorsewind -> ???hwoo

PERCH!! I'm deadass in the middle of compiling a RiverClan fishing guide, along all these other projects. There's fish never mentioned in canon that should absolutely be here aughh

But I'm getting ahead of myself; let's get you that Perch and Gorse.

Perch (Perca fluviatilis) = Hopa A perch is a green fish with black stripes, a big dorsal ridge, and ginger fins. They can get very big, but never pose a threat to a swimming warrior. Large perch have to be grappled with, small ones can be dragged in with a paw. A staple of the RiverClan diet.

THE THREE GORSES

ALL three of these are the same plant. Common Gorse (Ulex Europaeus) is the most common plant in WindClan, BAR none. And listen up-- this stuff is INTERESTING.

It smells like coconut. It's thorny. It's flammable. And most of all? It's fuckin' Yellow. Gorse is ALWAYS blooming somewhere, even through winter. WindClan is a very vibrant place because of it, and BECAUSE they are around Gorse constantly, they have three words for it.

Gorse, in general = Chai Just any old gorse bush, in any state.

Whin, gorse that is not blooming, possibly dead = Faichi This is gorse that doesn't give off a strong smell to hide a rabbit... and is also very flammable. You do not want to see a ton of Faichi around in a drought. If you do... WindClan starts running fire evacuation drills, and prohibits the use of personal cooking fires.

Furze, gorse that is blooming vibrantly, obviously healthy = Loleen Comes from Lush Green + Dandelion Yellow. Bright, healthy, smelly gorse.

[cassi-pokeblogging-hub]

can you explain what you mean by not bad parents just bad parents to maple specifically? because i dont think you mean like abuse apologist but im struggling to understand the post

i explained a little where its like. the circumstances around maples birth and childhood and i can explain a bit more here. as best i can at least without revealing everything here rather than on maples blog. no idea how familiar you are with what ive dropped about maples parents but his mom is ivy, his dad is ulex, his father is venus, an his pa is nettle. no idea how much ill use their names going on from this point forward but its probably useful to have.

its VERY hard to raise a kid. even the best parents fuck up their kid a little somehow. and sometimes its not really anyones fault its just shit that has to happen from circumstances like a kid that grew up in a family that suddenly became poor cause of layoffs might be kinda stressed out because of the financial issues and thats not the parents fault they were living comfortably with good jobs when the kid was born and then afterwards lost those jobs suddenly and they couldnt have predicted that would happen like a few years down the line. or having a kid while your mental health is GREAT and then like a bad accident happens and your partner dies and just pregnancy/new parent hormones combined with that grief tank your mental health and ability to raise the kid. thatsno ones fault thats shitty circumstance and its a similar kinda thing tha happened with maples parents.

maples parents were all in like university/ranger school when she was born. they were all VERY BUSY and all low/no contact with their parents for various reasons at the time ranging from bad relationship with family to being in college and wanting to be independent while also being stupid irresponsible 19/20 year olds. maple was not planned and everyone kinda deferred to his mom to make decisions since she was the one pregnant. this was a bad idea because his mom was not mentally stable AT ALL at this point for multiple reasons. she dissasociated for basically the entire pregnancy and for much of maples first 6 years of life. post partum depression and psychosis beat her fucking ass at one point. IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS her luxray died as well. ivy's paranoia and lack of awareness of anything that was happening around her led to her suggesting they all just stay in school and finish their shit so they all have better jobs in the longterm and can take care of maple later as well as kept any of them from contacting family from help. she was not even aware that she had kinda pressued everyone into these decisions and FOR A WHOLE SIX YEARS thought ulex had dropped out of ranger schools to take care of maple. he hadnt. (side note ivy is a therapist now. she was in school for that when maple was younger. yeah. when your therapist needs a therapist more than you). once she had kinda gotten out of that spell when maple was 6 she still kinda did the bare minimum because she was afraid of being her abusive father. if ANY of these circumstances were different. if any of her partners realized how fucked up ivy was maple would have had a VASTLY different childhood and be not anywhere near as fucked up. they would have been fine. its just the fact they were all in university and ivy won the most mentally ill woman competition for like 7 years consecutively that made them raise maple badly. hell, ivy has realized she FUCKED UP. she wants a relationship with maple and maple does want a relationship with her but right now maple is terribly affraid of her (for easons that are not her fault) and they cannot have this relationship. maples other parents did what they can to fix things as well its just hard rn when maples in paldea and the only parent in paldea is super busy with work usually so they only get to hang out every few weeks.

if they had another kid now that kid would be raised well. maple is just the worlds worst example of born at a bad time.

[paganplaces]

The Kempe Stones

The Kempe Stones, also known as Greengraves, are a Portal Tomb located in a field near Dundonald, west of Newtownards, integrated into a hedge of Western Gorse (Ulex gallii) in County Down, Northern Ireland.

Read more at: https://paganplaces.com/places/the-kempe-stones/

[mixotrophics]

Gorse (Ulex europaeus) is a type of pea with really distinctive yellow flowers. To say “when gorse is out of bloom” is like saying “when pigs fly.” I love them, bright little sulfur chunks all over the scottish winter coast.

They have flowers with a mechanical release mechanism, which you can see happen in the video (~0:16 seconds in)!!!!! A suitably strong bee will go to an unactivated (closed) flower and press up on one petal and down on another. This causes a mechanical release within the flower which basically shotguns the bee right in the face with pollen. absolutely covering the lil guy, like sugar on a donut.

(images from minigardeners) If you find an unactivated gorse flower, which can be really hard to do because bees are little busybodies, you can (gently) activate the flower by finding the innermost petals and pressing them apart with your fingertips.

Gorse, being legumes, are great for nitrogen fixing. They provide the nitrogen fixing bacteria in their roots with oxygen. They carry the oxygen by binding it to iron. The iron they use in is haemoglobin, you know, the blood stuff.

Gorse plants are also very flammable and rely on fire to burst open their seedpods

Anyways so we have this indomitable, “blood”-having, arsonist pea plants. and i love them. they are so pretty and their flowers are edible and can be made into tea and wine, and their spiky leaves are good nutrients for grazing animals. they’re a bit of a problem in the UK even though theyre native because their populations were suppressed by large grazing animals, and human harvesting for livestock feed, and we just forgot our friendship with them...

.....but I haven’t.... I love you, gorse