#native plants are so frickin' cool

[spiffyspidr]

Lawns aren't aesthetically pleasing, but I agree with everything else :D

[moonstruckdraws]

Plant Portraits

(pst- psssssst!- Hey, hey you. Yeah, you! Want to see something cool? look at this post by @hellishgayliath. It's about the characters shown here! They worked on it for a week straight, so check it out!) . . .

Hi, yes, hi, hello. Yeaaaaaah- steering away from the angst me & Helli brewed while I recover from crying. This was inspired exactly a month ago from this ask I made to Helli ask bout their oc's fav plants. I wanted to try out a new rendering style & thought this be a good opportunity + plant practice

Pico; He likes cinnamon plants/trees & likes to knaw on cinnamon sticks. So I did cinnamon plants! Specifically Cinnamomum cassia, or known as Chinese cassia, that is the most commonly sold cinnamon in North America (yes you are getting plant facts this took longer to research than to draw mainly because I like learning but that's besides the point and I wanna share knowledge) I really like how the leaves came out! Twas very fun. His plants are well maintained, healthy, & green (maybe too green lol) which shows his craft in gardening & care. Luci doesn't have teeth, so she can't really 'knaw' on things, so she didn't like trying Pico's snacks when she stole one. She was coughing on cinnamon for the next hour after. Pico laughed at her, obviously Ingenuity: the quality of being clever, original, and inventive

Bao; He likes wisteria flowers, the purple variation (my fav colour)! I loved loved LOVED coloring these plants, but it feels the most empty out of all of them (Clem is all over the place lmao) but I also kinda like it. Like it reflects their personalities this way, like he's the most upkept in society (despite his utter lack of gardening knowledge). Apparently, American wisteria is a host plant to native butterflies and moths! Add that to another reason Luci likes Bao lol. I feel like anytime she comes to the tea shop, Bao would bring her to the garden he & Pico would be working on. And everytime he's show her the plants he managed on his own they'd be drooping and dying lmao. Bao would be so confused & Luci is just unsurprised. And yes, I did think of & look at the wisteria in demon slayer Versatility: the ability to adapt or be adapted to many different functions or activities

Clem; She likes (take 3 seconds to guess) citrus fruits!! Like her name. So I of course did citrus fruits, lemons & oranges. She has my FAVORITE pose, her reaching for the fruit while juggling some in her other arm is adorable. And of course that cute face of hers! Her plants are just EVERYWHERE & is the only one to touch the ends of the canvas (that I wanted to avoid but oh well, it didn't look good otherwise). Besides, it shows her big personality and chaotic energy children have. Apparently, they're sometimes called 'Christmas oranges' because they're in season in winter months. I thought that was interesting. Does Clem like the cold, Helli or does she despise it like Pico lol? Apparently, they are also those cuties or halos oranges I use to devour as a child lol. And because of said memory, I say that Clem does too. I like to think Luci learns to share, like a child, from Clem, a said child. Luci sells back people's stuff overpriced all the time, and only shares things with Repo. She obviously isn't sharing anything with Pico & she mainly hangs out with Bao at the tea shop so she only buys things. She stole Clem's fruits in front of her once. Let's just say a bunch of sad faces and crying, not only bleed her earholes, but made her feel bad (but she'll never admit it). Does she share things now? Kindaaaaa- no. No, not at all. Only Clem & Repo Affability: the quality of being friendly and easy to talk to

aaaand my inspo board just cuz I was going to draw Vera, I really was! (I was so FRICKIN EXCITED to draw the plant with the braided stock next to the pink flower) but... one look at her head and the pose I chose, I said "No."

Bao was already troubling enough I don't need to build up hate to a character I barely know & already like by getting frustrated with their head (again). So no Vera, Helli, sorrys. Her descriptor was going to be 'nobility' btw

GO CHECK OUT HELLI'S POST IT'S SO GOOD (sad) BUT AMAZING!

[novi-la]

Fun Facts about Plants from Your Friendly Botany Major

• Cacti are some of the only plants to photosynthesize from their stems. Their needles are really just modified leaves.

• Avocados are only around because people pollinate and disperse them by hand. The large seed is indigestible to small mammals now. It was originally eaten by giant sloths who would poop them out far away from the parent tree so they can grow. This is called an evolutionary anachronism.

• Banana candy does not taste like bananas because it was designed to taste like the Gros Michel banana which was eaten in the pre-1950s. It was wiped out by a fungus called panama disease. Since bananas are asexual all of them are genetically identical making it easy to wipe them all out at once. However fungus is sexual so it evolves more quickly. This means eventually we may lose the modern banana, the Cavendish, to it as well.

• There are actually three different types of photosynthesis: C3, C4, and CAM. Which type is used depends on the aridness of the environment, and are increasingly more efficient as listed.

• Moss is amazing. The fuzzy part of the moss is called the gametophyte stage and it is haploid meaning it has one set of chromosomes like a sperm or an egg cell in humans. If you look closely, sometimes you will what look like little tiny seeds on stems coming out of the main body. This is the sporophyte stage and it’s diploid, or has two sets of chromosomes, like our body cells. Moss is the oldest type of plant.

• You can usually tell what animal pollinates a plant by the color and shape of its flowers. Red flowers are hardly ever pollinated by bees because bees cannot see red well. Butterfly flowers have long deep centers. Bird pollinated plants can bear weight and are wide and open. Bat pollinated plants usually smell strongly and are darkly colored.

• Almost all American native elms and chestnut trees are extinct because of fungi. Asian chestnut and elm have replaced them, because they are resistant to the strains.

• There is a type of fern that has over 1200 chromosomes. For reference, humans have 46.

• If you shine consistent low level red light on a plant it will grow extremely tall, because red light tells the plant it is being shaded by and competing with other plants. If you shine consistent green light on a plant it will not sprout or die (if already sprouted) because plants absorb red and blue light to use. This is also why plants are green, because the unused green light is reflected back out.

TLDR; Plants are frickin cool and should get as much love as our animal friends.

[grizzlynomad]

(In response to current VC drama)   First off, the notion of respect.This is a touchy subject, and definitely differs from culture to culture even within our little community here. The way I see it, to respect an animal would be to learn about the animal itself, about its environments and diet, how unique it is in its own design and how that design benefits the animals around it.  All animals are very, very different, but fit together like puzzle pieces when in balance. To show my respect, I would apply myself where needed to maintain that balance. Sometimes this might be planting a tree, other times it might be felling. Now, for others, respect is to treat the animal as you would another human being. Feed it if it’s hungry, give it shelter from the cold. As humans, we’re pretty keen on the needs of other humans, and sometimes the animals that a little human has spilled into, like cats and dogs. Naturally, we want things to live, and that’s good! But sometimes we have to get outside of that instinct, which can be hard. Please respect animals, and respect other people’s opinions! Respect is what YOU give. You, as the person reading these posts. Respect is not a rule or law any person gets to dictate over others. Regarding the subject of death and what Vulture Culture is, or why I got into it four years ago: My grandmother’s native american, so collecting animal parts has been something I’ve done since I was very little. The earliest memory I have of doing something VC related was from when I was 7 years old, while visiting my aunt. We were on a walk and I found a full deer skeleton in a ditch, bleached white from the sun. I recognized the skull as being something that would be on the wall at my grandma’s house, and asked my aunt if we could keep it. I still have that skull. The best way I can summarize my grandma’s philosophy is that every creature is a gift, and whether living or dead you should recognize it as such. This is why I personally like finding bones in the woods the most, but on the flipside, also why I find hunting and trapping respectable when done right. The animals are here for us, just as we are here for them. I don’t hunt any more, but I know my cousins have a small ritual for any animal they take, thanking the animal for providing itself and giving a small portion back to nature. I can’t expect every person to follow these morals, but any person who can take an animal while still acknowledging it as part of a cycle of life is doing okay. Guys, hunters and trappers aren’t like Elmer Fudd, shooting at anything that moves. It takes a lot of work and a heck of a lot of money to get into the pastime. Every single person who goes to buy a hunting licence has to have gone through a hunters safety course, in which most of the classes cover population control, numbers, and why you can take what you can take and when. The classes often cost money, too. Then there’s the tools, which, between traps, guns, ammo, knives, camouflage, even thermal frickin underwear, were too expensive for me to even bother! Not just anyone can get into it, and those who do have to put a lot of time into making sure everything is safe and up to regulation. There are bag limits in place that vary from year to year, meaning if you were only given one deer tag, you only get to take one deer. Anything more than that is illegal, and loses my support entirely. Vulture Culture, as a whole, is so, so cool. Everyone gleans something different from a dead things, be it art or statistics. We take things that would otherwise disappear and give them a purpose again, and I think that’s incredibly special, because the majority of people would rather avoid these things for fear of what they don’t understand. There’s not many of us, peeps, so don’t spend so much time attacking the ones with whom you don’t agree. Try talking to them instead, asking why their methods differ from yours. Be a little more gentle, because while the subject may be dead things, the conversation is most certainly not a life-or-death situation. Because that’s what VC is at it’s core, or at least what I hope it is - connecting over a shared interest, and learning from other’s experience. I’m not good with words, and I don’t claim to be, so I hope at least some of this all makes sense.