Insects, Plants, Fungi and Animals
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New Videos
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The Key Tree Cactus at Cactus Island
This is the cactus that started it all for me: the Florida Key tree cactus, Pilosocereus robinii. It is our largest – a green, branching columnar cactus that can reach 33 feet in height with many arms, and what a few of us here call “Florida’s own saguaro”. Occurring only in the Florida Keys inside the U.S, it also is found in a few spots in Cuba and their coastal keys, reportedly also on a few islands of the northern Bahamas as well. Stems can get 4”+ thick and thicker at support base. Flowers are nocturnal for one night only and have somewhat of a garlic odor. Unlike many others…
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WUFT Artistry in Motion Features paintings of James V. Freeman
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Spring Cactus Flowers Everywhere
I don’t think I’ve ever had so many flowers at the cactus farm at one time, and some uncommon ones at that. The really wooly blue Pilosocereus with curly white wool on every areole is some kind of hybrid from California, and I’m guessing someone crossed Brazilian P. pachycladus with Mexican P. leucocephalus or P. leucocephalus palmeri. The single muted mauve flower on the turquoise P. aff. flexibilispinus (CS140 Sitio Grande, Bahia, Brazil) was an early surprise for 4.7 year old plants. Twin flower bells with green hypanthium on what is likely Xiquexique gounelei ssp zehntneri are a knockout, while the 20-some buds on the patio gem Harrisia aboriginum candelabro…
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Bluebird Chicks
“Somebody gimme a treatstick! I’m hungry! Oh goodie…..it’s Bird Lady! Maybe she’s got one in her pocket for me!” I don’t think this bluebird chick would have cared which hand or beak fed it, had I reached over onto the roses and pulled off one of the grasshoppers to give it. The parents work in tandem but hold at a distance on the pear trees with bugs in beak until we leave the porch, in this case a trip to the store. I can almost hear “will you guys get outa here!? This thing’s getting stale.” For anyone close to us who knows the symbolism of these brightly colored birds…
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James V. Freeman, “Curious Observations”, Museum of Art – DeLand
In a couple of weeks my solo exhibition at the Museum of Art – DeLand in Florida opens. There is a lot of newer work that hasn’t yet seen the light of day, and I am excited to finally showcase these paintings in public view. Given the re-pandemic and health risks in holding a densely packed event, there will be no opening or closing reception. But the museum will be open to the public for the duration of this show. If civilization behaves and this thing subsides, I may be scheduled to give an artist lecture or walk&talk this Fall. It’s about time I posted something about the “art” in…
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Taste of July
This has been the summer of cucurbits, especially Seminole pumpkin and watermelon which have taken over the organic beds for the season. We are not disappointed, and neither are our birds or the way-too-tame deer that abuses Cactus Island as its personal salad bar. Despite the relentless young buck that thinks I’m playing tag with it when I try to chase it off the property at dusk, Mom is still filling the cornucopia and freezer with an excess of its favorite beans for our enjoyment. She has put in several long shifts baking, freezing or canning our harvest while I tend cactus, but I’ll be helping when the lion’s share…
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Eleven Months from First Flower
Last year’s seed project from my Caribbean tree cactus from Puerto Rico was wildly successful. All those germination trays with tiny green plants kept growing and have been up-potted to plug trays where they’re quickly gaining size and white wool. Some seeds made it around the world and even into a botanical museum in Thailand. With that success and joy comes the challenge and stress of keeping crop pests from eating them. Spring has been all about watering and frequently misting with Bacillus Thuringiensis Kurstakii to control army worms. The loss count is only about 20 out of at least 10,000 so far but still too high for my comfort.…
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More Bugs, Things that Eat Them and One that Would Eat the Observer
More crawlies – not sorry! Here are some unusual living things, mostly from the yard. I’ve never seen such unusual and large sphinx moths, especially the mourning sphinx moth parked on my hand that looks like a weird experimental Soviet aircraft, with those aerodynamic tail fins. And the Tersa sphinx moth has an Art Deco or Iron Man thing going on. Our native grizzled mantis, green anole lizard and toad (probably Southern toad) wouldn’t have turned down these treats, and if I had gotten a little closer to that lounging gator at Payne’s Prairie, I might have become a snack too. Part of me (thankfully whole still) would love seeing…
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The Cactus Tents – Three Videos
Three years since sowing the first seeds and I have a lot to show for the effort. Growth is accelerating after up-potting into 1-3 gallon containers, and I’m finding myself at the edge of being able to walk into a forest of cacti fairly soon. I’d better get some new tunes and audio books because I’m facing three months of straight potting of large and small plants. A mix of Mozart and Motley Crue blasting away under the Hard Nursery will kick things off. I have yet another armada of tropical Caribbean, Mexican, Brazilian and South American seedlings to be decanted from the baggie rigs this week, as I did…
