Plant of the Week: Henbit

A lot has changed in the years since I last blogged.  I'm editing my PhD dissertation while living in Texas now, we moved here for my husband's job two years ago.  I also have two daughters, ages 3 years (Big Sis) and 18 months (Little Sis).

It's a new year, and I have two new year's resolutions.  One is to defend my dissertation.  The other is to find ways to advance my knowledge as a botanist.  In the latter pursuit, I've decided to dust off the old blog and highlight a Plant of the Week.  By the end of the year, I hope to have explored and shared information on 52 plants.  We'll see how I do!  If you read this, feel free to post a response.


This week, the plant of interest is Lamium amplexicaule.

(image from George Thomas on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hz536n/25372759130/)

The common name that I learned for this weedy herb is Henbit.  It grows abundantly in my backyard in Texas right now, with little purple flowers that add a touch of color to our lawn.

My family also saw it in bloom in the lawn at the Mission San Jose when we visited San Antonio last week: https://www.nps.gov/saan/learn/historyculture/sanjosehistory1.htm

I learned recently that Henbit is edible, from my friend Mark with Foraging Texas: http://www.foragingtexas.com/2009/12/henbit.html

(image taken from Merriwether Adventurer on flikr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/16402403@N00/24079719211)

So I tasted henbit.  And so did my daughters.  It's moist and delicious, with a little bite.  As with all food, Little Sis enjoys nibbling on it, and is excited to find it when we're out and about, but the more picky Big Sis doesn't much care for the taste.  She likes how easy it is to spot, though - she points it out from 10+ feet away!

What every new mother needs

I'm a new mom.  My daughter was born in early March of this year, and I've been enjoying every minute of mom-dom.  There's a few things that are new, there are a few things that are unexpected, but a lot of things are the same as it was in my pre-kid life too. 

New:
It seems to take 10 times longer to do anything these days. Just getting out of the house I have to budget an additional 15 minutes to check the diaper bag and pack the car.

Unexpected:
Incredible and overwhelming love for this tiny human.

Same:
Our early to bed and early to rise lifestyle is even more practical now than it ever was pre-kids.

The other day my friend asked what would be a good gift for a new mother.  I have looked back at all of the wonderful things people gifted our family in the past months, and I really could not have gotten through without the following...

An abundance of baby-sized blankets.
Receiving blankets are wonderful multi-purpose devices that wash up easily and can take a beating, but it's also incredibly handy to have a stash of hand-knit baby blankets, quilts, fleece, etc.  Anything that can be machine-washed has been well-used. 

Wash cloths.
Babies are entropy in action.  My professor friend gave me two huge stacks of white washcloths when I had my baby, and just said that I should trust him that they will come in handy.  They do.  We go through about a dozen wash cloths a day for various reasons, everything from catching dribbles of milk to bathtime.  We have a few stacks of wash cloths stashed around our apartment for those "Ack! Mess!" moments.  There's always one or five within arm's reach.

Snuggle nest.
My next-door neighbor whose kids I used to babysit gave us this portable bassinet.  It makes any environment immediately comfortable and soothing for our little human. Maybe it is the built-in white noise machine, but it doesn't take long for those little eyes to droop when she is comfortably situated in her snuggle nest.  At nearly 5 months she is now growing out of it, but I can't imagine the first few months without that packable sleep nook.

Portable diaper changing station.
It's a purse, it's a mat, it's friggen amazing!  From an engineer mom friend, this incredibly practical tool makes changing diapers comfortable anywhere.  With pockets to hold everything from diapers and wipes to cream and spare clothes, this little portable mat goes with me everywhere.  There have been a number of times when there wasn't a convenient place to change my baby, but this device makes even the most undesirable environment practical.

Lap pads.
Some babies make tiny little messes.  My child is not one of them.  She tends to explode one to several times a day.  For such disasters, I am happy that I have super-absorbent and durable lap pads.  I put them under her when I know the rumble is coming.

Mei Tai.
My child likes to be in the center of the action, but she also wants to be held.  Cooking, cleaning, walking around the grocery store, watching other children play at the park, wherever we go this device makes it so incredibly easy to keep my fussy babe content. 

Clothes.
Between gifts and hand-me-downs, my daughter has a complete wardrobe for each stage of development.  When she hits a growth spurt, all I need to do is pull out the next box and I can switch out her entire closet in a matter of minutes.  I can't even begin to explain what a relief it is to not have to shop every time she grows out of an outfit.

Those are all wonderful things to make life easier with a baby, but there are a few little just-for-mom things that have made life so much more enjoyable:

Slip-on- Shoes.
Classy yet comfortable flats have never been so appreciated.  I don't have those extra three seconds to tie my shoes before running out the door, and if I don't have to bend down while holding a child, all the better!

Easy-care Haircut.
The stylist knew just what I needed when I told them I have a new baby.  Not only is there zero maintenance required for this haircut, little fingers can no longer yank away.

Lip Balm.
Maybe it's all those baby kisses, or maybe I'm just dehydrated from lactating, but these days I always seem to have dry lips.  Lip balm works wonders.

Aromatherapy Bath Stuffs.
When I need to get three days' worth of spit-up, excrement, milk, and who-knows-what off my body in a manner of seconds, it makes a huge difference to have pretty-smelling, quality bath products on hand.

When it comes to making the first few months of motherhood enjoyable, these few items have made all the difference.

Traveling to New Orleans

When it comes to traveling, visibly pregnant women are treated like princesses.

I was able to pre-board my plane.  Then when I mentioned that I was pregnant to the stewardess she: 1) moved us to a comfy exit row 2) gave me extra cookies & peanuts 3) didn't bat an eye when I asked to walk around and use the restroom when the fasten seat belt light was on.  When we got to the hotel they tried to get us a room right away, but couldn't.  So they held bags for us for free, gave us a map of the French Quarter and pointed us in the direction of Cafe duMonde, then offered to phone us as soon as our room was prepared.  When it came time to check in, the desk staff remembered us by name then gave us home-made cookies and free wifi. Once we got settled in, the concierge stopped by with an abundance of pillows, coffee, camomile tea, and creamer.  Everyone has put a smile on our faces today.

In other news, we saw a woman playing a steam calliope on a steamboat.  Also of note: some of the street performers here are incredibly talented, while others are terrible.  New Orleans is a beautiful, wacky place.  Culture seeps out of every nook and cranny - along with ferns and moss.  Between the announcements in French at the airport, to the wide range of wacky accents and the cash-only culture, it feels like we have stepped into another world.  If you want to stay in the US, yet visit someplace quite foreign, New Orleans is the place to be. 

Nerves

This morning I puked for the first time this pregnancy. Puke + diarrhea + Braxton-hicks Contractions all morning = I'm kinda freaking out right now.

There is a reason for this. And it's not just that a banana didn't agree with me this morning.

Excited. Trying to take everything in stride.
This week is THE conference. The one that I have been working toward all year. The one where I present my research. The one where I spend all of my waking hours surrounded by space geeks. The one where, after 3 years of service, I finally get to pass on my presidential duties to another student.

My poster is printed, beautifully trimmed, and ready to go.
Life is good. Breathe in, breathe out.
This afternoon I have a doctor's appointment which will confirm I'm fit to travel. I have a childbirth class in the evening. We then have to cart the bunny over to a friend's house who will be watching her for the rest of the week. Sometime in there I need to pack and make sure all of my T's are crossed.

So much to do, such a queezy feeling.

Rabbit Kisses

This morning I'm cuddling Cinnabunny in bed. She has been "purring" (soft teeth grinding) and licking my cheek for the past several minutes. There is nothing quite like sweet bunny breath and a soft warm bunny body to cuddle in the morning.
In other news, Tom tells me I was sleep-laughing last night. I wish I could remember those great dreams! Pregnancy does funny things.

Space & Plants

There are two great intellectual loves in my life, space and plants. They seem an incongruous pair, but somehow they have found common ground in my life.

When I was a little girl I dreamed of traveling to other planets, seeing our giant sun rise over Mercury, surfing through waves of gas on Jupiter, and skiing on frozen Pluto. I clung to every space-based fiction I could find, longing to see the beauty in a planet other than our own.
Even as I entertained such fantasies, I chose to be among plants. Playtime was in the garden, where fresh-off-the-tree peaches were my sustenance and climbing trees were space ships. When it came time to do homework I collected flowers and made arrangements to bring a touch of the garden indoors.
When TNG introduced the character Keiko, I caught a first glimpse of how a person so in love with plants could bring their passion with them to space, as the ship's chief biologist and head of the arboretum. She had a busy and rewarding career which revolved both around space & plants. My fantasies drifted in that direction, and so playtime became more garden-focused. What can do well in this spot, how much should I water this plant vs that one? I grew house plants as well, because surely if I were to grow plants on a spaceship I must first keep them alive in my own home.
With an A+ in junior high science courses, I was on the right track. But a B high school honor's Chemistry destroyed my confidence and took me away from choosing to study science in college. I still played with plants, but I studied languages - French & Spanish, linguistics courses, too. I loved the patterns within language, even then unintentionally viewing it from the perspective of a scientist. Then I took general biology from a botanist named Bruce Smith who saw my interest in plants and let me join in his lab's research with plant metabolism. A switch of degree path to Botany followed by a change to another university - I finished my undergrad with a degree in Genetics & Plant Biology from UC Berkeley in 2008 (though the paperwork finally processed in '09). I had picked the ultimate grad program for merging my two intellectual loves - a PhD program in Botany at Miami of Ohio, where I get to work with Dr. John Kiss and Dr. Richard Edelmann on their spaceflight projects, understanding plant response to light and gravity.
I am delighted to be where I am today: studying plants in space: samples of plants grown on the Shuttle (BRIC-16 project, STS-131 shuttle mission) to investigate in the lab, and my little vegetable/herb garden and orchids at home.

Day 2

Reflections on day 2 of 4 for written exam: Today was a bit like yesterday, 7 questions, 7 hours. I felt like the answers came more easily this time. I wrote out the general gist of each response within the first 2 hours, then spent the rest of my time filling in gaps, polishing, and drawing figures. Everything felt smoother, though I was still quite stressed-feeling. I was even more exhausted today, but less frustrated. I can see now why each PhD student in this program comes out of these exams a changed person.

Day 1

Reflections on day 1 of 4 for written exam: 6 essay questions to complete in 7 hours, it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't any fun either. I could address all aspects of a couple of the questions and most of the others. There wasn't a single question that I knew nothing about, but there were definitely questions that asked for a broader scope than I was prepared to answer. I was completely drained by the end of the day.