Loving a Houserabbit

Since 2008, my husband and I have been the happy parents of a fluffy and cantankerous houserabbit.  Her name is Cinnabunny Pecan Johnson-Sullivan.  For short we call her bun-bun and fwuffy.  She has written our Christmas letters the past couple of years.  The relatives seem to like reading about her take on the year's events.

When there's a rabbit in your life, there's a constant supply of nutrient-rich compost.  Our little 5'x5' patch of dirt by our front door went from a mess of dense clay to beautiful soil within a year of adding her mix of cedar chips and little round pellets of waste.  She does her business in a litter box, which makes clean-up much easier than cleaning a fall-through cage. 

Don't get me wrong, our houserabbit doesn't have quite as much freedom as a housecat.  When we're off at work during the day she spends most of her time in a rather large pen. Even when we're home and leave her free to roam, she often wanders back into her pen.  Here she has a litter box, has boxes to hide in and hop on top of, phone books to dig, wooden toys to nibble, and piles of hay to consume.  Our schedule works well with her natural clock.  Since rabbits are generally the most active during early mornings before dawn and evenings after dark, she's a great companion during the time we have to spend with her.

Why do we keep her in a pen?  Mainly for her own safety.  Each rabbit has their own quirks, but our Bun-Bun chews through live electrical wires when we're not looking - no matter how careful we are about keeping them out of her way, she always seems to find one that we have missed.  Then there's her love for chewing on anything fabric-like, including carpet. We keep her away from these things so she doesn't destroy her digestive system with blockages.  Under her pen and around the edges of her primary run-around room are pieces of plywood.  We set up a bun-proof room so she can run around freely with a little less interaction and supervision.

Rabbits are much quieter than cats and dogs.  The only sounds Cinnabunny makes are occasional grunts when I get into her space, quiet clicking "purrs" when petted, a quick thump or two when she expresses her discontent, the shifting of boxes, ruffling of paper, and jingles from the bell I have attached to her collar.  I found the bell to be a necessity.  When I let her run freely about the house, it's difficult to track her down if she doesn't jingle with every hop. 

My favorite part of the mornings are when I walk over to Bun-Bun's pen and she sees me heading her way.  She hops on top of a box, stands on her tippie toes, and begs for treats.  How can I refuse?  Usually I give her some dried fruit, then pick her up and cuddle her.  She's wonderful cuddly company while I'm doing homework or watching a movie.  I don't understand why more people don't welcome these wonderful creatures into their families.  Rabbits seem to be the perfect pets for college students, vegetarians, and gardeners.

What is a Plant?

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants harvest solar energy and, by way of a complex biochemical process, convert it to biomatter.  We then use this biomatter as food.  Plants are primary producers.  Without plants, human life wouldn't be possible.

I visited an inner-city junior high recently, where (among other things) I attempted to explain the important role that plants play in our lives.  I mentioned the fact that the majority of our food is derived from plants, whether from animals that consume plants, or from the plants themselves.  Several of these kids were thoroughly confused.  They said "But who eats plants?  That's just crazy."  They didn't understand that bread was made from grain, that grain is a seed of a plant.  They had no concept that broccoli was a plant, that fruits like apples grew on trees.  Then there was the issue of meat - these kids didn't see the link.  I asked them where beef came from.  Some of them knew that it came from steer (some said cows).  I then asked them what the animals ate.  They answered "Grass!"  But they had no clue that grass was a plant. 

It made me think - what is a plant?  What is the definition of a plant in common culture? Are these kids' parents just as confused about the origins of their food?  And how was something this basic left out of their education?

Flashback to Mo'orea, journal from 9-19-2007

After the past few intense weeks of preparation (both here in the tropics and back in Berkeley), I'm happy to finally see my project getting underway. For those of you who might be a little out of the loop: I'm doing a semester-long biology research course at a UC Berkeley-run research station on a little island just beside Tahiti. I'm one of 22 students in this group. We're working close with 6 professors and 3 graduate students on our individual research projects. The past few weeks have been a rush - but now I'm finally settling into the island research life.

Photos of my experiences can be found here:
http://flickr.com/photos/tina_joyeuse/sets/72157602055169362/
Unfortunately I can only add a few photos every few days, so I don't overload our limited internet. I'll post more photos when I return to the states.

I've experienced all sorts of adventures here in Moorea, French Polynesia, including:

- A ferry ride from Tahiti to Moorea that offered a breathtaking introduction to the island.
- A cramped ride to the research station in a city bus that was a 1970's rickety yellow school bus.
- Stepping on an urchin, not realizing it, finding out a few days later that the painful black dots on the bottom of my foot were urchin spines, which a kind doctor removed (I'm fine now, really).
- Realizing that "high-speed wireless internet access" at the station means "yes, you can access your e-mail sometimes. Oh, and it will kick you off every three seconds. And remember that map you were going to download from online? Yeah, good luck on that."
- Finding that the plant I planned on studying is in its fruiting stage rather than flowering stage (for the plant crowd, in case you're wondering, Freycinetia impavida has male and female fruits on separate inflorescences, if not separate plants entirely. Pandanus tectorius has separate male and female plants).
- Picking an entirely different plant. Way little: a native sedge named Kyllingia nemoralis. I'll be studying distribution, or where you find it on an island, and how it looks differently in each different habitat.
- Working with two friendly, awesome, quirky classmates to make two dinners that everyone seems to have loved.
- Being called "Mom" by my fellow students.
- Convincing all of my classmates that my mom is the coolest person in the world by simply showing them my supply of bug repellent and ziplock bags.
- Finding a warn out Star Wars novel (Planet of Twilight by Barbara Hambly) randomly on the shelf in the dorm. And devouring it in my free time.
- Riding a rickety old cruiser along the perimeter road with my new friend Stephanie, in search of our plants.
- Getting to know my classmates, and learning there's far more to them than I realized.

Excuse the mess

Hey folks,
Hope you can excuse that last bundle of posts that I just threw onto the page. I just added a bunch of posts from the past two semesters, from my other blog. I'll try to keep this one updated as well =)

Love ya!

Lines!

I stopped by the STA travel office on campus today to pick up my international student ID card. There's place where I didn't need to stand in line.

I also picked up my bus pass for the semester, so I can ride up to the Botanical garden for volunteering on the off chance that I have a day off from class in the few weeks before I leave. That was a line.

Then I picked up the textbook that I needed and returned another textbook that I didn't need. Different lines. Different bookstores.

So many lines at the beginning of the semester. Hopefully I won't need to stand in one for a while. Wait. Tomorrow I'm getting my French Visa in San Francisco. That's probably another line.

Delicious Eggplant

My friend Gabbie gave me this delicious eggplant recipe, and shared a great tip for a website where you can find recipes for anything! Yum!

"INGREDIENTS:

* 1 eggplant, cubed in spall pieces
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 medium onion, finely minces
* 1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger, or powdered
* 1 large tomato - minced
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne or chili pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
* ground black pepper to taste
* 1 cube or 1 tblsp of Veggie Boullion dilluted in 1/4 cup water

"First I sauteed my onion, garlic, ginger and spices on medium heat. Then I added my eggplant and tomato after a few minutes. I cooked it for a few minutes and then added the broth. Then I simmered it all until the rice was done cooking, I think for 20 minutes. At the end I used my potato masher to mash it all up. It was really good and actually tasted very authentic!!! I served it over the rice. I am definitly going to make this more. Enjoy! Gabbie

"PS. Do you ever go to the webpage www.allrecipes.com? It is pretty extensive and you can search by ingredient so try to make a meal out of what's left in your fridge."

Gump Station Photos

The Gump Research Station has a new photo album on their website! Thought It'd be fun to share the link:

http://moorea.berkeley.edu/gallery/

More Plants in Space

That last article on Space Basil reminded me of the research that John Z. Kiss is doing at Miami University of Ohio.

Here are John Kiss' research interests, first in Common English, then in PlantSpeak.

(Common): http://www.cas.muohio.edu/botany/bot/iss.html

The goal of the current research is to better understand how plants integrate sensory input from multiple light and gravity perception systems. The long-range goals are related to developing better crop plants on earth and to determining plants' potential use as a food source during prolonged human time in space. They will again use Arabidopsis, a small plant in the mustard family, that is currently the focus of an international gene sequencing project analogous to the human genome project.

(PlantSpeak): http://www.cas.muohio.edu/botany/people/profiles/Kiss.html

In my laboratory, we are interested in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of gravitropism and phototropism. In the gravitropism project, we have been studying how statoliths interact with the cytoskeleton in gravitropic signal transduction. In terms of phototropism, we have been examining the role of the photosensitive pigment phytochrome in the regulation of this process in both roots and stem-like organs.

Our experiments on gravitropism have been part of a spaceflight project on the Space Shuttle, and we have additional experiments in development for the International Space Station. Some of our research also involves the use of the Electron Microscopy Facility at Miami University. Most recently, we have been using microarray technology to analyze gene expression profiles during various tropisms. Our long-term goals include understanding of how plants integrate sensory input from multiple light and gravity perception systems.

Here are a few links to articles on Dr. Kiss' work:
http://newsinfo.muohio.edu/news_display.cfm?mu_un_id=429
http://newsinfo.muohio.edu/news_display.cfm?mu_un_id=411

Space Basil

Going where no seeds have gone before - On the space station! My friend Tori sent me this great article from NASA's website: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/16aug_basil.htm?list728615
Basil Orbits Earth
Authors: Lori Meggs, Tony Phillips | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips

August 16, 2007: You'll never guess what was in Barbara Morgan's pocket when she blasted off from Kennedy Space Center last week onboard space shuttle Endeavour.

The teacher-turned-astronaut carried millions of basil seeds into orbit and onto the International Space Station. Basil ... in space? Well, you never know when the ISS might run into some bland spaghetti sauce.

Seriously, basil in space is cutting-edge research. Astronauts on future missions to the Moon and beyond are going to want to take plants along for the ride--for food, oxygen and even companionship. It's important for NASA to learn how seeds endure space conditions and germinate in low gravity.

In this case, it's not only NASA doing the learning; kids will be too.

Some of the basil seeds will remain on the station to be grown in low gravity. The rest will be returned to Earth and divided into kits for students to study. They'll measure seed germination rates--how fast space basil grows compared to Earth basil--and also learn more about the scientific method. Teachers, click here for information on how to participate.

Morgan's seeds (not really carried in her pocket, but you get the idea) are joining three million other basil seeds that have been flying on the station for a year and are waiting for Morgan to bring them back to Earth.

Most of the "veteran" seeds have actually spent time outside the ISS exposed to breathtaking vacuum, harsh radiation and anything else space can throw at them. They "hung out" in suitcase-sized test beds known as MISSE 3 and 4, short for Materials on the International Space Station Experiment 3 and 4. MISSE is managed by NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; William Kinard is the principal investigator.

To get the seeds to classrooms, NASA works with the George W. Park Seed Company in Greenwood, S.C. The company began its relationship with NASA in the 1980s with the SEEDS (Space Exposed Experiment Developed for Students) program. During that experiment, more than 12 million tomato seeds flew on the Long Duration Exposure Facility – a satellite deployed in 1984 by space shuttle Challenger to provide long-term data on the space environment and its effects on space systems and operations.

"I think the kids will be excited to work with something that's been in space. And to know, for this experiment, there are no answers in the back of a book," says Miria Finckenor, an engineer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and one of the MISSE investigators.

"We hope to get more students interested in science and reach as many as we did with the tomato seeds experiment," she says. More than 40,000 classrooms in all 50 states and 30 foreign countries participated in that program.

For more information on participating in growing seeds from space, visit http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/plantgrowth/home/index.html

Lentils

The often over-looked, cheap, and incredibly delicious Lentil: I had my first lentil soup while living here at the CO-OP in Berkeley, and now it's my favorite. So today I decided to do a little research into the lentil.

What are lentils?
They're a legume! Like peas, or beans.

Its Latin name is Lens culinaris


Where are they really from?
Their origins are believed to be in northern Syria and South-West Asia. Lentils were found in Egyptian tombs, dating back to 2,400 BC, but there's archaeological evidence of their cultivation as early as 6,000 BC.

Where do they grow best?
Sandy, nutrient-poor soils in warm climates.

Why do I feel so good after eating them?
Lentils are filled with good-for-you stuff, like anti-oxidants, iron, fiber, and tannins. They have no cholesterol, fat, sodium, or sugars.

Here's a rundown of their nutrition facts:

Nutrition Facts - Serving Size 1/4 cup (35g) (boiled)
Amount Per Serving:
Calories 130
Calories from Fat 5
(% Daily Value)
Total Fat 0.5g (<1%)
Saturated Fat 0g (0%)
Cholesterol 0mg (0%)
Sodium 0mg (0%)
Total Carbohydrates 22g (7%)
Dietary Fiber 11g (44%)
Sugars 0g
Protein 8g
Vitamin A - 0%
Vitamin C - 2%
Calcium - 2%
Iron - 14%

Are they a complete protein?

Nope. They're missing one essential amino acid: methionine. To make a complete protein, combine lentils with grains, eggs, nuts, seeds, or dairy. That's easy to do with a stew.

Delicious Lentil Recipes!

Lentil Snackers

1. Put 1 cup hulled red lentils (red dal) in a saucepan with 2 1/2 cups of salted water. Bring to a boil over high heat and skim off the foam that collects on the surface. Turn the heat to low and simmer until the lentils are yellow and very mushy, 20-30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, put 1/2 cup of fine-grain bulgur (see above) in a sizeable bowl.

3. Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons of tomato paste (I like to buy the kind that comes in a metal tube) and the same amount of hot red pepper paste (there is a Hungarian brand of "paprika mix" in a jar that I've been using). Turn the heat back up to high and bring this mixture to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn off the heat and pour it over the bulgar. Stir well and set aside for half an hour.

4. Meanwhile, chop one large onion quite fine and saute it in two tablespoons of olive oil. When it begins to get golden brown, add two minced cloves of garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cumin, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Cook about two minutes more.

5. Once the bulgur and lentils have sat for their full half hour, add the contents of the skillet, oil and all. Mix very well, kneading everything together. Add 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh tarragon, a pinch of dried red pepper, and a little lemon juice. Mix again and adjust for salt.

6. Preheat the oven to 350. Use wet hands to pick up what Paula Wolfert calls "plum-size pieces fo the mixture". She seems to have in mind the very small plums sometimes called sugar plums or prune plums. Think something about 3/4 the size of a golf ball. Shape each piece into an oval and arrange these on a baking sheet, preferably one lined with parchment. You only need to leave a tiny bit of space between them. Better cooks than I would make smoother, more beautiful, and more consistant ovals, but mine still taste just fine.

7. Bake for 10-15 minutes. They shouldn't get brown, just form a bit of a firmer crust. Let them cool on the sheet, then transfer to a plate. Make sure they are completely cool, then cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.

Creamy Lentil Soup With Caramelized Onion (Dal Shorva) Recipe

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups red lentils
4 cups chicken broth or water
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 (1-inch) piece ginger root, peeled and chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 cup milk
1-1/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, finely shredded
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
Fresh-ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, optional

Instructions
Pick over the lentils, removing any stones or misshapen or discolored lentils. Rinse thoroughly and place in a nonreactive deep pot. Add the chicken broth or water, turmeric, ginger-and tomatoes bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, 25 minutes until the lentils are soft.

Remove from the heat and, working in batches, puree in a food processor fitted with the metal blade or blender until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, stir in the milk and salt and heat until piping hot. Simmer gently over low heat while you finish the recipe.

In a skillet over high heat, melt the butter. Add the onions and cumin and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes until the onions are brown.

To serve, ladle the soup into warmed bowls and sprinkle generously with black pepper. Divide the onion mixture among the bowls, sprinkle with cilantro, if desired, and serve at once.

Yield: 6 servings

Per serving: 263 calories, 31 percent calories from fat, 13 grams protein, 33 grams carbohydrates, 8 grams total fiber, 9 grams total fat 26 milligrams cholesterol, 623 milligrams sodium.

Information comes from these websites:
http://www.pea-lentil.com/
http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Specials%20and%20Holidays/Lentils%20Origin%20Uses%20Recipes.htm
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9047774/lentil

Recipes come from these websites:
http://www.stuttercut.org/hungry/archives/recipes/000591.php
http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blss141.htm

Photos come from these websites:
http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Specials%20and%20Holidays/lentil%20flowers%20pods.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Illustration_Lens_culinaris0.jpg/180px-Illustration_Lens_culinaris0.jpg
http://stuttercut.org/kibbeh_plate.jpg

Butterflies on Moorea

Here's some fascinating research coming out of Moorea on butterflies!
From this site: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/07/12_butterfly.shtml

Researchers witness natural selection at work in dramatic comeback of male butterflies

By Sarah Yang, Media Relations | 12 July 2007

BERKELEY – An international team of researchers has documented a remarkable example of natural selection in a tropical butterfly species that fought back - genetically speaking - against a highly invasive, male-killing bacteria.

male h. bolina butterfly

Male (above) and female Hypolimnas bolina, also called the Blue Moon or Great Eggfly butterfly. The proportion of females in some populations of H. bolina in the South Pacific reached 99 percent as a result of infection by a bacteria that kills males before they hatch. However, researchers recently witnessed a remarkable comeback of male butterflies on some islands thanks to the rise of a suppressor gene. (Sylvain Charlat photos)
female h. bolina butterfly

Within 10 generations that spanned less than a year, the proportion of males of the Hypolimnas bolina butterfly on the South Pacific island of Savaii jumped from a meager 1 percent of the population to about 39 percent. The researchers considered this a stunning comeback and credited it to the rise of a suppressor gene that holds in check the Wolbachia bacteria, which is passed down from the mother and selectively kills males before they have a chance to hatch.

"To my knowledge, this is the fastest evolutionary change that has ever been observed," said Sylvain Charlat, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral researcher with joint appointments at the University of California, Berkeley, and University College London. "This study shows that when a population experiences very intense selective pressures, such as an extremely skewed sex ratio, evolution can happen very fast."

The researchers' findings are described in the July 13 issue of the journal Science.

Charlat pointed out that, unlike mutations that govern such traits as wing color or antennae length, a genetic change that affects the sex ratio of a population has a very wide impact on the biology of the species.

It is not yet clear whether the suppressor gene emerged from a chance mutation from within the local population, or if it was introduced by migratory Southeast Asian butterflies in which the mutation had already been established.

"We'll likely know more in three years' time when the exact location of the suppressor gene is identified," said Charlat. "But regardless of which of the two sources of the suppressor gene is correct, natural selection is the next step. The suppressor gene allows infected females to produce males, these males will mate with many, many females, and the suppressor gene will therefore be in more and more individuals over generations."

Charlat worked with Gregory Hurst, a reader in evolutionary genetics at University College London and senior author of the paper. Descriptions of all-female broods of H. bolina date back to the 1920s, but it wasn't until 2002 that Hurst and colleagues first identified Wolbachia bacteria as the culprit behind the distorted sex ratio.

"We usually think of natural selection as acting slowly, over hundreds or thousands of years," said Hurst. "But the example in this study happened in a blink of the eye, in terms of evolutionary time, and is a remarkable thing to get to observe."

The researchers noted that bacteria that selectively kill male offspring are found among a range of arthropods, so what was seen in this study may not be unusual, despite the fact that it has never before been described in the scientific literature. Previous research has revealed some of the extraordinary ways in which insects adapt to the pressures inherent when nearly all its members are of one gender.

Notably, Charlat and Hurst reported in an earlier study that, thanks to Wolbachia, when males of H. bolina, commonly known as the Blue Moon or Great Eggfly butterfly, become a rare commodity, the number of mating sessions for both males and females jumps, possibly as an attempt to sustain the population despite the odds.

Sylvain Charlat prepares to collect butterfly samples on an island in the South Pacific. (Philippe Paccou photo)

Charlat added that the relationship between Wolbachia and the Blue Moon butterfly illustrates the so-called Red Queen Principle, an evolutionary term named after a scene in Lewis Carroll's famous book, "Through the Looking-Glass," in which the characters Alice and the Red Queen run faster and faster at the top of a hill, only to find that they remain in the same place.

"In essence, organisms must evolve or change to stay in the same place, whether it's a predator-prey relationship, or a parasite-host interaction," said Charlat. "In the case of H. bolina, we're witnessing an evolutionary arms race between the parasite and the host. This strengthens the view that parasites can be major drivers in evolution."

The researchers focused on the Samoan islands of Upolu and Savaii, where in 2001, males of the Blue Moon butterfly made up only 1 percent of the population. In 2006, the researchers embarked on a new survey of the butterfly after an increase in reports of male-sightings at Upolu.

They found that males that year made up about 41 percent of the Blue Moon butterfly population in Upolu. They hatched eggs from 14 females in the lab and confirmed that the male offspring from this group were surviving with sex ratios near parity. For Savaii, the population was initially 99 percent female at the beginning of 2006. By the end of the year, researchers found that males made up 39 percent of the 54 butterflies collected.

The researchers tested for the continued presence of Wolbachia in the butterflies. By mating infected females with males from a different island that did not have the suppressor gene, they also confirmed that the bacteria were still effective at killing male embryos. The male-killing ability of the bacteria emerged again after three generations. Thus, they could rule out a change in the bacteria as an explanation for the resurgence of the males in the butterfly populations studied.

The field work for this study was based out of the UC Berkeley Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station on the island of Moorea in French Polynesia. The Gump station is part of the Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research Site, one of 26 sites funded by the National Science Foundation to study long-term ecological phenomena.

The Gump Research Station is managed through UC Berkeley's Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. George Roderick, UC Berkeley professor of environmental science, policy and management and curator of the Essig Museum of Entomology, is a former director of the station, and Neil Davies is the station's executive director and research scientist. Both Roderick and Davies are co-authors of this study.

Other study co-authors are Emily Hornett of University College London, James Fullard of the University of Toronto at Mississauga, and Nina Wedell of the University of Exeter in Cornwall, England.

The U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada helped support this research.

Stagecoach Inn

Memories of girl scout troop get-togethers, elementary school field trips, and good family times sprung to mind yesterday as Tom and I visited the historical Stagecoach Inn in Newbury Park, California. It's a little museum and historical site: A touch of the Old West with a reconstructed 19th Century Monterey Style hotel, a schoolhouse, carriages, phonographs, and a little village complete with volunteer docents in costume. It's tiny, nothing to step out of your way to see, but definitely a fun place to take kids. It seemed so huge in my memories, now visiting again it's just a little place. Still, the charm...

Photos come from their website:
www.stagecoachmuseum.org

Craze

Saturday morning, bright and early, I walked through the house and realized that everyone was glued to the new Harry Potter book. They were sitting tranquilly on the couches, reading. Relaxing. One guy got up periodically to play the piano.

It was a big project weekend for the CO-OP, other than the whole Harry Potter craze. Sarah helped Tom and I refinish the wood paneling on the spa. We sanded it down, then put the new finish on Saturday, then Sunday we put on the first coat of Polyurethane. By next weekend, it's going to be beautiful!

this used to be faded light blue-gray.

What a great weekend. A quiet house, and plenty of work completed. If only this would happen more often!

Elegant Garden Nurseries

Today I went to see Elegant Garden Nurseries in Moorpark, California with my mom.

She's been raving about this nursery for months and now I see why!

So much variety! With 12 acres of plants and landscaping materials, there's no reason to not love it. Also - their prices are cheap but their plants are super healthy. Another plus - kind of rare to see, but they didn't have any black-market cycads. They had good horticultural stock of everything, including Gingers. No greenhouses, but dang - everything that you can think of they have it.

I can't believe how much fun we had riding around in a golf cart with one of the hort guys, roaming from one side of the nursery to another in search of hibiscus and daylilies. We picked up a bromeliad, too! I convinced my mom that a drought-tolerant pink was a good idea for our little hill.

Photos from their image gallery:
http://www.elegantgardenscom.superpageshosting.com/gallery/

Native Plants

Want to find a lily that will survive without water? Want to start a native garden but don't know where to start?

Here's a great resource to help you learn what grows in your part of California. It even includes photos like this one!

California Native Plant Link Exchange:
http://www.cnplx.info/index.html

It's easy to use. For instance, my parents live in Ventura County and they'd like to plant something that will flower year after year without replanting. So they click on "Ventura" in the county listing. It takes them to a new page that lists native plant nurseries in the area. If you scroll down on that page, they'll see a topographical map of the county, and just below that is a listing of native trees that grow in the county. They can then click on the "Perennials" link and that list will change to a massive list of native perennials that will do well in their county. Click on any plant and you'll see everything you could want to know about that particular plant, including a photo, common names, links to other sites with photos, and what nurseries should have it in stock.

Here's a link to the entry on a native lily:
http://www.cnplx.info/nplx/species?taxon=Calochortus+venustus

What it's like in Berkeley (in no particular order):

Diversity is everywhere. People are generally polite. Lots of homeless
people, which is a shock at first. The few white people you meet
on campus will most likely be from some unexpected country. There's this
awesome grocery store called "Berkeley Bowl" (odd name) that has tons of
cheap produce. 2 botanical gardens within jogging distance: Tilden and UC
Bot Garden. Redwoods all over campus, Eucalyptus all over the hillsides.
Tons of nice places to go hiking: Huckleberry preserve, Redwood Park, and
5 others within a 10 minute drive of campus, and you can usually catch a
bus to most of them. Crime definitely catches people by suprize. Don't
leave your backpack sitting unattended in the library or sometone will
snag it. Get a secure lock for your bike. People ride bikes like crazy
everywhere around here. Tons of little cars, hardly see an SUV. Expect
to see people wearing clothes you thought people stopped making in the
1960's. Sensible Asians, burnt out hippies, artists selling their work on
Telegraph and bums harassing you for change at every intersection.
Incredible selection of international food. Every kind of food you can
think of, you'll find, and it'll be reasonably priced. North side of
campus: "Holy Hill" with a representative church or educational facility
for every religion and denomination that has had contact with the Western
world. Calm, peaceful streets that are steep. Sidewalk cafes shaded by
trees, an insane number of copy shops.

Gearing Up for Moorea

Today I used an amazon.com gift card to purchase a few items for Moorea:
Boots

Snorkel kit

Mosquito netting w/ over-bed hoop

full-size roll-up silicone waterproof keyboard


I can't believe that I was able to get all of these items for $50 total. Hopefully the snorkeling fins fit right, and the jungle boots fit, too. Not very girly...

I'm curious what else I still need for the trip. Maybe I'll find similar deals. Time to start looking for a killer waterproof bag...

A friend asked...

A friend who studies graphic design asked:
Speaking of,[plants] wikipedia tells me that "The classification of all flowering plants is currently in a state of flux." (as found in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivorous_plants). Is that true? Why's it the case? I haven't read the full wiki article so I apologize if it's answered like two sentences down.

My response:
Yes, it's in a major state of flux! As more is understood about plant genetics, we're understanding plants much better.

Now that we're looking at the genetic data, we can look at the plants in a new context, and find new similarities. Now we're making the family trees from genetic base pair similarities, then adding the physical traits to that genetic tree. We're even trying to figure out what genes give rise to what traits, but we have only started mapping this out for a few test plants (arabadopsis, corn, and rice).

You see, botanists have always based their classifications on traits. Now, with genetics, we have more distinct traits on which we base the relationships (our traits are super basic - A,T,G...). The guys in the 16th century would say, "These plants have similar leaves (bark, flowers, number of flower parts, etc)." Those were their traits. Then they would make a family tree.

Older trees, for the most part, are matching up with current genetic findings - but not always! We're learning that many plants are not as closely related as we thought - and many plants are closely related that we never thought to put together. For instance, look at Dr. Charles Davis' work at Harvard: they used genetic data to determine that a family of leafless saprophytic flowers (otherwise impossible to place) is nested within the Euphorbiaceae - a very diverse group of flowering plants that includes old-world cactus-looking succulents, the rubber tree, and poinsettia.
Link from Science Magazine: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/315/5820/1812?maxtoshow=&HITS=20&hits=20&RESULTFORMAT=&author1=Davis%2C+C&andorexacttitle=or&andorexacttitleabs=or&andorexactfulltext=or&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&fdate=7/1/1880&tdate=6/30/2007&resourcetype=HWCIT
Link from Smithsonian Magazine: http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2007/march/wildthings.php

My primary interest in plants is making genetic trees, then finding developmental similarities and differences, which will basically stand as tic marks on a tree. People can later compile these physical traits into a key, then use the key in the field to identify plants.

In the Specht lab, I'm working with ginger relatives (Zingeberales), and dessicant-tolerant (Cheilanthoid) ferns. This Fall, I'm hoping to work with woody tropical vines (Freycinetia and Pandanus).

Fast-Paced Moms with PHDs

Here's a book review that stands out. Not because it has anything to do with plants, but because it mentions moms who are PHDs. I hope to have a PHD someday, and being a mom doesn't seem too far out of the picture. Seems like all the women researchers, professors, and curators I know don't have children. It's good to read about how having children can affect a career in academia.

Article from the Berkeley news feed:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/06/12_moms.shtml
New book outlines discrimination against moms

By Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations | 12 June 2007

BERKELEY – Three decades after women began breaking into male-dominated professions, their numbers in top academic and corporate echelons remain flat, according to Mary Ann Mason, graduate dean at the University of California, Berkeley.

Largely to blame are family demands and "maternal discrimination," according to "Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation can Balance Family and Careers" (Oxford University Press, 2007), a new book Mason has co-authored with her daughter, Eve Mason Ekman.

Mothers on the Fast Track" is based on longitudinal research that not only tracked Ph. D. students, but also women in such competitive, male-dominated professions as law, medicine, business and journalism. It documents how generations of women have veered off the career fast-lane after having children - while their male counterparts with families flourished - and argues that ambitious women should not have to settle for second-tier jobs just because they took time off to raise kids.

"Society is losing some of its best and brightest," said Mason, UC Berkeley's first female graduate dean. "It's important to have women in major decision-making positions. It makes a difference in medical research, politics, business, and at all levels. Women have to be in more positions of influence."

According to Mason, women make up only 5 percent of managing partners in law firms, less than 20 percent of medical school deans, 9 percent of National Academy of Science members and 8 percent of top managers in Fortune 500 companies.

The book offers strategies for younger women who seek high-level jobs and families, and to older women hoping to resume, after taking a break to raise families, their climb to upper management and break through what Mason calls "the second glass ceiling."

"If they have the opportunity, mothers go back to work in their 40s, but a lot end up in second-tier jobs," Mason said. "They're not players anymore. They've lost their position in the game."

Mary Ann Mason (Peg Skorpinski photo)

During her first year as graduate dean in 2000, Mason assembled a research team to look into how having families affect both men and women in academia. The results led to family-friendly policies at UC Berkeley for faculty and graduate students that have made the campus a tenure-track model for the nation.

Though the number of women entering graduate and professional schools is steadily rising (approximately half of UC Berkeley's graduate students are female), Mason said her research shows that most women drop off the fast track some time between starting their Ph.D. and landing their first tenure-track job.

After all, the "make-it-or-break-it" years, according to Mason, are between ages 30 and 40, when both men and women must make their professional mark. Yet, it is also during these years that women hear their biological clocks ticking most loudly and the pressure to start a family crests.

Another challenge for today's women, Mason says, is a backlash she calls the "new mom-ism" - the push for mothers to devote enormous amounts of time and energy to their children. "In the past, we were never expected to spend this much time with our children," Mason said.

Essentially, "Mothers on the Fast Track" is a sequel to Mason's 2002 research project, "Do Babies Matter?" which documents the effects of family on academic careers. Along with her longtime research collaborator Marc Goulden, Mason analyzed various databases that track women who enter Ph.D. programs, as well as women in law, business, medicine and the media.

For the 2007 book, Ekman, a medical social worker at San Francisco County General Hospital and an aspiring journalist, conducted interviews with dozens of women ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s.

From 1966 to 2000, the book says, the number of women with Ph.D.s rose from 10 percent to more than 40 percent, according to figures provided by the National Center for Education Statistics. Yet, in a 1999 survey of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory students, 59 percent of the female post-doctorates with children polled cited the concern over how to balance career and family as a main reason for leaving the sciences.

To remedy such trends in both the academic and corporate worlds, employers must provide more flexibility to working mothers through reentry options and upper management training, the authors write. In addition, legislation is needed to prevent maternal discrimination, just as it guards women from sexual harassment and other threats in the workplace, Mason said.

Mason is a former lawyer and an expert on child custody issues. "Mothers on the Fast Track" is largely inspired by her personal struggle to balance family and career, as well as by her interactions with female graduate students who would frequently ask her, "When is the best time to have a baby?"

She is the author of "From Father's Property to Children's Rights," "The Custody Wars," and "The Equality Trap." Last month, Mason received the Berkeley Citation, one of the campus's highest honors, in recognition of her outstanding service to UC Berkeley and its graduate students.

As UC Berkeley's first female graduate dean, Mason said she used her "bully pulpit" to push through family-friendly policies. Her efforts helped secure more than $500,000 in grant money from the Arthur P. Sloan Foundation to help UC Berkeley faculty members balance family and career.

The new campus policies include provisions for new mothers to take off two semesters to care for their babies, and part-time appointments to address family needs. Women's and men's use of these provisions cannot be used against them in their performance reviews. As of this fall, women doctoral students who hold fellowships or posts as graduate-student instructors or researchers at UC Berkeley will be eligible for six weeks' paid maternity leave.

Mason said when she talks with female graduate students about the trends outlined in "Mothers on the Fast Track," they get "glummer and glummer." But she encourages them to keep up the good fight.

"The culture does change, especially when you have women in top positions," she said. "Women can have it all, they just need more support."

Back to work - wait, I never had a break!

Seems like when you leave the country for a couple of weeks, people assume that you spent your time on vacation. They expect you to return all rested and happy. Well, that's not so much the case. Especially when you go to Europe for research. Jetlag is no fun, either. So what do you do when people say, "Welcome home, now get to work!" I haven't figured it out yet. I just kind of mutter, "I never stopped working in the first place."

It's been non-stop since returning from the weeks at various European herbaria. I arrived home, spent a day with my family, drove back to Berkeley, threw my bags in my room, and made it to work at Starbucks - just in time for a 4pm shift. Closed the store, ran home on my own two feet, fell soundly to sleep, and woke up in time for the 8am class Monday morning. Except I didn't know what room it was in - so I showed up at the wrong place, found someone who knew what room it was in. They failed to mention the building so I wandered the wrong building for a half hour, then showed up late at the proper room. Learned the first few steps for making microscope slides. Went home at 6:30pm. I had 20 minutes for lunch in there somewhere, in between paraffin steps and not at a usual time at all.

People at the Co-Op seemed to think that I was just back from a wonderful vacation. They wanted to hear about all the places I saw in Europe. When I explained that they all looked about the same - shelves or cabinets with dried, old plant samples on acid-free paper - they figured out that I just wanted a bit of a break.

In a way, last week was a break. Microscopy is fun, and I realized that I was actually decent at it. On top of the fun I was having with the course, I wasn't running to Starbucks every evening to help with the close. Class got out too late to work a normal shift, so I just spent more time making perfect slides, then coming home to eat dinner, crash, and maybe watch people play a game of poker before sleeping. Saturday I was supposed to have the day off, but I made a horrible decision and took someone's morning shift at work. An eight-hour shift starting at 5:15am is not the best way to end a stressful week of slide-making. I slept all day Sunday, when I wasn't walking a love-able dog named Otis, who I happened to be pet-sitting. So, Sunday was my break, until I went to work at 4pm, that is.

This week I'm spending time in the Specht lab, learning new skills. Yesterday I spent my time extracting DNA from some Cheilanthoid ferns, the start of my SPUR project for the summer. I don't work at Starbucks again until Wednesday - thank goodness. Working while going to school is a rush. Unless you're crazy like me, I don't recommend it.