… Add a little brightness to your family's day—play with food, make rainbow dough—and get in some nature play, too. Ready to turn ☹️ into ☺ ? Nature … of gratitude... Coloring in the Kitchen Hey, kids, here are three recipes that make playing with your food even more fun! Rainbow Salad Instead of just regular old salad, fruits and … an array of berries and peeled orange slices to plop into each pop. Let kids fill the forms with their own juice/fruit combos, then freeze. This is a decently healthy solution for sweet …
Type: Blog
… waiting for me to release butterflies from the pupae chamber. So I packed up the lacewing, with all of the other newborns. I then released each of the two dozen butterflies that had … scientific community, but our luck was about to change. On Wednesday morning, I was chatting with a young butterfly enthusiast about the gynandromorphic lacewing. I asked him if he could … So how does gynandromorphism occur? There are several possibilities having to do with mishaps that occur during early cell division. Butterflies have a W and a Z chromosome for …
Type: Blog
… and the position of the stamens (male structure of a flower that produces pollen). Flowers with long styles that elevate the stigma above the stamens are called pin flowers, and flowers with short styles that support the stigma below the stamens are called thrum flowers. In addition … the stigma, which ensures cross pollination. Only pollen from thrum flowers is compatible with the stigmas of pin flowers and vice versa. Therefore, both pin and thrum flowers must be …
Type: Blog
… bittercress. Within a few weeks, depending on the weather, forest floors will be carpeted with wildflowers, courtesy of the sun streaming onto the earth before the trees leaf out and … you see are the claw-like pointed red-striated hoods called spathes surrounding a nub studded with blossoms. The plant creates its own heat, even amid snow and ice. The temperature inside … come to skunk cabbage. They flit inside the hood looking for rotting meat, then emerge covered with pollen. Then they fly inside another skunk cabbage, and pollinate it. Honeybees are the …
Type: Blog
… working on restoration of our 100-acre Mary Mix McDonald Woods, it took weeks of hand-pulling with many volunteers each spring to clear just 10 or 11 acres. After years of not letting the … years ago we finally began to see a light at the end of the tunnel (though we’d still end up with mountains of pulled garlic mustard each year). Thanks to the tremendous help of Garden … is having a significant negative effect on garlic mustard (see woodsandprairie.blogspot.com ). Observers have reported an almost complete absence of garlic mustard in areas that are …
Type: Blog
… the prairies. For example, the xeric (dry) communities of the prairies were associated with exposed bedrock (dolomites, alvars), glacial deposits (hills) or sandy soil that had little … unique plant communities, which included a number of important endemic and rare species. With landscape fragmentation, these habitats are becoming increasingly isolated, and many …
Type: Research
… It’s the season for grilling—time to share a simple, herb-related trick with the grill master at your house. Fashion an herb brush out of a wooden spoon, a bit of … the meat is cooked, snip the herb into softened butter to create sage butter to serve along with it at the table. A beautiful plant in the garden, sage is most familiar as the flavoring in …
Type: Blog
… Dr. Herrera. Mongolia and Inner Mongolia at this time were dominated by swamps and forests with diverse seed plants and relatives of modern conifers. Although some of the fossils appear … of Dr. Herendeen and Dr. Herrera in Tevshiin Govi, a coal mine in Mongolia that was covered with trees about 100 million years ago. …
Type: Research
… The whole family can get involved—even teen-agers will enjoy a chance to express themselves with this easy craft. Supplies: Rocks—fist size is a good place to start *Paint Permanent marker … environmentally friendly. Sidewalk chalk is another great option. Instructions: Wash the rocks with soap and water. Then dry them. Paint the background and set the rocks out to dry. Paint on …
Type: Blog
… the ways in which plants affect our lives. While at Bell Museum, Barak and Tonietto partnered with museum experts for a spotlight science event at the Museum. The event connected Plant Love Stories with Wicked Plants, a visiting exhibit based on the book of the same name by Amy Stewart. This …
Type: Research
