The Mysterious Moonflower (Ipomoea alba)

The lush vine twines upward on the fence and as it goes produces large flower buds. These sit there, green and still, waiting for darkness to arrive. Well after the sun goes down one or two buds begin to stir ever so slightly. Then, in less than a minute, a four to six inch flower, pure white, opens to welcome the pollinators of the night. When the first rays of morning begin to lighten the sky, the edges of the flower droop in a kind of flaccid slide, and by full light the flower is a wilted shadow of its former self.
This is the cycle of the Moonflower, a kind of Morning Glory. Night bloomers are really special flowers. They take advantage of all the light of the day to grow but don’t compete for the daytime pollinators. Instead they attract night moths such as the hawkmoth.
I love a mystery, and in looking around for information on this beauty I found a confusing array of both common and Latin names. Numerous Moonflowers are out there. Mine turned out to be currently and probably definitely named Ipomoea alba . But take a look at the synonyms I found:

Synonym:Calonyction album

Synonym:Calonyction aculeatum

Synonym:Calonyction bona-nox

Synonym:Ipomoea noctiflora

Synonym:Calonyction pulcherrimum

This is the kind of thing that gives people headaches. What is it really called? Why the confusion of names? Where is a definitive source for this pretty puzzle? In addition to a mystery I love to ferret around looking for odd things, and this expedition turned out to be easier than I though. The USDA has a plant taxonomy (names and classification) data base called GRIN which stands for Germplasm Resources Information Network. Using DNA analysis and a classification method called Cladistics, the exact relationships of one living thing to another can be assessed. Voila! The statement below is the definitive position of my mysterious plant:

“Though formerly classified as genus Calonyction, species aculeatum, it is now properly assigned to genus Ipomoea, subgenus Quamoclit, section Calonyction.” (1) and my species is alba .

A beauty by any name is still a beauty, and this is one for sure. And, as a bonus, as are most moth pollinated flowers, it is wonderfully fragrant.

1. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?20135

The Distance Between 60 and 100 Years Old.

“Diana Nyad, 60, Swimming From Cuba To Florida” the headline reads. Diana is a renowned distance swimmer, writer and commentator on NPR. She woke up at 60 and remembered that once years ago she had to abort the try from Cuba to Florida and now it was time to do it. For her and for all the boomers that think life is winding down. She said in the interview “Ninety Five is old. Sixty isn’t old.” So true. Even 70 isn’t that old. But 95? Might not be and here is the reason: Chester Reed. Postal worker retiring at age 95. He figured it was time to do other things in life. His goal is to reach 100. His secret is eating watermelon and onion sandwiches. The watermelon keeps him peeing and the onions keep the muggers away.
Both of these stories are inspirational, but for different reasons. Nyad’s because she is going to try to be the first person ever to swim the Florida Straits without a shark cage. And she is 60 years old. Younger folks have done this in a cage. Keep your fingers crossed that the shark experts on her team know what they are doing.
Reed is ending a career at 95 and since he is very hale and hardy he doesn’t have to retire. He just wants to do something new. At 95. Does he seem old to you? He doesn’t seem so old to me. I would agree that 100 is old, though. My thought here is that me and some of my friends are between 60 and 100, and somewhere in there “not-old” becomes “yes-old”. Where is the 64 billion dollar question? And the answer is (music) when you think you are old, you are. Nyad isn’t. Reed isn’t. I am’ent. (Like that? I made it up when I was 3.) And neither is Rich (although some would argue this point). So you “youngsters” out there get on with it! Make lots of money so Social Security and Medicare will be there for us “not-oldsters”. We’ll tell you when to quit. And that will be when YOU get old. Ha. Because we are planning for a long, long run.
Image: www.postalreporternews.net/.../06/creed1107.jpgImage and story on Nyad: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5

The Enduring Wisdom of Clarence

Last year I wrote a small essay about a man named Clarence, and the impact he had on my view of racism. An old friend just experienced something frightening and the first thing I thought of was what Clarence said about predicting the behavior of people by the way they look. In this little sentence, Clarence was talking about white people reacting to an unknown black man: “If a man steals corn from your field that doesn’t mean the next man coming down the road will steal your corn.”
My friend was working late and a homeless man walked into her office and asked for money for food and a shelter for the night. He was dirty and smelly, but not threatening in any way except the way he presented himself. She called her son who was about to get there anyway, and he gave the man a few dollars and sent him on his way. No harm done except a bad fright. So the question is why the fright? We are conditioned by what we hear and see not to trust the homeless. They are portrayed as a group as being aggressive in seeking handouts and potentially dangerous. Mostly they are not. Mostly they are sad down-on-their-luck people who just need a bit of help and want to be left alone. They are more often targets of aggression that perpetrators. But there are among them some bad actors. And these few make the rest potentially threatening. Like the man walking down the road, you can’t predict the behavior of one from the behavior of another.
What to do? Be careful and watchful. Use what I call the “reasonable person test” (1) which asks “what would a reasonable person do in this circumstance?” I guess that means locking doors after hours, walking in well lighted areas, generally being aware of your surroundings. Have a cell phone handy and a plan of action if trouble approaches. My experience with the homeless and panhandlers I have run into is that most of them leave you alone if you look at them and keep walking, or give them something or ignore them.
I am glad my friend was not threatened or attacked. But even if she was, remember the wisdom of Clarence and don’t be too quick to judge the next one.
Image: jared-and-eryn.com/?m=200802
http://searchesworld.blogspot.com/2009/12/clarence_15.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person

Steak Diane - Yummy

Casting around for a different kind of dinner to construct when “Steak Diane” popped into the old bean. There was a restaurant in Tallahassee in the old days that was part of “Andrews” but was sort of in the basement. Upstairs was more bar-like and downstairs was a nice quiet restaurant with good service and very good food. They had two dishes that were prepared at the table. Caesar Salad was one: all fresh ingredients and prepared from scratch before your very eyes. Delicious doesn’t even get close. The other was Steak Diane. A nice thick filet mignon cooked with shallots, cream, brandy, and some other things before your very eyes again. What a treat. Sal and I would go there for special occasions and have both, and a bottle of plonk (drinkable but cheap red). We felt like and were served like Royalty, which of course she is, being British.
Alas, they are gone now and as far as I know there is nowhere else in Tally Town that has table side service for these dishes. A few Chinese places will cook some sizzling dishes at the table, but that isn’t a quiet meal served with relaxing ambiance. Pity. There are generations of youngsters (there, now I’ve said it. Youngsters. It hurts but sometimes you gotta face the mirror) that will never have a quiet Steak Diane and Caesar Salad in a low stress place. Maybe that is exactly what is wrong with the world we know. Too damn noisy and busy.
Bye.
Image: http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/cookalong-live/cookalong-live-the-series/week-4/how-to-make-sauce-for-steak-diane_p_1.html

White Ghost

This morning we woke up to a real treat. Several years ago we bought a white night-blooming water lily. It bloomed the first year, and maybe the second and that’s it. We haven’t seen it for at least 4 years, and were not even sure it survived.
Three summers ago we moved the entire pond, plants, fish and all. All the potted water lilies and a few rogues (just growing in the muck in the bottom of the pond) came with us. Most have bloomed including some pink, blue and yellow day bloomers and a very bright pink (yes, even I can see the color) night bloomer. But no white flowers in evidence.
Then, this morning, there it was. Radiantly white, and big, too. What a treat. The photo doesn’t really do it justice, but rather than go to the web for someone else’s picture, I thought, “What the hell, just use your own”. So I did. Enjoy.

Good News for Today

This morning I look in the usual places for hints of good news and not surprisingly found some. Note this headline form the Melbourne (Australia) Morning Sun: “A COMPUTER engineer died after tying himself naked to a tree with a cord wrapped around his penis, an inquest heard.” (1) The guy got drunk, made himself a pair of plastic rope handcuffs, tied a piece of cord around his willy, got naked, tied himself to a tree in what has been described as a “bondage game with the tree”, and the TREE WON.
This is all the proof anyone needs that Natural Selection is still at work, cleaning out the gene pool. I suppose the good news here is that someone as (try not to be too judgmental Woody), what the hell, moronic as that is no longer around to influence others. He may have done good works as well, but we will never know it.
As for other good news, a few items of interest:surveys indicate people still participate in Reality Shows and actually believe that they are real; more contestants line up for beauty contests and the stock market is wavering but not yet collapsing.
All but buried in the foreign and domestic news, including the conservative outlets, is some really good news: the troop drawdown in Iraq is on track to be completed in the next 12 months, going from 160k to 50k.
The gulf oil well that spilled an estimated 200 million gallons (range is 93 million to 400 million) as of today has been killed. And the really good news is that more than 75% or the oil has disappeared! WOW! GONE! So we only have to worry about 50 million gallons. Man, am I relieved.
Image: Jacopo de' Barbari (Print made by); The three prisoners: www.britishmuseum.org/.../AN00443582_001_l.jpg
1. Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/the-other-side/man-dies-after-bondage-game-with-tree-fails/story-e6frfhk6-1225903503810

Interview with a Whiner

Ann Rice dumps the Catholic church because she “discovered” that it is homophobic and trying to influence “secular” policy. What a gigantic surprise! She started her writing career as an atheist, then later converted back to her childhood religion. Why do that? Who knows what lurks in the hearts and souls of lapsed Catholics? I know my mother gave up the Church when she was about 10 and spent the rest of her life feeling guilty even though she was a faithful Episcopal. The Catholic indoctrination burns a very deep hole in the soul. Rice is keeping her belief in God, and in the idea the God knows and sees all, but can’t abide the fraud of the Church in the “holier than thou” department. Or any other Christian church for that matter.
Well duh. I guess the astonishing levels of deceit and crime within the church over abuse of young members by clergy wasn’t a problem. I guess the refusal to ordain gay priests wasn’t a problem or the relegating woman to second class (or even third class) citizens wasn’t a problem. She said there was no “straw” that caused the break, just an accumulation of distasteful things. So she came to her senses, partially.
I remember when her first vampire novel came out and thinking what a whiner the handsome blonde rock star vampire was. Lestat was his name and whining was his game. Sounds to me like our Ann is getting a bit whiney.
I have said it before and I say it again: Religions should keep their beliefs to themselves and out of the lives of those that don’t think like they do. It is bad enough trying to cope with the world as it is without having to worry about which of the hundreds of religions are dangerous, or stupidly ignorant of just plain silly. Keep religions in the churches, mosques and temples, and out of the faces of the rest of us. And don’t forget, the Constitution guarantees it.
Image: http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/07/01/why_modern_vampires_well_suck
NPR interview with Ann Rice: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128930526