Sunday, January 13, 2019

Wild Plants and a Tail-less Squirrel


I made a goal of learning how to identify several wild plants that grow in Florida. These green cuties look like three leaf clovers to me so that is what I always thought they were called. It turns out they are properly named Yellow Wood Sorrel. 


This fluffy fella is cudweed, purple cudweed more specifically I think. I could be wrong. That is the trouble with trying to research these on my own.


These pretty tiny blue stalks of flowers are a creeping ground cover called River Sage. 


Pocket os these wee pink succulent looking plants grow all over the yard. I discovered they like to be called Pink Purslane. 

The next step in my identifications is to see if any are edible or have other uses. I have several herb books I am excited to read.


We have a tail-less squirrel who enjoys eating the bird seed that gets dropped on the ground in the back yard. I never realized until I saw him how much squirrels look like they hop around like bunnies. The lack of his tail really emphasizes that. I feel like we should name him. Any suggestions?

6 comments:

  1. Oh, poor squirrels, a cross between a rat and a bunny. He looks cute, there's a Newberry Award winning book titled Flora and Ulysses about a squirrel named Ulysses (he gets sucked up by a vacuum cleaner in the plot, so that could fit in w/the missing tail). Happy flora hunting.:)

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    1. What a cute sounding book! Watch it be a tear jerker. I cry in books at the drop of a hat. Movies too. Poor fella getting sucked up by a vacuum. Hoping he wasn't too traumatized.

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  2. He seems to be doing pretty well for being tail-less! I think I've had sorrel on fancy salads?

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    1. He does seem pretty happy! I think he lives like he got a second chance at life. You know I did think about how the sorrel would taste on a salad with its sour tang. I bet it would be yummy. Thanks for the idea!

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  3. Stubs. His name is clearly Stubs. Aw, poor fella, that looks like it might have hurt a lot. Unless he just suffers from Deficient Tail Syndrome or something (not a valid medical condition.)

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    1. STUBS. YES!!! Sadly, I do think he did suffer while having his tail ripped from him but hopefully the pain is a distant memory. I can sometimes see a little tuft on his butt where the tail probably was.

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