Saturday, August 29, 2020

Ambition

 I had to laugh:

Native trailing blackberry, Rubus ursinas

This blackberry vine, native to the area, and common, is a prostrate shrub, according to my guide book. It loves sunlight, and grows rapidly into cleared areas, even over paved roads, stretching out at ground level. Walking on little-used roads, I have to watch my feet; the spiny vines catch at my toes trying to trip me up. In open bush, with support, it might even lasso my ankles.

Note that it is defined as a prostrate, trailing shrub. Not a climber.

Trailing shrub, 2-5 m or more long; stems barely woody, 2-10 mm in diameter, arching, sprawling and trailing along the ground, ... (E-Flora)

In season, female flowering stalks lift their heads to about half a metre, given some supporting structure.

This vine decided to break precedent and snake its way up a vertical rock face. It's at more than 2 metres already, and still climbing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Esto me hizo reir.

La zarzamora de California (Rubus ursinas, o sea zarza roja de los osos) es una planta nativa, muy común en sitios expuestos al sol, incluso en caminos pavimentados que se usan poco, donde se extiende sobre la superficie.

Es una planta que se describe como prostrado, reptante, que crece al nivel del suelo. Caminando por sendas poco usadas, tengo que estar alerta, mirando donde ando, porque los tallos espinosos me agarran los pies, tratando de tumbarme. (A propósito, claro.) En el bosque abierto, se levanta un poco sobre otras plantas, y me amarra los tobillos.

En la primavera, algunos ramos, donde hallan sostén, se alzan hasta medio metro para producir sus flores.

Esta planta decidió rebelarse. Aquí se halla trepando hacia arriba, sobre una fachada de roca vertical. Ya llegó a más de dos metros y sigue adelante. ¡Mucha ambición!




No comments:

Post a Comment

I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

Also, I have word verification on, because I found out that not only do I get spam without it, but it gets passed on to anyone commenting in that thread. Not cool!

Powered By Blogger