Category Weekly Columns

photo of Elephant's Head flower in a field.

A Botanist’s View of Local Flora – Elephant’s Head

I grew up playing with the pink flowers of the Elephant’s Head. They are so fun and the flowers quite elephant-like. In fact, I recall seeing only one other species of Pedicularis, the Parrot’s Beak. The group of species are called louseworts because mythology believed that the cattle that ate the plants got lice.

photo of a trail in an old growth forest

Winding Trails by Al Hobart – Saprophytes – Rambling in the Siskiyous

My love for this sort of thing is so great that at times in hiking on these old dream-inspiring mountain trails.  I find it almost impossible to stop until weariness prevents me from going on, and more than once I have been caught in the dark a long way from camp or home.  I call this reckless urge the trail raptures.

macro photo of a very flat beetle. they are dark rusty red in color. their elytra are a darker shade. they are on a cut piece of tree trunk facing right.

Crawlies with Cri – Silvanid Flat Bark Beetle

This week’s crawly is a Beetle of Mystery! Not wholly, we do have some facts, but we also have a lot to learn yet.

One thing we know for sure is they fall into the None More Flat category of arthropods. Meet Uleiota truncata a Silvanid Flat Bark Beetle.

photo of the Phoenix, AZ international airport

Wayne’s World – Aug. 12, 2026

Well, this is the week. I’m planning to fly back east to Connecticut to spend a week with my daughter and her family. Some of you may remember she has been pressuring me to pack up all my worldly goods and relocate permanently, and this was the week that was supposed to happen.

map of part of the united states with a line showing the oregon trail. states it ran through are highlighted with different colors.

All Things Oregon – the Oregon Trail

This week in All Things Oregon we’re going to travel the Oregon Trail. Luckily for us we can do so from the comfort of our homes, because it was brutal. It was also how many of us, no doubt, ended up here on the West Coast via long-ago family members who completed the treacherous trek.

photo of a succulent growing out of a rock wall. it has pale green leaves and bright yellow flowers.

A Botanist’s View of Local Flora – Pacific Stonecrop

Somehow growing up I always associated succulent plants with desert areas or non-hardy indoor plants. I later learned that succulent plants Sedums or Stonecrops to be exact can be found in other diverse habitats around the world. In some cases they are quite hardy.

photo of a small cottage by the pacific ocean with an old jeep parked in front.

Winding Trails by Al Hobart – Saprophytes – County botanizing – Cozy Cottage

To botanize the extreme western end of the Siskiyous, or to explore them for future botanical incursions at appropriate seasons, the best approach is from the ocean side, up the various rivers that penetrate deeply into the famously rugged Curry County of Oregon and California’s Del Norte County – the Rogue, Pistol River; the Chetco, Winchuck and Smith Rivers.