Linking About: Reliable Sources, Medicinal Plants and Sentient Snap Dragons

As with pretty much everything in the age of AI slop, etc, I’ve noticed coming up with significantly more confusing and conflicting intel than in the past when seeking out information about specific plants and how to grow them, or even more serious plant nerd stuff. So I appreciated this conversation — and the list! — between Margaret Roach and Rebecca McMackin (whose newsletter I just subscribed to a few months ago) about their respective research methods and sources, and the glimpse it offers into their personalities and approaches—

• “Ecologically focused garden designer Rebecca McMackin and I wanted to talk out loud here with all of you about what trusted sources we go to again and again, and about how we filter out some of the unhelpful noise when seeking answers to our garden questions.”
- Garden reference resources we rely on, with Rebecca McMackin by Margaret Roach, A Way to Garden

• And from McMackin’s newsletter, this juicy tidbit: “A few months ago, it was found that a Mediterranean Snap Dragon flower had joined Primroses as hearing and responding to the sounds of pollinators flying near by, increasing sugar nectar in sweet anticipation. The field now has a name: vibroacoustics and the new discoveries are glorious. That same Snap Dragon, Antirrhinum litigiosum, apparently increases nectar volume and sugar concentration when hearing the sound of a blue banded Amegilla bee, the best pollinators of the flower. However, when a nectar robber visits the flowers, they show no response, indicating that the flowers can differentiate between their favored pollinators and non-beneficial flower visitors! Short video here.”
– Blackberry Moon by Rebecca McMackin, Grow Like Wild!

• “Gardening, as numerous studies have found, is good for us. The shoveling and weed-pulling, the exposure to fresh air and sunshine, the sensory engagement with nature — all of that is believed to lower rates of hypertension and heart disease and improve mental well-being. Digging in the soil with our hands may even have a positive impact on our microbiome. But gardens can also promote health directly through their bounty, as a source of herbal remedies and medicines. It’s an opportunity many gardeners overlook. ...” [Including me.]
- How to Cultivate a Feel-Good Garden by Stephen Wallis, The New York Times (Gift Links, both)

Also, this random carousel the social overlords fed me (which kinda looks like AI?) gave me some ways to think about grass in the context of my fledgling forest as it evolves.

Feel free to share your own great links below! And happy digging—