Welcome to the Natural Coalescence Blog

Oak Life Lesson: Coordination helps you breed with your neighbors & overload your hungry enemies. Bigger nuts are cool, but not best.

Why does New Zealand seem to have a dense and stark forest strip, with the trees ending sharply compared to other global regions?

Making and testing natural inks & dyes from fruits and flowers in PNW.

Differences between WA Erysimum species- yellow Erysimum capitatum vs arenicola.

Edible or lethal plants. Comparing and admiring common camas with death-camas, and a few native plant relatives in the PNW.

Oak apples aren't a fruit, they're a gall from a wasp and they may not be edible but you can use them for home-made ink.

All about the popular spring bulbs that are nearly all varying levels of toxic

Special plants make unique blue pollen and pollen can come in a range of colors too.

Info about whether you should have a camp fire in the wild and fire safety from ecological view

There are many cool trees all over the world and possibly more than our 'fair share' in the Pacific northwest due to the variety of habitats and historic geological disturbances of glaciation that isolated tree group progenitors and pushed others into severe habitats. I try not to be biased but also find a lot of incidents of having to pause to admire or fully caress some of our trees. So... there are cool ones. And high on the list of favorites is the western red-cedar, w

Blue flowers are the RAREST color. I’ve noticed this for a long time. And it makes sense. But it is also confusing and weird and beautiful. blue Himalayan poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia) TLDR: Flowers are blue through difficulty for the plants, but because it draws more animal pollinators and they show up more in areas with steeper competition for pollination. And we are a bit obsessed with them and their color, despite seeing less than bees can. Blue, not plum or lavend

*(sweaty, even while standing still because… heat domes & such) It’s a berry Pacific Northwest kind of life in summer time here. The sun finally came out and surprisingly this year, it receded a few times for some early summer showers. Many thanks from the wildflowers and fruits, and even the conifers. Trail breakfast with wild blueberries- pure luxury! When the sun is warm enough in spring to encourage sustained blooms and successful pollination (it takes the two to tango

Hydrangea season approaches! Blue is coming. blue hydrangea starting to open, by sayo ts 2 The special and huge draw of these shrubs for many gardeners is the unusual color of certain hydrangea. They are a vibrant rich blue. You’ve seen blue flowers of course, but if you think hard, you’ll notice they are actually quite rare. Which makes the blue hydrangea both pretty and pretty special. ombred hydrangea, by Cindy Gustafson These plants are not grown just anywhere either.

As the summer solstice passes, a very 'spring to summer' plant comes to mind- oso berry. They are pretty much the very first native plant to bloom in our area, a PNW herold to spring. And around the summer solstice is when their oso-dangly fruits ripen. Previously known still as "Indian plum", the progress of renaming plants to remove the colonial offensiveness is in favor of oso berry. “June plum” is better too and helping highlight the deep purple berries.They are a native

Plant obsessions go through trends, just like the huge tulip obsession and flash trade market that was huge for a short time, then crashed very suddenly. Can you imagine coming to financial ruin because you invested in the wrong seller of tulip bulbs? I am seriously considering creating a big planter just for irises a wide variety of irises, just investing way too much in prettiness because it will please me. So… bad idea? I’ll try to stay strong. Tulips, roses, African vi

The iris is more than a lovely (ok absolutely gorgeous) flower. Of ancient Greek mythology, she is the goddess who personified the rainbow and the messenger of the gods where her rainbow trail could be seen left on her message runs between the Earth and the heavens. True, she was a lower tier deity in that mythology, but served a useful role, and how much “use” do we get from rainbows today, really? Definitely some joy and inspiration, and a nice clue to the presence of iso

What's the best way to get rid of weeds? Eat them, of course! And we are hitting prime dandelion season, so it's time to get digging. And roasting. And sauteing. While weeding the older dandelions out of the yard which are ready to bloom right away (continuing to spruce up the area after a tenant's prior neglect), I filled a 5gal tub with some decent sized taprooted dandies and nice tender young ones for their leaves. Naturally I needed to pluck out the pristine ones for

I would bet this plant is among those that most people, even the botanically interested, would pass right by. Rosy twisted-stalks, and other twisted-stalks (we have several in the PNW) look like a cute zip-zagging plant similar to Solomon's seals. But if you lift one up you'll see- I think of it like the classic romantic scene moment where the confident love-interest lifts the chin of the bashful beauty for a kiss that says "I love you for you and see just how beautiful you

Begonia flowers are cooler than most people realize. I painted their corkscrew pistils as an oil painting, honoring them as I eat them.

Mistletoe in California oak at Yosemite NP Mistletoes get an interesting and sort of bad rep. They are only really thought about during the holidays (unless by botanists) and many have heard that they are super toxic and kill trees they live on. And yet you’re supposed to smooch under them. Why? Wouldn’t you NOT want to apply your mouth to a person when they are under a toxic plant, just in case some falls on their face right then? Well let’s pick all this apart. If you