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May 22, 2022

3 seed collections

Splish splash splosh sploosh spike

Teeny tiny bump / A pirouette of coffee / Dancing in my cup

(as we drove out to collect Ericameria linearifolia)

I’m realizing that, after a day of seed collecting, my brain becomes imprinted with images of the fruits that have occupied my attention for hours. When I close my eyes, even for a second, their shapes will come swimming in, repetitive colors and figures, as if my subconscious does not realize I have stopped collecting. I remember this happening, growing up, after a day of blackberry picking. Closing my eyes to go to sleep and - blackberries! Everywhere!

Well, we collected from three (!) different plants this week, so here’s a bit of what’s swirling around in my brain.

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The goldenbush (Ericameria linearifolia) seeds glow in the sun. Little puff balls of light, they stand out no matter the time of day. These bushes reach about knee height, which means bending down to shake, pluck, or tap the clumps of fluff into a bucket. This area (Carrizo gorge, up in the mountains to the east of El Centro) is different, greener, and you can feel it. Opening the car door, I smell the water, the abundant life in comparison to the drier areas where we usually work. Birds everywhere, compainains out in the field. The smell of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), a vibrant color palette, and annuals littering the ground. In the spot where I began collecting, giant windmills loomed above me, making a constant buzzing noise, blown by the breeze. When you crush the ericameria leaves in your hand, it smells citrusy and woody, a bit like pine? And they left little tufts everywhere, on my hands, my clothes. When a big gust of wind would come, I’d have to crouch over my bucket to keep the seeds, and their wind-adapted tufts, from flying away.

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The california croton (Croton californicus), in its sandy wash on the Mexican border, smells soft and sweet. A bit like cannabis but, again, soft. It’s calming. The plants reach a bit taller than waist height, and the seeds come in little bundles of 3, soft and blue/green. The whole experience is quite pleasant, walking a few meters in the sand from one plant (or clump of plants) to the next, searching for fruits, which blend in among leaves of the same turquoise color. Only some plants fruit, as this species is diecious, some individuals having only male flowers. It feels like plucking blueberries into a bucket, one at a time, my haul growing slowly.

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I could not figure out how to best collect the while dalea (Psorothamnus emoryi). I tried plucking each flower head - took too long, I could be at one plant for half an hour this way! Tried shaking - most of the fruits didn’t want to come off. Pulling with two fingers along the stem? plucking/grabbing at clumps of heads? I sort of just switched it up, each plant wanted something different. But these plants grow so wildly and elegantly it makes me smile. Reaching up to my waist, the flowers cascade from here to the ground on many plants. They are similar in color to the croton, a sort of bluish green with a hint of white. They smell amazing - I don’t know how to describe it - strong and sharp and fresh? And they turn everything orange (my hands, my clothes, my backpack, my water hose) with their bright glands.

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With all this collecting, I am looking for audiobook recommendations :) I finished “The City we Became” while collecting the Psorothamnus. It was amazing. Anything that takes me into another world is great for seed collecting!

<3 Maya

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