A rave regarding Cheesebush
Good evening lovely people in my life <3 Here to share a bedtime story about a new friend of mine.
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A rave regarding Cheesebush (Ambrosia/Hymenoclea salsola)
Without me realizing it was happening, this inconspicuous little shrub tugged at my attention and - somewhat surprisingly- became a main point of focus and excitement during last week’s wanderings. Now I think it has my heart.
Ambrosia salsola just looks like a brown bush from the highway. We’d been seeing little groups everywhere, but always in small patches, not yet enough to make a scouting point (populations of at least 50 plants are large enough to, potentially, collect from). So we would see them often, getting familiar with their presence but not yet truly becoming acquainted.
I knew their small, straight leaves that are lighter at the tip, and the green stems that become speckled with little dots that are actually buds. But it wasn’t until counting our first big group in a wash (they seemed so happy there!) that I began to appreciate the way that they grow, all clumped and tangled around one another. And, like many plants out here, their seemingly sad vegetation is just a part of their superpower. When coming across populations that are budding or in bloom, I am blown away by the amount of fresh, beautiful green growth they have shot out with such purpose. They are patient, it seems, happy to wait until conditions are right, and then when they are…oh.. they go so damn hard.
Ambrosia’s are asters, members of the largest flowering plant family which includes oh so many familiar friends - sunflowers, thistles, sage, to name a few. We actually have two Ambrosias on our list of target species: Ambrosia dumosa (Burrobush; there's a picture of it in my last email:), and Ambrosia salsola (cheesebush). Both Ambrosias have separate flowers for pollen and for ovaries, with each plant containing both types (monecious), which makes looking for both types of flowers very fun. And I love the pistillate flowers on the cheesebush. They are delicate, translucent, and beautiful, but subtle. From far away, the bushes that are flowering look slightly frosted with white.
We ended up finding two very happy populations of Ambrosia salsola this week, and wandered among them to count the plants and check on their progress. As I stopped to look at the flowers, I would take little pieces of leaves and stem and crush them between my fingers as I walked. Because, yes, this plant actually SMELLS LIKE CHEESE, a super stinky blue cheese. Perhaps just pause on that for a moment? It smells like cheese!!!
So yeah, this little shrub is thriving and surviving and just doing it’s thing on roadsides as well as out in the desert, far from human eyes. I think it may be one of my new favorite things on this earth.
In other news:
One thing on the forefront of my mind this weekend is the desire to make real steps towards improving my Spanish! I am fortunate enough to have landed in a place where most people are bilingual, and for the sake of both personal learning and communication (!!), I feel that speaking Spanish is really, really important. I’ve been reading articles, doing my duolingo, and speaking to people as much as I can, but I have a LOT to learn! So, any language learning resources, tips, suggestions? Please oh please send em my way :)
And finally, because it's too good to be true, but it is, here's a Yucca in bloom
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Sweet dreams :)