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Mystery Plant! #739
Posted 9/6/23
By John Nelson
johnbnelson@sc.rr.com
When it rains it pours, and I don’t mean that recent hurricane.
Among the plant identification requests we got last week here in the Herbarium, there were three separate questions about this very odd plant. I can’t quite figure out if it is suddenly being noticed now, for some reason, or if it really is a recent introduction, establishing itself quickly. I’m inclined to go with the first idea.
This plant is placed by botanists in what we call the “mulberry” family (or Moraceae), which, sure enough, contains the familiar mulberries. The mulberry family is a large group, containing many thousands of additional species, most of which are woody, tree or shrubs, and found in the tropics. There are some important tropical tree members yielding timber, and of course, everyone knows of figs…nearly 1,000 different species, including that potted rubber-tree in your dentist’s waiting room. Those of you who are fans of “Mutiny on the Bounty” will remember the poor little breadfruit plants that got tossed overboard: breadfruit is another tropical species –with edible fruits– in the mulberry family.
But our Mystery plant is neither mulberry, fig, nor breadfruit. This is a pretty darn strange plant for our area, introduced from eastern Asia. It is potentially a tree, a deciduous one, although most often it is seen as a shrub. It’s a slow grower, and given enough time can attain considerable size as an honest-to-goodness tree. It has hard, tough wood, and its roots are rather yellowish. Of particular interest will be the very stout thorns that are produced on some branches: they can be dangerous. The leaves are handsome, dark green and glossy. Young leaves are somewhat peculiar in having 3 prominent shoulders, or lobes, toward the tip. The plants are either male or female…that is, bearing either staminate or pistillate flowers…not both. (The term, of course, for such a species is “dioecious”.) Whether male or female, the flowers are small and inconspicuous, held in little roundish balls in the spring. In the fall, the female flowers’ ovaries swell into a fleshy mass, which takes on a sort of strawberry appearance, at first green, and eventually turning red or orange. When the fruit gets ripe and mushy, it’s ready to eat. (I’ve been able to try it once. It was OK.) There are actually several named cultivars which are available. I understand that there is also a seedless variety, one that supposedly won’t ever produce seedlings.
The leaves, thorns, and fruits that are produced by our mysterious plant might make you think of another mulberry-ish relative, the much more widespread “Osage-orange”, which is also seen in the Southeast. Osage-orange, however, is normally a smaller plant, with smaller leaves, and it produces a large, green, globose fruit, that looks sort of like a brain…and which is NOT edible. As long as you have the fruits of both species, so characteristic of each, you won’t have any trouble telling the two apart. Without the fruits, though, you might need a botanist’s help!
[Answer: “Strawberry tree,” “Melonberry”, Maclura tricuspidata]
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John Nelson is the retired curator of the Herbarium at the University of South Carolina, in the Department of Biological Sciences. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.
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Glancing At Leaves
Posted 9/6/23
By Tom Poland
A Southern Writer
www.tompoland.net
tompol@earthlink.net
This time of year I catch myself glancing at leaves. On walks through woods and bike rides along trails, I see the occasional red leaf. I glance again and see a few more leaves turning crimson. Soon red outnumbers green. Autumn’s nigh.
I’ve talked to people who live in regions where autumn is a tad bland. They miss a lot. Here in Georgialina, we’re blessed to live where four seasons bring differing versions of beauty. Come March I find myself in peach orchards where daybreak reveals clouds of pink and coral blossoms. I walk over peppermint petals, as if kaleidoscopes of pink butterflies touched down to rest. Come May-June it’s uplifting to see the rocky shoals spider lilies. The delicate flowers bring ballerinas to mind amid a concert of river song. It’s a performance upon a watery stage you’ll not forget.
Summer’s tulips, roses, foxglove, and emerald mint leaves serve up a good tonic, and winter’s cold flowers—camellias—dazzle us, though most have little to no fragrance. Fall, though, that’s when we realize just how much grandeur we miss owing to the million of pines that have displaced maples, oaks, and hickories. Pines, green year-round, are a non-event come fall, but what if each needle assumed a different hue than its neighbors? What a spectacle that would be. Thank you hardwoods for the colors you share.
I have my favorite signs that fall is coming. Wild grapes begin to drop along the trails. Sulphur butterflies cross highways as they migrate south toward that state named for the “land of flowers.” For me, these yellow beauties signify the coming of fall as surely as the reddening of maple leaves, as surely as purple muscadines and gold, brown-flecked scuppernongs. And here and there flower gardens and fields of sunflowers languish in decline. Spent sunflowers, like old women wearing dirty yellow bonnets, bow in deference to passersby.
I know summer’s in retreat as temperatures drop and fall’s palette of red, orange, and gold banishes summer green. Autumn foliage ushers in a pilgrimage to the mountains that captivates pleasure-seekers. You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t love fall’s cavalcade of colors. Predicted with accuracy or not, fall’s arrival kicks off leaf-lover season. Colors pull hard at foliage worshipers and all highways lead to the mountains. Without doubt, fall colors are one of Earth’s better performances. There’s music in the mountains and no resisting the trees’ siren song.
But even in the flatlands we find color. I love an early morning drive along rivers and over lakes where fog mutes colors, giving the land an impressionistic air. Down Lowcountry way another unsung beauty blesses autumn. Marshes turn golden and when you lay all that blue creek-laced gold beneath an indigo sky you get a Lowcountry like no other. Deep-blue skies. They give us an indigo dome of splendor.
As fall falls away, here’s another unsung beauty. Frost. Across your windshield its feathery crystals etch intricate designs, upon leaves it lays down a glaze like rime, and like the thinnest layer of snow it turns rooftops into wintry slopes. Vanishes as soon as the sun strikes it.
Autumn memories … I remember a trip to the mountains with my parents. At an overlook we beheld a smoky blue land drenched in fall color. The sun glinted off a river and far away a lake looked like a shiny dime. Later clouds set in as we had a breakfast of ham, grits, and pancake as snow began to fall. Mom and dad are gone now, but what a memory that morning gave me up in Virginia.
I must go, but before I do, I can’t overlook the Coastal Plain. I love to see colonies of pitcher plants, Saracenia flava, in their autumn palette. But this time of year it’s tree leaves that I glance at. “Tell me leaves, what might I expect from all of you this fall? Will you burst into flames or come on slowly, then brown, and return to the earth? Give us a show, please. Rain down your autumn splendor.”
Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything at at tompol@earthlink.net
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Stuart Neiman Cartoon: Jimmy Buffett RIP
Posted 9/6/23
By Stuart Neiman
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Living on Purpose: Jesus loves the little children
Posted 9/6/23
By Dr. William Holland
Last week we talked about how desperately we need to reach all children for Christ, and I still have much to say on the matter. God loves the little children and always made it a point to spend quality with them. Why? Because He knew that when a child learns about God and the eternal truth is planted deep within their hearts, it will always be there. One of the passages about that promise is found in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” This is talking about investing our time to show them what God says, demonstrating righteous behavior, and teaching them to resist temptation, standing for what is true even if it is not popular. Let us remember that Jesus loves the little children and no matter what the world believes or how we are persecuted for rejecting sin, protecting an innocent child is our responsibility.
Our Heavenly Father’s ultimate plan for His divine truth is that His people would share this good news with everyone they meet, especially children. When we win a child’s trust, we are given an amazing divine appointment to introduce them to the gospel of Jesus. A sobering reality is that children are the largest mission field in the world. They make up twenty-five percent of the global population, and represent one hundred-percent of our future! We find a powerful passage in Psalm 78 that talks about how the scriptures were passed down to the new generations. The adults did not neglect to instill into the children the praises for the Lord, God’s miraculous strength and creative ability, His authority over all things, and the wonderful works He has done. We sit around and talk about how evil the world has become, but what are we doing to lead the children to Christ?
In verse five it says, “God established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children.” The next verse goes on to say these children would tell their children that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of the Lord, but keep His commandments. This is a clear warning to every parent who declares they are following Jesus to receive this instruction with fear and trembling. Not only is this talking about our own children and grandchildren, but there are millions of children who desperately need to know about God’s amazing love, but how can we tell them?
It’s difficult to speak with the children running around in our neighborhood as we take a chance of being confronted for being a suspicious weirdo. I get it. Times are not like they were in the past. So, other than becoming a Sunday School teacher, which by the way is a seldom forgotten but excellent ministry, we can go through the proper legal channels and become involved with highly respected organizations like I mentioned last week called Child Evangelism Fellowship. Check it out on the internet and see if there is a local chapter in your area. Contact a field representative and learn how you can become involved. This is an area where we must have a burden for children or we will stay in our recliner. The same is true with prayer. Until our passion and conviction drive us to the front-line, God’s demands will mean nothing more to us than a passing conversation. If we could introduce and help lead one child to Jesus it would be worth everything.
A George Barna poll says that eighty-five percent of those who live for Christ today came to Him prior to their fifteenth birthday. Think about that. Children are the most fruitful mission field in all the world. When their impressionable minds receive God’s word, they will not depart from it, Proverbs, 22:6. Christians now have the opportunity to teach about God in the public schools with children who are eager to learn. Christians agree the Bible declares that Jesus paid for our sins with His blood and we have His promise of an eternal hope of salvation. Sadly, many say this is something for evangelists to worry about and missionaries that teach the gospel. Yes, there are warriors on the battlefield because they have a burden for lost souls, but why do many Christians not have this burden?
Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com
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Mystery Plant! #738
Posted 8/30/23
By John Nelson
johnbnelson@sc.rr.com
You might remember a couple of times in this column when the Mystery Plant was all about one of the various “Day-flowers” in a family named Commelinaceae. There are a couple of genera that you may be familiar with, including Commelina, which includes the “regular” dayflowers, as well as Tradescantia, which is a genus of a number of ornamental species, including those yard plants with the purple or blue flowers which we Southerners like to call “spiderworts”. Plants in the dayflower family are characterized, generally, by soft, succulent stems, which often sprawl. These various species have leaves which are alternate, just like you might expect from a grass or a sedge, in being “one at a time” along the stem. As always, the leaf is attached to the stem at a place called a node. The base of the leaf is a tubular affair, forming a sheath around the stem, and then the leaf blade is the free part that sticks out, or up, away from the stem.
The flowers of plants in the dayflower family are rather simple, as far as flowers go. The species we have in the Southeast will have perfect flowers, that is, with both pollen- and ovule- parts (“male” and “female”). There will be 3 sepals and 3 petals, and the petals are usually bright and showy. The reason this family is called the “DAYflower family” is that a single flower lasts only a day: opening in the morning and by the evening shriveling into a sodden little mass. Whatever pollination is going to take place must occur in that intervening time, during the “day”…and there is no nectar being produced for the little insect visitors. Each ovary will produce a small, dry capsule with a few tiny seeds inside.
So there you have the good news: the dayflower family, a good one to know about. Now for our Mystery Plant, which is nothing but bad news, believe me.
It is a native species in tropical eastern Asia, where it occurs in wet, marshy areas and forests. Back at the beginning of the 20th Century, botanists started noticing it in the southern states, scattered around in appropriate places, such as old rice fields and other wet places. Of course, the rice industry in South Carolina had basically collapsed well before then, but rice was still being produced in Louisiana and Texas. For various reasons, this little weed was finding itself at home in our area, probably due to its seeds contaminating agricultural shipments. It is an annual species, now a regular component of many natural wetlands, where it forms masses of vegetation with thousands of them. The stems are starting to bloom now, in early autumn, and although the flowers are an attractive shade of pink, that’s no reason to vote for this plant. What’s more is that this species is sometimes sold as an aquarium plant; so if you are an aquarium fancier, please avoid this plant, and for heaven’s sake, never discard aquarium plants into a local pond or stream!.
[Answer: “Marsh dayflower,” Murdannia keisak]
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John Nelson is the retired curator of the Herbarium at the University of South Carolina, in the Department of Biological Sciences. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.
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Catching Up With Lou Miller
Posted 8/30/23
By Tom Poland
A Southern Writer
www.tompoland.net
tompol@earthlink.net
No. 87 lay on Buddy Bufford Field as still as a stone. Louis Miller, senior end, had broken ribs, but better days lay ahead. The undefeated Red Devils would beat Dade County to claim the 1960 Class C State Championship. Louis would make All State, first team, and his athleticism promised more success in another sport down the road.
Flash forward to August 18. Eddie Drinkard and I traveled to the Old Edwards Club near Highlands, North Carolina, to visit with Lou, as he’s known today. We talked football and Lou recalled a key play just before the half against Dade County. “I fielded a kickoff and threw a left-handed pass across the field to Franklin Banks and he took it to the house.”
With high school ball behind him, Lou earned a partial scholarship at Presbyterian College as a 192-pound receiver-defensive back. A.L. “Art” Williams, quarterback, was also at PC, and he and Lou forged a friendship that led to more football. “Art and I coached football two years in Baxley, Georgia, and two years in Columbus, Georgia.” The two men’s destiny included business and golf.
Lou’s passion for golf began in Lincolnton, Georgia, when Coach Buddy Radford introduced him to golf. “I won my first golf tournament at Mr. Perryman’s house on Sunrise Drive. I beat either Weems Pennington or Bobby Freeman. Lou later played on the tennis and golf teams at Georgia Southern. “I knew I was going to get in the golf business.” He did. It began with his desire to teach golf.
Enter Bob Toski, a PGA Golf Professional Hall of Famer. Toski invited Lou to Palmetto Dunes in Hilton Head where he was leading a Golf Digest school.” Lou’s journey was underway and it would take him to Thomasville, Georgia, Westfield, New Jersey, Vero Beach, Florida, and Pinehurst, North Carolina. A side trip took him to Raleigh to establish an office for Art Williams, now his business partner. In Raleigh Lou became friends with Coaches Dean Smith, Roy Williams, and Mack Brown. Other stops along the journey included Blythewood, South Carolina, Bluffton, South Carolina, and Highlands.
Along the way Lou met influential people in golf: Frank Carney, longtime head pro at Augusta Country Club, Bob Moser, UGA grad and golf pro, and Arnold Palmer. A way station along his journey blended golf with business management. Lou worked fifteen years at H.M.S. Golf Management & Development, a company that builds premier golf courses and consults on golf operations. Today Lou puts that experience to work as president of Old Edwards Club and GlenCove by Old Edwards in the Cashiers-Highlands region.
There in the region known as the “Plateau,” Art Williams turned an old farmstead into The Saddle, a twelve-hole par three course. “Art kept some of the old farm’s character,” said Lou. The farmhouse and its outhouse still stand. The Saddle’s name comes from a nearby mountain swale resembling a saddle. They call the clubhouse the Barn. Lou oversees The Saddle’s operations.
August 18 a hometown reunion took place at Old King Edward Club and The Saddle. Eddie, Lou, and I caught up on our memories of Lincolnton, the hometown “Court House gang, and Red Devil football.
Lou’s journey has taken him from football to golf and business success. “My life is playing golf, giving golf lessons, and getting to know people’s families,” said Lou. While at The Saddle, Lou gave Eddie and me a putting lesson involving speed and direction. “Speed is most important,” he said. A life lesson? “Surround yourself with great people. I did,” said Lou.
The night I saw No. 87 lying there with broken ribs? Had I a crystal ball I’d have seen a man from Lincolnton get off the turf onto the green to make a memorable life for his family and himself. Folks like to see their boys go off and “do good” and Lou has. He’s evidence of how athletics instills hard work and discipline, two values fostering success.
No. 87 has had three holes in one and he’s been to 65 consecutive Masters. For thirty years now he’s been taking people who have never been to the Masters. “They can’t believe it,” said Lou. “Some cry.”
As Eddie and I reflected on Lou on our drive back to Georgia, Eddie said something that stuck with me. “Lou is a caring person. It doesn’t matter if you are a college kid greeting guests at the front door of The Barn or someone rich. All you have to do is observe him.”
Lou said something that stuck too. “I enjoy seeing people be happy, seeing them enjoy being themselves.” And Eddie’s right. All you need do is watch how people react to “Coach Lou,” as his staff refers to him.
Lou’s wife is Kay. He has three children, Shannon, Cory, and Brent from a previous marriage. He’s the son of Jane Smalley Miller and Louis Miller Sr.
Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything at at tompol@earthlink.net
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Living on Purpose: If the dark side can deceive one generation
Posted 8/28/23
By Dr. William Holland
A child’s mind is like a sponge that is constantly absorbing more information. This can be a good thing if they are learning about God and how to develop a personal relationship with Him. Unfortunately, a Godless society along with a secular public education system moved away from the golden rules which were considered our Heavenly Father’s standard for holy and obedient living. There was a time when taking children to Sunday School was admired by society as a normal way to lead the family into a spiritually moral and wholesome lifestyle. In the evenings the father would gather his family around and read the Bible and discuss right and wrong and how we all should live.
This family time created a trust and spiritual bond as the parents and children discussed perspectives and learned about the challenges and accountability of everyday life. We know in the eyes of God this was good, but of course, we also realize that Satan wanted to do everything he could to break this up. And he did. When we look around today, we see that entertainment was the distraction that caused the family unit to become separated from each other and more importantly away from God. Christians were supposed to be mature and wise when it came to standing firm in their convictions, however, the carnal flesh is not an opponent to be taken lightly.
Television came into the home in the 1950s and slowly replaced conversation with an outside voice. Instead of gathering around the word of God, families gathered around one of the greatest time stealers the world has ever known. What happened to the convictions about sanctification and a determination to live pure and holy for God? This has everything to do with guarding the mind which is connected with the conscience, but when entertainment became an idol, it gave the flesh a perfect opportunity to sit on the throne of the heart and take control. The reverential fear of God was abandoned and now instead of listening to the Holy Spirit, many were led by their emotions. Christians led their guard down, opened the door to carnal thinking, and they became lukewarm and backslidden. Who suffered the most? The children.
According to George Barna, whatever a child learns and accepts at an early age, has already been planted deep within their perspectives and ideology. “A person’s worldview is primarily shaped and is firmly in place by the time someone reaches the age of thirteen; it is refined through experience during the teen and early adult years, and then it is passed on to others during their adult life.” The world hardly recognizes the good and bad of this reality, but the Christian should be awakened of how important it is to reach every child with the gospel. The dark side has always known that public school was a critical battleground for control over what is taught to young and impressionable minds. Why do you think the devil worked so hard to legally remove prayer, the Bible, and all Christian influences?
A parent’s love for the Lord and the passion to lead the family into a closer walk with God definitely requires willpower and perseverance. The foundation of discipline is love and a responsible parent is not afraid to fight against principalities and powers that are attempting to devour their children. Allow me to say it’s obvious the system of the great reset is targeting the young ones because all it takes is for one generation to be deceived and it will change the course of the world. It already has. Much of what children are being taught today is a disgrace and an abomination to God and humanity. Where are the parents? The church fell asleep and now we are seeing the results of when watchmen who promise to be spiritually alert, would rather relax in the comforts of pleasure.
I have a dear friend I grew up with, and she is involved in a worldwide ministry called Child Evangelism Fellowship. I hope that some of you are familiar with this outreach, but sadly many are not. If you want to know more about it, check out their website and see if there is a field representative in your area. Volunteer your time to tell a child about Christ, encourage your church to get involved. Every Christian has been called to be a watchman and a missionary in their network, unless they would rather do nothing.
Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com
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Mystery Plant! #737
Posted 8/23/23
By John Nelson
johnbnelson@sc.rr.com
They say that when you are in a field of corn, you have to be careful what you say, since there are so many ears. Similarly, there are various forests in the eastern United States in which you have to be careful what you do, because there are plenty of eyes. Little, white, staring eyes.
This plant is a native herb, and it is reasonably common in damp, rich forests and on mountain slopes, from New Brunswick and Ontario well into the Great Lakes, then south through parts of Arkansas, and all the way south to the Florida panhandle…where it is rare. I’ve seen it way up in the flowery hollers of the Allegheny Mountains, growing alongside violets, cohosh, trilliums, ginseng, and Solomon’s-seal. In the Carolinas and Virginia, our mysterious herb is mostly a plant of the mountains and upper piedmont. The plants are shade-loving perennials, from a solid rootstock, coming up in the spring and unfolding one or two large, lovely, much-dissected leaves, the leaflets bearing plenty of raggedy teeth along the edges. These leaves aren’t very good for identifying this little plant, because there are plenty of other mountain herbs with very similar foliage. Flowers appear on the stem about April, arranged usually in a somewhat elongated cluster, each one forming a sort of powder-puff: the flowers themselves are pale yellow, and with plenty of stamens, but otherwise are rather drab, I think. Each flower is at the end of a relatively thick stalk. (And it is “thick stalk” in Greek which gives us the species name.) Later, the ovary of each flower swells into a soft green berry, which has several tiny seeds inside.
The berries, like so many other fruits, change color as they age. These start out light green, but during the summer become paler, and eventually end up conspicuously white. They are quite prominent and attractive, especially in combination with the thickened flower stalks, which often become a bright red. The end of each ripe berry retains the stumpy, dried stigma of the flower, from back in the spring, and it is pretty much black. Thus, the effect is of a cluster of little white eyes…staring eyes…something like those that may have been part of a baby-doll’s face.
It would be great if such pretty little berries were sweet and tasty. But if you see this plant, in fruit, don’t try eating any parts of it, especially the berries. The whole plant is probably at least somewhat toxic, and it might make you sick. There has been supposedly some medicinal use made of this plant, but I expect that its greatest “use” now is in being admired.
This little plant has several close relatives, and they are all members of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). The flowers don’t look at all like buttercups, but then again, buttercups belong to a completely different genus. By the way, one of our mysterious herb’s closest relatives looks really similar, except that ITS little fruits are bright, shiny red…and it is much less common.
[Answer: “Doll’s eyes,” “White baneberry,” Actaea pachypoda]
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John Nelson is the retired curator of the Herbarium at the University of South Carolina, in the Department of Biological Sciences. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.
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Living on Purpose: God’s love is about forgiveness not condemnation
Posted 8/21/23
By Dr. William Holland
Some of you might keep a close watch on the news, and others may listen occasionally or not at all, but whatever the case, you’ve heard enough to realize that it’s common for worldly information to be relayed from a biased perspective. Worldviews and convictions dictate which side of the fence individuals are on, however, for the Christian, we are realizing that social politics has become a confusing puppet show that distracts us from what God is saying. We should know and trust that He is the only one that has all the answers to everything. Remember the old song that says He has the whole world in His hands? Do we believe it?
Political parties claim to be the opposite, but like a soap opera, it’s a misleading facade where the actors play games and read scripts of what they are told to say. The two-faced devil is like this. He is the “master distractor” and is hoping we will become so mesmerized by the media theatre that we will worship it as an idol. What would be wise is to analyze the facts. God is life, light, and truth, and is trying to tell us that we are precious to Him, He loves us and wants to save us from death which is the wage or consequence of sin. On the other side, we have the devil who wants to destroy us and is trying to intelligently and scientifically persuade us to throw the Bible in the trash and live however we want. So, why again do we make this more difficult than it needs to be?
The most important decision we will ever make comes down to whose voice we choose to follow. Our ears and eyes are conduits to our thoughts, and we are responsible to guard and protect this battlefield from deception and lies. How do we do that? Christians are called to develop spiritual discernment where they can judge the spirits and have a keen sense of awareness from the Holy Spirit that warns them when something is not right. Some of you are probably thinking that not only are you lacking in this area but obviously many others are also. You are correct but it should not be this way.
As we read and study the book of Ephesians, we can no longer be a baby that cries for the bottle. When a person commits to God’s kingdom, they have enlisted on the side of light and are now in a constant battle with darkness. This means they must pray and discipline themselves to not be conformed to the world but instead, be transformed by the renewing of their mind. Why does it talk about being fully protected by the whole armor of God? Because as we draw near to Him, the more intense the demonic attacks will come. When the devil laughs and blames you for being a loser and a failure, tell him that you have been washed in the blood of Jesus, you are forgiven, and you are not going to listen to an accuser of the brethren. John chapter 8 says there is no truth in Satan and he is the father of all lies.
One of the more common problems I hear from men and women is based on a sense of guilt and shame from the snare traps they have fallen into. Satan condemns them for what they have done and this feeling of being unworthy causes fear and holds them incarcerated in the agony of rejection and defeat. Listen, friend, once you repent to the Father and He washes you clean with the blood of Jesus, you are purified which allows you to approach His throne boldly! Not only does He long to forgive you, but He promises He will never bring it up again. “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” Hebrews 8:12.
Raise your hand if you want a $100.00 bill. I’m going to crumple it up, do you still want it? I’m going to stomp it in the dirt, pound it with hammers, bake it, soak it, deface it, and throw it in the pig pen. Do you still want it? Why? Because even though it has been through the valley of the shadow of death, it still has as much value as it always did. This is the way God sees you today.
Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com
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Mystery Plant! #736
Posted 8/17/23
By John Nelson
johnbnelson@sc.rr.com
Such a wonderful Mystery Plant this week: a real treat for the eyes, as well as the nose.
It’s a native member of the mint family, starting to bloom about now, in the late summer. It is somewhat woody, especially toward the base, the sort of plant you might call a “subshrub”. Of course, the leaves are opposite, like everything in the mint family. Its foliage is characterized by a strong, musky sort of sweetness. A number of aromatic compounds are made in the leaves and stored in the various glands present on the leaf surface. (This is where the fragrance comes from.) It’s a very characteristic, smoky scent, and to me doesn’t smell like anything else. Definitely not “mint”…some people will say it’s stinky, and certainly not minty, as in that green stuff that goes into your iced tea. This brings up a matter about understanding plant families. Sometimes when we botanists speak of the mint “family”, listeners sometimes infer that all the members of the family are “mint”, which isn’t so. The mint family, of course, is a huge one, with many thousands of species. The true mints are members of the genus Mentha. Referring to a plant family by its common name, such as “mint” family or “sunflower” family is a bit troubling to a stickler like me, who would prefer using the scientific names, Lamiaceae, and Asteraceae, respectively. Why, you could (and can) just as easily refer to the mint family as the “basil” family, just like the sunflower family could be, and sometimes is, called the “dandelion” family. It’s just that the scientific name of the family removes all doubt as to what is being discussed.
Anyway, our Mystery Plant has its flowers borne in a series of compact, rounded heads situated at the top of the flowering stem. At the base of each of these heads, there are a number of very conspicuous pinkish bracts, and these are heavily dotted with tiny golden-yellow glands. The flowers themselves are showy and creamy yellow: the corolla is tubular, with a very dramatic upper lip, this arching over the lower lip. Inside the corolla tube will be two long stamens. The slender style, which is forked at its tip, can be found in there, too. All sorts of insects love the flowers…bees, butterflies, and wasps are frequent visitors. Hummingbirds, too. I have found myself, a number times, standing in a big population of this plant on a warm afternoon, marveling at the interest being shown by all the pollinators: it can be an impressive sight. And sound.
This species is widespread in eastern North America and the Southeastern states, and then well west of the Mississippi River. In the East, it’s most commonly seen in the coastal plain, and in the Midwest, it’s a prairie plant, usually on sandy or rocky soil. It’s starting to bloom now, and sometimes you can find big patches of it. It has a number of relatives, such as “bee balm” and “bergamot”, most of which are very attractive and useful in gardens. .
[Answer: “Spotted horse-mint,” Monarda punctata]
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John Nelson is the retired curator of the Herbarium at the University of South Carolina, in the Department of Biological Sciences. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.
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