California Gourmet: Mother Nature’s Magic Grape Cupcakes

'Roger's Red' Grape has great flavor!MotherNature produces an array of interesting and unusual products.  Chemists, engineers, chefs and others continueto be amazed and inspired by plants. Break-through inventions  are created everyyear based on plant chemicals!Someplant products are nothing short of magical. Among these are the chemicals that give plants...

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White Checkered Skipper Butterfly (Pyrgus albescens)

White Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus albescens) - female on Red Buckwheat  Butterflies are common visitors to nativeplants.   Natives provide two types of butterflyfood: nectar for the adult butterflies and larval food (usually foliage) forthe caterpillars.  Larval foods can be quitespecific – sometimes limited to a handful of plant species from the...

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Plant of the Month (September) : Lilac (Cedros Island) Verbena – Verbena lilacena

Lilac (Cedros Island) Verbena (Verbena lilacena) - in container on porchMother Nature's BackyardInSeptember, the orange-brown seed heads of the Buckwheats provide a colorfulbackdrop for other late summer bloomers. One of the prettiest of ‘the others’ – which is blooming right now onour back porch – is the Lilac verbena, Verbenalilacena (pronounced ver-BEE-nuh lie-luh-SEE-nuh)Plantsknow...

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