I just love how ardent Southerners are at trying to get non-Southerners to ditch pumpkin pie. Why not have both? Why not let people have what they like without trying to tell them they’re wrong (and then lord over them how “superior” sweet potato pies are to pumpkin)? I’ve had good sweet potato pies occasionally, but…

It’s possible she was doing her usual “too cool to care” thing with heavy sarcasm she loves playing on Twitter, but looking through Mitchell’s twitter, they seem to be pretty close and he talks to her like a gay boy does his favorite female friend. So if she was indeed in on this Milo email, it wouldn’t be surprising.

Your tone seems... pointed.

In my own garden I’ve had stem fasciation happen numerous times. I’ve seen it on chard stems, beet stems, the inflorescences of both Acanthus and Echium fastuosum (Pride of Madeira). With the Pride of Madeira, I let it develop until I had a “paddle” of a stem that was about 6 inches wide at one point. Eventually all…

Outside? No. The specific trees shown are Adansonia grandidieri, which hail from Madagascar. They are sensitive to frost. This doesn’t stop people from trying, or growing them out in pots.

These are very common weeds in California and come up in droves after rain (not so many this year due to well... the drought). I've seen open patches absolutely carpeted with them and their pretty purple flowers.

They do disperse mechanically but their seeds can get stuck in socks and the coats of animals, and the…

From what I understand, they're a part of Tonga. I imagine the government of Tonga would have a problem if someone tried claiming it as theirs.

Australian bloodwoods are from two different genuses, Corymbia and Eucalyptus, both from the myrtle family. The bloodwood in this article, Pterocarpus is from the pea family. All of them show red, blood-like sap though.

You're correct actually. Agave tequilana is the species used to make Tequila. Most people know it as "blue agave" because the leaves are blue green, although that's not a color particularly unique to agaves). The interesting bit about cultivating them is that the flowering stems are cut off when one starts to emerge…

Thanks! I'm pretty much a sponge when it comes to learning about new things, but I am a gardener. I know just enough about plants to give people the impression I studied botany, but in reality, I just find it all very interesting. If it's got spines, thorns, needles, poison, or can give you a bad rash, I'm interested.

Puya are bromeliads, which means they're related to the Spanish moss of the south eastern US and pineapples. Most of them have the same kind of fish hook spines that can entangle sheep and small birds (there's a few that do not have them). The spines were probably initially defensive to keep browsing animals from…

There's a lot of GORGEOUS agaves really, and not all are these enormous behemoths either. Some aren't even the spine beasts that A. americana is. My favorite of the soft ones is probably Agave attenuata which has a ridiculous Dr. Seuss-like flowering stem, but its leaves have no spines and they can form a sort of…

The most ridiculous/amusing boob physics I've seen is the Korean MMO TERA which had the female Elf characters with boobs that swayed and moved independently of one another as if they were made of very soft rubber balloons. Friends of mine refused to play female Elves in that game because the physics were so…

This one almost lived up the the name of century plant.

American agaves (Agave americana) are pretty common in California, and they can often be found growing in abandoned lots, along road sides or at old properties which no longer have houses on them. It's common for them to form colonies by sending out shoots, which…

The Philippine languages lack pronouns for he/she. It's a standard thing to hear your grandmother say something like "Her name is John? What does he do? It's so common it's sort of a running joke among Filipinos who were raised speaking English. Spanish did bring in gendered words, but it didn't touch the pronoun…

One of the most interesting things I've ever seen was a Cooper's hawk being chased by a pair of crows. After the hawk was chased off, the crows were then chased by all things... a flock of pigeons.

RUN TIPPI RUNNN!

I was at a beach side snackbar once when a gull hit me on the head with its foot (pretty hard) while trying to steal what I had in my hand.

Oh it's definitely not rare at all along the coast. In fact, it's the signature aspect of summer weather along the coast of California from Big Sur north. It's the reason why you have Redwoods growing along the coast in Big Sur and freezing tourists in Monterey.

I think the OP makes it seem like this is a chance occurrence going on by calling it "rare".