PURPLE SAGE

This plant's common name is well known (e.g., "Riders of the Purple Sage," a popular western book written by Zane Grey). The botanical name of this plant, which is Salvia lecophylla, is not commonly mentioned in popular literature. 

I was really surprised to learn that this perennial shrub is native to the southern coastal mountain ranges of Southern California and Baja Sur California (in Mexico). It is, furthermore, commonly called the San Luis, California “purple sage,” even though it is not very purplish. [Note: it seems to me that the common name “purple sage,” has been over-used) for various species of Salvia].

Salvia lecuophylla is a shrub that can be up to 5 feet tall. Its leaves are light green in spring but turn grayish-white with maturity (when its branches arch toward the ground). Its flowers, which grow in tight whorls, are six to eight inches long. The flowers are white to pinkish-purple and in very widely spaced clusters of lowly elevated, somewhat inflated looking, gray spikes. The flowers can have a few thin threads. The leaves are light-green gray, thick, and pimply. Branches commonly arch toward the ground. [Note: When I returned to the exact same plant, one week later, most of the purple color was gone (those parts had fallen off), thus the plant could then be called the “gray sage.”]

This hardy plant is drought-tolerant and requires low maintenance. It thrives in full sun. It lives in USDA Zones 8-11. It can survive temperatures as low as 0-10 degrees F. It comes back every year, as it is a wood perennial plant. It can also survive with only sparse water. 

It also repels cockroaches (they do not like the “sage” smell). 

   Classification

Kingdom Plantae

Clades (4 of them)

Order Lamiales

Family Laminaceae (= the mint family)

Genus Salvia

Type Species S. leucophylla

There are many cultivares (variants) of this flower, including wild hybrids, thus making clear identification tricky.

Note: Salvia dorrii, which is native to the western-interior of the USA (including Utah), is possibly the plant that Zane Grey had in mind when he gave the title “Riders of the Purple Sage,” to his famous western novel (set in Utah). This novel was also the basis for a movie. He was not precise in the taxonomic usage of this plant, thus there has been on-going disagreement as to which species he had in mind.

                                                                  

Figure 1. A Salvia lecophylla plant (about 3 feet wide) that I found growing wild in Santa Clarita, Southern California. I initially had no idea as to the identification of this flower, and I was very surprised when it became evident that it belonged to the sage family.  

Figure 2. A closeup of a portion of the same plant as shown in Figure 1. Image also   taken on the same day (in early summer) as the one shown in Figure 1, above. One week later, I examined this same plant, and most of the purple color was "gone."

AN UNUSUAL FLOWER

Feijoa sellowiana = common names = “pineapple guava” or Acca sellowiana or California feijoa tree. This is the only species in this genus. It is native mainly to the highlands of Colombia, southern Brazil, and parts of northeast Uruguay and Paraguay and northern Argentina. 

This plant  is an evergreen shrub or small tree (up to 23 feet or so tall but usually no more than 10 to 15 feet tall) and is a warm-temperate, subtropical plant. It requires winter chilling in order to produce its distinctive egg-sized fruit; thus it is frost tolerant. Its leaves have a silver luster to their bottoms. The flowers have five whitish petals which are puffy. There are about 25 dark red stamens projecting from the center of the flower. This flower produces fruit (they resemble limes), which is popular in places like New Zealand. Reportedly, its fruit tastes like pineapple (Wikipedia, 2026).

The fruit ‘s skin is thin, waxy, and delicate and easily bruised. Underneath the skin, its white-yellowish flesh is dense and has a consistency is similar to a pear (see reference below).

There are numerous varieties (cultivars) of this plant. This flower grows in southeastern margins of the United States. It also can be grown in southern California. According to Wikipedia (2026) it grows well in USDA Zone 10 (Wikipedia, 2026).

   Classification

Kingdom Plantae

Clades (4 of them)

Order Myrtales

Family Myrtaceae [= Myrtle family]

Genus Feijoa

Type Species F. sellowiana

Feijoa is usually pronounced fay-ZHOH-uh, with the emphasis on the second syllable. Its rhymes with the word “day.

Figure 1. Feijoa ("pineapple guava") flower (without fruit).

References

https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Fejioas 

Wikipedia, 2026

SPIDER TORTOISE

This tortoise Pyxis arachnoidest fits in the palm of your hand. It is a critically endangered species that is endemic to southern and western Madagascar. This tiny tortoise is named for its web-like yellow lines on its dark shell (carapace). There are three subspecies, which are slight variants of one another. These tortoises can live up to 70 years. You should keep in mind that they are not spiders.

Figure 1. Pyxis arachnoides (image from Smithsonian Institution open access).

This tiny tortoise lives in arid spiny forests. It burrows to survive during the dry season. This tortoise is an herbivore and east grasses, leaves, and fruits. It is active at dawn and dusk (= a crepuscular animal). It hibernates in burrows in sand during the dry season.

Females lay a single egg per clutch and provides no parental care thereafter.

Classification

Kingdom Animalia

Phylum Chordata

Class Reptilia

Order Testudines

Family Testudinidae

Genus Pyxis

Type Species Pyxis arachnoides Bell, 1827

Reference

Wikipedia 2026

 

A SQUID BEAK

Squid beaks (mandibles) are interesting, yet most people have never even seen one of these structures.

Squid beaks are a two-part structure consisting of chitin, a tough material and, in fact, one of nature’s toughest materials. These beaks are even harder than some metals! A squid uses its beaks in order to dismember their prey. Squid beaks are similar looking to those found in an octopus.

Squid beaks work like scissors and also have a super hard tip. The beaks are like a bird’s beak: very sharp and surrounded by fleshy material that absorbs force without fracturing. Squid (and similar looking octopus) beaks are among the hardest organic materials known!

Squid beaks are mainly indigestible, making them somewhat common finds in the stomachs of predators (especially whales) that eat squids. 

The geologically oldest known impressions of squid bodies are from the middle late Cretaceous (about 85 mya) (Wikipedia, 2025).

But, the oldest known squid beaks are late Jurassic age. There are also Cretaceous) and Cenozoic fossilized cephalopod beaks (usually referred to as rhyncholites = calcified cephalopod beaks). 

Rhyncholites are  known from England, Belgium, Italy, Romania, Egypt, Cuba, Central America, as well as from Mississippi, and southern California. The southern California rhyncholites are from the San Diego area, in the Ardath Shale of middle Eocene age (Teichert and Stanley, 1975).

Figure 1. A complete modern-squid beak consisting of two, interlocking parts: 3.75 mm height, 2.4 mm wide. The parts consist of chitin, an organic material secreted by the squid. The locale of where this beak was collected is not known. 

CALIFORNIA LIVE OAK TREE

The botanical name (in Latin) for this kind of tree is Quercus agrifolia, and its popular name is “Coast live oak.” These trees stay green year around (that is why they are called “live oaks”), thus they are referred to as “evergreens.” They do not shed their leaves en masse in the fall, like a true deciduous tree. 

These trees are native to the California Floristic Province, and they are confined to living west of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range: from Mendocino County south to scattered localities in northern Baja California, Mexico. 

Their mature height is about 82 feet (25 m). Some specimens can be as old as greater than 1,000 years. They are extremely drought-tolerant. Their fruit consists of acorns (slender reddish brown) that is hard-shelled. In historic times, the acorns were a standard food source. 

Back in 2002 and 2003, a majestic live oak tree (about 400 years old and the biggest live oak tree I have ever seen) grew in the southwest corner of Santa Clarita. Then, "out of the blue," local developers deemed "it was in the way and needed to be removed." The tree was right in the middle of a road that was planned for widening, and the developers wanted to cut the tree down and turned into sawdust. The public said NO WAY! A protestor named John Quiqley climbed the tree and lived in it (24 hours a day) for several months, back in 2002 and 2003. My family and I visited him, as did hundreds of other concerned citizens. The public outcry was effective, and the developers finally decided that they would move the tree to a new location a short distance away. The move did happen, and, I am glad to say, that the tree is alive and doing well at a spot just down-canyon where it originally grew. Shown below is an image of this relocated tree. It is now forever protected! This just shows you what can happen when the public says “enough is enough.” 

Figure 1. The "Oak of the Golden Dream," now located in the southwest corner of Santa Clarita, southern California. This tree, which has an amazing legacy, was almost cut down by developers so in order to widen a pre-existing road. The public said "NO WAY," and the tree was saved. It was moved to a new, nearby location, which is shown here.

Figure 2. Oak leaves from the "Oak of the Golden Dream."

AN ANCIENT LIVING TREE: THE ARAUCARIA TREE

 A “Fossil Tree” That Lives Today: Araucaria (The Monkey Puzzle Tree”)

These distinctive trees may look similar to pine trees but they are only distantly related. They are not true pines. The araucaria tree is largely confined today to the Southern Hemisphere (e.g. New Caledonia, eastern Australia, New Guinea, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay), but modern-day humans have dispersed them today throughout many places in the world (there are 20 extant species). These trees are also found today in humid, subtropical Mediterranean areas. They do not like cold conditions! 

During the worldwide warm times of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, when the distribution of land was vastly different than from today, Araucaria trees were widespread. 

Araucaria trees are up to about 80 m tall (262 feet). Their horizontally spreading branches are covered with needle-live leaves. They also have cones, and the female ones have large edible seeds, similar to pine nuts. The widely spaced branches of Araucaria are symmetrically triangular (thus very distinctive!).

Classification

Kingdom Plantae

Clades (4 of them)

Class Pinopsida

Order Araucariales

Family Arucariaceae

Genus Araucaria

Type Species Araucaria heterophylla (its common name is “Northfork Island Pine”).

Figure 1. A living example of the Araucaria tree in Southern California.

HYDRANGEA FLOWERS: THE LITMUS-PAPER FLOWER

The name Hydrangea is Greek (for water vessel), in reference to the shape of the seeds of this flower. Hydrangea is typically a a shrub 3 to 9 feet in height, but it also occurs as smalls trees, typically less than 100 feet tall. It is a plant native to Asia and the Americas (with Asia having more species diversity).

The colors of its flowers can be blue, purple, purplish gray, red, pink, greenish white, or white. 

The color of their flowers depends on the acidity of the soil. For example, their flowers can change color (even in one season), for example from from blue (= acidic soil) to pink (= alkaline soil), if the soil acidity changes. Thus, these flowers are natural pH indicators of the soil.

  Classification

Kingdom Plantae

Clade (6 of them)

Order Cornales

Family Hydrangeaceae

Genus Hydrangea: a genus with about 98 species.

Type Species H. arborescens Linneaus

There are two main inflorescenses (shapes) of the flower heads: round (resemble “pom-poms”) or round, flat with a subdued center core.

Hydrangea prefers consistent moisture and moderate temperatures. Hot, dry summer conditions are not good for them.

Fossil Record: Imprints in Paleogene strata at Jaw Mountain, Alaska.

Also imprints in Miocene deposits in Oregon and California.

Miocene seeds in Poland.

Figure 1. Blue Hydrangea, blue color indicates growth in acidic soil.

Figure 2. Purple, pink Hydrangea.

Figure 3. White Hydrangea.