May 2, 2008
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Daily Botanical

Echium

Photo by Gayla Trail All Rights Reserved

This is an Echium (I don’t know which species), a large, towering flower related to borage that is so prolific around San Francisco you can’t seem to turn a corner without bumping into one. I must have taken several dozen photos in a variety of media (digital, polaroid, film, macro) as evidence. Another plant thoroughly documented and recorded.

My attraction to this plant lies in the fact that it reminds me of one of my favourite local wildflowers Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare), which is not surprising since they are in the same genus. These enormous San Francisco echiums are basically monster-sized versions of the same plant.

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May 1, 2008
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Daily Botanical

Newspaper Pot Seedlings

Photo by Gayla Trail All Rights Reserved

I took this picture at The University of San Francisco Garden Project, a productive, organic food garden that is being built and farmed by 11 freshmen students who work the garden, take classes, and live together!

It’s an amazing project although I have to admit that while the garden part of it is a dream, I don’t know how those students do it, maintaining their sanity and their relationships while working and living so closely. In my second year of university I lived in a house whose population maxed out at ten by the summer, including a dude who lived in our garage! I guess I am just not cut out for communal living since I will never forget the madness of the social experiment that was living in that house for a year.

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