Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't

A two hour rant about the incredible Cactus Forests of Southern Mexico, the Cloud Forests of Oaxaca, Cool Customs Agents, Drying Herbarium Sheets witta blowdryer nice, Fleabag Hotels, and much more.

In this episode, recorded in the cloud forests of Oaxaca, we discuss the entheome project, which centers around genome sequencing of entheogens as well as many of their sympatric species of fungi, plants and microbes that also grow in the ecosystems these entheogens are native to. We talk about democratizing science and DNA sequencing, and we talk about what some practical applications of this science are and how to make it accessible to people who DON'T want to take out 150 grand in student loans in order to learn it.

Out of Huntsville, Alabama, Kyle Lybarger is an advocate for native plants, ecosystems and for getting people to see things that they might otherwise overlook. Kyle runs the Native Habitat Project which encourages people to consider doing things a little differently in the realm of land management than the ways that they've been doing things for too long.

I've admired this guy's work for a while and I love what he's doing so I figured we'd sit down and have a two hour conversation about everything from growing native plants, collecting seed, discovering species once thought extinct and having a reverence and awareness for the land, for the plants and for the life that depends on them.

Chicago Meditative Cassette Tape Intro by AL Scorch.

In this episode we talk about using transgenic technology to fight the invasive pathogenic fungus that has decimated the American Chestnut tree and made it functionally extinct in the region where it was once a cornerstone of the ecosystem. We also get into the weeds regarding chestnut flower morphology, pollination and evolution and why it's such a f*cking incredible species.

In this episode (after a 35 minute rambling rant about West Texas Archaeology, the joy of holding 31,000 year old ground sloth shit, obscure Chihuahua Desert Sunflowers, and rich freaks, we talk with Dr. Eric Lopresti about sticky plants and the evolution and adaptive benefits of glandular-ass trichomes in plants, namely the genus Abronia (sand verbena) and the flower structure of the Bougainvillea Family, Nyctaginaceae.

In this episode we discuss the glory of lawn killing, using a fake name at the ER since our Healthcare system sucks, facilitating the use of an auger for installing native plant gardens, and a whole other series of rants.

In this episode we talk about the long lost population of Euphorbia antisyphylitica, thornscrub getting destroyed for a solar farm, moth pollination and night blooming plants in the Chihuahua Desert, and the Catholic Materialism Death Cult of South Texas.

After a thirty minute rant about how the epic desert crucifixion thorn (one of the 6 different plants with that annoying common name), Holacantha stewartii needs to be placed in the genus Castela (Majure, 2022) among other topics, we talk with legendary West Texas Botanist and Horticulturalist Patti Manning about growing desert plants and cultivating native plant gardens.