I've spent 30 years building up the gardens at my place in Northern California. I'm mostly ready to move on from here, but occasionally I remember how interesting it is. I have an amazing botanical collection here.

These are "goumis", Eleagnus multiflora, a large, nitrogen-fixing bush with astringent, edible berries. TBH, they're not that great, but I eat them anyway. Any day now, the birds will find them and strip the bush.

They are one of the small percentage of nitrogen fixing plants that are not in the Fabaceae (pea and bean family).

This is Dracunculus vulgaris, one of the many aroids that use flies as pollinators. To attract them, the flowers smell like rotting roadkill. Its scent mimicry is so accurate, that when this one blooms in the next day or two, vultures will land in the trees above looking for a carcass.

I will try to remember to post a photo when it opens. The single "spathe" will probably be close to a foot long, though they can get twice that.

The smell is genuinely stomach turning. I will confess to at times having been a plant-nerd asshole and bringing people to the flower upwind, telling them "stick your face right in it. It has the most amazing smell!" I mean, I wasn't lying 🤷‍♂️😂🤮

#BadPracticalJokes #BloomScrolling #aroids