Category: Environment

Waxing Moon? Waning Moon?

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We usually think we know what we need to about the Moon. After all, we see it almost every night—peeking between clouds, trailing us on evening walks, or gleaming quietly over exam-season all-nighters. But ask most adults how to tell if the Moon is waxing or waning, or what phase it is in, and you’re likely to get a sheepish shrug.

Moon Day (July 20) is a good time to find out more—because the Moon is more than just a pretty face.

The Moon’s Phases

As we know, the Moon doesn’t shine on its own. What we see is sunlight reflecting off its surface. As the Moon orbits Earth once every 27.3 days, the portion we see illuminated changes depending on the relative positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon.

But because Earth is also moving around the Sun, the complete lunar cycle (from New Moon back to New Moon) takes about 29.5 days. This is called a synodic month.

During this period, the Moon goes through eight distinct phases:

  1. New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and Sun; its illuminated side faces away from us.
  2. Waxing Crescent – A sliver appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere). “Waxing” means it’s growing.
  3. First Quarter – Half of the Moon is visible—right half lit.
  4. Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit, increasing toward full.
  5. Full Moon – The entire face is illuminated. Earth is between the Sun and Moon.
  6. Waning Gibbous – The light begins to shrink; left side remains lit.
  7. Last Quarter – Half again, but this time the left half.
  8. Waning Crescent – Only a small sliver remains on the left.

And then the cycle begins again.

What Does “Gibbous” Mean?

“Gibbous” comes from the Latin gibbosus, meaning hump-backed or bulging. It refers to the Moon when it’s more than half but not fully illuminated. A nearly full Moon—either on its way there (waxing) or just past (waning). So:

  • Waxing Gibbous = swelling toward full.
  • Waning Gibbous = shrinking after full.

Waxing or Waning?

If you are following the progress of the moon night after night, you will know if it is waxing of waning. But would you know if you just happened to glance up one night? Indeed there are ways to tell. In the Northern Hemisphere:

  • If the right side is lit, the Moon is waxing.
  • If the left side is lit, the Moon is waning.

This holds true whether you’re looking from a balcony in Bengaluru or walking through a park in Boston. But here’s where it gets interesting:

The Moon is Universal—but Not Identical

The same Moon is seen all over the world—but not always in the same orientation. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, everything flips:

  • Waxing appears with left side lit.
  • Waning shows up with right side lit.

In fact, a person in the Southern Hemisphere sees the Moon “upside down” compared to someone in the Northern Hemisphere. For example:

  • When it’s a First Quarter Moon in India, the right half of the Moon is illuminated.
    In Australia, it’s still the First Quarter—but they see the left half lit.
  • When it’s a Waxing Crescent in New Delhi, it appears on the right side.
    In Cape Town, that same sliver appears on the left side.

It’s the same phase, same Moon—but reality shifts, depending on where you stand!

Once we learn to read the Moon, it becomes a kind of nightly compass. It connects us to the rhythm of the Earth, of time itself. And yes, it’s also fun to casually identify a “waning gibbous” and enjoy the raised eyebrows from unsuspecting friends.

So the next time someone asks, “Is it waxing or waning?”—you’ll know. And if you’re feeling generous, you might just pass on that little rhyme:

🌒 “Right is bright, it’s waxing with might.”
🌘 “Left is lit, it’s waning a bit.”

–Meena

Picture source: https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/

The Curious Case of Poop-Eating Plants

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Poop. Not a subject of polite conversation. But with a six-year-old granddaughter, this is an integral part of my daily discussions—stories and jokes which feature poop, farts, and belches, and I thought nothing could get me.

But poop-eating plants did! This is one of those bizarrely strange tales from the natural world that makes me marvel at how much we don’t know.

The next time someone tells you that plants only need sunshine, nutrients from the soil and water, its time to pop out the word coprophagy. That’s the term for poop-eating. Most often it’s associated with animals—rabbits, dung beetles, and sometimes dogs. But it turns out that some plants may also be participants in this less-than-dainty buffet. Not many, mind you. It’s an exclusive club.

The pitcher plant (genus Nepenthes) is a frontrunner in this strange category. While most carnivorous plants are famous for trapping insects, some tropical species of Nepenthes have found an alternative nutrient source—bat poop. In places like Borneo, bats roost conveniently above the pitchers, and their droppings fall right in. Scientists call it a “nutritional mutualism.” The bats get shelter; the plant gets dinner. Apart from bat-poop, plants are known to eat the poop of tree shrews, lizards, and even of birds. These flowers even resemble toilets—all the better to catch the poop as it falls.

These plants don’t actually chomp up poop. Rather, they have evolved to extract nutrients from faeces, often via mechanisms like sticky leaves, enzymes, and old-fashioned decomposition. Some even form alliances with fungi or microbes to get the job done.

But why on earth would a plant choose poop? It’s a matter of efficiency. Poop, especially from animals like bats and tree shrews, is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus—two nutrients that are vital for plant growth but maybe in short supply in nutrient-poor soils where many of these carnivorous plants grow. Insects provide these too, but poop is like a ready-made fertilizer packet, no hunting required. Poop offers a shortcut—already digested, already broken down. Though the comparitive nutritive values have not been rigourously tested, it is believed that poop is more nutritious.The bats roost above the pitchers, do their business, and the plant simply absorbs the nutrients through specialized enzymes or microbes that help break things down. Also, insects are scarce on tropical peaks above 2,200 meters, so poop provides a good alternative source.  In fact, scientists are finding that some carnivorous plants are evolving from eating bugs to eating poop! Some pitcher plants have even evolved shapes and scents to attract the animals specifically for their droppings!

Are there any Indian coprophagic plants?

Yes indeed! North East India is home to several species of pitcher plants or Nepenthes. Recent studies suggest that some species in the Nepenthes family (including those found in Southeast Asia) are more than happy to lap up the occasional faecal nutrient.

The Western Ghats, another biodiversity hotspot, also hosts a variety of unusual plants, including some that partner with fungi to decompose animal droppings in the soil. While not technically “eating” poop in the way a pitcher plant might, these interactions are still part of the larger cycle of nutrient recycling—with poop part of this circle of life.

So, the next time you see a lovely green pitcher in a botanical garden or on a damp forest trek in the North East, give it a respectful nod. It might be doing more than just sitting pretty. It might be part of a brilliant, bat-poop-powered system we’re only just beginning to understand.

Well, I know that after this story, Botany is definitely going to be my granddaughter’s favourite subject! Who knew botany could be this…entertainingly gross?

–Meena

Picture: http://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/poo-plants

Plastics: From Saviour to Scourge

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Last week marked World Environment Day. The theme for this year was Beat Plastic Pollution. In events around the world to mark this day, much was discussed and written about the dire state of the environment due to the over-accumulation of plastic. In recent years plastics have become the bane of the environment. It is ironic that it is this material that was once hailed as a boon! The history of this ‘wonder material’ goes back to the mid-nineteenth century. 

This was a time when elephants and turtles were becoming seriously endangered due to demand for ivory and turtle shell which were used in the making of numerous things from piano keys and billiard balls, to combs. The biggest consumers of ivory were high-quality billiard balls. Between three and five balls could be made from a tusk, and at least two elephants needed to be killed to make one set of billiard balls. The increasing popularity of billiards in England as well as America, led to the slaughter of thousands of elephants. There was a serious threat to elephants, and also there was an increasing cost of ivory to make the balls.

This led to the quest for some man-made materials which could be used as substitutes. One of the earliest such attempts was to dissolve cotton fibres in nitric and sulphuric acids, and then mix these with vegetable oil. In 1862 an English chemist Alexander Parkes was the first to patent this new material with the name Parkesine. It was presented at the Great London Exposition in 1862, but it was not a commercial success.

In the meanwhile in America, Michael Phelan ‘the father of American billiards’ took out an ad in 1863 offering a sum of $10,000 for a substitute for ivory. John Wesley Hyatt, a young printer with no formal training in chemistry took up the challenge. He spent six years experimenting with various solvents. In one experiment he blended camphor with nitrocellulose and produced a hard mouldable substance that he called ‘celluloid’. He patented this in 1869, and along with his brother began to produce it in 1871, marketing it as a substitute for natural materials like ivory and tortoiseshell.  

As it turned out celluloid was not the perfect substitute for billiard balls; when two balls collided it produced a mini explosion. But the new material had a number of properties that made it attractive. It could be moulded into any form, hardened or left flexible; it was waterproof, it would not rot or corrode like metals; it was extremely durable, and it was cheap.

Celluloid was hailed as an environmental saviour. A sales pamphlet in 1878 claimed that “it will no longer be necessary to ransack the earth in pursuit of substances which are constantly growing scarcer”.

Celluloid was the first industrial plastic that would transform the world as multiple uses were found for it. It was followed by polyvinyl chloride or PVC. Since then plastics have undergone numerous stages of development. Plastic was not immediately adopted widely. But by the mid-20th century, as the benefits of this ‘trendy, clean, cheap’ material were loudly touted, plastic became ubiquitous, and took over every aspect of daily life.

The world embraced plastic with a clear conscience. The products made of plastic provided the added attraction of being easily disposable. The convenience of single- use throw-away products were extolled and countries like the United States made a whole-hearted example of this. The use-and-throw lifestyle became the aspiration of every society.

Today we are seeing the legacy of this throw-away lifestyle. The world is producing 300 million tonnes of plastic a year, a figure expected to triple by 2050. The chemical properties that have made plastic such a multi-use and durable material also makes its disposal difficult. Plastic takes a long time to degrade, in some types even thousands of years. Thus landfills are overflowing. Even the degradation of plastic is a serious environmental issue as it breaks down into microscopic particles that pollutes the oceans, land and the air. These micro-plastics are also accumulating in our bodies, the health impacts of which are not even known as yet.

The modern plastics industry relies on fossil fuels for its raw material contributing to global CO2 production. Thus the production of plastic also has an impact on climate change.

In the oceans, plastic ingestion and entanglement is harming and killing marine creatures including turtles. On land climate change is one of the factors that is changing habitats and endangering all living things from elephants to ants. Ironically, the material that was once celebrated as the saviour of these creatures is today the scourge of the environment across the globe.

 Sadly, over these decades the state of planet Earth has only deteriorated. The issues with overuse of plastic not only remain, but have been exacerbated. While there have been efforts in terms of policy initiatives, technological advances, and even public awareness these have not been able to cope with the even faster increase in plastic consumption, pollution, and waste generation. Even after decades of advocacy for Recycle, Reuse and Refuse, the picture is grim. In 2025 the world is expected to consume 516 million tonnes of plastics. And only 9% of all plastics produced as actually being recycled globally. The theme for WED 2025 ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ spotlights the growing scientific evidence on the impacts of plastic pollution and hopes to sustain the momentum to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink plastics use.

— Mamata

Libraries Take Wing

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How often we randomly pick up a feather as we walk along. And wonder which bird it could belong to.

A feather library is where we can turn to for help in such a situation. These are digital or physical collections of bird feathers, used for research and education. They are an invaluable resource for understanding bird species, identifying feathers, and gathering data on bird health and natural history. These libraries are important tools for the study and conservation of bird species, offering insights into bird morphology and helping in the identification of feathers found in the wild.

There are not too many across the world. Some of the established ones include:

1. The Feather Atlas created by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a comprehensive image database of North American birds and covers about 438 species. It can be browsed by bird order, family, or species. It has an open identification tool in which one can fill in details about feather patterns, colors, size, and position, which can help you identify the bird your feather belongs to.

2.Featherbase (Germany) has been created by a working group of German feather-scientists and other collectors worldwide who have come together and contributed their personal collections. It holds close to 8000 specimens from over 1,000 bird species, with a focus on European and African birds. The collection includes high-resolution images and detailed anatomical information, and has supporeted studies in forensics, conservation, and biodiversity monitoring. It is rigorously classified and offers options of various languages so that birders from across the world can use it.

3. Found Feathers (iNaturalist Project) is a citizen science initiative where users contribute observations of feathers they find. The project encourages the collection of feather length and placement data, enhancing the database’s utility for researchers and birders. There are over 2,00,000 observations from across the world.

Special among these is India’s Feather Library. This pioneering initiative is the first of its kind in India and the world, dedicated to documenting, identifying, and studying the flight feathers of Indian birds. It is the passion project of architect Esha Munshi, a dedicated bird watcher who has seen over 1500 bird species across the world, and veterinarian Sherwin Everett who works in a bird hospital in Ahmedabad. They have created the library with the aim of having all feather-related data under one roof, fostering collaboration and advancing the collective understanding of Indian birds. In the short span of time since inception on Nov 15, 2021, 135 species have been documented.

The process is rigorous. They collect feather specimens from dead birds at rescue centres to establish a primary database of bird species. They then make detailed notes on the flight feathers, taking into account the number of Primaries, Secondaries, Tertials (Wing Feathers), and Rectrices (Tail Feathers), along with basic details such as overall length, bill length and width, leg lengths, etc. Then they stretch out one wing and fan the tail in both dorsal and ventral views to document the exact number of feathers, unique characteristics, colour, pattern, and size etc. The physical collection is housed at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bangalore.

The database is open to all and provides easy access.

Kudos to the dedication and passion of people like Esha and Sherwin who through their efforts help support avian research, conservation efforts, and educational outreach. And make a better world.

Happy Environment Day!

–Meena

Prickly Love

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May 10 is celebrated as Cactus Day in the US. It is “a day dedicated to recognizing and appreciating the unique and fascinating world of cacti. This day also serves as a reminder of the many cactus species facing extinction and the need for their conservation, especially in their natural habitats.” Cacti are flowering plants that produce seeds. They are able to bloom every year, but they will produce an abundance of flowers in response to heavy rains. The family Cactaceae comprises many species of flowering plants with succulent (water-storing) stems.

It is entirely appropriate that it is a day marked in the US. Because 1749 out of the known 1750 species of cacti are native to the Americas! In other words, cacti were not originally found in any other part of the world.

I have to admit, this kind of blew my mind. All of us, from the time we are children, when asked to draw deserts or make an exhibit around the theme, have always generously populated our deserts with our own versions of cacti.

But cacti occur naturally only in the Americas–from Patagonia in South America, through the US, to parts of Canada. Anywhere else we see them, they have been taken by humans.

There are however equivalents in other parts of the world. There are the Euphorbs, tamarisks, saltbrushes etc. in Africa, and succulent and spinifex grasses in Australia. In India we have khejri, thoor, acacias etc. all of which grow in our deserts. But these are not cacti. All them have various adaptations to dry conditions like small or no leaves, spines, thick stems and deep roots. But they differ from cacti in that they do not have areoles. The presence of a structure called the areole is what sets cacti apart from all other plants. Areoles are round or elongated, often raised or depressed area on a cactus which is equivalent to a bud and from which spines, flowers, stems, or roots grow.

Cacti were introduced to Europe by, no surprises, Christopher Columbus. In 1493, on his second voyage to the Americas, he brought back a specimen of the prickly pear—the first time a cactus was seen in Europe. It caught the fancy of botanists, horticulturists and the public, and led to widespread cultivation of these plants.

They came to India with the Europeans, most likely sometime in the 16th or 17th century. In recent times, there has been much interest in these plants. They are much prized for their dramatic looks and are a feature in every balcony garden and indoor succulent-tray.  At a commercial level, the dragon fruit, cultivated widely across the country and now found in roadside fruit stands everywhere, is a cactus. Known  as pitaya or pitahaya, it is native to southern Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America. It is a climbing cactus species. The fruit is low in calories, rich in antioxidants and is said to have many other wonderful properties. But frankly, I am yet to get used to the bland taste!

For a few years now, our Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), and ICARDA, an international organization, have been experimenting with cultivation of cacti, with a view to using it as fodder. Cacti as a fodder crop is seen as having the potential to help in the widespread shortage of green fodder, particularly during the summer months in many parts of the country. While still in experimental stages, it is thought to have some possibility.

India also has large and scientifically significant cacti collections. The National Cactus and Succulent Botanical Garden and Research Centre is located in the city Panchkula, the satellite town of Chandigarh. It is spread over seven acres and houses over 2500 species of cacti and succulents. The Regional Plant Resource Centre at Bhubenehswar has Asia’s largest collection of cacti. This Centre has created 200 new varieties and hybrids of cacti by breeding, growth manipulation, etc.

We said at the start that all except one cactus species was native to the Americas. The one exception is Thipsalis baccifera also know as the mistletoe cactus, which occurs naturally not only in the Americas, but also Africa, Madagascar, and close home in Sri Lanka. Scientists are still figuring out the how and why of this exception.

So look at cacti with new eyes. Love them, but don’t hug them!

-Meena

Musa Sapientum: The Fruit of Wise Men

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On 10 April 1633, the window display of the shop in London attracted huge crowds. It displayed a hitherto unknown, and unnamed item. The displayer Thomas Johnson, a herbalist, botanist and merchant described it thus: The fruit which I received was not ripe, but greene. This stalke with the fruit thereon I hanged up in my shop, were it became ripe about the beginning of May, and lasted until June. Each of them (the fruit) was the bignesse of a large beane some five inches long and an inch and a half in breadth. The stalk is short and like one’s little finger. They hang with their heads down, but if you turn them up, they look like a boat. The husk is easily removed. The pulp is white, soft and tender and ate somewhat like a musk melon.

What was this fruit that he so described? Hard to believe, but this was the banana! How, and from where a bunch of this mysterious fruit reached the shop remains a mystery in itself, but it is believed that most people in England had not seen a banana even by the end of the 19th century when regular imports started from the Canary Islands.

And yet, it is believed that bananas were among the oldest cultivated fruit. They probably originated in the jungles of Malaysia, Indonesia or the Philippines and some parts of India where they grew in the wild. Modern edible varieties of the banana have evolved from the two species–Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana and their natural hybrids, originally found in the rain forests of S.E. Asia.

During the seventh century AD their cultivation spread to Egypt and Africa. The fruit may have got its name from the Africans, as the word is derived from ‘banan’ the Arab word for ‘finger’.  A cluster of bananas is called a ‘hand’.

Bananas were first introduced to the Western world when Alexander the Great discovered them during his conquest of India in 327 B.C. The fruit spread through Africa and was eventually carried to the New World by explorers and missionaries. Bananas started to be traded internationally by the end of the fourteenth century.

However it was not until the late mid-1800s that bananas became widespread on the North American continent. The first enterprise to import bananas into the US was the Boston Fruit Company.

Carl Linnaeus, the 18th century Swedish botanist whose work led to the creation of modern-day biological nomenclature for classifying organisms was the first person to successfully grow a fully flowered banana tree in the Netherlands.

The development of railroads and technological advances in refrigerated maritime transport subsequently enable bananas to become the most traded fruit in the world.

Today bananas are grown in more than 150 countries, and it is widely believed there are more than 1,000 types of bananas produced and consumed in the world. The most common and commercialized type is the Cavendish banana which makes up around 47 of global banana production. This is a high-yielding variety which is also less damage-prone and more resilient in case of natural disasters.

Although we generally describe it as a banana ‘tree’, technically this is not a tree. Bananas, botanically, are considered to be big herbs, because they do not have a woody stem or trunk which is one of the characteristics of a tree. Instead they have a succulent stalk or pseudostem which begins as a small shoot from an underground rhizome and grows upwards as a single stalk with a tight spiral of leaves wrapped around it. Banana leaves are extensions of the sheaths.

To add to the confusion, the banana ‘fruit’ as we call it, is botanically a berry! While we associate berries with small, squishy fruit that is picked off plants, the botanical definition refers to any fruit that develops from a flower containing a single ovary, has a soft skin and a fleshy middle, and contains several seeds. Bananas tick off all these boxes and are thus technically berries!

The botanical kin of bananas include tomatoes, grapes, kiwis, avocados, peppers, eggplants and guavas. Botanically all berries!

Bananas have long been high on the list of ‘super foods’, endorsed from all schools of health from Ayurveda to the newest ‘wellness’ trends. Its versatility was noted even by Linnaeus who envisaged its numerous medicinal values. The banana is literally ‘wholesome’ from A to Z! It is the panacea for all ills from acidity and anaemia, through cramps, depression, mood elevation, PMS, stress relief, and more, all the way to bringing in some zing to tired bodies and minds! Even the banana peel with its blend of acids, oils and enzymes has multiple uses from healing wounds to polishing shoes!

And the banana is a wonderful example of Nature’s perfect packaging. The artful positioning of the individual bananas to form a beautiful cluster or ’hand’ arrangement which can be hung; the tamper-proof skin that protects the soft and perishable flesh within; the nifty top opening that allows for an easy peeling back; and after all that, a covering that does not add to the litter but silently biodegrades to merge back into the soil. No wonder its botanical name is Musa sapientum: the fruit of wise men.

In India the mango always lays claim to being the king of fruits; the solid trustworthy banana is taken much for granted, as it does not make a dashing seasonal appearance and compete for awards of the most varieties and the best of them all. And yet this is the comfort food that is usually on hand, and one that almost every person can afford. It certainly was my father’s favourite, and now is the favourite of his great grandson who endorses Daddy’s maxim of Sabse Achchha Kela (banana is  bestest!)

Why this sudden paean to the banana? Well, I discovered that in America, the third Wednesday of April is celebrated as National Banana Day every year (reason for this undiscovered). I decided to join the celebrations this year!

Bananas were first brought to the United States in 1876, for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The exotic fruits were wrapped in foil and sold for 10¢ apiece (roughly $1.70 in today’s dollars).

While the mango always lays claim to being the king of fruits, the solid trustworthy banana is taken much for granted, as it does not make a dashing seasonal appearance and compete for awards of the most varieties and the best of them all!

The Banana was my father’s favourite fruit. He always used to say “sabse achha kela!” “Banana is the best”. So true…The scientific name for banana is musa sapientum, which means “fruit of the wise men.”

–Mamata

Woolly, Woolly

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The recent weeks have seen a number of news items starting with ‘Woolly…’. That is not very normal—the phrase ‘woolly-thinking’ is too archaic to be used as a pejorative across the lines in Parliaments.

But this bandying about of the word is neither from debates nor about shearing of sheep and records set therein.

The references all come from the world of science.

The first set of references stem from experiments of mixing mutations from the extinct mammoth and extant mice to create a woolly mouse! No, creating mice, woolly or otherwise, is not the purpose of the group of scientists which is working on this. The ultimate objective is to actually re-create the woolly mammoth itself. This is only a small intermediate step.

Now who would want to do such a thing, and why? Well, a company appropriately called Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences is behind this. Colossal refers to itself as a ‘de-extinction’ company. In a throwback to Jurassic Park, this company has retrieved the DNA of the 8-ton giant woolly mammoths which walked the earth over 4000 years ago from permafrost. They have mixed this with the genes of mice through complex gene-editing processes and have, after over three years of trials and experiments, created litters of normal sized mice which however have the ‘long, wavy, woolly hair of the mammoth’. They also have fat metabolism that mimics that of the giants. Colossal sees these mice as the first step in the route to actually re-create mammoths. They plan to work up to editing Asian elephant genes to express the traits of the woolly mammoth, and introduce the stem cells into an elephant embryo. The embryo would then be implanted into the womb of a female elephant, and lo and behold, a mammoth would be born to her!

For those who thought only a few years ago that this was the height of woolly thinking, well, maybe with the birth of the woolly mice, they are re-thinking!

Apart from the mind-boggling technical prowess required however, there are many debates about the ethical and environmental dimensions of ‘de-extinction’. (A TED Talk by Stewart Brand titled ‘The Dawn of De-extinction: Are you Ready?’ offers interesting insights).

The second set of woolly references is nothing so controversial. It is the recent discovery of a flowering plant whose flowers, rather meanly, have been called Woolly Devils. The plant or the flowers don’t seem to do any harm to anyone, but have been so dubbed because the flowers are hairy-looking, have florets which resemble devils’ horns, and the plant has been discovered in the desert in Chihuahua  (an ecoregion that covers areas of northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S., including west Texas, parts of New Mexico, and southern Arizona) along some paths in in an area known as the Devil’s Den. The plant belongs to variety known as “belly plants”—because scientists find it comfortable to study them while lying on their bellies! 

How unfair it is to name this newly-discovered plant (Ovicula biradiata) as Woolly Devils is borne out by the fact that scientists think they may produce chemicals of medicinal value.

Only time will tell where the quest for the woolly mammoth leads, and what benefits the woolly devil brings us.

In the meantime, we can pray for an end to woolly thinking.

–Meena

The Leaves Come Drifting Down

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At the moment, leaves are the bane of my life.

They drift down in their tens through the day. The lawns, porch and verandahs are no sooner swept that they come drifting down to make a mess, yet again.

And Saturday, when Bangalore was hit with unexpected torrential rains, our house almost flooded because fallen leaves had covered the water outlets on our terrace and there was a good six inches accumulated before we realized it and cleared the outlets. A few more minutes and the water would have entered the house.

But in general of course, who doesn’t love leaves: the variety of the shades of green, their shapes and sizes, the shadows they cast, the way they rustle in the breeze or when birds and squirrels play among them.

There are some people who take this love and appreciation to aesthetic heights. They are the leaf-artists.

Some people of course consider the leaf itself as art.’ There is artistry to a leaf that I find hard to put into words. In looking at leaves, the colours and veining, the patterns and textures, I get a good feeling. Leaves are nature’s artistry on display’, says Hank Erdmann, a leaf-photographer.

Others use the leaf as the medium. These leaf-artists express themselves through various creative expressions using leaves. This spans leaf printing, leaf carving, leaf painting and leaf collage. All of these are based on highlighting the leaf’s natural colours, shapes and textures.

It is likely that leaf-art is as old as our cave-dwelling ancestors. One can easily imagine our grandnmother picking up a leaf and carving a design on it with a sharp stone. And from these projects must have emerged the use of leaves as a medium for writing on—palm leaves were used for writing since the 5th century BCE in India. The ephemeral nature of the medium however has not left much proof of art on leaves.

But two contemporary artists have taken leaf-art to a new level.

The first is the Colombo Ecuadorian photographer, Yinna Higuera. Her recent collection ‘Traces’ is a series of portraits of rural Ecuadorian women, made on banana, cocao, coffee and other leaves. The collectoin documents the lives of these women, and portrays their link with nature and its cycles. The exhibition has been shortlisted for a Sony World Photography award, 2025. This is based on the technique of ‘chlorophyll printing’. The images are printed leveraging the leaf’s photosensitivity, merging photography with nature. This is an alternative photographic process where photographic images are developed on natural leaves through the action of photosynthesis, and goes back to the 19th century.

Another artist making waves (or gentle breezes) with his leaf art is Lito, a Japanese artist. He uses a completely different technique. He carefully selects a leaf, makes an intricate drawing on it, and painstaking carves it. The scenes often depict animals, birds and landscapes. Lito makes one leaf-carving every day! For him, this is not just a means of artistic expression, but also a way of managing his ADHD. It helps him focus, be calm–he sees it as a form of meditation. And importantly for him, leaf-carving is a means of earning a livelihood.

So I am going to re-calibrate. And appreciate each leaf as it drifts down to land on my verandah. Before muttering irritably at it!

And to end, here is a poem on leaves by Sarojini Naidu, whom Mamata wrote about a few weeks ago:

Like a joy on the heart of a sorrow,
   The sunset hangs on a cloud;
A golden storm of glittering sheaves,
Of fair and frail and fluttering leaves,
   The wild wind blows in a cloud.

Hark to a voice that is calling
   To my heart in the voice of the wind:
My heart is weary and sad and alone,
For its dreams like the fluttering leaves have gone,
   And why should I stay behind?

–Meena

PS: Today there are even Leaf Engraving Machines, ‘specialized for intricate leaf designs, perfect for crafting unique art pieces!’

The picture is from Lito’s Instagram page, art_dailydose

Ants and their Homes

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ 1 Comment

For every one of us, there are about 2.5 million of them. Yes, that’s how much ants out-number us. They inhabit every corner of the world other than Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, and some islands.

We humans swing between appreciation of these insects for their qualities of team work and hard work, and irritation when they invade our homes or kitchens. The ants probably swing between the same two emotions—appreciation of the humans who feed them, and disapproval of clumsy or mean humans who step on them or kill them.

Beyond human approval or disapproval, ants have a huge role in the ecosystem. They serve as seed dispersers for plants, hosts for a wide range of associate organisms, and act as both predator and prey. The role of ants in nutrient decomposition and soil turnover is enormous–they are estimated to excavate up to 13 tons of soil per hectare annually and increase local nutrient availability by a significant order.  Moreover, they create and maintain of microhabitats for a variety of other organisms.

The subject of today’s piece is their homes. They make their homes in a variety of places, and these structures are made with an enormous amount of labour by thousands of the creatures working together.

Most species of ants are soil-nesters. Soil meets their needs for food, moisture and protection. Since these ants move a lot of soil in the process of building their nests, they provide a valuable service to the soil-based ecosystem they occupy by their tunnelling and de-compacting of the soil. Some soil nesting ants construct a simple nest with one vertical tunnel, which has branches on either side for ant food, eggs and larvae. But other ground nesting ants build elaborate below-ground galleries going several metres below ground, with a network of interlocking interconnecting tunnels.

Wood-nesting ants are the next category. Carpenter ants are the best examples of these. They nest in wood that is rotting, dead, dying, or with a high moisture content. The ants bore into the wood and make elaborate nests. They do not eat the wood but deposit the wood they bore outside the nest. While they usually build outdoors in trees, it is not unknown for them to build in wooden structural elements in our houses.

There is category of ants which are called opportunistic nesters. These will nest almost anywhere, including under rocks, concrete slabs, air conditioners, inside holes in walls etc.

Ant nest

A fourth category, which are most visible to us at the moment are arboreal ants which construct nests on trees using leaves. These light red ants Oecophylla smaragdina, popularly known as weaver ants, stitch together individual leaves using larval silk to form nesting cavities.  The nests are round-oval and use leaves of different sizes ranging from 8-32cm. About twenty leaves are used to make each nest. These ants are aggressive in defending their territories, and a colony may take over an entire tree with nests distributed throughout.   Incidentally, these ants, called “Rukkung” in Arunachal Pradesh, are consumed in various forms in some of the North-eastern states.. 

I see these every evening on my walks—the falling leaves in this season leave the trees bare, which make the nests very visible. And marvel at the intricacy of the nests and the hard work that goes into each of them. What wonders there are around us, if only we take a minute to look!

–Meena

Advocate for Invertebrates: EO Wilson

~ millennialmatriarchs ~ Leave a comment

Call them spineless, or call them creepy crawlies! As Meena wrote this week, they make up a majority of the living things on earth, and yet they are largely unnoticed (unless of course one is stung by one, or has one creeping up your leg!) Invertebrates however have had their own champions. One of whom is EO Wilson that Meena has quoted as saying that “invertebrates don’t need us, we need them!”

This was indeed the case with EO Wilson one of the most distinguished and recognized American scientists in modern history. While he began his scientific career by specializing in the study of ants, Dr Wilson became an advocate for all species, particularly invertebrates, as essential to the health of the planet and people.

While his key discovery was the chemical by which ants communicate, EO Wilson spent the rest of his life also looking at the bigger picture of life on Earth. And so, to his lifelong fascination with ants, E. O. Wilson added a second passion: guiding humanity toward a more sustainable existence. He devoted his life to studying the natural world, and inspiring others to care for it as he did.

Edward Osborne Wilson was not just the world’s foremost authority on the study of ants (a myrmecologist!) but one of the founding fathers of, and leading expert in, biodiversity. His autobiography titled Naturalist traces his evolution as a scientist. Young Wilson knew early that he wanted to be scientist. A childhood accident left him with weak eyesight and hearing, so instead of studying animals and birds in the field, he concentrated on the miniature creatures such as ants and bugs that he could study right under his nose through a microscope. This was the perfect tool to spark a lifelong passion for insects.  I turned to the teeming small creatures that can be held between the thumb and forefinger: the little things that compose the foundation of our ecosystems, the little things, as I like to say, who run the world.

As a schoolboy Wilson was not a great reader. But he claimed that one of the few books that he read from cover to cover was The Boy Scout Handbook. (I wrote about this in my recent piece Be Prepared!) It was the Boy Scouts which nurtured his early love for nature. As he once said: The Boy Scouts of America gave me my education.

His autobiography Naturalist also reveals how these first steps led to a lifelong journey of exploration and discovery which involved a mix of endeavour, random encounter, enthusiasm and opportunism. Underpinning all these was his sheer delight of the pursuit of knowledge. As he wrote about an expedition to Fiji in 1954:

Never before or afterward in my life have I felt such a surge of high expectation—of pure exhilaration—as in those few minutes. I know now that it was an era in biology closing out, when a young scientist could travel to a distant part of the world and explore entirely on his own. No team of specialists accompanied me and none waited at my destination, whatever I decided that was to be. Which was exactly as I wished it. I carried no high technology instruments, only a hand lens, forceps, specimen vials, notebooks, quinine, sulfanilamide, youth, desire and unbounded hope.      

Edward Osborne Wilson is widely considered one of the greatest natural scientists of our time. He is also credited for being the founding father of the branch of biology known as socio-biology and biodiversity. He was a pioneer in the efforts to preserve and protect the biodiversity of our planet and was instrumental in launching the Encyclopaedia of Life, a free online database documenting all 1.9 million species on Earth recognised by science.

In a tribute to his lifelong dedication to science, two species of organisms have been named after him. Myrmoderus ewolsoni, an antbird indigenous to Peru, and Miniopteru wilsoni, a long-fingered bat discovered in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. Wilson once told Scouting Magazine that being recognized in this way was an honour akin to being awarded a Nobel Prize because it’s such a rarity to have a true new species discovered.

EO Wilson was driven by the passion of guiding humanity toward a more sustainable existence. To do that, he knew he had to reach beyond the towers of academia and write for the public. He believed that one book would not suffice because learning requires repeated exposure. Thus he wrote several bestselling books that eloquently pleaded his case, while also providing facts and figures backed by solid research. His books On Human Nature and The Ants received the Pulitzer Prize.

While he remained a Harvard professor for 46 years, he was conferred with many accolades and honours by universities and organizations across the world. EO Wilson passed away on 26 December 2021 at the age of 92, leaving behind a legacy of conservation action that continues to inspire the global movement to end the threat of extinction.

In 2023, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) agreed to a Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) with a goal to maintain, enhance, and restore Earth’s natural ecosystems by 2030, halt human-induced extinction of known species, and by 2050, reduce the extinction rate tenfold and increase the abundance of native wild species to healthy and resilient levels. A key component to the GBF is a target to conserve at least 30 percent of land, seas, and freshwater by 2030 (known as “30×30”).

EO Wilson once wrote:

Looking at the totality of life, the Poet asks, who are Gaia’s children?

The Ecologist responds, they are the species. We must know the role each one plays in the whole order to manage Earth wisely.

The Systematist adds, then let’s get started. How many species exist? Where are they in the world? Who are their genetic kin?

EO Wilson was a rare combination of all three.

–Mamata