- (Focus Area) Yard & Garden
Chilopsis linearis, the desert willow or desert catalpa, is prized in dry gardens for its showy, fragrant blossoms which cover the tree in summer. When many native bloomers are past their spring glory and entering semi-dormancy to protect against heat and drought, the desert willow is just getting started; this tree loves the long hot days of summer. It does best in full sun, becoming leggy and thin in part shade. It is extremely drought resistant and will succumb to root rot if not planted in a well- drained, seldom-irrigated location. In the wild, it will grow in certain riparian conditions, particularly in desert regions along streams, washes, and channels that are ephemeral, drying up between rains. Deciduous in winter, desert willows may shed some leaves in extreme summers to help conserve energy and food.
Although the tree normally doesn't grow taller than 25 feet, the registry of Big Trees has recorded a specimen in Porterville that is 40 feet tall, with a canopy spread of 36 feet and a trunk circumference of just over six feet. That's pretty big for a tree billed by multiple sources as a “small accent tree” for native landscaping.
There are many common names for this lovely tree: flowering willow, desert catalpa, willow-leaved catalpa, willowleaf catalpa, bow willow, flor de mimbre, and mimbre. Mimbre is a Spanish word that is sometimes translated as willow or wicker, but technically means the twigs and sprigs of willow trees that were woven into baskets or furniture.
The desert willow is native to the Southwestern U.S. and Northern Mexico; its native range in California is restricted to the arid southern portions of our state, primarily San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The US Department of Agriculture notes that it can occur naturally as far east as southwest Kansas and eastern Oklahoma. Anywhere that's hot, sunny, dry, and not above 5,000 feet in elevation will support this hardy tree with a life span of between 40 and 150 years.
UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So here's this immature praying mantis, a Stagmomantis limbata, perched on a narrow-leafed milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis, in a Vacaville pollinator garden.
She's camouflaged quite well. She's as green and thin as the leaves.
Me: "Hey, Ms. Mantis, whatcha doin'?"
Ms. Mantis: "Just occupying a spot on this milkweed. Catching some sun, is all."
Me: "Hoping to catch a monarch, Ms. Mantis?"
Ms. Mantis: "No, no, of course not. I would never, ever, catch a monarch! You know me!"
Me: "I do know you. Promise you won't nail a monarch?"
Ms. Mantis: "Sorry, I can't promise if I'm hungry. Now, go away, you're disrupting my choice of menu items."
Me: "How about a stink bug or a lygus bug?"
Ms. Mantis: "I don't take menu orders. What do you think I am? DoorDash? Go away!"
Me: "Hey, I see a katydid nymph over there!"
Ms. Mantis: "Where, where? How far?"
Me: (Pointing to a lower leaf) "Over there!"
With that, Ms. Mantis slipped off the blossom, never to be seen again.
Epilogue: The California scrub jays noisily nesting in the cherry laurel hedges may have snagged a Stagmomantis mantis meal.
They don't take orders, either.
- Author: Belinda Messenger-Sikes
Nutsedges are aggressive and persistent weeds that commonly infest lawns, vegetable and flower gardens, and landscapes. These perennial sedges are a problem in lawns because they grow faster than turfgrasses and result in non-uniform turf. In landscape beds, nutsedge can grow up through mulches–even plastic mulches!
Yellow nutsedge grows throughout California while purple nutsedge can be found mostly in the south of the state and the Central Valley. Once established, nutsedge is difficult to control because it forms tubers in the soil that can live up to three years. The best approach is to prevent the weed's spread.
To help you identify and better manage this troublesome weed, UC IPM has updated the Pest Notes: Nutsedge. This fact sheet was revised by UCCE San Diego Area Integrated Pest Management Advisor Emeritus, Cheryl Wilen. Updates include additional nonchemical control methods and herbicides that are effective for early nutsedge infestations.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Thought for the day...
Every time we see a honey bee "posing perfectly" on a Gaillardia, commonly known as blanket flower, we think of a quote by internationally known honey bee geneticist, Robert E. Page Jr., a UC Davis doctoral alumnus and professor and chair emeritus of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology):
"The impact of bees on our world is immeasurable. Bees are responsible for the evolution of the vast array of brightly-colored flowers and for engineering the niches of multitudes of plants, animals, and microbes. They've painted our landscapes with flowers through their pollination activities and have evolved the most complex societies to aid their exploitation of the environment."
That's a passage from his book, The Art of the Bee.It's also featured on his YouTube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/@artofthebee.
Rob obtained his doctorate in entomology in 1980 from UC Davis; joined the UC Davis faculty in 1989; and chaired the Department of Entomology from 1999 to 2004. After retiring from UC Davis in 2004, he accepted an appointment at Arizona State University (ASU) as founding director of the School of Life Sciences. He served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2011-2013, and provost of ASU from 2013-2015. He is now emeritus. He was recently featured in Legends, American Entomologist. (See UC Davis Department of Entomology website)
Why did Page create the free and accessible-to-all YouTube Channel? Because that's what Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), known as a German geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science, would have done.
It's about making science understandable.
Check out Page's YouTube channel, including:
- Landscape Artists
- Environmental Engineers
- The Social Contract
- Superorganisms
- How to Make a Superorganism
- Song of the Queen
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
So there it was, an exotic-looking bug resting against a freshly painted red bollard at a Vacaville supermarket.
It was not there to shop. Or to stop vehicles from crashing into the store or colliding with shoppers.
It was there, I suspect, because of the pheromone-like scent of the fresh paint.
What was it? A banded alder borer, Rosalia funebris, in the family Cerambycidae. It's a longhorned beetle with spectacular black, white and blue coloration.
Look closely and you'll see the dark elytra (wing covers) with white bands and a white thorax with a large black spot. What's really striking, though, are the long, black-and-white banded antennae. The male antennae are longer than its body.
The beetle "feeds during its larval stage in declining or dead branches of broadleaf trees, including alder, ash, California bay, oak, and willow," according to the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program. "Longhorned beetles develop though four life stages—egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Adult banded alder borers emerge and mate from April through August. Adult females lay eggs individually on small- to medium-sized, dying or recently dead branches. The eggs hatch within 2 weeks and the larvae bore in and feed for 6 to 7 months under the bark. Mature larvae then bore in more deeply to overwinter as pupae. In the spring, pupae develop into adults, each of which chews an exit hole and emerges from the branch."
"The banded alder borer is the only species of this genus in North America, occurring from Alaska to southern California and in the Rocky Mountains from Idaho to New Mexico," according to Washington State University Extension.
However, scientists say it's not a significant pest because the females lay their eggs in downed, damaged or dead branches. The damage is not theirs. They're not the culprits!
You may never see a banded alder borer, but if you're painting a bollard (not going to happen!), your house, or some other structure, you might. Just enjoy its striking beauty!