Madia Gracilis

 

"Hmmm," I said. "DYD I don't remember seeing before." DYD is a botanical euphemism meaning "Damn Yellow Daisy," a counterpart to DPD in instances where the suspect is purple. The Asteraceae comprise one of the largest (perhaps the very largest) family of flowering plants. DYDs and DPDs fill a high percentage of the family. A little further down the trail, my brain kicked in. "Madia...Madia somethingoranother." After mentally exploring several options, I was none the wiser, but its long, slender leaves suggested that I might not have to dig too deeply into Hitchcock to identify it. Indeed, it was fairly easy to narrow it down to Madia gracilis, Slender Tarweed. I sent photos off to the Burke Herbarium for inclusion in the database. For once, I'd had my GPS with me, and could pinpoint the location. That said, it's a fairly common plant, which is probably why it escaped my notice previously. Familiarity breeds contempt, as the saying goes. But photos of the plant were not the only thing I brought home with me. I picked up two ticks along the way. You may ask, "What's so unusual about that?" if you live in other parts of the country. Ticks were never something we used to worry about here in the Pacific Northwest, but they are becoming much more prevalent with the warmer, drier shift in the climate.

Madia Gracilis, Slender Tarweed

Day 334: Every year after you reach a certain age, you will be required to have an "annual wellness check" in order to satisfy Medicare. The whole process is demeaning and ridiculous. It is meant to test your cognitive functions, although if you told them you were Napoleon Bonaparte and the year was 1066 AD and you were living in Australia, I'm not exactly sure what they could do about it except inform your family that you might not be too firmly attached. In my case, I have no family, so unless I was to go streaking starkers down the centerline of the highway yelling "I am a rutabaga," they'd have no recourse.

I pride myself on my memory. After all, I have to remember complex weaving patterns which are sometimes long strings of numbers. While not as essential in the short term, remembering plant names is also important, and for me, that means the Latin. I may not always get the species correct (and certainly not if it's something I'll need to research to distinguish it), but I'm good with genera, even though it sometimes takes me a while to filter through the cotton wool to get down to the data levels in my head. I had a quarter mile to go to get back to my car after photographing this weed, but by the time I reached the parking area, I was saying, "Madia. Not exigua, something else." All things considered, that wasn't bad. I don't think I'd ever noticed this species before even though it's a fairly common weed. A quick check of the books at home told me it was Madia gracilis, Slender Tarweed.

If that's not proof of a good memory, I challenge you to find a better. It's certainly more of a mental exercise than this year's entree at the doctor's office when I was asked to remember "dog, cat, mouse" for ten minutes.