Wayne's Word Index Noteworthy Plants Trivia Lemnaceae Biology 101 Botany Scenic Wildflowers Trains Spiders & Insects Search  INDICES:   Trivia Notes   Alien Species   Humorous   Remember When   All Facebook Notes   Wayne's Trivia Notes #45   © W.P. Armstrong    All Facebook Notes & Images    Published Occasionally On Facebook Go To Latest Trivia Note On This Page Wayne's Trivia Note #954 The smallest fig wasps I have ever seen. They pollinate the massive host tree, Indian laurel fig (Ficus microcarpa), producing seeds & seedlings on Palomar College campus. In fact, this Asian species is considered to be invasive in southern Calif. Its spreading root system can buckle pavement & damage underground utilities. Indian Laurel Fig Wayne's Trivia Note #955 Richard Dawkins said figs & their symbiotic wasps are the most complex of his fascinating stories. My obsession with this topic began about 40 years ago teaching botany at Palomar. I always thought each of the 876 fig species had its own wasp. New evidence indicates there may be more than one symbiotic wasp per fig. In fact, some wasps may exibit "host sharing" visiting multiple fig species. This might be happening on Palomar campus! Wayne's Trivia Note #956 Honey bees make remarkable "Bee Glue" or PROPOLIS by mixing resin exudate with saliva & beeswax. It is used as antibiotic sealant & insulation for their hive. I can testify that they were not collecting pollen from small yellow male cones. They scrape resin off leaves with mandibles and carry it in pollen baskets on hind legs. [This is also where they carry pollen.] I stood in the middle of their swarm with impunity as they collected resin. Wayne's Trivia Note #957 This painted Bo Tree (Ficus religiosa) leaf was sent to me by a former student traveling in India. Since the leaf of this sacred fig was completely skeletonized (with only venation showing), the colorful image shows up best on a black background. Wayne's Trivia Note #958 San Marcos Gabbro, a dark, granite-like, bedrock in hills bordering Twin Oaks Valley that contains iron & weathers into reddish Las Posas Clay. Some rare wildflowers in San Diego County are endemic to this soil, including the beautiful San Diego Thornmint in hills above my home. Wayne's Trivia Note #959 Explanation for figs growing in palms at Palomar College. This requires a pollinator fig wasp & bird or fruit-eating bat, a common phenomenon in tropical regions where many animals disperse the fig seeds; however, they all require symbiotic fig wasps for tasty seed-bearing "fruits" (syconia) to develop! I found 3 species of Australian fig wasps at Palomar. Several species also occur in Balboa Park & the San Diego Zoo. Without fig wasps, fig trees cannot produce seedlings. Wayne's Trivia Note #960 Trio Valadez at yesterday's Sunday Brunch (16 Feb. 2025), Cocina del Charro, San Marcos. Their rendition of the Ben E. King song "Stand by Me" was fabulous. Harp & Guitars together are incredibly beautiful for such a great song. Wayne's Trivia Note #961 During the 1980s & 90s I went on Palomar College marine biology field trips. I collected numerous drift seeds on beaches of Caribbean Is., Galapagos & Central America. After 40 years in a container, one of these is now growing at Palomar College. Wayne's Word Drift Seeds Wayne's Trivia Note #962 I embedded this giant water bug from Palomar Mtn in plastic about 60 years ago during my entomology class at CSULA. I know it is a male because female lays her eggs on his back so he can't get at them! Wayne's Trivia Note #963 This spider was on the wall of my photo room on a rainy night (14 March 2025), so I decided to do a photo shoot of her. She stayed the night and I released her to a safe spot in my back yard the following morning. She doesn't make a web. She just walks around ambushing sow bugs & pill bugs. Her huge jaws (chelicerae) & fangs, plus 6 eyes in a ring are quite amazing! Wayne's Trivia Note #964 I just tested my new UV flashlight on some fluorescent rocks and a chlorophyll solution from ground up leaves of my fortnight lily (Dietes). The chlorophyll electrons are excited, but have no chloroplast thylakoid membranes to travel along; hence, a reddish glow. Wayne's Trivia Note #965 Anteater in My Bathroom! Wall Spider (Oecobius cf. navus). A minute spider that ambushes ants on my bathroom wall. She waits near door frame & resembles a dark speck. She quickly runs around an ant on wall, wrapping it in silken thread. Then she immobilizes prey by injecting venom. Probably not the answer to our Argentine ant invasion, but it makes interesting miniature nature video. Wayne's Trivia Note #966 4 April 2025: Latest ant survey in San Bernardino County. My passion for natural history topics helps me maintain a slightly positive attitude during times of very depressing national & international news. Wayne's Trivia Note #967 U.S. pennies will no longer be produced in 2026. I have been using them for size relationships in macro images on Wayne's Word for over 35 years! They will probably be in circulation longer than Wayne's Word, unless I can find a perpetual online host! Wayne's Trivia Note #968 Sex determination in figs is more complex than in people! In fact, the Internet has a lot of misinformation on this subject. Caprifig is functional male because it produces male flowers & pollen; however, its syconia are bisexual & occasionally produce seeds from pollinated female flowers. I am currently growing one of its offspring & hopefully will determine its sex. Wayne's Trivia Note #969 To ID a plant I used dichotomous keys to plant families and then to genera & species within families. Google just identified an unknown flowering shrub by matching my uploaded photo with its extensive image database: Broad-leaf Privet (Ligustrum lucidum). In the past I would have gone to olive family (Oleaceae) because flower has only 2 stamens. Then it would have been relatively easy to key it down to species. If Google Cloud Image Recognition is an example of AI, it was not available when I taught Plant Identificaltion during previous millennium. Wayne's Trivia Note #970 I never cease to be amazed at all the unusual life forms along the Columia River, like this one at Washougal Waterfront Park, WA. The red fruiting stalk is Arum italicum, a European relative of our native yellow skunk cabbage. The ground is covered by the minute cups of bird's-nest fungus. Each cup (peridium) contains spore-bearing peridioles that are ejected into the air. All text material & images on these pages copyright © W.P. Armstrong