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 #46   © W.P. Armstrong    All Facebook Notes & Images    Published Occasionally On Facebook Go To Latest Trivia Note On This Page Wayne's Trivia Note #971 The next time you have a delicious lettuce salad think about the ancestor of lettuce, a common Old World weed in San Diego County. It is called prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola) because of its spiny leaves & stems. Thousands of years ago it was bred into our garden lettuce by some ingenious people. Wayne's Trivia Note #972 I am having difficulty multitasking with all the distractions of watching TV & working on my computer while preparing a healthy breakfast. Wayne's Trivia Note #973 Distant tree had Great Horned Owl sitting on branch. Right image taken from same distance with handheld, Sony superzoom pocket camera (30x Magnification). I prefer to carry superzoom pocket camera and a smart phone. It would be interesting to compare iPhone 17 ProMax telephoto that utilizes AI.   Old iPhone Images Enhanced With Photoshop   Wayne's Trivia Note #974 Orb weaver Neoscona crucifera at Wayne's Word (9:30 PM Wed. 24 Sept. 2024). The light source was a Sony external flash. It took her over 2 hours to build this perfect web. The orb was suspended by threads between my roof and nearby tree, a truly remarkable task. At 6:00 AM the following morning it was torn apart, so she made a new web that night! (Sony HX60 Superzoom Pocket Camera) Here she is again returning to her retreat under my roofing tiles. Image taken with iPad on overcast, cloudy morning at 7:00 AM. Wayne's Trivia Note #975 I am astonished by the absurd Google AI rendition of World's Smallest Flowering Plant (Wolffia globosa). It looks nothing like the real species that I have photograped & written about for decades! See Following 2 images: Wolffia columbiana (close relative of W. globosa) in full bloom! Wayne's Trivia Note #976 As a former member of the World Pumpkin Confederation, I kept up with world's largest fruit records. But what about largest fruit that grows on a tree: Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) in mulberry family. Record-breaking jackfruits nearly 3 feet in length & weighing over 80 pounds have been reported. Of course, the gourd family beats this record by far with pumpkins exceeding a ton (US & metric tons)! Wayne's Trivia Note #977 The night of 24 Sept. 2025 I found an unusual moth that I had never seen before near my front door in Twin Oaks Valley. I thought my discovery might be noteworthy so I submitted my images to iNaturalist. 3 days later I received an email message from curators saying that my species ID of Adoneta gemina (family Limacodidae) was accepted and they were adding my observations & images to "Moths of California." Wayne's Trivia Note #978 Details of a truly remarkable orb weaver spider in my front yard during Sept.-Oct. 2025. 3 cameras were used in this image: Nikon SLR, Sony Superzoom, & iPhone. Wayne's Trivia Note #979 I have yet to determine the sex of this fig grown from seed. It came from a male caprifig that produced both sperm & egg giving rise to the embryo within seed. Sexuality in plants is very complicated. Wayne's Trivia Note #980 Sony superzoom image of red squirrel on Canary Island pine in Balboa Park, San Diego. Smart phone advertisements of "optical zoom quality" are misleading when they are actually cropping your image to make it appear magnified. They use computational zoom (AI) and look very good, but are not true optical zoom cameras with movable telephoto lenses that change focal length. For example, the 30x Sony HX60 superzoom pocket camea takes sharp, 7 meg 350 dpi images that are not cropped. Wayne's Trivia Note #981 I have many old cameras & lenses for different subjects, from minute micro & macro images to scenery & extreme telephotos. Do I really need an iPhone 17? Maybe! Wayne's Trivia Note #982 3:00 AM this morning (11 Oct. 2025) was record-breaking excitement in my life. 8 praying mantids (mantises) were on lights in front of my house. Here are 3 of them! Wayne's Trivia Note #983 I am approaching 1,000 pictorial Wayne's Word Facebook Trivia Notes. Here is little Known fact #983: The microscopic pollen grains of South African Clivia miniata are the same triangular shape as classic Vick's cough drops!   1st Wayne's Word Trivia Note (26 May 2012)   Wayne's Trivia Note #984 The word "nut" has been used incorrectly for ripened ovaries of many botanical fruits. Walnuts have been called nuts, drupes, drupaceous nuts and nutty drupes. In his book A Systematic Treatment of Fruit Types, nut authority Richard Spjut refers to walnut as "pseudodrupe."   Wayne's Word Nut Page   Wayne's Trivia Note #985 Poison oak, a plant I have studied a lot, recently appeared in my back yard. I once co-authored an article about it with Dr. William Epstein, professor at UCSF School of Medicine.   Poison Oak: More Than Just Scratching The Surface   Wayne's Trivia Note #986 I recently discovered this minute wasp on campus of Palomar College. According to coauthor of Fig Web in Paris, it is pollinator of spectacular Mexican rock fig in Baja California.   Wild Figs (Higueras) in Baja California   Wayne's Trivia Note #987 Last night's super moon called "Beaver Moon" was exceptionally bright. According to AI the name refers to the timing of November full moon when beavers are most actively preparing for winter. I photographed it early this morning at its moonset over Twin Oaks Valley. Wayne's Trivia Note #988 The ultimate seed capsule hitchhiker from Madagascar. It is #1 on the official Wayne's Word Sock Removal Difficulty Chart (see following link). If multiple radiating hooks have pierced both hands, you have a painful problem. It is a mystery to me how animals, such as Lemurs, can shed these "botanical grappling hooks" from their bodies!   The Ultimate & Most Painful Hitchhikers   Wayne's Trivia Note #989 Close-up view of noteworthy liverwort (Targionia hypophylla). This species has found its way to islands throughout the Pacific & Atlantic region, and all the world's continents except Antarctica. I have only seen it on steep embankment above cul-de-sac in my Twin Oaks Valley neighborhood. I decided not to replace my US penny size relationship with a nickel! iPhone 12 with Kase macro lens. All text material & images on these pages copyright © W.P. Armstrong