It's Nature

Notice more in your own patch.

Turn a garden, doorstep or window view into a place to observe plants and seasonal change. Find practical starting points for gardening and watching wildlife with care.

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Phasmatodea (Stick Insects)

This order of insects are known by different names in different countries; in Europe they are called the stick insects while in North America they are called the walking sticks, leaf insects or ghost insects. There are at least three thousand different types of stick insects in the world, ranging...

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Olive

The olive is native to the Mediterranean region, parts of Africa and tropical and central Asia. It is one of the oldest known plants to be used by man. Olive seeds found in Spain and tested using carbon dating have shown the olive has been domesticated for eight thousand years. The olive was...

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Bobwhite Quail

The Virginia quail is a game bird native to North and Central America and the Caribbean. It is the official game bird of Georgia, Washington State and Tennessee. Other names include the Northern Bobwhite and the Bobwhite Quail. The name ‘bobwhite’ refers to their characteristic call. A quail in its...

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Cat Tails

(bullrush) Typha latifolia The typha is known as cattail in the United States and bulrush in the United Kingdom, is a marshy perennial growing to a height of two and a half meters tall, with light green sword shaped leaves and a seedpod that is cigar shaped and brown in color. Blackbirds, wrens and...

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Heartsease (Viola Tricolor)

Before the cultivated pansy was developed the wild pansy was the progenitor for the domesticated flowers that we know and plant today. . Known also as the Johnny-jump-up; love-lies-bleeding; banwort and bull weed, the viola was brought to North America from Europe where it is a common weed and was...

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Yarrow

(Achillea millefolium) Yarrow is a perennial herb that grows up to one meter tall or about three feet tall, having an angular, rough stem and has hairy leaves with an almost feathery type of appearance. The flowers are daisy-like in appearance and can be varied in color from white, lavender and...

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Western White Pine

Pinus Monticola The western white pine is type of pine that grows in the western mountains of the United States and Canada. Other names it is know by are the Idaho white pine; silver pine or mountain white pine. The state tree of Idaho, adopted in 1935, the western white pine often grows to a...

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Common Chicory

Cichorium intybus The chicory plant originally came from the Mediterranean and traveled from Europe to spread across North America with the colonists. The color is usually blue or lavender and the flower remains on the plant only one day, with quantities of stiff hairs on the underside of the...

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Fireweed

Epilobium angustifolium The fireweed also known as the rosebay willow herb in the British Isles, in Ireland fireweed is called Blooming Sally. Thought to be introduced from China by the early Victorians, fireweed is one of the pioneer’s plants native to the Northern Hemisphere that thrives in...

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Dawn Redwood

Metasequoia glyptostroboides The dawn redwood is also known as the water fir in China and the water larch; it is native to central China. It is a deciduous tree that is closely related to the giant sequoia and is the only living species of Metasequoia that is living. The dawn redwood is critically...

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Sequoia Tree

The sequoia tree is a member in the cypress family of Cupressacaea and is one of three species of redwoods. These may be more familiarly known as the Coast Redwood and California Redwood, found in the northern part of the state of California. Known for its height and age, the tallest tree in the...

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Trailing Arbutus

The Trailing arbutus is one of the best known, and best loved of Eastern American Wildflowers, and was said to be the first flower that the Pilgrims found when they stepped on the shore of the new world. It is a white or whitish pink blossom, and is quite rare in how it function in a symbiotic...

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Flamingo

Flamingos are one of the more gregarious of birds. They are wading birds to be more precise, found in both Eastern and Western Hemisphere, but are far more well known and more numerous in the eastern hemisphere. There are four varieties of Flamingo in the Americas while two exist elsewhere....

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African Wild Ass

The African Wild Ass is one of the truly wild donkeys which inhabit the African plains. They are medium grey in summertime and iron gray in the winter, with a mane that stands upright although it is not very thick in nature. It features stripes on its lower legs not unlike those of a zebra. The...

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Kouprey, Cambodian Forest Ox

The Kouprey, also called the Cambodian Forest Ox is one of the most mysterious animals alive today. It was unseen and unheard of until late 1937, and since then has been seen a bare handful of times by scientists. The Kouprey is a greyish colored forest oxen, with frayed looking horns and a long...

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Dwarf Blue Sheep

The Dwarf blue sheep is a smaller wild sheep, weighing in at about 25-40 KG, or about 50-90 pounds. It lives mostly on rocky slopes generally at very high altitudes, such as between 8500 and 9500 feet above sea level. The dwarf blue lives mostly on grasses but also other plants such as club moss....

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Mothman

The Mothman is the name of a creature that has been reported in several areas of the United States, though most notably in Charleston and Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The original sightings of the creature date back to November 12, 1966 and it was reported by several independent witnesses that...

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Hermit Crab

The hermit crab is known in many cultures as a great pet, though these crabs can be found in nature, too! What many people do not know about this species is that it is not closely related to a true crab whatsoever. What sets these crabs apart from other crabs is that they have a very soft body, its...

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Cape Fox

The Cape Fox is a small fox that is also known as the Cama Fox or the Silver-backed Fox. This is one of the smaller fox species and is usually black or silver gray in color with yellow undersides and flanks. The tip of the tail of this species allows for it to be easily identified because it is...

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Kangaroo Rat

Kangaroo Rat is general name given to a group of about 22 species of small North American rodents. There are several differences in the many species of this rodent, however they all prefer arid to semi-arid habitat. They will live in any dry region of Mexico, Canada or the U.S. as long as it...

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