Heather

I mentioned last week, when I blogged about my whale sighting, that I had gone for a run north to the neighboring town and had gotten a few pics of a plant in bloom. The plant in question is a species of heather, or heath, though I won't guess which species it is.  I'll only give you the genus, which is Erica.  

Erica is, quite obviously, in the Ericaceae or heath family.  I also often refer to it as the blueberry family, as Vaccinium is a member as well.  Other popular relatives include Rhododendron, Kalmia, Leucothoe, Eurobotrys, Pieris and Oxydendron.  (By the way, I CANNOT believe I haven't written about Oxydendron yet.  Shameful!)  Similar to many plants in its family, Erica prefers acidic, well drained soil.  Genera native to the US are often found growing in shady wooded mountainsides, whereas Erica species (over 700 of them) are typical to locations like the fynbos in South Africa or the moors and heaths of the British Isles.

Depending on your exposure to romantic English literature, you probably remember references to the moors in books like Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë.  The moors of Dartmoor are also featured in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, a Sherlock Holmes story. 

Finally! The USDA Hardiness Zone Map Changes

When I teach certain plants, I often find myself qualifying their hardiness.  I'll say things like, "Well, when I was in college, we were taught that Crape Myrtle would never survive in NY.   It's considered a solid zone 7 plant.  Yet, more and more, we see it in Manhattan gardens and in the Hamptons."  This was perplexing because New York was considered Zone 6 until yesterday.

On January 25, the USDA introduced an updated hardiness zone map, showing an upward shift of average lowest temperatures and thus generally making each zone shift north.  For example, whereas New York was Zone 6, it is now marked as Zone 7. 

The map itself debuted in 1960, and was revised in 1965.  In 1990 the map was updated, using data from 1974-1986.  This revision actually caused zones to skew lower, as during those years winters were particularly colder.  The current edition includes data from 1976-2005, and thus should have better average temperatures reflected in the map. The map is also clickable- so you can view insets of your state.

Finback Whales

Yesterday, I was in Ocean City, New Jersey for a meeting regarding the rain garden I'm designing for the intermediate school.  I actually spent the preceding weekend there with friends, as there's nothing better than a wintry weekend at the beach in front of the fire.    Yesterday morning, I finally mobilized to go for a long run.  While normally I run along the boardwalk, I feared the damp rainy weather would make the boards too slick, so I opted for running north along through the salt marshes north of town and to the neighboring town beyond (I took a photo on the way, and will post on an actual plant tomorrow or Wednesday). 

It's probably just as well I avoided the boardwalk, as I would have only had my iPhone when encountering this:

This is a fin or finback whale, which washed upon the shore of Ocean City, New Jersey early yesterday morning.  I heard the news at my rain garden meeting and quickly went to see the whale myself when the meeting concluded.  

Authorities from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center identified the species and estimate that this animal measures approximately forty to forty five feet long.  That makes it an juvenile, as mature fin whales reach lengths of seventy feet, making them the second longest whales and the sixth largest living animal in the world (after other whales, of course).  Their narrow bodies account for their discrepant rankings in length and size, it also is why some refer to them as 'greyhounds of the sea' -- they are incredibly agile and fast. 

Unfortunately, this whale washed to the shore dead, which anyone could surmise the instant they got of their car a few blocks away.  The smell hung in the air, and yesterday's heavy fog almost seemed like tangible evidence of the odor. A similar whale was sighted a week earlier in New York harbor; it's likely that the whale was struck by a ship in the harbor, died and slowly drifted with the currents until it ended up in Ocean City. Fin whales are endangered.  Like many others of their relatives, the fin whale was heavily hunted during the 20th Century.  Wikipedia cites that between 1904 and 1979, 750,000 species existed in the southern hemisphere alone.  Today the total fin whale population is closer to 15,000.  Though the International Whaling Commission bans the hunting of fin whales, Japan, Iceland and Greenlanders continue to hunt the species. 

Despite the odor, I'm pretty sure every year-round resident of Ocean City (and perhaps others from further away) made it to the beach at one point yesterday, in order to see the whale.  Parents brought their children, excited for them to see such a large living thing.  Of course, some kids (like the boy two photos up) are more interested in playing with the sand -- some people are just never impressed. By the way, that cop in the foreground, on the right, yea... he's totally yelling at me to get off the jetty.

I thought it was literally awesome to see such a large animal, particularly now that I know it was barely over half its mature size.  We all learn that the ocean is inhabited by strange, massive animals and certainly that's why there is no shortage of wonderful organizations to preserve our ocean ecologies, but to really witness, with my own eyes, physical proof of such a massive mammal is moving.

I've already linked to a few organizations that make it their mission to protect whales and or the ocean, but let's not forgot Save the Whales - even if the pins aren't as popular!