
Glad to be helpful :)

Bananas do and will loose their bottom leaves as they grow, so no surprises there.
As you probably know the black flaky stuff on the outside is normal sap, not mildew. As far as u can see there is only mildew present where the frond meats the trunk.
As there is only a small amount of mildew and no signs of rot I don't think the mildew caused the leaf falling off (rather just natural growth). If it gets more chronic mildew it may cause issues in the future. We grow our bannanas outside and powdery mildew between old fronds is a given, and not a concern, however indoor plants are a lot more prone to disease so it may be a worry.
P.s. its not powdery mildew (mildew is white/grey). Its probably just some kinda mold that settled in the crack left by the leaf falling off. I would only be concerned if it is present between young fronds or starts rotting the trunk.

I agree with your parrot, the more seeds the better.
In New Zealand we have a cucumber called the port Albert cucumber, its big, easy to grow, and has tons of seeds. Unfortunately I couldn't find it for sale outside of NZ (maybe under a different name?).
A slightly smaller international alternative, still with lots of big seeds (tho not quite as many), is the Crystal apple cucumber. Its also easy to grow.
We've grown both of them and will grow both again. They get more/bigger seeds when left to mature, but go sour if left for to long. I still love them when they are sour (your parrot might to) but everyone else thinks I'm crazy.

I like the way it seems she's quickly escaping the cameras focus and about to duck behind the tree. It captures her elusive charm.
Makes the photo seem more alive. As if saying "in the corner of your eye you see a red flash above you. You look up, only to see a shaking branch suddenly relieved of weight. And far in the distance is the sound of beating wings."

At first I thought: ooooh! I wanna learn go and raylib. So I looked at the repo, then realised I know basically nothing. I'll have another look tomorrow, to try again and hopefully learn a bit more. However I think I'm a long way away from being able to contribute anything, but would like to contribute some day. Good luck though!

Sorry for getting that wrong, I'll update it to say parasitic rather than carnivorous. Looks like it might be that species. thank you! Will check on it tomorrow to see how its developed

Parasitic Fungus Eating German Wasp


The first thing this fungus does to its newly infected victim is to take over the insects mind. A zombie is created. the insect is forced to climb up and up. Eventually stopping, it latches on as tight as possible to the nearest branch. The insect will never move again.
Now the processes can really start, the fungi fully devours the insect interior. using the energy gathered, long spore producing structures are extruded out of the insects body.
like little ships sailing to colonise new land, thousands of spores float away on ever drifting air currents. the cycle continues
Found in New Zealand
Tree species: rimu, Dacrydium cupressinum
Wasp species: german wasp, Vespula germanica
Fungus species: genus and species currently unknown by me, any info would be much appreciated.

Eyes can sometimes be less deiceving than marketing material.
my auntie, who has one many awards with her rare orchids, still cant figure out some jewel orchids. My own baby jewel orchid was looking beautiful before it got demolished by spidermites (at the time I thought they were just spiders until it was to late). Next time I'm going to try grow them in a bioactive terrarium hopefully they will be happier.
I'd love to see how your setup turns out and what plants you choose to plant, please post an update when you get them.

Is the LED light a grow light? If not that's fine, most normal white LEDs are just as good or often better than cheap grow lights so don't bother switch.
Its really hard to tell from a photo how bright the light is, but my guess is its medium indirect light, high indirect is still really bright.
I would recommend a maidenhair fern, their leaves look amazing, especially with light shining through and they can handle pretty much any level of indirect light.
Another recommendation would be a hoya, there are lots of varietys some have flashy leaves, and they are easy to look after.
Then if you want a challenge: jewel orchids; these orchids have beautiful iridescent leaves and tend to like high humidity, and low to medium indirect light, unfortunately they are an absolute pain to grow.
I also love mounted elkhorn ferns if you want a splash of weird. Very easy to care for.
I have had surprisingly good results with succulents in low light conditions, they grow very slow but seem to usually do fine.

And I can post images again!
(I'm guesing the outing was due to server changes that allowed this)

Irony™


Found this in a tourist magazine. Oh the things you can trademark

Yep, the only exception I can think of is if its a ladybird, cos then I find the opposite to be true

I would say it would be fine, the only problem would be warping as the pine will be quite thin (plywood is more resistant to this).
But if you don't care about everything being perfectly straight I think pine would be plenty strong enouph and wouldn't warp noticeably much either (just pick straight boards from the store). So yea I think it would be fine.
P.s. (if you join multiple boards together its usually less likely to warp but I don't think this is necessary for your usecase)

The hairs are naturaly made by the plant and are called trichomes.
The "hairs interfere with the feeding of at least some small herbivores and, depending upon stiffness and irritability to the palate, large herbivores as well. Hairs on plants growing in areas subject to frost keep the frost away from the living surface cells. In windy locations, hairs break up the flow of air across the plant surface, reducing transpiration. Dense coatings of hairs reflect sunlight, protecting the more delicate tissues underneath in hot, dry, open habitats. In addition, in locations where much of the available moisture comes from fog drip, hairs appear to enhance this process by increasing the surface area on which water droplets can accumulate." wikipedia
The stinging spikes of stinging nettles are also a type of modified trichome which is pretty cool

I think it would be too much effort to try and train an old shrub into a tree when hydrangeas are so insanely easy to take cuttings of, and the cuttings grow so fast. (So much so that when we prune our hydrangeas many of the fallen branches accidentally become new plants).
tho I love hydrangea bush's too and this is a lovely mature one. So I reackon you should keep this one, take a cutting, and grow the cutting into a tree somewhere else, and then you get the best of both worlds (:

Trying now, thank you!

True I did indead I even forgot I downloaded it as it was unopened. It does look fun though, will give it a try.
On a similar note I also forgot Feudal tactics, which looks even worse then unciv. but it is still a fun strategy game. I'll add these both to the list, thank you,

Open Source Android Games That Look Amazing! (On F-Droid)
Floss things get a lot of rep for working well, but looking bad, sure we appreciate function, but here's some floss games that feel AND look good. These games are optimized for mobile, often polished to a tee, AND have the looks.
All links are for F-Droid
Tell me any more open source Android games you think look Amazing (on F-Droid or not).
Key: EXGL - extremely good looking
My favorite's:
• Super Retro Mega Wars - play retro games like Tetris, Snake, Atari breakout and space invaders, in style! EXGL
• TriPeaks - beautiful pixel art tri-peaks solitaire. EXGL
• Lato - more of a demo than a polished game, but still very fun to ski from peak to peak, and its gobsmackingly beautiful (heavily inspired by Alto's Adventure). EXGL
• Xeonjia - slide around on ice in this polis

thank you!from the article you linked It does look like its probably thaInteresting. I didn't know about major and minor workers, but it makes sense, very interesting thank you. Do you know if all ants have major and minor castes? or is it just some species?
weird ant with a very big head


Found this weird ant on our table, it has a very big head. Does anyone know what type of ant this is? (Found in New Zealand). Im guesing because of its large mandibles its probably not a worker ant instead perhaps its a soldier.
Also I just learnt the different forms of an ant (queen, worker, soldier) are called castes.

Sorry for the late reply and thanks for the question,
The Australian 2024 national defence strategy says this: "Our Alliance with the US remains fundamental to Australia's national security. We will continue to deepen and expand our defence engagement with the US, including by pursuing greater scientific, technological and industrial cooperation, as well as enhancing our cooperation under force posture initiatives"
US has these military facilities in Australia (and more secret ones):
"Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station – located near Kojarena 30 km east of Geraldton, Western Australia. Other U.S. bases in Australia are present and this list does not include ADF bases with U.S. access. The U.S. military has access to many ADF training areas, northern Australian RAAF airfields, port facilities in Darwin, Fremantle, Stirling naval base in Perth, and the airfield on the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean." Wikipedia
US also has a Rotational U.S. Army, Navy Presence where they bring their submarines and provide financial benefits to many military services they can use (RAAF bases and the assisting in manufacturing of missiles and other weapons). There are 2500 US marines on permanent rotation
According to US gov "The United States is Australia’s defense goods and services partner of choice" and "The U.S. has over $27 billion in active government-to-government sales cases with Australia" most of Australias military equipment comes from the US including their nuclear submarines
Also most aggregiously
"As documented by CIA whistleblower Christopher John Boyce and several authors, including John Pilger,[7][4][6] as well as some Australian politicians,[8] the CIA allegedly backed Governor-General and representative of Queen Elizabeth II in Australia, Kerr, to dismiss Whitlam, due to Whitlam's perceived left-wing policies[3] including Australian withdrawal from the Vietnam War, as well as his views on Australian sovereignty.[3] His conflict with the CIA is alleged[3] to have come to a head when he discovered several CIA-led operations occurring in Australia and overseas conducted by ASIO and ASIS, leading him to threaten cancellation of the lease on the Pine Gap facility, ending the US-led (nominally joint) operation, which was integral to the CIA's signals interception operations in the southern hemisphere"
"In a statement to parliament on 3 April 1974, Whitlam said: "The Australian government takes the attitude that there should not be foreign military bases, stations, installations in Australia."
He was then sacked and replaced by a more agreeing pm by the CIA Wikipedia
There are also numerous traid agreements that leads to Australia relying on US for a lot of its financial security (though it relies on China and Japan as well). And also many Australian companys are US owned/funded
This is all the research I have time to do but there are many, many more examples of American interference and control.
Edit: also America controls most of Australian media including News Corp Australia (owns most newspapers and News Corp is also the controlling shareholder of Foxtel and it owns Sky News in Australia. And much more)
also the American controlled ABC is the most visited site In Australia. And controls a lot of other media

I mean if you chose a bamboo variety that loves it outside but hates it inside then it will be a big challenge to keep them alive inside (most bamboos you see growing outside won't like it inside)

My Earina Autumnalis orchid flowered

Your terrarium is looking beautiful! I'm planning on making a large cooled terrarium for alpine plants sometime. All my current tereriums are small so it will be quite a challenge.

Feel free to ignore me but:
Alfred "Alfie" Joseph
Bengiman "Bengie" Oliver
Maya Oliver
Persephone "Percy" Elm
- in greek mythology Persephone was taken by hades (in an unwanted arranged marriage of sorts arranged by her father zues) to control the underworld with him, becoming the queen of the underworld. her mother sad to lose her causes winter and apon Persephones return to her mum every year, summer returns.
Also
"The myth of a goddess being abducted and taken to the underworld is probably Pre-Greek in origin. Samuel Noah Kramer, the renowned scholar of ancient Sumer, has posited that the Greek story of the abduction of Persephone may be derived from an ancient Sumerian story in which Ereshkigal, the ancient Sumerian goddess of the underworld, is abducted by Kur, the primeval dragon of Sumerian mythology, and forced to become ruler of the underworld against her own will." Wikipedia
I also like the name lucida
These are just random names that popped into my head just before sleeping so feel free to ignore or pluck what you like (also I spent way longer thinking about the first names then the last names so I'm not set on my last names)

my tier list of open source android apps I've tried:
Heres my tier list of open source android apps, I have only included ones i feel I have used enouph to understand.
Please tell me any of your favorite open source apps as I would love to hear.
S tier- OpenCalc, firefox, thunder, organic maps, Aegis authenticator, wikipedia, F-Droid, Clock.
A tier: open camera, fossify suite, k-9, termux, simplenote, Acode, pie launcher, translate you, lavendar photos, Heliboard,
B tier: gallery (by iacoblonut), peer tube, simple keyboard, floris board (might be higher if it used haptic feedback interface by default), unexpected keyboard (would be S tier if shift did not carry on selecting text once released).
C tier: FreeDcam, libre camera, geo notes, free paint.
Checkout my post of my favourite Floss android games here
Edit: after using the apps some more I have:
• moved "translate you" from S to A tier due to no offline translation
• added lavendar photos to A tier (my new gallary of choic

My Earina autimnalis orchid flowered!


About a year ago I rescued a native Earina autimnalis orchid that had fallen on to the road. I placed it on a tree with some sphagnum moss behind and watered it occasionally.
I was worried it wasn't happy, but then new shoots started growing, and before I knew it, flower spikes emerged!
A conservation friend of mine, who has cared for native orchids, said she's never seen them flower in captivity. So I wasn't expecting much from the spikes.
Then today when I checked how the orchid was doing, It was flowering with some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen :).

Vine that's just one gigantic leaf stretching from forest floor to canopy | weird ferns #1


Yesterday as I was walking through the bush collecting seeds, I was suddenly caught by a strange vine that ensnared my leg.
While it may look like your traditional vine, a climbing stem with many leaves attached, its a fern, and the entire "vine" is just one gigantic leaf stretching from the forest floor to the tree canopy.
Mangemange is a fern native to new Zealand. Its from the genus Lygodium.
Its stem (rhizome) grows along underground, almost like a long root. Every few meters a new leaf (frond) spouts from the rhizome.
The leaves emerge from the ground twisting and turning, desperately trying to find something to latch onto. At the same time pinnae form on the leaf stalk (rachis). Pinnae look a bit like normal plant leaves but they are actually just leaf segments. The pinnae provide the energy for the frond to grow even longer.
Once a target tree is found, the frond starts wrapping around it, slowly climbing upwards, making new sets of pinnae every few meters.
Continuing

A fern growing on a fern growing on a fern


Here's my current record for most ferns growing on top of each other!
A tree fern called a ponga (Alsophila tricolor) forms the base, growing on this tree ferns trunk is a hen and chicken fern (Asplenium bulbiferum).
Hen and chicken ferns grows little bulbils (baby ferns) on its fronds, when the bulbils are old enouph, they drop off to become a new hen and chicken fern.
These bulbils make up the final layer of ferns of my fern stack, making it a magnificent 3 layers of fern.

A fern growing on a fern growing on a fern


Here's my current record for most ferns growing on top of each other!
A tree fern called a ponga (Alsophila tricolor) forms the base, growing on this tree ferns trunk is a hen and chicken fern (Asplenium bulbiferum).
Hen and chicken ferns grows little bulbils (baby ferns) on its fronds, when the bulbils are old enouph, they drop off to become a new hen and chicken fern.
These bulbils make up the final layer of ferns of my fern stack, making it a magnificent 3 layers of fern.

Dendrobium cunninghamii orchid flowering near Christmas


Dendrobium cunninghamii, in Puketi Forest, New Zealand. In full bloom :). Its indigenous Maori name is Winika and a Maori canoe (Waka) is named after it
"In the fork of the tree grew a type of orchid known as ‘te winika’ which blooms with masses of white and green star-shaped flowers, evoking the huia feathers worn by high ranking rangatira (chiefs). This led to the auspicious name being given to the waka taua, that served Maaori royalty for many purposes, from transport to ceremonial duties."
-50 years of majestic waka at Waikato Museum Source
Image by me

Beautiful green cicada having just shed


I found this while walking through the Bush it was on the track with its exuviae right next to it. They are bloody deafening at this time of year but I still love to see them. Unfortunately I couldn't get any photos with the eyes properly in focus (as well as the exuviae) and my dog was desperate to carry on walking so this is the best I got.
Edit: spelling

Dendrobium cunninghamii orchid flowering near Christmas


Dendrobium cunninghamii, in Puketi Forest, New Zealand. In full bloom :). Its indigenous Maori name is Winika and a Maori canoe (Waka) is named after it
"In the fork of the tree grew a type of orchid known as ‘te winika’ which blooms with masses of white and green star-shaped flowers, evoking the huia feathers worn by high ranking rangatira (chiefs). This led to the auspicious name being given to the waka taua, that served Maaori royalty for many purposes, from transport to ceremonial duties."
-50 years of majestic waka at Waikato Museum Source
Image by me
Edit: grammer and written better