Friday, December 17, 2021

Aliens in the garden

Mid-November I visited the Los Angeles County Arboretum. The garden was set-up for a light show and closing came early, visitors needed to leave so reticketed folks could enter for the show. I see this as an ongoing conflict. Botanical gardens need people to pay their admission fees and die-hard garden-lovers only do so much, the general public needs to be tempted into the garden. That's where the "art in the garden" and "garden light show" ideas come from. Put on a show and they will come. God forbid you just happen to be a regular old plant-lover who finally made it to your bucket-list destination garden while one of their "shows" is happening.

Okay, that's my rant, now back to my Arboretum visit. I mostly managed to ignore all the cords, spotlights, reflectors and other assorted paraphernalia for the show. That light-filled lawn above is the only altered image I captured, well, nearly. 

I'd almost walked out thru the gates when I realized I still had a half hour before I was going to be tossed out of the garden, just enough time to walk over and explore the pre-historic forest...with aliens and disco balls!?

Aliens had invaded the pre-historic forest!
Naked aliens with mirror-ball heads...


I have to admit, I loved this. It was so unexpected and, well, shiny!

As I snapped these photos I wondered what it would all look like after dark. Was I missing out on some serious light-magic? Nope.

As a plant-lover I happened upon this alien-invasion at just the right time. A Google image search for "after dark" photos proved the plants definitely added to the feel of the installation. 

I'll never look at silly botanic garden shows the same way again!

A couple weeks later, back at home and cleaning up the garden, I thought of those aliens again when I pulled back this Woodwardia unigemmata frond...

...and discovered this! Alien goo!

My glove for scale, it was so shiny and gelatinous! 

The white bits are from the Fatsia japonia blooms above.

I shot off a photo to Tiffany, cause she knows fungus, and her best guess was (get this name!) "Crystal Brain Fungus" aka Exidia nucleata. Yep, read all about that business here. The photos in that link definitely look right, even if it says the fungus is found on dead and decaying hardwood and mine was on gravel under a Fatsia japonica. 

To add to my alien feeling about the whole thing, last weekend I found a little more "jelly" in an entirely different part of the garden—although it was still near a fatsia. This time the alien goo was on a Fatsia polycarpa bloom stem. However I have not seen any shiny aliens or disco balls in my garden. Yet.

All material © 2009-2021 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

22 comments:

  1. Ha! Now I'm wondering if your picked up something on your shoes while walking through the LA Arboretum. That was a perfect spot for the aliens to set up. I don't recall seeing any aliens in the light show set-up when I was there but that was years ago. Even though LA County owns the land on which both the Arboretum and SCGB sit, I think they must employ different vendors for their light shows. I'd have liked to see aliens instead of odd painted wood backdrops.

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    1. It really is the perfect spot, tucked in the jungle. A rare success for one of these types of things.

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  2. SO COOL! I would buy a few of these aliens myself!

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    1. I can see folks driving by your place at night to see the aliens and mirror balls. I nice way to make a little extra travel money perhaps?

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  3. I don't know the current status of nursery use of water-retention crystals, but for a while some years ago gelatinous stuff like on your fatsia would appear in my garden, and if I remember correctly it was traced to the crystals added to potting mixes...

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    1. Interesting, but not really a possibility for the goo up on the branch.

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  4. What a cool installation! It's great seeing the Arboretum again after... um... 50 years. It was not this green and lush back then, IIRC. Certainly no aliens. I don't remember the large lawn area, but I could have missed going that direction.

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    1. The large lawn is (as I think of it) sort of in the middle. I'm sure it's changed substantially over the years. I have many more photos to share!

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  5. I guess it must fill a need, and if it helps the bottom line, I guess it is worth it. I wonder how the gardening staff feel about the invasion? I would worry about a bunch of non-plant people tromping through... I've noticed they don't consider plants 'living' things!

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  6. I suppose it would be prudent to keep holiday light installations in mind when planning a bucket list visit this time of year. The most alien thing of all is how you seemed to like the display! I'm shocked. I enjoyed it, yes, but I'm more relaxed about garden "art". I'm so glad you had this experience.

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    1. Oh it's not just the holidays when things like this appear. Summer is the time of "art in the garden"...

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  7. I like "shiny" too. That all looks pretty cool.

    The staff are probably seeing the light show as helping to pay their salaries.

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  8. Perhaps your shiny aliens will come out of hiding one of these days! One never knows.

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  9. I don't mind the light shows gardens put on. The one at Butchart does the twelve days of Christmas. The aliens are probably the gardener's way of having some fun. At least they don't have rides yet. Fungi really are the coolest! They are usually present when something is dying. How are your Fatsias?

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    1. My fatsia appear to be quite healthy. I'll keep an eye on them.

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  10. We've been to the lighting display at Longwood, both during the summer after a fireworks show and for the Christmas holiday lights. I liked them, although some of the ones in the summer weren't as polished/well done as others. As for your "fungus," could possibly just be sap from a wound on the fatsia?

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  11. I'll bet the place looks magickal at night - or at least "other-worldly".

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