Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I love it when I find things out on my own

Okay, sometimes the old Google search doesn't give good results, like when you're looking for fish that can walk. However, if you poke around enough and can be specific enough, usually you can find what you're looking for.

Case in point: The weird berries Liza found today during our walk near the river. They were on a bush, but the foliage looked like grape leaves. And the berries ... well, they were obviously just starting to ripen, and they were, well, not exactly grape-like.

Yes, they do look exactly like various flavors of Jelly Belly candies.

After about five minutes of searching, I was about ready to throw in the towel and ask K's mom and/or brother for help with the ID, but my last search (berries pink blue purple with spots) I hit paydirt - Liza found a porcelain berry bush, otherwise known as Ampelopsis brevipedunculata.

I felt totally smart that the description of the plant specifically says that it looks like some varieties of native grapes - go, me! Shame it's classified as an invasive species, or I'd be tempted to see how it would do in the cave that passes for our back yard.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'd skip planting this one. All of the websites seem to be talking about how to get rid of the plant.

But the speckled grapes are really pretty.

Anonymous said...

As mentioned in the previous post, the fish is mostly likely a Prionotus evolans, a striped sea robin. The fish doesn't walk with the spines - which explains the derth of Googling results. Instead, the spines on the fins are used to stir up the bottom in order to reveal prey.

Anonymous said...

It is very pretty, but it is horribly invasive. It is the only thing in my garden this year that survived the drought. the rose bushes are covered with it instead of roses!
mimi