Daily Archive

Isn’t that what Wavyleaf Silktassel sounds like? A resident of the Shire?

It is in fact a large shrub that grows all along the coast of Oregon and California, doing well in serpentine and clay soils. I know far less about geology than I do about botany, which is saying something, and as far as I remember, I never encountered the term “serpentine” until I read Always Coming Home, by Ursula K. Le Guin. The people she writes about, the Kesh–who “might be going to have lived a long, long time from now in Northern California,” as her ethnologist alter ego writes–live in groups named Madrone, Blue Clay, Red Adobe, Yellow Adobe, Obsidian, and Serpentine. Serpentine is a group of igneous minerals; that makes sense, since a lot of California has volcanic soil, which is poor for many plants but great for growing grapes. And wavyleaf silktassel.

As with yesterday’s drawing, I am trying to catch the light. I think this one is more successful.