Red Sky Apiary

03/04/2026

Cool

Right now, in wet woods across the Eastern US, a plant called Skunk Cabbage is generating its own body heat — up to 70°F above the surrounding air temperature — and MELTING through frozen ground from below.

This isn't photosynthesis. This is thermogenesis. The same process your body uses to stay warm.

- Skunk Cabbage is one of the only plants on Earth that produces metabolic heat
- It burns stored starch at a rate comparable to a small mammal
- Its internal temperature holds steady at 68-77°F even when the outside air is 15°F
- It pushes through snow and frozen soil by literally melting a tunnel from underneath
- The heat volatilizes its chemicals — producing a rotting-meat smell that attracts the first flies of the season

Those early flies crawl inside the hooded spathe, get warm, pick up pollen, and carry it to the next furnace down the creek.

While you're still wearing a winter coat, this plant is running a heated pollination station in a frozen swamp.

March's first bloom doesn't wait for warmth. It makes its own.

11/16/2025

🐸 🍁

09/22/2025

Very cool

Nearly 3,000 acres of forest in Appalachian Ohio are going to be permanently protected as Joy Valley Nature Preserve. Stay tuned for trails, wildlife spotting and community celebrations to come. 🌳

🔗 https://www.ohiomagazine.com/ohio-life/article/new-3-000-acre-nature-preserve-coming-to-appalachian-ohio

03/06/2025

Did you hear the news? The City has expanded its partnership with Rust Belt Riders to offer FREE drop-off composting for residents.

➡️ Program launches Earth Day, April 22
➡️ Participants can drop off accepted compostable waste at six locations citywide - all five of Shaker's public elementary schools and the Main Branch of the Shaker Heights Public Library
➡️ Preregistration is open! Visit https://shakerheightsoh.gov/979/Food-Scrap-Collection-Composting-Program to learn more and get started

01/10/2025

🌻❤️🐝

One day, evolutionary biologist Lilach Hadany wondered if plants could hear.

If they could it’d probably have something to do with flowers, she guessed, as pollination is key to plant reproduction.

She was right.

She and a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University decided to experiment with evening primrose which grows wild around Tel Aviv and whose long bloom time provides substantial quantities of nectar.

In the lab, they exposed the flowers to five different sound treatments: silence, the sound of bees buzzing, and computer-generated sounds in low, medium and high frequencies.

The flowers had no response to the silence or the computer-generated frequencies, they had an almost immediate response to the sound of bees, boosting the sugar content in their nectar by as much as 20% within 3 minutes.

In field trials, while the flowers seemed to tune out other noises, like the wind, they were particularly attuned to the low frequencies emitted by bees and other pollinators.

The temporary boost in sugar content apparently lasted for up to 6 minutes, as pollinators were 9 times more likely to visit a plant that had been previously visited by a pollinator within that time frame.

03/23/2024

Cool 🐸

11/27/2023

Don't miss this opportunity to study in person with Leslie William's. 🌿🍂🍁

How to be an herbalist every day and every night, living in the world. Where to start , where to look and how to keep learning herbalism. What is worth your time and investment. How to learn tree identification, how to lead a tree walk. make a tonic herbal formula or a simple herb tea from t...