Is my house plant a menace to society?
Aidan O'Leary, Dublin
Get a grip – it's not illegal to have one here. Nor is it dangerous, unless you or your pets take to eating it. Its Latin name is Kalanchoe daigremontianum, not Cannabis sativa. The plant is native to Madagascar and cannot survive outdoor temperatures below 12 degrees, so it is hardly likely to run rampant in the wild here just yet, no matter what you read about it doing in Australia.
Sand martin colony. Photograph supplied by Stephen Meaney
I take part in the Iwebs (Irish Wetlands Birds Survey) and count birds on Lough Cuilin in Co Mayo. A local woman, Eileen Bolger, sent me this photograph of a sand martin colony established on a dried turf face on a nearby bog. We both subsequently visited the site on April 9th and saw what looks like a well-established colony with at least 25 birds and using the holes as nest sites.
Stephen Meaney
Sand martins are so called because they excavate their nesting tunnels in sandy riverbanks, eroded sand dune cliffs, or sand and gravel quarries. And in Ireland they have been known to use the old, dried faces of turf banks as they can excavate this material. This fact encouraged Clogher environmental group, with assistance from collaborators, to establish an artificial sand martin wall on Clogher Bog near Castlebar, which was launched last year during Heritage Week. Sand martins have declined so much due to habitat loss and a decline in the insect population that they are now on the amber list of birds of moderate conservation concern. They need all the help they can get.
READ MORE
[
Why is this bug causing a big stink?
Opens in new window
]
Sand mason. Photograph supplied by Michael Barry
These can be seen at low tide on Dooneen Beach in Cork. Do you know what they are?
Michael Barry
These are sand masons – marine worms that live inside a tube built of large sand grains. The top has a frayed appearance also made of sand, which helps to protect the delicate and sticky tentacles that wave about in the water when covered by the tide, trapping tiny food particles there. They live on the lower shore as they need to be covered by water most of the time.
Peacock butterfly. Photograph supplied by June Hurley
This beautiful butterfly was sunbathing in my garden on March 19th. Every so often it closed its wings. Is it a little early for butterflies?
June Hurley, Killiney, Co Dublin
This is peacock butterfly, which overwinters as an adult. Accordingly, it wakes up on any warm spring day that comes and typically is on the wing from March to June. It feeds on the nectar of dandelions and hawthorn to give it energy to mate and lay eggs on the common nettle, its larval food plant. The next generation fly from mid-July and overwinter from September.
[
Drink to your elf: what is this striking red growth?
Opens in new window
]
Dead frog. Photograph supplied by Hilary and Finnian Cullinan
We spotted this dead frog in a pool near Ben Bulben. We were looking at the different lots of frogspawn and then spotted her. Finnian (6½) said she probably died from exhaustion after laying so many eggs. Is he right?
Hilary and Finnian Cullinan, Sligo
Kind of right. Sometimes several males try to mate with a single female at the same time and the weight of all of them on top of her can cause her to drown. Female eggs are fertilised in the water – the act of mating causing them to be ejected from the female, which typically can live up to 12 years.
Please submit your nature query, observation, or photo, with a location, via
irishtimes.com/eyeonnature
or by email to weekend@irishtimes.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
20-07-2025
- Irish Times
Let's inconvenience some oligarchs before we come for exhausted mothers
It's just not sustainable , my friend and I say together. We're talking about her work /life imbalance, the juggling of domestic and professional responsibilities that has her absurdly multitasking, barely pulling it off, always failing someone or something, always guilty. (In case you were wondering, no, the answer is not that she should stay at home in a frilly apron baking cupcakes instead of practising medicine. The answer is that adequate childcare should be available and affordable.) Something sustainable is literally something that can be held up, from the Latin 'tenere' as in 'tenacious'. If a course of action is depleting resources faster than they are generated, causing a net loss, it's unsustainable because sooner or later there will be nothing left. Harvesting peat is the obvious local example but others would include losing weight, overwork and lack of rest. We're used to sustainability as a buzzword around care for the environment, and often such terms feel reproachful, as if we're being told off for using too much, taking more than our share. We should buy less, throw away less, drive less, fly less. It feels as if what's sustainable for the planet is unsustainable for individuals trying to survive capitalism, as if living sustainably is another demand to do more with less. It doesn't have to be that way. [ Sarah Moss: 'I'm a classic first child. A driven overachiever. Slightly neurotic' Opens in new window ] I've always thought it's deeply unfair to position new parents like my friend at the sharp end of green scolding. Especially when space and money are tight, disposable nappies are a godsend to a household and also horrible for the environment. You can transport babies on bicycles – people do it all the time in places with safe cycling infrastructure – and you can get pushchairs on buses and trains, but in Dublin it's not easy, pleasant or reliable. Maybe let's inconvenience some oligarchs before we come for the exhausted mothers, and while we're at it provide a subsidised laundering service for cloth nappies. READ MORE Human energies also need care, which is not in opposition to but part of care for human environments. Much of our excessive consumption comes from various kinds of scarcity: time, affordable fresh food, active transport infrastructure and reliable public transport. Some people are obviously making active choices to prioritise their own egos and individual power over everyone else's health and safety (SUV drivers, I mean you), but most of us are muddling through in environments engineered to create scarcity and to direct us to solve this engineered scarcity by unsustainable consumption. For most of us, the necessary changes must be collective and corporate. Only the well-resourced can consistently resist powerful systems as individuals. I can cycle everywhere because I live within 10km of most of the places I need or want to go, because I have a high degree of control over my own time and the immeasurable blessing of physical health. In this situation, the choice to cycle enhances and does not deplete my life. It is (most days) more of a joy than a sacrifice. It would make no sense to try to insist that people in more difficult circumstances make the same choices; better to change the circumstances. My household's diet is based on organic and mostly Irish fruit and vegetables, delivered weekly. If everyone could eat as we do, more people would be in better health, Irish organic farming would be more sustainable and there would be shorter supply chains and less food waste. But this is possible for us because we can afford the additional cost, I have the time and knowledge to cook and none of us has allergies or intolerances. It's stupid to say that everyone should do what we do unless we also say that everyone should have what we have, which is the truly sustainable position. [ I enjoy Ireland's weather, take pleasure in rain and whinge on hot days Opens in new window ] And so my point is that social justice and climate justice are not in opposition. Some of the reasons for our unsustainable habits are moral failure (SUV drivers, I still mean you), but most are systemic failure, or rather the success of a system engineered to maximise profit and economic growth at the expense of humanity as well as the rest of the natural world. Sustainable behaviour involves rest, companionship and pleasure as well as separating your recycling (but protest the wanton stupidity of most food packaging) and taking the bus (protest the fact that it's late and crowded).
The Irish Sun
10-07-2025
- The Irish Sun
Lost 300-year-old ship carrying £101M worth of treasure sunk in pirate raid is FOUND off the coast of Madagascar
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered a 300-year-old shipwreck laden with treasure worth over £101 million. The ship - believed to be the Nossa Senhora do Cabo - was sunk by pirates off Madagascar in 1721 during one of the most infamous raids in history. Advertisement 7 The sunken Nossa Senhora do Cabo's lower hull captured in a photomosaic Credit: Jam Press/Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation 7 Researchers prepare for a dive off the coast of Madagascar, where the shipwreck was discovered Credit: Jam Press/Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation 7 Among the 3,300 artefacts recovered from the wreck are pottery fragments Credit: Jam Press/Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation The Portuguese vessel was transporting cargo from Goa, India, to Lisbon, Portugal, when it was raided. The treasure ship is believed to have been attacked on April 8, 1721, by pirates led by Captain Olivier "The Buzzard" Levasseur, during what historians call the Golden Age of Piracy. The raid became one of the most notorious of the era due to its staggering plunder - thought to be one of the richest pirate hauls in history. An estimated 200 enslaved people were also onboard at the time, and their fate remains unknown. Advertisement Read more world news The Nossa Senhora do Cabo was a heavily armed, state-owned carrack, making its capture all the more humiliating for the Portuguese Empire. After 16 years of investigation, researchers at the Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation found the wreck in Ambodifotatra Bay, near the island of Nosy Boraha, off Madagascar's northeast coast. More than 3,300 artefacts were pulled from the site, including religious figurines, gold ingots, pearls and treasure-filled chests. One ivory plaque is inscribed with gold letters reading 'INRI', the Latin abbreviation for "Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum" - meaning 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews', as recorded in the Roman gospels. Advertisement Most read in The US Sun Brandon A. Clifford and Mark R. Agostini, researchers from Brown University behind the discovery, described the haul as "an eyewatering treasure, even by pirate standards". They estimate the cargo alone could be worth more than £108 million in today's currency. 7 Divers uncover shipwreck of Glasgow vessel almost 140 years after it vanished without trace During the period that the Nossa Senhora do Cabo sailed, Portugal controlled key trade routes between India and Europe, transporting valuable goods from its colonies back to the Portuguese mainland. Advertisement Besides carrying spices and precious stones, the ship also transported enslaved people, who were forced to work in ports and mines throughout the empire. Because of their material and human cargo, ships bound for Europe were prime targets for pirates, who could sell both goods and enslaved people for huge profit. 7 Ivory inscribed with the letters 'INRI' (Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum) Credit: Jam Press/Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation 7 A Madonna statue recovered from the 1721 shipwreck Credit: Jam Press/Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation Advertisement The discovery comes as researchers say they found a The San Jose, which was sunk by the British in 1708, was long thought to be lost beneath the Caribbean waters. But academics in Colombia believe that a wreck found near Baru Island in 2015 is in fact the long-lost galleon. An Advertisement Among the items recovered were silver coins minted in Lima in 1707, Chinese porcelain from the Kangxi period and cannon inscriptions dating back to 1665. 7 Site plan of the Nossa Senhora Do Cabo shipwreck excavation Credit: Jam Press/Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation
Irish Examiner
03-07-2025
- Irish Examiner
Demand for ejiao has soared — which is bad news for donkeys
'The bridge of asses', the famous geometry theorem, defeated many a pupil. Most unfairly, children unable to grasp it were dismissed as 'dunces'. Even the 'law', despite its majesty, can be 'an ass'. The American expression, 'a pain in the ass', refers to the back passage. But the name has an ancient lineage; 'asimus' is the Latin for 'donkey'. It also meant 'blockhead' in Roman times. 'The Devil's walking parody on all four-footed things' is a much maligned creature. The world's first beast of burden, domesticated five to seven thousand years ago, it changed the course of civilisation, even helping to build the pyramids of Egypt. On Palm Sunday, Christ called for a 'colt', a young ass, to ride into Jerusalem. Columbus took six donkeys with him on his second voyage to the New World. The much loved 'asal beag dubh' is not native to Ireland, but if tourist postcards are an indication, it's our unofficial national animal. A most successful species, there are around 40 million donkeys worldwide. Over half of them are in Africa. But their future there is uncertain. The Pan-African Donkey Conference, held in the Cote D'Ivoire last month, focused on the welfare of this long neglected animal. Although a donkey moratorium was adopted by African Union heads of state following a previous conference, it is poorly enforced. Africa once supported up to 27 million donkeys but, according to the donkey charity BROOKE, numbers are falling. There are expected of be 14 million fewer donkeys alive worldwide 15 years from now. So many people still depend on them, however, that donkeys are not at risk of extinction. One reason for their decline is the ever-increasing demand for 'ejiao', a substance derived from donkey skins, used in traditional Chinese medicine. According to BROOKE, at least 5.9 million donkeys are slaughtered worldwide to provide it each year. The Chinese donkey population has been decimated. Demand is now being met using global supply chains. In the late 18th Century, the Jesuit missionary Dominique Parrennin described how ejiao is produced. Water was taken from a closed and guarded well, to prepare this 'ass-hide glue' for the Chinese Emperor. The mysterious substance, used in cosmetics, was extracted from the skins of recently-killed donkeys soaked in the water. It could also be derived from cow-hide or pig-skin but, apparently, ejiao from skins other than those of recently-killed donkeys has an unpleasant smell. Once used only by the great and the good, ejiao is available to everyone nowadays. Demand for it has soared in the 21st century, which is bad news for donkeys. An illegal trade in skins has mushroomed. The donkey is believed to be descended from the 'African wild ass', which lived in the deserts of Ethiopia Somalia and Eritrea. Now almost extinct and critically endangered, less than 500 African wild asses remain. A relative, the 'Indian wild ass', roams the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. Once found throughout desert regions in India, there are thought to be around 8,000 wild asses there today. Their decline is mysterious. The Maharajas didn't hunt it, nor did British colonial officials. "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey." – Animal Farm. Read More Richard Collins: Baboons walk in line to be close to their friends
