What’s usually purple, but sometimes pink,
and in the summer you might want it in a drink?
Creature: Soil Sponge
Organisms like fungi and plant roots that build soil structure and enhance water retention.
Featured Creature: Kingfisher
What creature often looks blue, but isn’t, is found on every continent but Antarctica, and inspired a train’s design?
Featured Creature: Strangler Fig
What creature grows backwards and can swallow a tree whole?
Featured Creature: ‘Ōhi’a Lehua
What tree has adapted to grow directly in lava rock and is a keystone species of the Hawaiian watershed?
Featured Creature: Stone Pine
What Mediterranean tree is uniquely equipped to withstand wildfires with armor-like bark and high, out of reach, branches?
Featured Creature: Sphagnum moss
What bog-builder can hold 15-20 times its dry weight in water?
Featured Creature: Northern Red Oak
What statuesque organism is a champion of beauty, hardiness, and capacity to nurture life around it?
The Northern Red Oak!
Featured Creature: American Chestnut
What tree, the “Redwood of the East,” once dominated the forests of the Eastern United States, and the cultural landscape as well?
The American Chestnut!
Featured Creature: Lichen
Which creature is a combination of two other organisms, comes in bright colors, and helps us measure air quality?
Lichen!
Featured Creature: Slime Mold
What brainless creature can learn, problem solve, and even hold down a job?
The slime mold!