Where may I access your cacao monograph?! Thank you ~ Victoria Krouse

Hi Richard: I had asked about Conopholis americana. I saw it for the first time in proliferation this year. I'm interested in how it would be categorized. I understand it's a non-photosynthesizing parasitic plant. Does that mean it's in the same category as ghost pipe? Also, you had discussed soil remediators. I always wonder how these should be composted/disposed in a responsible way. For instance I would love to see our government (dream) use hemp to remediate our chemically damaged soil but then how would the hemp be dealt when finished? Utilitaria - rope, building block or can you compost but not use on food? Thanks!

I have the Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs, and Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. Are these adequate field guides, or is it important to get one on your list? Thanks. Becky Russell

From Richard: These are fine to have - not my favorites but I do own them and used to use them a bit more than I do now. The main piece of feedback I would give is that both of these focus on a subset of plants - the edible ones, the medicinal ones - rather than serving as general field guides for i.d. of plants more generally. My advice is if you are into foraging or wild medicine harvesting, or field i.d. is to get field guides and acquire skills to identify anything, not just the medicinal or edible ones. Then you really won't make any mistakes!

From Richard For Conopholis: I didn't recognize the name when mentioned during class but I have come across this plant in the past - not very locally to me but a bit further south from where I am. Correct that it is non-photosynthesizing. Calling it parasitic is a bit more "loaded" - it is taking carbohydrates from the mycorrhizal network and therefore from other plants, so technically that can be called parasitic. It doesn't mean though that it is necessarily detrimental in any way to those plants. I have never looked into it per se. I would begin with a google scholar search which often reveals lots of research! On remediation - I know for instance that plant material used to mediate radioactive soil after Chernobly had to be treated as radioactive hazardous waste. The same with say fungus or plants used to draw out lead in remediation efforts. It's an interesting idea to use as rope or building etc. and something like that could be possible, but I would be concerned exposure could happen unintentionally. For instance most lead exposure comes from paint - so I wouldn't want us to repeat mistakes from the past!