India's Pride and the Aphids

 

You can tell the size of this delicate little creature when I tell you that the sharpened wooden pole is a small cocktail stick, above and below. 

Like axolotls, the current Pet of Choice in inventive families, it has an endearing 'face' but I am afraid that it is not endearing to me.  It was spotted by an eagle-eyed cousin on a photo which I posted on Instagram and Facebook of my triumphant nurturing of a seed of the blossom tree Pride of India, or Koelreuteria paniculata which I collected from a noteworthy example of the species back in the Autumn. This is the Pride of India which flourishes in the University Parks in Oxford and was the first tree in that lovely place to be given a plaque. 

That was in 1999 when the tree, planted four years earlier, was dedicated to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi who was born 125 years earlier in October 1869.

The round, black, bullet-like seeds were abundant at the foot of the tree and easy to collect and Penny and I had a motive as we had recently guided a party of mid-career students from India round various lesser-known sites in Oxford.  If all goes well, we will germinate enough to give one or two to St Cross College where the fellowships are based. We were extremely pleased when a very complex process of preparing the seeds, starting with boiling water and 13 weeks in the fridge, resulted in a small green seedling poking up its head and then developing very fast. 

My cousin zeroed in on the little speck of slightly different green on the small leaf at the front of the plant in the big picture above.  Enlarged below, you can see the aphid clearly. And I removed another three.  I'm now keeping a careful watch and a second seed has sent out a promising-looking seedling. If I were an aphid, I would want to eat such enticing salad. But that is not going to be allowed.

Meanwhile a friend in Brazil has sent some marvellous photos of a Three-toed Sloth, rescued from a road on to which it had somehow strayed. It was slightly happier on a wall which was nearer to its natural home up in a tree.  You can see its endearing face and strange gymnastics in the composite picture below, after an enlargement which shows clearly the reason for its name.  For Scrabble players, it will be familiar as an Ai, its other name which is officially accepted by the game's governing body as a useful two-letter word for using up tiles or finding a slot on a jammed board.