Beauty bush is a pretty shrub native to central China. It is a member of the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliacae. It was introduced first to Great Britain about 1900 and then to the United States. It became a popular garden plant in the U.S., though it was never as popular in Europe or China. It is rare in the wild. In the United States, it has naturalized in at least seven states, from Massachusetts to Utah.
 |
| Beauty bush, Linnaea amabilis or Kolkwitzia amabilis |
In this holiday season, I am trying to bring my books to people's attention, hoping for interest that leads to being read.
I wrote the novel, I Have Seen Marvels, a Journey to Paraguay 1630, because, on a journey to northern Argentina in 1994, I saw that region for the first time and learned a bit of its history. Contact between Europeans and the native peoples of the Americas and European settlement was different and yet similar across the continents. Each set of colonization stories has uniquely interesting dilemmas, interactions, and heroes. Enchanted, I wanted to tell stories from early central South American settlement, since they were largely unknown to North American audiences. Hence the book. (link)
Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa, rose family, Rosaceae) is a native shrub of the southwest, found from Colorado and Texas west to California and Arizona and in neighboring areas of Mexico. It is a pretty shrub with white flowers and distinctive clusters of long-lasting cream or pinkish fruit resembling plumes.
 |
| Apache plume, Fallugia paradoxa |