Mr. Darrell Hutchinson describes his work helping to track and protect the habitat for the Golden-Cheeked Warbler, an endangered species that breeds only in central Texas. He demonstrates how the weed wrench helps to remove invasive species that crowd out the native plants and trees in the warbler’s ecosystem.
Mr. Hutchinson is a biologist in Austin, Texas, and a member of Austin’s Invasive Species Corps. I interviewed “Corporal” Hutchinson during our invasive species volunteer day in August 2012. Learn more about my adventures with Austin’s Invasive Species Corps.
An accidental encounter with a plant grafting experiment transforms a geeky biology student into the Invasive Hunter, a hero to the ecosystem’s native species.
The Invasive Hunter returns to battle King Ranch Bluestem (KR Bluestem), an invasive species overrunning roadsides and fields and stealing lunch money. His powers, however, do not go unnoticed by his cranky professor.
The Avenger’s movie opened this weekend, and it was great! I saw it in IMAX 3D and can’t wait to see it again!
I’ve been looking forward to this movie for many months. I like action movies, and this movie had plenty of action, as do my Battles with Invasive Species video series.
After I watched their second movie trailer earlier this year, I thought, why don’t I bring together a group of native plants to fight the battles that we never could against invasives. And thus was born the Native Plant Avengers.
Here’s my movie cast and how they relate to Marvel’s Avengers movie trailer:
Texas bluebonnet as Captain America. Both Texas’ state flower and our great American hero wear blue.
Bitterweed as the Hulk. The Hulk was a challenge to me. He’s green, but I couldn’t find native plants in my area that have green flowers. I picked Bitterweed because I thought the plant name suited the Hulk so well.
Indian Paintbrush as Thor. Both this colorful plant and this Norse god don themselves in red.
Bastard Cabbage as Loki (and the alien army invading Texas roadsides and fields). I picked this invasive plant because it was causing a lot of problems with native Texas wildflowers this spring. Bastard Cabbage also has yellow flowers like Loki’s headgear.
Originally, I wanted to include a native plant for Iron Man, but I was already using a red flowering plant for Thor, and I wanted to adapt some of Iron Man’s (and Nick Fury’s) lines from their trailer.
If you haven’t seen my Native Plant Avengers video yet, I hope you enjoy it. And if you’re a Star Wars fan too, don’t miss my In an Ecesis Far, Far Away… video.
Although hopelessly outnumbered by the invasive species Bastard Cabbage, Texas wildflowers assemble their combined strength to battle against the choking monoculture invading their ecosystem.
The loyal heroics of Texas Bluebonnet, the hulking presence of Bitterweed, and the lighting power of Indian Paintbrush bring their native plant diversity together in a desperate fight against their invasive foe.
Learn more about the vile invader Bastard Cabbage with these recent blog posts:
My name is Commander Ben and I'm the Invasive Hunter. I educate kids of all ages - and all learning styles - about invasive species, science, and dyslexia.
Commander Ben 