Gambusia, Cattails, and Other Baloney

Chris Buchanan - UNT Integrative Studies Major

I am sitting in my Mandala on a warm and sunny afternoon in February. I decided that the focus of my blog would be nutrition, however, I can’t help but immediately notice a young child moving through my Mandala, systematically riding all of the animal statues in the area like he is a cowboy at a rodeo. I quietly laughed to myself and tried to refocus my attention on the topic at hand. As I wrote the previous sentence, the young child, and experienced statue rider, walked up to a sign that sat two feet to my left. The sign sits in the soil between a large Black Jack Oak Tree and a small pond and is dedicated to Dr. J.K.G. “Doc” Silvey, who was a renowned Biology professor and Department Head at the University of North Texas. The child approached the sign, as if he was reading detailed description of the doctor’s contributions to the University, and declared “Baloney is very, very, very good!” He repeated this at least a half of a dozen times, while pointing at all of the words that begin with the letter “B.” I believe that this child’s declarations spoke for themselves when I pondered what kind of nutrition this young man preferred. Then, as quickly as he arrived, he ran away, making explosion sound effects with his mouth. Perhaps he ingested too much sugar this afternoon and not enough baloney. 

As I refocused my attention on the subject at hand, I asked myself the question, “how do the life forms in my Mandala acquire nutrition?” I began to answer this question by focusing my attention on two different life forms that I discussed last week during my blog about habitat. The Gambusia fish and the cattail. As I mentioned last week, the Gambusia fish is often referred to as the “mosquito fish” because it feeds on the larvae of mosquitoes. This makes me wonder, “what does it eat during the winter when there aren’t mosquitoes flying around?” After some research and discussion with a knowledgeable classmate, I learned that mosquito larvae are still abundant in the water during the winter time. The other life form that I observed in my Mandala is the Cattail plant. Cattail plants survive in wetland environments by removing nutrients and chemicals from the water.