Inside one of the city’s flower barrels, there’s a plant that resembles marijuana. Here’s a photo. I saw a tourist who stopped to look at the plant. He muttered derisively, “I just don’t know about this Durango place.” Are we really growing pot in downtown planters? – Mary Jane
Just because a plant features seven palmate leaflets doesn’t make it cannabis.
Besides, marijuana has serrated or saw-tooth shaped edges. The plant in your photo does not.
Action Line’s educated guess is it’s a form of annual cleome, also known as spider flower.
Spider flower produces long-lasting, airy flower spikes in white, lavender or pink, which will complement the petunias quite nicely.
Cleome also features soft spiky things on its stem. The downtown plant indeed has this characteristic.
So, it may be a “potted” plant, but it’s not a pot plant.
And that’s the straight dope.
Now that the Durango Farmers Market is back, where, oh, where will I park when I need to go to the Post Office on a Saturday morning? – Sue
The Farmers Market certainly is the mecca for those seeking progressive produce.
But enlightened shopping has its dark side.
Here you find people seeking the freshest and most nutritious food possible.
Yet many Farmers Market shoppers park illegally in the adjacent Post Office lot, ostensibly so they don’t have to walk very far in their quest for health.
Isn’t walking one of the best ways to be hale and hearty?
Oh wait. In Durango, daily fitness is something you pay to achieve indoors on a machine while watching television.
At the Durango Community Recreation Center, you see it all the time: people driving cars around and around to get a close-in parking spot so they don’t have to stroll an extra 100 feet to begin their exercise routine.
Until Durango admits it has a walking problem instead of a parking problem, there is very little chance of getting your mail on summer Saturday mornings.
You always could park a block away and amble over to the Post Office.
But that only would serve to reward those footstep-phobic foodies.
Loved your article regarding the Arc of History sculpture. I’ve been following its recent progress. First, the “eggs” hatched, and later there was the addition of academic regalia. Which means the Arc is a single mom who recently graduated. Question: where’s the deadbeat dad? – Curious
The absence of a father figure at the intersection of U.S. Highways 550 and 160 might be troublesome to advocates of rock-solid family values.
But these things happen, and it explains the sculpture’s name. The “history” part of the “Arc of History” refers to dad – because he’s history.
As they say, papa was a rolling stone.
Either that or “Rocky” was at the wrong place at the wrong time, ending up as a flagstone patio somewhere out on the Florida Mesa or as decorative fascia on a north county McMansion.
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if you wonder why no one questions petunias in public plantings; the petunia is a close relative of tobacco.
