Happy Friday. You don’t have to watch HBO’s "The White Lotus" to enjoy this story from Patty Wetli about the poisonous pong-pong fruit featured in the show and its Chicago connection.
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Captive-born Mexican wolf pups being introduced into wild dens in 2018. (Mexican Wolf Interagency Field Team)
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Patty Wetli: You may have heard the news earlier this week that scientists at a biotech company brought back an extinct species, the dire wolf.
Full confession: I haven’t watched a single second of “Game of Thrones” or read a single word of George R.R. Martin’s books, so I had no idea why reporters were throwing around the term “dire wolf” like it would ring a bell.
The images of the “de-extinct” pups, Romulus and Remus, that were released by their genetic engineers were predictably adorable. There’s no arguing that baby wolves are super cute. I can attest to that, having seen lots of pictures of little Mexican wolves born at Brookfield Zoo.
Unlike the dire wolf, which went extinct more than 10,000 years ago, Mexican wolves are still with us — but barely. They’ve been on the U.S. endangered species list since 1976, and Brookfield is one of many partners involved in a captive breeding program that’s gradually been releasing Mexican wolf pups back into the wild.
It’s work that doesn’t grab a lot of splashy headlines because it’s not … splashy. “Mexican wolves continue to exist” doesn’t pack the same punch as “The Dire Wolf is BACK from the Dead!”
I am guilty as anyone of that bias.
In fact, the same day the dire wolves comeback was announced, Brookfield Zoo sent me a press release announcing nearly $140,000 in grants awarded by the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Endangered Species Fund, which the zoo administers.
Among the projects the grants will support: Research on long-term blood storage techniques for species requiring transfusions; mitigation efforts to reduce human-elephant and human-lion conflicts in Tanzania; and conservation strategies aimed at protecting and recovering greater prairie chickens.
Try turning any of those into “Dire Wolves Live, Again!” But these grants — $5,000 here, $10,000 there — do still envision a planet that can be saved, not one that needs to be de-extincted.
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Looks can be deceiving. The fruit of the pong-pong contains toxic seeds. The Field Museum keeps its specimens in a locked cabinet of poisons. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)
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Poisonous plants are having a moment. While the internet is still debating whether “White Lotus” creator Mike White stuck the landing in Sunday’s finale of the HBO series’ third season, there’s no doubt he succeeded in making a star of the pong-pong tree. Or, more accurately, the seeds of the pong-pong tree’s fruit, which played a key role in a pair of pivotal scenes. And yes, the seeds are indeed deadly.
The pong-pong tree (Cerbera odollam) grows predominantly in southern India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia and Madagascar, which explains why the plant’s poisonous properties aren’t well known to a U.S. audience. But in its home range, the pong-pong has been dubbed the “suicide tree,” and because its toxins are difficult to detect, it’s also been used in homicides.
For more familiar references closer to home, think hemlock (or really anything that looks like parsley) and nightshade (aka, the tomato family), said Kimberly Hansen, collections manager of flowering plants at the Field Museum. Or, how’s this for a plot twist, milkweed, which is a member of the same family — Apocynaceae — as the pong-pong.
“We have lots of poisonous plants (in Illinois),” Hansen said. “They’re around you all the time…. So don’t do any casual grazing.”
The public can chat with Hansen and get a close-up view of the pong-pong seeds and other poisonous plants during a “Meet a Scientist” event at the Field on April 14, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
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Chicago Public Schools is pursuing a new plan to address the inequities its Black students face.
The Black Student Success Plan aims to bring in more Black teachers, reduce suspensions against Black students, promote teaching on Black culture, increase belonging and close opportunity gaps. It provides a five-year roadmap to improve the outcomes of Black students, who make up a third of the district’s population.
But it’s also facing some challenges with national policies against diversity programs. Conservative advocacy group Parents Defending Education says the plan is discriminatory. It filed a civil rights complaint through the Department of Education the day after CPS launched the initiative. Chicago is also facing significant national scrutiny for its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. Last month, CPS also got hit with a Title IX investigation over its policies supporting transgender students.
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More From WTTW News
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Riot Fest will remain in Douglass Park through at least 2027, following the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners voting Wednesday to approve a new multi-year agreement with the festival.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s effort to take a new approach to reducing Chicago’s massive affordable housing shortfall by creating a city-owned nonprofit housing developer faced deeply skeptical City Council members Wednesday, who delayed a planned vote.
Chicago Teachers Union leaders and delegates have already signed off on a new labor agreement with Chicago Public Schools, but now tens of thousands of members and educators will get to have their say. The CTU rank-and-file’s ratification vote began Thursday, will continue through Friday and results are
expected to be announced Monday.
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Back in the Day: April 11, 2020 - Botched Smokestack Implosion Covers Little Village in Dust
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To mark the nearly 40 years since scientist Enrico Fermi’s first nuclear chain reaction under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, which marked the beginning of the nuclear age, almost 25,000 peaceful protesters took to the streets of Chicago calling for the end of America’s nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. Activists Pearl Hirschfield and Shirley Lens organized the march, which happened on this date 43 years ago in 1982 and called for President Ronald Reagan to take steps for nuclear disarmament. As WTTW points out, “The march ran for two miles and ended in a rally in Federal Plaza where speakers from all backgrounds, including then-Representative Harold Washington.” B.E. Ross, 79 years old, said he “'marched through the 1960s and I’m still marching. But this, I think, is the biggest of all because life in the whole world is involved.”
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Nature Calls: This Week’s Outdoorsy Events and Activities |
Every Friday, WTTW News reporter Patty Wetli highlights the best ways to get outside.
Chicago Ornithological Society has launched a bird photography contest and the good news is, you don’t need any fancy or expensive equipment to snap a submission-worthy image. “The judges won't be looking at pixel counts, but people's unique perspectives on birds in the city,” according to Edward Warden, the organization’s president. There are multiple award categories, and the contest is open through August 1.
There’s sure to be plenty of excellent photo ops during Saturday’s “signs of spring” walk at Palos Park Woods-North, 1 p.m. Take in all the sights, smells and sounds of the season during the 3.4-mile trek.
Drop into the Trailside Museum of Natural History in River Forest on Sunday, 1-3 p.m., to learn how to create a pocket pollinator garden or native bees and butterflies. Make a seed bomb you can take home and plant in your yard.
The Forest Preserve District of Will County has kicked off its spring “Be a Trailblazer” contest. Participants will need to download the Goosechase app, where they’ll find “missions” to complete in various forest preserves through May 24.
The cherry trees in Chicago’s Jackson Park are still only in Stage 2 — buds just starting to open — according to the Chicago Park District. But equally stunning blooms can be seen at nearby Promontory Point, where a Prairie crabapple tree, one of the few remaining plantings original to the Point’s 1939 design, is flowering.
If the cloud cover cooperates, enjoy Saturday night’s full moon. It will be the “smallest” full moon of the year, not because the moon changes size (obviously), but because it’ll be the furthest from Earth in its orbit.
Suffering “White Lotus” withdrawal? Head to the Field Museum on Monday where the deadly pong-pong fruit — featured in one of the show’s pivotal plot developments — will be on public display during a “Meet a Scientist” program, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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What's your favorite meal on the South Side? Tell us where.
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published. Here's what you had to
say:
"Nicky's of Beverly has the best selection of delicious fast food anywhere, offers beer and drinks, has vegan, gluten-free and options for all diets, desserts and a beautiful patio! They are very philanthropic and support the arts. This is the place to go in the Beverly area or anywhere south!" — Maryanne M.B.
"Chilaquiles at Solazo." -Juana (@thegraybears)
"Doreens in Hegewisch and Calumet Fisheries." -Diana (@beltrandiana_07)
"Ricobenes" — Denis M.
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