A to Z Challenge - X is for ????

All month I have been dreading this day. I remember from last year and the year before when I visited some bloggers who were doing the challenge, they all came to the letter x and said "yikes," even though that does not start with the letter x.

There are lots of things I could write about that start with today's letter. There is x-ray, but that doesn't connect directly to my nature theme. Yes people get x-rays and people do x-rays, but the whole topic is just not that interesting. Radiation? Who needs it?

Then of course there is Xerox - it has two x's. But again boring unless you need a reminder that whenever you use this word it needs to be capitalized. It's a brand name and should be capitalized when used in place of the generic "copy." I need a copy of this so I can remember. Please Xerox it for me.

If you go to this website, you can find lists of words that begin with x. It is a neat site for Scrabble players to get help so they are not stuck with the letter x when the other player(s) are out of tiles. 

When I went to that site, I found a plethora of words beginning with x. Which one to choose? Which one to choose? Since I only recognized a few, I didn't know which of those I didn't might relate to something in nature. Then I saw this one "xyst." A phonetic pronunciation could be "cyst" so I thought it might fit my theme, but, alas, it wasn't so. A definition I found online says a xyst was a covered portico used as a promenade in ancient Greek and Roman architecture. In some places in ancient Roman the word referred to a garden walk planted with trees.  

I wonder if the paths I have worn around my property that winds through some trees qualifies as a xyst? Possibly, but maybe I should just keep calling it a path since I have no idea how to pronounce xyst.