Browsing: Botany

Not too many plants blossom in the middle of summer. But the bottle brush buckeye is reliable shade tolerating plant. …

WHEN I WAS YOUNG, my mum discovered a quandong tree close to our house – the thirty-ninth she had lived…

Seed dispersal is the movement of a seed away from the plant that produced it, followed by its arrival somewhere…

We received an intriguing surprise the other night while prepping dinner. We cut open an unassuming bell pepper (Capsicum annuum)…

Hi all! I haven’t updated this page in about 6 years, and yet I still get to interact with people…

A seed is easy to mistake for an inactive speck. It can sit in a packet, disappear into soil or…

Attribution: Carl Axel Magnus Lindman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Lindman (1856 – 1928) was a Swedish botanist and botanical…

A green leaf can look like a permanent part of a tree, until its colour begins to change. A canopy…

 Hiking through the grassland, you see a plant with pretty pale flowers. But you can’t match it in the plant…

Mrs Beeton has 13 apple recipes in her Pudding section alone. Here is one that is sure to be a…

 View of the South Branch of the Moose River near Remsen FallsOur last week in the Adirondacks was a stimulation…

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It’s been a while-years- since I’ve written a lengthy taxonomic article on this blog. Unsurprisingly, it will be Nepenthes focused.…

There’s a new addition to the series of BSBI Handbooks: we are delighted to announce that Wild Roses of Great…

Last week’s white-flowered waratah was a big, bold pollinator proposition. Something for the birds and marsupials mostly, even though the…

My book is out! It showed up a week earlier than expected, a pleasant surprise for anyone who pre-ordered a…

I didn’t follow a recipe, much like my previous attempt where I used kombucha I made it up as I…

Come deck the halls and craft with us at the Garden. This hands-on workshop is perfect for children ages 6-12,…

Rising dramatically from the Atlantic Ocean, Madeira is an island where mountains, forests, gardens, and the sea come together in…

Everyone is talking about the thrilling discovery of the new feline species in Los Yungas de Bolivia, Leopardus tilcayan. It…

For Immediate ReleaseContact:  Amina Sharma, California Native Plant Society, asharma@cnps.org One in five pollinator species in the United States is at risk…

usgsbiml:Parasite.  Nest parasite to be exact.  Formerly in the genus Psithyrus, these bees are now in the genus Bombus, with the…

One: the article I mentioned writing last year for the Old Farmer’s Almanac Garden Guide is out; print copies have…

                         Economic Botany             …

If you have not use the iNaturalist app to enter plant photographs and location information you haven’t had the opportunity…

Katharine Murray Lyell’s book, A Geographical Distribution of All the Known Ferns, was published by John Murray (who was also Charles…

Carving a scary face in a pumpkin is a common Halloween custom. The tradition appears to be one that we…

The New York Botanical Garden is a museum of plants, an educational institution, and a scientific research organization in the…

A bit of ‘cheating’ here as I relocated my bryophyte specimens from my first venture into bryology back in 2006…

The Alcazar de los Reyes Christianos (Alcazar of the Christian Kings) blends the formality of royal palace gardens with the…

Tweet At 2700 m above sea-level on the northern slopes of an un-named mountain. This elfin forest is very humid…

 MICHELIA CHAMPACA L.Systematic Position:  Division: Phanerogams     Sub-div.: Angiosperms         Class: Dicotyledons              Sub-class: Polypetalae                    Series: Thalamiflorae                        Order:…

Prosthechea brassavolae is an orchid (Orchidaceae) in the subfamily Epidendroideae. This species is part of a multispecies group known…

 On Monday 2nd January at 11am and until 1pm there will be a 5k fun run around the paths of…

Enchanter’s-Nightshade, Circaea alpina (Onagraceae). 🌸🍀 Circaea is named after the Greek Goddess Circe, an enchantress. Interestingly, though the specific epithet…

 Most of us hardly ever think about figs. It is one of many fruits available to us. Some could take…

Looking out at the ocean from the balcony of a Celebrity cruise shipWe took a cruise this month, and we…

The September 2026 issue of the Gather and Sow newsletter is all about apples. Apples, those iconic harbingers of autumn,…

Opening Night: Thursday, June 234:30 to 5:30 pm: Stop by our table in the Concourse Hotel lobby, to pick up…

Our back yard transformation began with the demolition of our +30-year-old cedar shed and construction of a big, beautiful new Urban…

THE CREVICE INTENSIVEThey’re not a fad; they are here to stay. Crevice Gardens– like miniature mountains with small plants- are now…

Any way you want to slice it our gardens are suffering through a drought. Areas that would be called “lawn”…

I had a mild panic attack the first time I bought a washing machine. I was twenty-eight and a housemate…

At this point, it should be obvious that for this species to persist, its habitat needs to be maintain via…

True Blue Flowers at the allotment /part 2I’ve complained over and over about how I missed having the time to…

It’s a native perennial climber, and a beautiful one. If it wasn’t known as a ‘weed’ I believe that keen…

Yarrow, Achillea millefolium, is a familiar wildflower with an interesting and confused history. A member of the very large sunflower family, Asteraceae,…

September is the month of the tomato. Fresh in salads, on a pizza or preserved in sauces and pickles, this…

 Completing the Old Logger’s Path on a sun-drenched autumn dayOur long trek did not go according to plan. Not even…

Check out this Google Street View of the Madagascar Section. [Disclaimer: The content in this RSS feed is automatically fetched…

I recently finished a black and white illustration of Heliamphora macdonaldae, a carnivorous plant from Cerro Duida, a remote 2474…

Joni Cook at Dimminsdale LNR,LeicestershireImage courtesy of J. CookBSBI’s Strategy 2024-27 includes the goal of inspiring, building and supporting a…

Apart from being close to last in any alphabetical list of plants, Zygophyllum zilloides is a species you need to travel…

If you’re reading this the day it’s posted, we are two weeks away from my book being released. Common Backyard…

For Sale: September 2026September 2026 availability: live perennial vegetable plant and seed list.I grow a collection of unusual perennial vegetable…

Register Now! Climate anxiety is often accompanied by feelings of frustration and hopelessness that are hard to bear on your…

Those founding principles fueled remarkable growth. As word spread, more homeowners eagerly volunteered to share their gardens. The walk expanded…