If you know anything about stinging nettle, you know not to touch it. Its stems and leaves come equipped with needle-like hairs that easily detach from the plant and pierce into bare skin. The real rub is that these needle-like hairs also act like hypodermic needles, injecting a combination of chemicals into your skin resulting in an obnoxious itching sensation that can last for hours. So why…
The reason for flowers is reproduction. Three major parts of a flower function to achieve this purpose. First, the gynoecium sits at the center. This is the ovule-producing portion. It’s where seeds are born. Its stigmas accept pollen produced by the second major flower part, the androecium. This part is made up of a whorl of stamens that generally surround the gynoecium, except when the…
The aster family has a lot to offer. It’s really no surprise considering that Asteraceae is the largest family of flowering plants in the world with as many as 33,000 species. Certainly its ecological importance is substantial. It also contains, arguably, some of the most beautiful and attractive plant species, as well as a significant selection of useful plants from a human perspective. When a…
When garden plants go weedy, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve escaped the boundaries of our yards and invaded nearby natural areas or uncultivated spaces. While this is a concern for a significant number of ornamental plants, sometimes the weediness of a garden plant is experienced within the very yard or garden it was planted in. For some of us, such a plant’s weediness can turn us off from…
Prunella vulgaris can be found all over the place. It has also been used to treat just about everything. What else would you expect from a plant known commonly as self-heal, heal-all, all-heal, and woundwort? The medicinal value of this plant has been appreciated for centuries across its expansive range, and studies evaluating its medicinal use continue today. Being such a ubiquitous species –…
In a garden setting, a successful groundcover is a plant that is durable and adaptable, spreads readily, and fills in space thouroughly. The point of planting a groundcover is to cover exposed soil and create a sort of living mulch. In fact, groundcovers provide similar benefits to mulch. They prevent erosion, help retain soil moisture, and prevent weeds. It should come as no surprise then, that…
In case I need a reminder that the horticulture industry has a history of introducing weedy plants to natural areas, I get one each time I bike to work. Riding along the Boise River Greenbelt, a trail that for much of its length is flanked by cultivated landscapes on one side and a highly modified but largely naturalized river bank on the other, I see a mixture of both native and introduced…
Happy 2025! Apparently it’s time for another year in review. As I said in last year’s review, 2024 was going to be another year of pollination, in which I would write monthly posts on the topic of pollination. Well, clearly that didn’t happen. After two posts, I dropped the ball. That’s okay though. Another Year of Pollination will continue indefinitely. As it is, I essentially stole the name,…
Box elder is a maple that doesn’t often get credit for being a maple. Moreso, it is a tree that is not thought highly of, and it may not even be welcome in certain discussions around maples. You could even say that box elder is a “rogue maple,” as Arthur Plotnick deems it in The Urban Tree Book. It should come as no surprise, but if people are going to talk about a plant this way, it’s only going…
Why has this blog been so quiet lately? There are plenty of excuses for that. It doesn’t really matter either way, but since we’re on the subject, one thing that has kept me occupied recently is being back in school. I’m working on a certificate in GIS, and I’m hoping to make some cool maps. More on that later perhaps.
For now, I thought I’d share one of my final projects. I figured it was a…
Dr. John Kress from the Smithsonian speaking on the Anthropocene. Someone in the audience pointed out that humans are also capable of respecting nature and that capacity is what we must appeal to. Indeed, we are the ones who invented the concept of respect as we practice it, and we can, to an extent, unfuck our habitat. (at The Morton Arboretum)
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