We received an intriguing surprise the other night while prepping dinner. We cut open an unassuming bell pepper ( Capsicum annuum ) only to find a small, yet perfectly formed pepper inside! It seemed to be attached to the placenta along with the seeds. This was the first time we had ever encountered this, but a quick internet search revealed it isn’t necessarily a rare phenomenon. What was going…
Photo by Michael Kauffmann (www.backcountrypress.com) It is a rare but special day when we can add a new plant to the relatively small list of carnivorous plants. It is even more exciting when that plant has been “hiding” in plain sight all this time. Meet the western false asphodel ( Triantha occidentalis ), a lovely monocot native to nutrient-poor wetlands in western North America. Triantha…
A pistillate cyathium of a Telephus spurge. Endemism fascinates me. Why some organisms occur in certain restrict areas geographically and nowhere else is such a fun topic to ponder. On a recent trip to the Florida Panhandle, I was lucky enough to encounter a wonderful little plant endemic to pine flatwoods located at the very tip of the Apalachicola region. It is a type of spurge known as Telephus…
Discussions about pitcher plants usually revolve around the fact that they trap and eat insects and other animals . However, there are a handful of organisms out there that turn the table on pitcher plants, reminding us that these botanical carnivores can become food themselves. Spend any amount of time surveying pitcher plant populations in southeastern North America and you are likely to…
When someone asks you if you would like to see a wild fever tree, you have to say yes. As a denizen of cold climates defined by months of freezing temperatures, I will never miss an opportunity to encounter any species in its native habitat that cannot survive frosts. This was the scenario I found myself in last week as friend and habitat restoration specialist for the Atlanta Botanical Garden ,…
Bearcorn ( Conopholis americana ) is one of those plants that really challenges mainstream assumptions of what a plant should look like. It produces no leaves, no chlorophyll, and all you ever see of it are its strange reproductive structures. One can easily be forgiven for thinking they had encountered some type of fungus. Bearcorn is an obligate parasite on oak trees. It simply can’t exist…
The flora of the southern Appalachian Mountains will never cease to amaze me. Every time I visit this region of the world, I am blown away by the sheer number of plant species that grow on and around these ancient peaks. On a recent trip to western North Carolina, I stumbled across a small group of plants that somehow looked both familiar and strange at the same time. It turns out that I had…
The first time I encountered a white trillium ( Trillium grandiflorum ) with green stripes on its flowers, I thought I had found a new variant. I excitedly took a bunch of pictures and, upon returning home, shared them among friends. It didn’t take long for someone far more informed than me to point out that this was not a new variant of this beloved plant. What I had found was signs of an…
Photo by Adam Baker licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 The mass blooming of bluebonnets ( Lupinus texensis ) is truly one of southern North America’s most stunning natural spectacles. Celebrated across its native range, the bluebonnet has greatly benefited from supplemental planting by humans. Indeed, in states like Texas, hundreds of miles of roadsides are seeded with bluebonnets every year and the end…
Photo by Andrew Ward licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 I am a sucker for smoketrees ( Cotinus spp.). These members of the cashew family (Anacardiaceae) are a common sight around my town and really put on a dazzling show from late spring through fall. When I finally got around to putting a name to these trees, I was a little bit bummed to realize that all of the specimens in town are representatives of…
Photo by Jon Sullivan licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 I was watching a gardening show hosted by one of my favorite gardeners, Carol Klein , when she introduced viewers to a beautiful, divaricating shrub whose branching structure looked like a dense tracery of orange twigs. She referred to the shrub as a wiggy wig and remarked on its beauty and form before moving on to another wonderful plant. I was…
Photos by David Styles The genus Ceropegia is home to some of my favorite plants. Not only are they distant cousins of the milkweeds ( Asclepias spp.), they sport some of the most interesting floral morphologies whose beauty is only exceeded by their fascinating pollination syndromes. Recently, Ceropegia expert and friend of the podcast Dr. Annemarie Heiduk brought to my attention the recent…
We get so much joy out of watching people take pictures of our gardens as they walk by our apartment. Spring is here in the Northern Hemisphere which means gardening season is well underway. Having spent all winter thinking about what kinds of native plants we want to add to our gardens, my partner and I are always very excited to start germinating seeds and propagating plants. Though we always…
Magnolia denudata . Photo by 阿橋 HQ licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 There are a lot of reasons to like magnolias and floral thermogenesis is one of them. That’s right, the flowers of a surprising amount of magnolia species produce their own heat! Although much more work is needed to understand the mechanisms involved in heat generation in these trees, research suggests that it all centers on…
Photo by Linda De Volder licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 While perusing the internet the other day, I scrolled past an image of what looked like the physical manifestation of the sun emoji on my phone. The bright yellow flash was so striking that it caused me to pause and scroll back to the source. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the sun-like object belonged to something botanical. I was…
Photo by Radu Chibzii licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 They say that our sense of smell is very closely tied with the formation of memories. It is around this time of year that I am strongly reminded of the power of that link. All I have to do is catch a whiff of a blooming hyacinth and I am immediately transported back to childhood where spring time gatherings with the family were always accompanied…
Sure, parasites can be a drain on their host, but for those parasites whose entire life depends on a living host, it doesn’t pay to kill. Such is the case for the desert mistletoe ( Phoradendron californicum ). These plants simply can’t live without the water and nutrients they receive from their host trees. But what happens when more than one mistletoe infects a single tree? One would think that…
[SOURCE] There are a variety of ways that the boundaries between species are maintained in nature. Among plants, some of the best studied examples include geographic distances, differences in flowering phenology, and pollinator specificity. The ability of pollinators to maintain species boundaries is of particular interest to scientists as it provides excellent examples of how multiple species can…
The time has finally come! In Defense of Plants: An Exploration into the Wonder of Plants is now in stores. I thank everyone who pre-ordered a copy of the book. They should be on their way! I still can’t believe this is a reality. I always knew I wanted to write a book and I am eternally grateful to Mango Publishing for giving me this opportunity. In Defense of Plants is a celebration of plants…
Photo by Alpsdake licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Luminous moss, dragon’s gold, goblin’s gold… when a moss has this many common names, you know it must catch the eye. Indeed, Schistostega pennata might just be one of the most dazzling of mosses around, that is provided you know where and how to look for it. Let’s begin with a brief introduction. Goblin’s gold is the only member of both its genus (…