Friday, January 31, 2014

Teasels tousled with thistles

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Thistles are such familiar plants to most of us, these spiky, thorny, sharp-leaved plants with fuzzy purple or pink, or less commonly yellow...
Saturday, January 25, 2014

Wanted: italics and correct capitalization

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As a botanists and scientists I am sure most of us have pet peeves on how scientific information is handled in everyday life.  One of mine i...
Monday, January 20, 2014

Beware of the wronged coconuts

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Coconut palms are the quintessential symbol of tropical paradise. Spindly, tall trees with large feathery leaves wisp in tropical breezes o...
Monday, January 13, 2014

Celery - stems, stalks, or sticks?

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Celery is a vegetable and plant that is prominent in American cooking, and infuses both cooked and raw dishes with its very special flavor. ...
Sunday, January 12, 2014

Magilla Gorilla and shady cultivars

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[This is a guest post provided by Dr. Arthur O. Tucker, Delaware State University] I know that if you’ve gone to the garden centers in the...
Friday, January 10, 2014

Frosty fern? It is a variegated spike moss

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Before Christmas a fern-looking plant often shows up in the supermarkets and is marketed as 'frosty fern',  a name it gets from its ...
Monday, January 6, 2014

The wrong mutants are singing the blues

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An article published online today (Jan 6, 2014) in The New York Times ('Mutant Petunias Sing the Blues') about some exciting new re...
Friday, January 3, 2014

What is in the herbal medicine? Maybe not what you think

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Billions of dollars are spent on herbal supplements every year by people in the US. We buy our capsules with powders inside, dried roots, le...
Saturday, December 28, 2013

Batman and Poison Ivy's leaves

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The weeds and botanical inaccuracies have also entered the world of comics. In 1966, Batman had a new nemesis, Poison Ivy , a botanist turn...