Hundreds and perhaps thousands of unidentified plant photos lurk in my hard drive. I've always intended to manage and catalog them, maybe make blogging an excuse to learn the botany world one species at a time. I daresay I've failed and should try harder. One of my earliest photos back in March 2012 includes this … Continue reading Stigma Stigma: Misadventure in Identifying Plants
Lake Fort Smith is one of the more popular hiking and boating destinations in my area. There the Ozark Highlands Trail, a 218 mile chain of interconnected trails and collectively the second longest in the state (the Ouachita Trail being the longest at 223 miles). They must be growing, because before I checked I could … Continue reading Views of Lake Fort Smith (Part I: Civilian)
The American chestnut tree, Castanea dentata, was one of the first biological icons to be virtually vacated from an integral position in both the environment and American society. We knew little about accidental imports of exotic species, and the introduction of the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica spurred the discussion and action. I was fascinated with the topic when … Continue reading Book Reflection: American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree by Susan Freinkel
Mycorrhizal fungi grow in and around plant roots as well as provide a nutrient-exchanging path for different individual plants. Occasionally I'll see some meme or link to a brief YouTube video about these fungi, not that one would recognize the term "mycorrhizal" because it is never used. It's danced around. Sometimes substituted with something in … Continue reading Trending: Mycorrhizae Without Writing “Mycorrhizae”
After reading What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam & Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis and watching Rory Stewart's The Great Game (incredible dual documentaries on imperialism and Afghan independence) on Netflix (the first is also on YouTube), I continued the theme and watched an installment on one of my favorite natural history … Continue reading Film Reflection: Wildest Middle East by Animal Planet
Supposedly in the United States people consume some 80 billion servings of tea. Depending on the age demographic, an estimated 80-87% of the population regularly have it. On a given day half of those people will have a cup. The country is the world's third largest tea importer and the only Western nation to continually … Continue reading Getting the Facts Straight on Tea: From a Non-Tea Drinker
As unfortunate as it is, I'm doing a Project365 in a year that happened to have rained a lot early in the year but not later, and I suspect that has led to the drabby autumn scenery. Last year autumn was a blast of rich color. Last year would have been a great year for … Continue reading #Project365: October Autumn
Honey bees get most of the press as far as pollinators are concerned. Sometimes butterflies and bats receive honorary mention. Usually only in certain circles do non-honey bees, essentially all bees save for the European brand that we raise in apiculture, take the stage. Yucca moths not so much. From a botanical and evolutionary standpoint, … Continue reading Yucca Pollination: a Story of a Synchronized Relationship
May was a good month to flip open some identification books, open tabs on identification websites, and start labeling organisms. Some were easy to the species, some I was lucky to have evidence to assign by genus or even subfamily. Some I've seen throughout much of my life and everyone seems to know the common … Continue reading #Project365: May Wild Life
While I've addressed how my undergraduate program has converted many potential non-plant biologists into plant biologists, often I hear about how many universities do not support botany programs. I've experienced this personally, though at the time I was interested in the wildlife biology program. Colorado State University's college of natural sciences posted above the botany … Continue reading Future of Botany and Herbaria
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