The botany category includes the posts I write about plants themselves. Since I am passionate about wildflowers, many of my posts celebrate them in some way. It can be individual flowers, like iris, fireweed, goldenrod, and yarrow; families of flowers, like the Asteraceae; a genus of beautiful vampires, the Castilleja. I write about rare plants, sometimes in extreme conditions. There are posts on the magic of photosynthesis, 0n why lichen is saving the world, and why there’s such a wild abundance of plant diversity. For Halloween, I’ve explored why there are so many ghostly white flowers and celebrated slightly ominous orange flowers. I have fun with the idea of spruce family planning, with comparing cactus flowers to filmy lingerie. And there’s a post on the seedheads I love so much. Many of these essays are also about the ecology of the plants and their habitat.
The galleries don’t get categories, but most would fall under botany: wildflowers from Alaska, British Columbia, Idaho, and Missouri. There are galleries for grasslands in Colorado and two prairies in Kansas, one a ranch, one a remnant tallgrass prairie. There’s one for white flowers, one for cactus flowers, and one for seedheads. Enjoy!
…Be joyful Though you have considered all the facts. ~ Wendell Berry ~ Given the losses, both personal and communal, of 2020, and the fact that we were in pre-vaccination pandemic, I knew from the beginning that this year would be a quiet time of recovery. It was also, though I didn’t guess it then, […]
Songlines 2021: a year of quiet wonder Read More »
Blue is light seen through a veil.~ Henry David Thoreau ~ I have tens of thousands of photos in my files, the vast majority flowers. They are often of the same flowers, taken in different years and at different places. So, the numbers don’t reflect the number of species. Even so, of all those thousands,
The mystery of blue flowers Read More »
It is such a foundational act, to give name to. But not all naming is good naming. Naming can be an appropriative act of conquest and overwriting.~ Robert Macfarlane ~ Before Carl Linnaeus, if a European botanist wanted to specify the plant we know as a tomato, he would write, in Latin: Solanum caule inerme
A rose by any other name is complicated Read More »
When I started my landscape design business in the 1980s, the staff at plant nurseries nicknamed me ‘the weed lady’. I kept asking for plants that most people were removing. As much as I could, I wanted to plant the grasses and wildflowers, trees and shrubs native to the glacial moraine known as Long Island,
One early May day, I was walking with a friend in a preserve near her home. I had discovered the trail the day before and was so delighted with the abundance of wildflowers I wanted to share them with her. She was also delighted. And then, as we finished the trail, said, “I’m so glad
Vision is an art, and nature an old master painter teaching us how to see the underlying reality of things to be — before they actually are.~ Monica Gagliano ~ In 1977, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City had a major exhibit of Paul Cezanne’s paintings. On my first visit, I took
Cezanne, shamans, and the intelligence of plants Read More »
The first year I saw nothing but handsome corrugated leaves with irregular brown markings. They reminded me of the trout lilies in my native northeast forests, so I looked forward to the flowers. But they never came. Though the leaves looked like the type that would accompany flowers, forests have lots of plants that leaf but don’t bloom, so I wondered if that was the case. Or was it an off-year for that plant? Were they biennials, which bloom every other year? Or had I missed them?
Stalking the elusive adder’s tongue Read More »
A friend who offers occasional guided meditations begins each one by asking us to imagine ourselves in a nurturing place in nature. I am invariably sitting on a forest floor. Trees reach high above me, leafy branches arching overhead, sunlight glinting through the openings between the leaves. That is peaceful enough, but the most important
Ferns: the deep consolations of survival Read More »
Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge. ~Thomas Edison~ Such a tiny word — poa, Greek for grass — to encompass one of the great life forces on earth. One of the most adaptive plant families, they’re the basis of human civilization. Every one of us is alive
The most powerful family on Earth Read More »
The most public debate on the use of genetically modified seeds concerns their safety. Are they safe for the environment and safe for human consumption? These are crucial questions, arguably the most important. But there is a host of other important issues: democracy, public versus corporate control. Rights of communities and individuals. Control of the
The toxic gamble: genetically engineered seeds Read More »