grass

The most powerful family on Earth

This vine mesquite (Hopi obtusa) on a Missouri roadside dangles its vivid anthers, ready to send their pollen to the wind. The feathery stigma at the other end of the filament are ready to receive pollen. Photo by Betsey Crawford.

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 […]

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Laudato si, repictured

Laudato si — Praise be! — are the opening words of each of the verses in Saint Francis’s beautiful Canticle to the Sun, and is also the title of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical defining the Catholic Church’s doctrines on the care of the earth. Last year I discovered that September 1 had been chosen as the annual World

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