A Wandering Botanist

Spring brings memories of childhood. We lived in upstate New York (Scotia, near Schenectady) and behind the house was a forested hill, belon...

basil, Ocimum basilicum If I ranked vegetable garden plants on their beauty as plants, basil would rank high. It has shiny green leaves oppo...

Like the windmill, the wooden shoe is symbolic of the Netherlands. But wooden shoes have always seemed pretty awkward to me. I’ve tried them...

My yard's first crocus--and flower--of 2021 Crocuses are one of the very first plants to flower in the spring. I saw one in my neighborh...

The coralbells or alumroots, Heuchera species, are a genus of 37 species in the saxifrage family Saxifragaceae. They are endemic to (native...

February 2021 has put most of North America into a deep freeze, with unfamiliarly cold temperatures and, for many, lots of snow. Flipping th...

Star fruit is a distinctive fruit, appearing occasionally in northern U.S. tables. It is easy to learn to call it star fruit, since in cross...