Travel Story--Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

It was a rainy September day two years ago when I visited the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. We walked from our hotel, down old streets and past local markets. 

Edinburgh in September

Plant Story--Lovely Fernbush, Chamaebatiaria millefolium

The plant I call fernbush is an American shrub native to the U.S. west, from eastern Oregon and Idaho south to California and New Mexico. It grows to be about 10 feet tall, spreading to 10' wide. It has leaves with lots of divisions, hence the name fernbush, with a rich spicy scent. The flowers rise in spikes of white flowers with yellow centers. The USDA plants data base calls it desert sweet. An older plant book called it tansybush, because the leaves look like, and smell a little like, the garden plant tansy (Tanacetum vulgare). 

fernbush Chamaebataria millefolium

Botanical Garden Observations

Botanical gardens are zoos for plants; places where plants from around the world are conserved. Frequently they are public but they do not have to be. Frequently also the staff conduct research on topics relating to plant propagation and identification.

Singapore Botanic Garden

Plant Story--Beauty Bush, Linnaea amabilis or Kolkwitzia amabilis

Beauty bush is a pretty shrub native to central China. It is a member of the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliacae. It was introduced first to Great Britain about 1900 and then to the United States. It became a popular garden plant in the U.S., though it was never as popular in Europe or China. It is rare in the wild. In the United States, it has naturalized in at least seven states, from Massachusetts to Utah.

Beauty bush, Linnaea amabilis or Kolkwitzia amabilis

Books and Writing

In this holiday season, I am trying to bring my books to people's attention, hoping for interest that leads to being read.

I wrote the novel, I Have Seen Marvels, a Journey to Paraguay 1630, because, on a journey to northern Argentina in 1994, I saw that region for the first time and learned a bit of its history. Contact between Europeans and the native peoples of the Americas and European settlement was different and yet similar across the continents. Each set of colonization stories has uniquely interesting dilemmas, interactions, and heroes. Enchanted, I wanted to tell stories from early central South American settlement, since they were largely unknown to North American audiences. Hence the book. (link)

Horsetooth Mountain Park, Fort Collins, Colorado

When I walk a natural area, I'm focused on the ground, looking for and at the plants. Sometimes I miss the panoramas entirely. I wrote wrote two blogs about Horsetooth Reservoir's trails, in western Fort Collins Colorado, and shared almost only the flower pictures. Looking though the pictures this week, I was caught by the vistas. So I'll share them today

Plant Story--Distinctive Apache Plume, Fallugia paradoxa

Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa, rose family, Rosaceae) is a native shrub of the southwest, found from Colorado and Texas west to California and Arizona and in neighboring areas of Mexico. It is a pretty shrub with white flowers and distinctive clusters of long-lasting cream or pinkish fruit resembling plumes. 

Apache plume, Fallugia paradoxa