Plant of the month (©Pierre Laszlo, all rights reserved)Mentha spicata (Lamiaceae) The species in the genus Mentha are not clearly distinct. Estimates of their number…
A scientist and a writer
Category: Plants
Botany, which I did study awhile in my youth, holds a continued interest.
Plants are remarkable organisms.
In writing about them, in these small vignettes I try to combine the scientific and the cultural, the bucolic and the utilitarian, and to convey some of my sense of wonder – in brief to try and emulate some of the eighteenth-century natural historians, with the information now available to us.
Codariocalyx motorius, aka Desmodium gyrans (Fabaceae) This tropical Asian shrub is widely distributed throughout South Asia including Sri Lanka, as well as in East and East-Southern…
Plant of the month (©Pierre Laszlo, all rights reserved) Arnica montana (Asteraceae) Neandertals may have known and used it. The Iceman may have done likewise.…
Plant of the month (©Pierre Laszlo, all rights reserved)Trifolium, genus (Fabaceae) They are small annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial herbaceous plants. The common name, clover,…
Plant of the month (©Pierre Laszlo, all rights reserved) The mulberry tree, Broussonettia papyrifera (Moraceae) Paper is named after papyrus, a reed that ancient Egyptians…
Plant of the month (©Pierre Laszlo, all rights reserved) Forsythia intermedia, aka Spring glory (Oleaceae ). Suburbs have become worldwide extensions of cities during the…
Plant of the month (©Pierre Laszlo, all rights reserved) Muscari neglectum (Hyacinthaceae), aka the grape hyacinth. Plants are wily. They seduce some animal species to…
Plant of the month (©Pierre Laszlo, all rights reserved)Salvia sclarea (Labiaceae). It is a close relative of Salvia pratensis, described in another entry in this…
Plant of the month (©Pierre Laszlo, all rights reserved)Valeriana montana (Valerianaceae). My motivation in writing this piece is to honor a lady, whose first and…
Plant of the month (©Pierre Laszlo, all rights reserved)Gentiana algida (Gentianaceae) Motion in plants is well-known as an insect-trapping, nutritional tactic ; or as a…