To many of us, the magnolia tree (Magnolia grandiflora) is a familiar sight if rather extravagant: a tall spreading tree, with large, very noticeable leaves…
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.
The persimmon tree (Diospyros kaki) is of Chinese origin. Very tall, it can reach a height of up to 12 m. It belongs to the…
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This plant, a shrub, has been kinder to man than to some of our domesticated creatures. The territory of Astragalus gummifer is mountainous regions with…
Partridges are prone to seeking shelter within these shrubs, of a balsamic and somewhat acrid smell. Mastic trees, also known as lentisks have provided mankind…
Grassy, with a straight stalk up to 4 ft-high, Isatis tinctoria belongs to the Cruciferae, the same family as the cabbage, the turnip and the…
Worldwide the genus Styrax is represented by more than a hundred species. This particular species, Styrax officinalis L. is a shrub a few meters tall,…
The bark of the tree, a genus with about 25 species from the family of Rubiaceae (madder and coffee are another two plants from that…
Its healing virtues have been known since Antiquity. An ointment of aloe cured Alexander the Great, after being struck by an arrow when besieging the…
The lacquer plant Toxicodendron vernicifluum (or Rhus verniciflua) belongs to the same family, Anacardiaceae, as cashew nuts and poison ivy. This shrub can grow to…