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…
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.
Following the arrival in Brazil of the Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500, Caesalpinia echinata, from the Fabales group, began being shipped to Europe.…
Not very tall, Moringa oleifera (Moringaceae) grows to a maximum height of about 30 feet. It came from Northern India, and the Arabs planted it…
One of the ca. 800 species of acacias, this tree is not indigenous to Senegal. For economic reasons, it was planted on the banks of…
Juniperus communis L. (Conifers)
This bush, no taller than a child, is to be found on limy soils throughout the Northern hemisphere. Branches carry numerous small spiky leaves. It is a typical plant for the mediterranean garrigue (brush) landscape, at elevations ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 feet.
Castanea dentata Cupuliferae
For millennia, mankind has domesticated this plant genus for its numerous uses, from feeding to tanning. It originated in Asia Minor: Persia, Armenia, Transcaucasia? In any case, Romans transplanted it to Western Europe. The first chestnut groves date back to when arboriculture techniques, such as pruning, budding or grafting had been mastered. During the Middle Ages, monasteries saw to preservation and development of chestnut groves. These trees are found at 1,500-2,500 ft elevations, on acidic soils (schists, granite; chestnuts hate limestone), and below about 52° N latitude, since frost destroys the flowers. It is not known when chestnut trees were introduced in North America.