Their flower is the distinctive aspect of the Lamiaceae, their petals being fused into an upper lip and a lower lip. As to the name…
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.
One tends to notice people who try hard not to be noticed. Cops are trained in this regard, with respect to e.g. drug-dealers. In France,…
This plant originated in Northeastern Africa, in the highlands of Ethiopia and the Boma plateau of Sudan. It is a vigorous bush or small tree…
With a few others, the two Williams, Faulkner and Saroyan, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain and more recently, Barry Lopez, Phyllys Rose, James Salter, John…
The name ‘baobab’ is of Arabic origin: abu hibab refers to a fruit with numeous seeds. The genus name refers to the French naturalist Michel…
I learned Latin as a child, in a French secondary school (lycée). The Latin teacher, who had likewise learned this ancient language as a child,…
A perennial plant, with a tall straight stem, lanceolate, toothed, rough leaves, terminal, radiate, yellow and brown flowers. and roots shaped into tubercles. The latter…
I am fond of nibbling on walnuts and shelling them. This may be a cultural legacy: as my name shows, I am of Hungarian descent…
Were I graced with the ability to sing, a prime candidare would be the tune Charles Trenet got famous for in the 40s and 50s,…
Every year, many millions of Americans engage in an amateur art contest, showing self-reliance and ability at handywork, displayed outside their homes. I am not…