First watch this: La lenta belleza de las plantas (nuestroviaje-alive.blogspot.com) from tanavoltan on Vimeo. This gorgeous video by Maurice Maeterlinck shows the movement of plants – movements we don’t normally notice since they happen on a time scale too slow for our perceptions and patience. It inspired me to look into the science of how […]

The full moon is a powerful symbol. It speaks to us of fertility, cycles, pregnancy, and wildness. The moon itself has been shown to influence animal behavior, particularly in the seas. But what of plants, who lack a central nervous system? Can they too be influenced by the pull of the moon? Such texts as […]

Paul Magelsdorf, distinguished professor at Harvard’s Botanical Museum, stormed out on a lecture at the “Origin of Corn Conference” at U. of Illinois in 1969. He wasn’t happy, I imagine. The findings presented at this particular lecture contested much of the research he had spent his life investigating, unraveling the mystery of the origin of […]

A number of times this summer I was visited by a creature that appeared something like a hummingbird but smaller and more insect like in it’s appearance, usually hovering around a phlox or similar tubular flower. This was the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe) and I was lucky and patient enough to snap a few […]

Okay, let’s talk about sex again. Plants are so adventurous in this realm, having none of the hang-ups or intolerances that we humans often do. Plants can be male, female, hermaphroditic, or non-sexed; they might be self-sexing or fertile only when with partners, often having many partners; they regularly entice other species into their escapades; […]

My garden adventures this spring began with a flowering quince and a single, fat, and hairy bumblebee. I watched that thing bounce around the air; too heavy for its wings, it seemed. The warm air carried sweet nectar and that bee, like his brothers, buzzed from one welcoming, wet flower to another. Yes, I know. […]