Plants
Types of plants, including flowers, trees, water plants and weeds- Explore more »
Tom Mirenda on Orchids
The Natural History Museum's orchid expert talks about the beloved flowers
April 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
Orchid Mimics Carrion to Attract Flies
Scientists studying a South African orchid determined, with the clever use of roadkill, that the flower attracts pollinators by mimicking the scent of carrion. Their report appears in the Annals of Botany.The Satyrium pumilum orchid grows in sandy, moist soil near streams in South Africa. Unlike mo...
March 16, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
From A Smithsonian Gardener: Tips for Creating a Beautiful Valentine's Day Arrangement
Hey Valentine, did your honey send you a romantic bundle of red and pink rose buds this morning? Or maybe a secret admirer sent you 12 fragrant beauties. Either way, nothing says love more than the classic Valentine's Day gift: the bouquet of roses.We asked Melanie Pyle, a Smithsonian Gardens hort...
February 14, 2011 |
By Madeline Andre
The Secrets Behind Your Flowers
Chances are the bouquet you're about to buy came from Colombia. What's behind the blooms?
February 2011 |
By John McQuaid
"Orchids: A View from the East" Opens This Weekend at Natural History
For the last 17 years, the Smithsonian Gardens and the United States Botanic Garden have teamed up to host an annual orchid exhibition. And, each year, says Tom Mirenda, a museum specialist for the Smithsonian Orchid Collection, "We try to have a different aspect of orchidology that we feature."To ...
January 27, 2011 |
By Megan Gambino
The Surprisingly Exciting World of Mushroom Picking
In the forests of Oregon, foragers, farmers and chefs have their eyes stuck on the ground looking for one thing: wild mushrooms
January 27, 2011 |
By Rachael Brown
Deck the Halls: Smithsonian Holiday Decorations
The halls are decked in red and green, and there's a winter chill in the air. The folks at the Smithsonian Gardens have taken great pains to decorate the Smithsonian Institution for the holidays. They have grown thousands of poinsettias and wrapped a green garland up the wrought iron gates to the C...
December 23, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
How to Keep the Needles on Your Christmas Tree
Putting up a live Christmas tree can be a lot of work. You have to make sure that the tree has plenty of water, sometimes having to crawl beneath the branches while trying not to dislodge any of the breakable ornaments. And then there's the clean-up. No matter what you do, the tree is going to shed...
December 23, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Wednesday Roundup: Happy Holidays!
Total Eclipse of the Moon—Early yesterday morning (or late Monday night for those on the west coast), an astronomical event took place that only happens once in a blue moon. Well, okay, it wasn't a blue moon, but it was a total lunar eclipse. This was the first lunar eclipse to fall on the winter ...
December 22, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
Dryer Sheets as Bug Repellant?
It's a modern old-wives tale: put a Bounce dryer sheet in your pocket while gardening and it'll keep away the mosquitoes or gnats. This may seem a bit far-fetched to those of us who have never tried it, but researchers have now found that there could be some truth in it, when it comes to gnats, any...
December 20, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Ten Natural Products That Kill
I have to laugh anytime I see a product label claiming that something is "all natural," as if everything that is man-made is dangerous and all that is not is perfectly safe. Not that I'm claiming there are no synthetic evils, but there's plenty of deadly natural items out in the world. Let's start ...
November 09, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Great Georgian Fruit Hunt
Sent to the Caucasus by the U.S. government, Malli Aradhya forages through orchards and markets in search of the perfect specimen
November 08, 2010 |
By Alastair Bland
Wednesday Roundup: Caterpillars, Videos, iPad Apps and More
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T69tXic7pxQ&feature=player_embeddedTime for Butterflies: As the first chill of fall sweeps the National Mall, folks at the Smithsonian Gardens are thinking about how best to take advantage of the seasonal change. As it turns out, fall is a great time to plan for t...
November 03, 2010 |
By Jess Righthand
Comparing Apples and Oranges
The phrase "comparing apples and oranges" is often invoked when a person compares two items that are thought to be so different as to make any comparison invalid. But are apples and oranges really that different? According to TimeTree.org, Malus x domestica (the apple) and Citrus sinensis (the nave...
November 02, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Palm Trees in Ireland?
Today's post was written by the magazine's staff writer, Abigail Tucker:On a recent trip to the Emerald Isle, I expected all kinds of verdant foliage, like the ancient yew tree my family saw growing outside the walls of a ruined castle. I was not, however, prepared for the Irish palm trees. We obse...
October 12, 2010 |
By Abigail Tucker
Picture of the Week: Daisy Wears Spots, Woos Pollinators
Orchids have a reputation for deceiving pollinators, especially sexually, using floral ornamentation that beckons male mate-hunting insects to “come hither” and have a roll in the pollen. But a recent study (pdf) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch University finds that another fl...
October 01, 2010 |
By admin
One Fifth of World's Plants Threatened
One in five plants are threatened with extinction, according to a new study. And we're to blame.Scientists from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), London's Natural History Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew evaluated 7,000 plant species (out of a known 380,000 spe...
September 29, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The World's Oldest Living Organisms
Just how long has the world's oldest living thing been on this planet? That would be Siberian actinobacteria, and they've been here for some 400,000 to 600,000 years, longer than our species has existed.Photographer Rachel Sussman is keeping track of these ancient specimens. She's been photographin...
September 15, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Flowers May Adapt Faster than Thought to Climate Change
One of the big worries about climate change is that organisms will be unable to migrate or adapt quickly enough to deal with all the coming changes to their environments, which could lead to a lot of extinctions. But a new study led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which appears in Molecular Biol...
August 13, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
UPDATED: Priceless Russian Fruit Plant Collection Faces Demolition
The concept of collecting and protecting seeds and plants for research and to preserve biodiversity got its start in Russia. Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov created the world's first seed bank, collecting fruit and vegetable seeds from across five continents during the 1920s and 30s. By World War ...
August 09, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
