Don’t Bite Off More…
…than you can ingest. Thanks to Diane Hale Smith for another great bird shot!
Read MoreChocolate in Bloom
Yes! The chocolate is in bloom! Now on view at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, NY. What I can’t figure out is how anyone ever discovered the insanely fabulous taste of this plant. It’s a very easy plant to ignore. It blends in with the other trees in the tropical section of the Botanical Garden’s enormous conservatory. The little cacao tree is dwarfed by palm trees and giant ferns, totally upstaged by orchids and bird-of-paradise flowers. The leaves are nondescript, the flowers pretty but half an inch long. But come and worship at the foot of this homely little...
Read MoreStaghorn Sumac: Painting With Trees
Staghorn sumac. (Rhus typhina.) These dainty little trees are a common sight along roadsides. They seem to spring up everywhere, near dumps or malls or in weedy backyards. They’re the kind of tree no one notices. Except birds, of course, who love the sweet fuzzy berries, high in vitamin C and energy. But four hundred years ago, sumac seeds were almost literally worth their weight in gold. English botanists explored the New World in the early 1600s and were thrilled to discover a host of exotic species: exciting plants (which are ho-hum to us today) like goldenrod, sugar maples, white pines,...
Read MoreSunflowers on the Menu
Charlie’s Diner. Coffee, cream, no sugar. Two fried eggs over easy. Whole wheat toast with strawberry jam. Sunflowers. Every summer this great old diner has sunflowers in pots outside the restaurant, to cheer the travelers whizzing by on Route 20. And every year the sunflowers shoot up, dwarfing the pots, and produce giant suns of flowers. And of course birds adore sunflower seeds, so avian travelers stop by and help themselves to a beakful of seeds. Sunflowers to go. Last year, a few seeds must have fallen into this crack in the pavement. And with all the rain we’ve had, the seeds sprouted....
Read MoreJewelweed: Poison Ivy Cure?
Can jewelweed cure poison ivy? It’s been used for centuries as a poison ivy remedy, but results differ depending on who’s using it.
Read MoreDay Lily: Summer Schedule
Day lily. Hemerocallis, which comes from ancient Greek words meaning beautiful day. Day lilies are suddenly all over the place in early July. They start to line the roadsides as though waiting for the Fourth of July parades. The orange bursts of petals among the green are a kind of botanical fireworks. Why the name day lily? If you look on any day lily stalk, you’ll see half-a-dozen buds, each one slightly bigger than the next. With a punctuality that’s pretty amazing, they will open precisely 24 hours apart. So that on one stalk you have, so to speak, the entire schedule for the week. Today...
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