Nature’s Crayons
There’s a chemical which is found in every green plant–every tree, grass blade, bush, cactus, moss, rosebush, lettuce, whatever. It’s called chlorophyll, and it’s a pigment, actually, a green pigment which absorbs just the right wavelength of sunlight to jumpstart the complex chemical process whereby plants make food. Chlorophyll is the key to photosynthesis, enabling plants to magically transform air, sunlight, and water into sugars that nourish the plant and anything that eats it. Chlorophyll is, really, the basis of life on this planet. Chlorophyll is also the stuff that puts grass...
Read MoreChickweed: Anywhere Will Do
I never cease to be amazed at the incredible habitats that plants can exploit. A McDonald’s drive-through wouldn’t seem to be the place to find beauty. But the hardy plants we usually call weeds aren’t particular about how scenic the location is. All they need is a few square inches of space, a few grains of soil, and few stray sunbeams. Even air pollution from the constant stream of cars chugging by doesn’t bother them. Next to the curb at the drive-through is a tiny flower–I mean tiny. You could fit three of these on top of a dime. I’m not a hundred per...
Read MoreRed, White, and Blue
The amazing diversity of flowers. Each bright color attracts a pollinator. Red beckons hummingbirds; yellow calls out to honey bees. Bumblebees prefer purple. Each blossom has instructions for the bees, flies, and beetles: lines and arrows and streaks to guide them to the heart of the flower where the nectar is hidden. Diversity is strength.
Read MoreLeaf Miner: An Artist’s Journey
The Highlights Foundation in Boyds Mills, PA. An oasis of calm and creativity, a place for writers and illustrators to work. In between revising chapters and tinkering with adjectives, I took a walk along one of the woodland trails, and discovered that an artist had been this way before me. Not an illustrator of children’s books; an illustrator of leaves. It looks as though some demented graffiti artist has been spray-painting leaves in crazy, random patterns. But this botanical doodling is the work of an insect called a leaf miner. There are hundreds of species of leaf miners, which...
Read MorePoison Ivy: Early Color
It’s summer, it’s warm and sunny and the leaves are all green and blowing in the warm breeze, and school is out and life is good and whoa! What’s that? A red leaf. It’s like seeing a “Back-to-School Sale!” sign in the mall. A sudden warning that the summer has once more fled away and fall is imminent. But it’s not a whole tree going gold or scarlet; that happens later, in fall, right? It’s not October yet. This is just a warning shot—a single leaf here, a branch there. A vine suddenly goes red as a traffic light, bringing you up short. Why, though? Why do some plants abruptly turn bright...
Read MoreIs A Tomato A Fruit Or A Vegetable?
Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? The answer to this question is easy. It just happens to change every time someone asks it.
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