Featured Picks

Myanmar Mystery Solved

Jan 6 2020

Focus on Science

Working in a Herbarium sometimes requires detective work.  This Myanmar mystery started…

By Lance E. Jones, Kate E. Armstrong

An Unrequited Botanical Love Story

Feb 5 2020

Collectors

The love of botany is responsible for both fostering and hindering this…

By Nicole Tarnowsky

The Saguaro Cactus: Emblematic Plant of the American…

Feb 15 2020

Specimen StoriesWhat's in a name?

With its tall, columnar shape and upward-bending branches, the cactus we know…

By Barbara M. Thiers

Black Botany: The Nature of Black Experience

Feb 20 2020

Specimen Stories

Black Botany: The Nature of Black Experience seeks to acknowledge the complex…

By Rashad Bell, Nuala Caomhanach

The Cotton Plant and Enslaved Labor

Feb 20 2020

The Cotton Plant (Gossypium) stood at the center of the most exploitative…

By Rashad Bell, Nuala Caomhanach

The Peanut Plant and a Black Genius

Feb 20 2020

“One reason I never patent my products is that if I did,…

By Rashad Bell, Nuala Caomhanach

The Rice Plant and Black Knowledge

Feb 20 2020

“The millions of Africans who were dragged to the New World were…

By Rashad Bell, Nuala Caomhanach

The Peacock Flower and Reproductive Resistance

Feb 20 2020

“Indians, who are not well treated in their servitude by the Dutch,…

By Rashad Bell, Nuala Caomhanach

The Vanilla Plant and Edmond

Feb 20 2020

Vanilla planifolia is the only orchid of significant economic importance as an…

By Rashad Bell, Nuala Caomhanach

Snap shot of the Rock Garden, circa 1942

Apr 3 2020

Specimen Stories

NYBG's Rock Garden in the spring is full of treasures that have been documented…

By Nicole Tarnowsky

Kate Furbish and the Flora of Maine

Apr 27 2020

CollectorsWomen in Science

Catherine Furbish was born in 1834 in Exeter, New Hampshire. From an…

By Regina M. Vitiello

Flora Borinqueña

Nov 12 2020

Specimen Stories

In February 1906, Nathaniel and Elizabeth Britton, founders of The New York…

By Nicole Tarnowsky

A Botanical Tour of Harlem

Jan 21 2022

Focus on Science

The New York City neighborhood of Harlem is a center for Black…

By Matthew C. Pace

NAACP member J. E. Spingarn and the Clematis…

Feb 18 2023

Collectors

Joel Elias Spingarn (May 17, 1875 - July 26, 1939) was a…

By Kenneth Reginald Otero-Walker

Bean-boozled

May 31 2023

Specimen Stories

Cosmopolitan has a long-standing journalistic reputation for getting straight to the heart…

By Tristen J. Pasternak

Tobacco

Aug 3 2023

The history of tobacco and the people who cultivated the plant have…

By Angel Tobar

Plants of the Bronx River

Mar 18 2025

For at least 5,000 years, people have called The Bronx home, with…

By Génesis Abreu, Laura Briscoe

For the duration: Segregation and annotation of type…

Apr 25 2025

This is the third part of  For the Duration. To start at…

By Amy Weiss