Truffle
Specimen StoriesFocus on Science
Truffles are fruiting bodies of Tuber fungi that grow underground. The fungi…
Trust in the Crust
earth /ˈərth/noun1) the planet on which we live; the world2) the substance…
Tumbleweeds
Tumbleweeds aren’t restricted to one species or plant family, but are an…
Typical: Astragalus cusickii var. packardiae
Covered in flower dissection illustrations by Rupert Barneby — we should all…
Typical: Ceratozamia euryphyllidia, the largest type?
Plant specimens come in all shapes and sizes, but they are usually…
Typical: Christmas in the clouds
Bassett Maguire (1904–1991), a botanist who spent the majority of his career…
Typical: Double type
A herbarium's version of a double rainbow — a double type specimen.…
Typical: Erythronium helenae
Specimen StoriesWhat's in a name?
One of the common names for the genus Erythronium is the dogtooth…
Typical: Gymnopilus pallidus
Some characters are altered in the drying process used to create herbarium specimens.…
Typical: Hibiscadelphus stellatus
This type specimen is like a postcard from Hawaii reading "Wish you…
Understanding Interactions: Taking Botany Out of Isolation
For centuries we have viewed plants and fungi in isolation. Tried to…
Vampires Among Us: The Ghost Pipe Plant
Did you know that some plants lack chlorophyll? Often confused for a…
Vanda
Vanda is a tropcial Asian and Australian orchid genus with 85 known…
Vanishing Lakes: Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake is a shallow, highly saline, terminal lake situated in northern…
Vanishing Lakes: Lake Poopó
Lake Poopó is a saline lake in the Altiplano Mountains of Bolivia.…
Vanishing Lakes: Owens Lake
The drying of Owens Lake is a human-made catastrophe. In 1913, the…
Vanishing Lakes: Salton Sea
Ingloriously described as “the biggest environmental disaster in California history,” and a…
Vanishing Lakes: Tulare Lake
The California Central Valley was once a matrix of riparian grasslands and…
Venus flytrap
Even though Venus Fly Traps are widely available as cultivated plants, they…
View of Sítio Burle Marx
This Calathea species was collected by botanist Helen Kennedy in Roberto Burle…
Views from a 1910 Botanical Expedition through Western…
New York Botanical Garden led around 136 botanical expeditions between 1898 and 1918.…
Violetta White
Violetta Susan Elizabeth White Delafield (1875–1949) was a promising young mycologist at the…
Virtual Road Trip: Southern Wildflowers
Many Americans are currently practicing social distancing and self-quarantine as a way…
W. A. Murrill
William Murrill became an assistant curator at NYBG in 1904, and was…
Weird & Wild Legumes
Cabinet of CuriositiesSpecimen Stories
Members of plant family Fabaceae (bean or legume family) produce a kind…
Western Road Trip
In the summer of 1952, recently retired Wabash College¹ botany professor Albert…
Western Road Trip: Crater Lake
It might be hard to believe the Bechtels could take their eyes…
Western Road Trip: Grant Grove
When visiting giant sequoia trees, you spend a lot of time looking…
Western Road Trip: Marble Canyon
The Grand Canyon might be the grandest of canyons carved by the…
What is a type specimen?
When a researcher names a new species of algae, fungi, or plant,…
Where the Gold was First Discovered
Cabinet of CuriositiesExpeditions
Herbarium specimens have been collected at poignant points in history. Major William Rich was…
Wild Cinnamon
Although not related to true cinnamon, Cinnamodendron corticosum is a similar spice tree.…
Witches!
Cabinet of CuriositiesWhat's in a name?
Don't be too scared by these witches - just some friendly plants…
Wolf lichen
The Wolf Lichen is one of the most showy North American lichens,…
Women in Cryptogamic Botany
As scientific perspectives of the Enlightenment movement fostered enthusiasm surrounding the acquisition…
Women in Genera
What's in a name?Women in Science
For as long as we've been using binomial nomenclature to name species,…
Women's Scientific Empowerment
Natural history was immensely popular in the Victorian era, but women were…
Ynés E. J. Mexia (1870-1938)
A social worker and Sierra Club member at the time, Ynés Mexia…
Yuletide Greetings
European winter traditions that predate Christianity have a large focus on plants.…