Sweetsop vs. Soursop: A Great Distinction
The Annonaceae family is the largest plant family within the Magnoliales. The…
Queer Love Lives in Hyacinth
The flowering period of hyacinth may have passed, but their celebration continues…
Bean-boozled
Cosmopolitan has a long-standing journalistic reputation for getting straight to the heart…
Botany & Birds: Taking Flight
The exhibition on now at The New York Botanical Garden, is the work of…
Isabella Aiona Abbott: First Lady of Limu
Before Dr. Isabella Aiona Abbott became the first Native Hawaiian woman to…
Fruits of Rosaceae
Flowering plants differ from all other plants by producing seeds within fruits;…
Trust in the Crust
earth /ˈərth/noun1) the planet on which we live; the world2) the substance…
Biocrusts of Hot Drylands
Hot deserts are found on all continents except Antarctica and Europe. In…
Biocrusts of Cold Drylands
The default image that comes to mind when thinking of deserts is…
Biocrusts in Disturbed Areas
Our crusty companions play many imperative restoration roles in disturbed habitats, as…
Vanishing Lakes: Tulare Lake
The California Central Valley was once a matrix of riparian grasslands and…
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: 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.…
Pilostyles
Upon first glance, this mounted specimen may seem nothing more than an…
Chicita Culberson
In early March of this year Chicita Culberson, whose work has been…
Cyanolichens
In this collection are some cyanolichens from the NYBG cryptogamic herbarium, some…
Botanical Ragtime
Artists find inspiration from an infinite number of sources, and many artists…
The Ames–Britton Connection
Specimen StoriesWomen in Science
Blanche Ames Ames (February 18, 1878 – March 2, 1969) was not…
Carol Gracie: Interpreter of Nature's Stories
Women in ScienceWorks of ArtCollectors
A beloved member of the NYBG community for over 40 years, Carol…
Black Pepper: King of Spices
It’s hard to imagine entering a diner, sitting down on the shiny…
NAACP member J. E. Spingarn and the Clematis…
Joel Elias Spingarn (May 17, 1875 - July 26, 1939) was a…
Vanda
Vanda is a tropcial Asian and Australian orchid genus with 85 known…
Orchids in your Home!
Orchids are the largest plant family, with over 28,000 known species, and…
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis, the moth orchids, are perhaps the most commonly cultivated orchid. With…
Miltonia
Miltonia consists of 20 naturally occuring species and hybrids that are entirely…
Paphiopedilum
Paphiopedilum is genus of slipper orchid found in tropical Asia, from eastern…
Cattleya
Cattleya is a genus of 129 tropcial American orchids distributed from Costa…
Dendrobium
With over 1,800 know species, Dendrobium is one of the 10 most…
NYBG 2022 New Species Review!
Every year, botanists describe hundreds of new plant, algal, fungal, and lichen…
Dr. Héctor S. Osorio (1928-2016)
Dr. Héctor Saul Osorio, born in 1928 in Montevideo, was a Uruguayan…
Dra. Noris Salazar-Allen (1947-)
Noris Salazar-Allen, acclaimed researcher and bryologist, studies the group of non-vascular plants…
Dra. Gabriela G. Hässel de Menéndez (1927-2009)
Dra. Gabriela Gustava Hässel de Menéndez’s scientific career spanned almost sixty years…
Celebrating Cryptogamic Botanists from Latin America
The Caribbean, Central America, and South America have long been geographical focal…
Dra. Laura Guzmán-Dávalos (1961-)
Laura Guzmán-Dávalos’ explorations into the world of fungi are vast and far-reaching,…
Dra. Lidia Itatí Ferraro (1951-)
Dr. Lidia Itatí Ferraro, born in 1951, is an accomplished Argentine lichenologist.…
Ynés E. J. Mexia (1870-1938)
A social worker and Sierra Club member at the time, Ynés Mexia…
Dr. Juan Larraín (1979-)
Juan Larraín is a self-taught bryologist who focuses on bryophyte diversity in…
Remembrances of Yours
There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies,that’s…
Be All My Sins Remembered
Up until this point, Ophelia has lived a rather charmed life –…
Ophelia’s Flowers
Shakespeare never visited the crown prince Hamlet’s home on the east coast of…
Ginger and Chiya
Ginger, also known as Zingiber officinale is native to tropical climates like…
Aloe: The Plant of Many Wonders
Aloe vera is one of the over 300 species of Aloe belonging…
Sugar Cane and the Tropical Traces of Empires
Take a moment and think about how easy is to get sweet…
Curious Indigo
Indigo: a profound shade of blue sourced from nature’s color palette; A…
Riclef Grolle
Riclef Grolle (1934 – 2004) was among the most dedicated and knowledgeable…
Season it with Leaves
Culinary herbs are plants with aromatic properties and that are used for…
The Herbarium of Endangerment: Cycas riuminiana
Cycads carry significance as “living fossils,” existing in a way that is…
The Herbarium of Endangerment: Eugenia koolauensis
Many Latin plant names feature the intersection of imperial European botany and…
The Herbarium of Endangerment: Tahina spectabilis
This more “newly discovered” plant was given its Latin name in 2008,…
The Herbarium of Endangerment: A Digital Display of…
“Behind all scientific names are the stories of their objects, of the…
The Herbarium of Endangerment: Vanilla planifolia
One may be most familiar with vanilla’s taste and aroma. The fruit…
Royal Symbols
Plants have been employed as royal symbols through time and across cultures.…
Lichenicolous Fungi
Composed of different species each playing a different role, a lichen can…
Naming the Rainbow
Botany uses Latin to describe and name plants, including the Latin words…
Naming the Rainbow: Caeruleum / Blue
The rarest color in nature, caeruleum (Latin for blue), usually indicates a…
Naming the Rainbow: Viridis / Green
Most plants are green, but only a select few have viridis (Latin…
Naming the Rainbow: Indicum / Indigo
Indigo, the dark bluish-purple color of blue jeans, is a natural dye…
Naming the Rainbow: Rubrum / Red
Rubrum, Latin for red, is often used to indicate firey red flowers…
Naming the Rainbow: Flavum / Yellow
Flavum (Latin for yellow) is often used to indicate yellow flowers, hairs, or…