Aloe: The Plant of Many Wonders
Aloe vera is one of the over 300 species of Aloe belonging…
Alpine Adaptation: Dig-Down & Stand Your Ground
Extreme conditions at high-elevations tend to impede the establishment of annual plants…
Alpine Adaptation: Duck and Cover
Leaves and flowering stems flattened to the ground and outwardly spreading from…
Alpine Adaptation: Hold Tight & Take It Slow
These prototypical "cushion plants" are extreme alpine specialists. Short and dense branching…
Alpine Adaptation: Red is the New Black
Hairs are one way to deflect damaging UV radiation while locking in…
Alpine Adaptation: Solid As A Rock
Lichens are the primary colonizers of new habitat in alpine regions. Unlike…
Alpine Adaptation: Stay Shaggy!
Temperatures may be low but sun-exposure is extremely intense at high-elevations due…
Alpine Invaders
Climate Change can negatively impact Alpine regions by making them more susceptible…
Alpine Meadows
Alpine meadows exist where soils have deepened and matured through centuries of…
Alpine Refugia
Mountaintops have served as unlikely shelter for populations of cold-adapted species throughout…
An Unrequited Botanical Love Story
The love of botany is responsible for both fostering and hindering this…
Ancestral Achiote
In many Caribbean and Latin American households, most of us have known…
Ancient plant DNA
Using a NYBG herbarium specimen, PhD grad student Lizzie Joyce turned back…
Aquatic Hitchhikers
Although all plants need some water to grow, aquatic plants have adapted…
Art Cronquist's Hat
If you spend time looking at herbarium specimens collected by Arthur Cronquist,…
Art Cronquist's Tree: Japanese Wingnut
Recently walking on the NYBG grounds on a lovely spring day just…
Arthonia stevensoniana
Arthonia etymology unknown stevensoniana from Stevenson, honoring Robert Louis Stevenson, author of…
Ascension Island: Volcanoes, Castaways, and Darwin’s Manmade Forest
One million years ago, a volcano broke the surface in the middle…
Astragalus osterhoutii, Osterhout milkvetch
Astragalus osterhoutii M. E. Jones (or Osterhout milkvetch) is an herbaceous plant known…
Attractive Frances Baker
This specimen arrived as part of an exchange from another herbarium, wrapped…
Augustine Henry
Augustine Henry was one of the first and most prolific western botanists to collect in Central China,…
Autumnal
Grab a warm beverage and your favorite sweater—the colors on these specimens evoke…
Ballast Plants
Ships transporting cargo and passengers use ballast to stabilize the ship at…
Banded Mottlegill
This mushroom was called 'weed Panaeolus' because it would frequently grow as…
Be All My Sins Remembered
Up until this point, Ophelia has lived a rather charmed life –…
Bean-boozled
Cosmopolitan has a long-standing journalistic reputation for getting straight to the heart…
Becoming a mountain woman
Marie Mooar spent a lot of time in the wilds of western…
Before & After: P. F. Zika 28277
The unmounted herbarium specimen, as it arrived at the garden in the…
Begonias
The genus Begonia contains over 1800 species. They are native to tropical…
Being Loved To Death – A Third of…
As the many plants to be digitized in the Endless Forms project,…
Beware! Stranglers on the Loose!
Focus on ScienceCabinet of Curiosities
Meet the genus Cuscuta, or as I like to refer to them,…
Bigelow's mushroom photographs
In the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden there are over 30,000…
Biocrusts in Disturbed Areas
Our crusty companions play many imperative restoration roles in disturbed habitats, as…
Biocrusts of Cold Drylands
The default image that comes to mind when thinking of deserts is…
Biocrusts of Hot Drylands
Hot deserts are found on all continents except Antarctica and Europe. In…
Bioremediation
Bioremediation is the use of living organisms to remove contamination from the…
Black Botany: The Nature of Black Experience
Black Botany: The Nature of Black Experience seeks to acknowledge the complex…
Black Pepper: King of Spices
It’s hard to imagine entering a diner, sitting down on the shiny…
Botanical Lessons
Botany students must learn the structures of flowers in all their intricate variety.…
Botanical Ragtime
Artists find inspiration from an infinite number of sources, and many artists…
Botany & Birds: Taking Flight
The exhibition on now at The New York Botanical Garden, is the work of…
Britton's Chara
In the United States, there is no formal regulation for the endangered…
Brown and Beautiful
Whether naturally brown, or turning brown during the preservation steps needed to create herbarium…
Carnivorous plants
Cabinet of CuriositiesFocus on Science
Watch out, these plants are hungry! Most carnivorous plants grow in bogs…
Carol Gracie: Interpreter of Nature's Stories
Women in ScienceWorks of ArtCollectors
A beloved member of the NYBG community for over 40 years, Carol…
Caroline Coventry Haynes
Caroline Coventry Haynes (1858-1951) is best known for her significant contributions to…
Catnip: A Felicitous Herb
Focus on ScienceWhat's in a name?
Calling all cat lovers! As I was digitizing plants for the Southern…
Cattleya
Cattleya is a genus of 129 tropcial American orchids distributed from Costa…
Celebrating Cryptogamic Botanists from Latin America
The Caribbean, Central America, and South America have long been geographical focal…
Celebrating Pride with Flowers
As the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots during…
Chicita Culberson
In early March of this year Chicita Culberson, whose work has been…
Chock-full of chromosomes
Cabinet of CuriositiesFocus on Science
Behold this fern which has the highest recorded chromosome number of any living…
Christmas Lichen
Specimen StoriesCabinet of Curiosities
This bright-colored lichen is called the 'Christmas Lichen' because of its bright…
Christmas Tree Species
Though most Christmas trees are in the pine family, Pinaceae, they are…
Clara Eaton Cummings
Clara E. Cummings (1855-1906) was a cryptogamic botanist who focused primarily on…
Climate Change & Alpine Retreat
Temperature and moisture availability are factors which influence the distribution patterns of…
Climate Research and Herbarium Specimens
Climate research requires lots of data. Data about the conditions on earth now,…
Confetti
No party is complete without confetti—especially when ringing in the new year.…
Conifers and Mistletoes
Evergreen trees and mistletoe both come to mind when we decorate with holiday…
Corpse Flower
Another famous plant in the Araceae family is the Titan Arum or…
Creepy Cultivars
The word "cultivar" is a blend of the words "cultivated" and "variety".…
Cultivation and Ecology of Dates
The date palm requires ample sunlight, high temperatures (though it can survive…
Curious Indigo
Indigo: a profound shade of blue sourced from nature’s color palette; A…