Sister Mary Clare Metz: Faith and Flora
While digitizing specimens for the Texas and Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria,…
Skunk Cabbage
Specimen StoriesFocus on Science
A locally occuring arum in the northeast U.S., skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus…
Smooth rock tripe
This Umbilicaria species is regarded to be one of the largest lichens…
Snap shot of the Rock Garden, circa 1942
NYBG's Rock Garden in the spring is full of treasures that have been documented…
Some Algae of Nova Scotia
Although the bulk of specimens that find their way into the New…
Species that Work-from-Home
Like many of you, NYBG herbarium staff are currently working from home…
Spider Plant
The spider plant is in the genus Chlorophytum which contains almost 200 species, mostly originating…
Springtime with Peter Zika
If seasonal allergies or the depths of winter have got you down,…
Sticky Rice
Focus on ScienceWhat's in a name?
A couple of years ago I was asked by Michael Purugganan (Dean…
Studying the DNA of Herbarium Specimens
Molecular biologists study the DNA of plants. They use this data to identify…
Sugar Cane and the Tropical Traces of Empires
Take a moment and think about how easy is to get sweet…
Sugar pine
Called "the most princely of the genus" by David Douglas, sugar pine…
Sundews
Sundews. Drosera is the largest genus of carniverous plants, with almost 200…
Surviving the Fires of Australia
Amid the tragedy of the Australian fires, the Wollemi Pine is a…
Sweetsop vs. Soursop: A Great Distinction
The Annonaceae family is the largest plant family within the Magnoliales. The…
The Ames–Britton Connection
Specimen StoriesWomen in Science
Blanche Ames Ames (February 18, 1878 – March 2, 1969) was not…
The Atomic Specimen
Working with specimens from New Mexico for the Southern Rocky Mountain Digitization…
The Azalea Garden
Always a destination for Mother's Day, the Azalea Garden is a spring…
The Biltmore Herbarium: Botany and America’s Largest Home
Biltmore, a Gilded Era mansion in Asheville, North Carolina, is America’s largest…
The Brittons: Partners in Life and Botany
The establishment of The New York Botanical Garden was the result of…
The Cactaceae
The Cactaceae was a publication written by the founder of NYBG, Nathaniel Lord Britton…
The Calabash in Capoeira Music
The Berimbau is the musical instrument played in capoeira. It consists of a…
The Case for Coevolution
Focus on ScienceCabinet of Curiosities
Charles Darwin’s keen observations of the natural world famously yielded predictions about…
The Herbarium of Endangerment: A Digital Display of…
“Behind all scientific names are the stories of their objects, of the…
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: Vanilla planifolia
One may be most familiar with vanilla’s taste and aroma. The fruit…
The Lackluster Major William Rich
Major William Rich was selected to be the botanist on the U. S.…
The Language of Flowers
Throughout time, people have assigned meaning to flowers, and many cultures have…
The Lemmons: Partners in Botany
Sara Plummer met John Gill Lemmon in 1876 when he came to…
The LGBTQ+ Legacy of NYBG: Out of the…
Herbarium specimens are kept in metal cabinets to protect them from damage.…
The Lilac Collection
The lilacs are blooming here at the Garden, gracing us with their…
The Many Colors of the Star Cloak Fern
While imaging herbarium specimens, I was struck by the unusual colors of…
The Nourishing Power of Dates
As the Islamic month of fasting – Ramadan – comes to a…
The Sacred Plant of Peru: The San Pedro…
For thousands of years, the indigenous people of Peruvian Amazon have used…
The Saguaro Cactus: Emblematic Plant of the American…
Specimen StoriesWhat's in a name?
With its tall, columnar shape and upward-bending branches, the cactus we know…
The Tecate Cypress: What a Tangled Web
While working as a digitization intern, one of the most pleasing features…
The Three Sisters
Companion planting is the technique of growing plants closely together for mutual…
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Cabinet of CuriositiesSpecimen Stories
The beloved children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar is turning 50! See many of…
Thomas Gaither - Activist and Biologist
Dr. Thomas Walter Gaither (1938 - ) was born in Great Falls, South…
Three Thousand Miles up the Amazon
At the age of 61, Ynés Mexía embarked on the adventure of…
Tomato Persona
Choose your tomato persona. While all the same species, Solanum lycopersicum, tomatoes…
Traditional Medicine: Momordica charantia
Momordica charantia L. is a plant species that is used in the…
Traveling Plants
While plants can’t walk, they can definitely travel. Plants have evolved a…
Traveling Plants: People lend a hand
Plants have lots of ways they can move and distribute their propagules…
Traveling Plants: Plants on the move
Plants might not be able to move the way animals do, but…
Treeline Expansion
The absence of trees at high-elevations both defines Alpine zones and is…
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.…