Animals eat plants. So, why don’t plants eat animals?
Articles with Plants
Photo by Raphael Wild on Unsplash
Duckweed • Photo by Patricia Barden (CC BY 2.0)
Under magnifier, scum is beautiful
“The angiosperms are the superstars of the plant world,” says Lynn Margulis in her ‘Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth.’
Photo by Sourabh Panari on Unsplash
Earth’s big fix is in the bacteria
It’s planting time. Rototilling. Hoeing. Sticking in the seeds. Onions. Radishes. Lettuce. Beans. No real need to do it. We can buy our veggies at the store for a lot less money than we send to Smith & Hawken for all those upscale garden tools.
Goldenrod galls • Photo by SriMesh (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Making mischief with nature’s toys
Among massed goldenrods at the side of the path, my eye fell upon a plant with a spherical swelling in the stem — a bulge like a snake digesting a fat, round meal. Suddenly, I was swept by childhood memories.
Photo by Rémi Müller on Unsplash
Coming to terms with the front lawn from hell
It’s that time of the year and the crabgrass is waiting.
Photo by Skyla Design on Unsplash
Radishes and science
All over New England spades are turning earth. It’s that time of year to ask the perennial question: Is gardening a science or an art?
Indian-pipe • Photo by Will Brown (CC BY 2.0)
The zombies of the plant world
It’s been a bumper year for Indian-pipes. I can’t recall another time when I have seen so many. Even as I write, in late September, they are still common in the pine-oak woods, pushing up through the leaf litter on the forest floor, little covens of waxy-white wildflowers, ghostly, bewitching, vaguely demonic.
Photo by Ryan Song on Unsplash
Green cows and black grass
You may have heard the old rhyme: “I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one; But I can tell you, anyhow, I’d rather see than be one.”
Pink lady's slipper in New England woods • Tom Raymo
The lady’s slipper
Lady’s slipper. Moccasin flower. Squirrel shoes. The scientific name of the plant is Cypripedium, which is Greek for “slipper of Venus.” The early French explorers of North America called it le sabot de la Vierge, “the sabot of the Virgin”; a sabot is a wooden shoe worn by peasants in France.
Burdock hitching a ride • Plant Image Library (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Hitchhiking for survival
This is the season of the grabbers and clingers. I came home from a walk in the woods with enough seeds stuck to my clothes to start my own weed patch. Bloom time for the wildflowers is past; now is the time when the seeds go traveling.