Plant blindness [PB] is the term coined by James Wandersee & Elisabeth Schussler (The American Biology Teacher 61(2): 82–86, 1999; https://doi.org/10.2307/4450624) for the phenomenon in humans whereby plants are not seen – literally overlooked – in nature, and consequently their importance to humanity is not appreciated. It’s also been called zoochauvinism, and zoocentrism, which terms […]
Without a source are facts really facts, or just factoids?
A rose by any other name... would be incorrectly described.
Rocky Shores, by John Archer–Thompson and Julian Cremona 2019. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. “Rocky shores are one of the most extreme environments on the planet.” [Anon.] This is a BOTANY blog site! OK, let’s address the elephant in the room at the outset: Why am I, a Botanist, appraising Rocky Shores by John Archer-Thompson and Julian […]
Tree story: The history of the world written in rings, by Valerie Trouet 2020. Johns Hopkins University Press What links the following: That (in)famous ‘hockey stick graph’ which showed that Earth’s temperature, relatively stable for 500 years, had spiked upward during the 20th century thereby providing strong evidence of anthropogenic global warming from burning of […]
Just the tonic, by Kim Walker and Mark Nesbitt 2019. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. What is: carbonated water, citric acid, sodium citrate, natural quinine, and aspartame? That is the declared list of ingredients in a can of Schweppes’ tonic water (slimline variety). Arguably, that listing is ‘just the tonic’, which is also the title of […]
Tea leaves might not predict the future, but they have a powerful connection to our past.
Koalas break the local stereotype by being Australians who don't drink. Or so it was thought.
If a tree falls in a forest, can it still insulate people from sound pollution?
Beauty is more than skin deep in this book explaining how plants function.
Latest Comments