The Wild Seed
When I was a child growing up on the edge of a white (Quercus garryanna) oak forest in Oregon I loved to collect the wild seeds of native plants. I was attracted to their great beauty, unusual design,...
View ArticleBeginning Botany in a New Year – What are plants and where do they come from?
“PLANT BLINDNESS is a modern phenomenon whereby humans walk through their world each day and do not notice plants, nor do they know the name, the physiological, ethnobotanical, herbological or...
View ArticleROOTS
The roots of a plant play an important role to help the plant grow and thrive. They anchor the plant in the soil; absorb water and minerals; and store excess food for future needs underground. We are...
View ArticleThe Leaf
The Leaf “Oh leaf, you must surely have found strength to force the branch to burst open so that you could emerge. What did you do to become free from the prison? Speak, Speak…” -Rumi A leaf is like a...
View ArticleThe Flower – In three parts
“The ‘Amen!’ of Nature is always a flower.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes I have been reading so much about flowers lately and I want to teach you what I learned as well as what I know. So, I am going to...
View ArticleThe Flower: Part 2- Pollination and Sex life of Flowers
“Beauty and seduction, I believe, is nature’s tool for survival, because we will protect what we fall in love with.”– Louie Schwartzberg, from The Hidden Beauty of Pollination After I posted the first...
View ArticleTrees – the teacher in the forest
Part one: Conifers A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear...
View ArticleThe 12 most important deciduous native trees in the Cascadian Bio-region
BIG LEAF MAPLE (Acer macrophyllum) Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they...
View ArticleWhite or Paper Birch (Betula Papyrifera)
Earth’s the right place for love: I don’t know where it’s likely to go better. I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could...
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