Latest Botany News
Find out where your firewood comes from to prevent the spread of invasive pests
Crackling fires have long been a gathering place where idyllic chestnuts are roasted, stories shared and souls warmed, whether around a hearth or at a campsite. Some folks cut their own wood and let it season, but most buy their wood without much thought about where it came from. As...
A step-by-step guide to renovating a neglected garden
Some homeowners gaze out their windows and see lush and beautiful gardens. Others would like to see lush and beautiful gardens but instead are greeted by overgrown, dead or otherwise messy landscapes. Whether you’ve inherited a neglected garden from a previous homeowner or have...
'Tis the season for roasting chestnuts. But in the US, native ones are almost gone
It's been a very long time since vendors sold the American chestnut on city sidewalks. It's no longer the variety whose smell some people associate with Christmastime as it wafts from street carts. Because it's virtually extinct. But memories of the American chestnut's legacy keep...
Papuan women's mangrove forest in Indonesia is increasingly threatened by development and pollution
JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — On the southeastern coast of the city of Jayapura, Petronela Merauje walked from house to house in her floating village inviting women to join her the next morning in the surrounding mangrove forests. Merauje and the women of her village, Enggros,...
In southern India's tea country, small but mighty efforts are brewing to bring back native forests
UDHAGAMANDALAM, India (AP) — Scattered groves of native trees, flowers and the occasional prehistoric burial ground are squeezed between hundreds of thousands of tea shrubs in southern India's Nilgiris region — a gateway to a time before colonization and the commercial growing of tea that...
Disease could kill most of the ‘ohi‘a forests on Hawaii's Big Island within 20 years
Ten years ago, a mysterious new disease was found sweeping through Hawaii’s native ‘ohi‘a forests, killing off the foundation of the islands’ ecology and one of the state’s most culturally important trees. Now, researchers are in a race against time. They say most of the...