Posted: June 4, 2023
When I bought my house six years ago, among the plants I inherited with it was an interesting looking green one that had leaves shaped like an origami creation. They form many intricate designs that fold into each other. The plant is beautiful and looks even better now than it did six years ago. It
Continue Reading “My Showy Stonecrop”
Category: Blog
Tags: calm, contented, flowers, hollyhock, petunias, Picture This app, plant, Showy stonecrop
Posted: May 5, 2023
Tarun Nayar is a trained biologist. He is also a musician. He likes to make music with the help of bioelectric pulses he has recorded from living plants and fungi. He also is interested in integrating the sounds of wild places such as old-growth forests. He wants people to be fascinated by and aware of
Continue Reading “Trained Biologist Captures Plant Music”
Category: Blog
Tags: biologist, electricity, Field Notes, fungi, Modern Biology, music, nature, old-growth forests, plants, synthesizer, Tarun Nayar, Treehugger, vibration
Posted: April 22, 2023
At the house where I used to live north of Aztec, New Mexico, there stood a huge cottonwood tree at the edge of the irrigation ditch that ran through our rural property. I called it Grandfather Tree. It was scarred with a long-ago lightning strike. Some of its branches had died and fallen off. Others
Continue Reading “Visiting Grandfather Tree”
Category: Blog
Tags: bark, cardboard boxes, cottonwood, doves, eagles, Grandfather Tree, lightning, neighbor, window box
Posted: April 5, 2023
Some researchers in Israel have been studying plants and the sounds they make. Lilach Hadany, an evolutionary biologist and theoretician at Tel Aviv University is the senior author of the study. The researchers published their work in the journal, Cell. The study is called “Sounds Emitted by Plants Under Stress Are Airborne and Informative.” Though
Continue Reading “Plants Make Sounds When They Are Stressed”
Category: Blog
Posted: March 23, 2023
From scientists to planners, many people agree that trees make cities more comfortable and survivable as global temperatures rise. But planting more trees is easier said than done. An interesting article in the January 20, 2023 The Guardian Weekly written by Jon Henley laid out challenges experienced in some European cities. Though many people agree
Continue Reading “The Pros and Cons of Trees in Cities”
Category: Blog
Tags: cooling, financial benefits, infrastructure, storing carbon, stormwater, The Guardian Weekly, trees in cities
Posted: March 10, 2023
I was picking up dog poop in my back yard yesterday. Sorry to mention such a thing, but I am glad it happens. It’s one way I keep tabs on my dog’s health. I noticed as I was walking up and down the lawn that there were more spruce tree cones than there was dog
Continue Reading “Beautiful Spruce Cones”
Posted: February 22, 2023
As my son and I drove through Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park in January, we saw along the side of the road many mounds of lava. Out of one mound grew a young, scraggly tree. Its roots had sunk deep into the black rock. It was determined to grow and thrive. I don’t know what kind
Continue Reading “Tree Grows in Lava”
Posted: February 8, 2023
If you ever get the opportunity to travel to the Big Island of Hawaii, one of the many amazing places to see is the Lava Tree State Park. Some internet sites call it the Lava Tree State Monument. It’s the same place. Almost anywhere on the island, you will see flows of lava that have
Category: Blog
Tags: Hawaii, incinerated, Kilauea, lava, Lava Tree State Park, Pahoa, rainforest, volcano
Posted: January 4, 2023
Around the world, adults with good intentions and a deep sense of purpose have planted trees. The trees are planted for different reasons. They protect soil from water erosion. Once they’re grown, they reduce global warming by sequestering carbon. They beautify an area, reduce wind damage, and protect wildlife. But many tree planting efforts sometimes
Continue Reading “Can Kids Be Better Tree Planters than Adults?”
Posted: December 21, 2022
If you live in a neighborhood where there are quite a few trees growing outside, you probably live in a community that is healthier than places without many trees. You can celebrate that fact this Christmas season by putting Christmas tree ornaments on a tree in your yard! A new study led by the United
