“When I was a kid growing up I was obsessed with animals and monsters… I’d draw them everyday, and when I grew up I either wanted to be a zoologist or a
monster hunter… When I got a bit older I realized that being a zoologist was less exciting than I had imagined, and that
‘monster hunter’ isn’t even a real job, so I just kept drawing. I pretty much do
the exact same thing at 29 years old that I did when I was 9 years old.”
Nicholas Di Genova weaves organisms together in pen and ink.
[more inside]
posted by emilyd22222
on Dec 8, 2010 -
11 comments
Various Japanese plants (and fungi) spring to life in Omni/ScienceNet's "Action Plant" series of
time-lapse videos shot in Kōchi prefecture.
posted by gman
on Nov 9, 2010 -
3 comments
Our minds boggle at how the wolf could become the chihuahua, the Saint Bernard, the poodle and the
Komondor. Artificial selection was likewise responsible for transforming the humble wild mustard plant
Brassica oleracea into cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and the breathtaking fractal
Romanesco, all in the span of a few centuries.
[more inside]
posted by overeducated_alligator
on Aug 23, 2010 -
54 comments
During the past 4 days, the
Cockrell Butterfly Center at the
Houston Museum of Natural Science has stayed open 24 hours to accommodate the
record crowds filing into the museum at all hours. Why? A rare
Amorphophallus titanium, aka
“Corpse Flower,” named
Lois is
finally about to bloom. Now, Lois is
not your average, run-of-the-mill
stinky plant.
Only 28 Corpse Flowers have bloomed in the US, so Lois has become a
local celebrity with
her own blog,
Flickr feed,
live webcam and
cupcakes. She even has
her own playlist, with songs such as “That Smell” by Lynyrd Skynrd, “I’m Comin’ Out” by Diana Ross and the classic “Smelly Cat” by Phoebe from Friends. And like any trendy Corpse Flower, Lois also has
her own Twitter account. She's also a
bit of a diva. Yet despite predictions, Lois
still hasn't bloomed as of Wednesday morning. In response, Lois
makes excuses,
bad jokes,
complaints and
snarky comments.
posted by yeoja
on Jul 14, 2010 -
30 comments
It sprang to life sometime
in the 3rd millennium, outliviving the kingdoms of ancient Egypt, it survived six of the
seven wonders of the ancient world, and it's older than Judaism. It survived 5,000 years (give or take a few hundred), and was cut down in 1964 by
Donald Currey, a graduate student in geography. He was studying the
Little Ice Age (prev), and he was looking for an old
Bristlecone pine in the White-Inyo mountain range of California (prev), as a record for climatic conditions from that period. As that tree, nicknamed
Prometheus, is no longer living, the record for
oldest tree goes to a tree from the same stand,
Methuselah. If trees aren't your thing, there are quite a few
long-living organisms of other sorts. For more fun and photos, join
Rachel Sussman on her journey to photograph them.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on May 4, 2010 -
43 comments
Planning next spring's garden? Just curious about plants? Then check out
Plant Information Online, which "provides access to: Current Plant and Seed Sources for 107,631 plants... from 1,054 North American firms that will ship plants; Contact information and links... for 2,448 North American retail and wholesale seed and nursery firms; Bibliographic details for 377,083 images of 140,104 wild and cultivated plants from around the world in botanical and horticultural books and magazines from 1982 to the present; and links to expert-selected sites on growing plants in your region of Canada or the US."
(Description from website.)
posted by cog_nate
on Nov 4, 2008 -
5 comments
They are members of the
olive family, among the
earliest flowering plants imported to the United States. Planted near the front doors of flat, bare early Colonial house facades, they helped to create "
dooryard gardens," which softened and brought beauty to a rough-hewn early America.
Jefferson planted them; at Monticello, some of those bushes still bloom.. They gave
Pan his pipes. They are employed as evocative symbols in
American literature,
song,
and poetry, where they symbolize the
sensuousness of love in its earliest stages.
Festivals celebrate their
blooming, and
NOAA tracks the earliest leaves and flowers for evidence of climate change. The inability to smell it may be an
early indication of Alzheimer's disease. No wonder people like to
steal them.
posted by Miko
on May 23, 2008 -
31 comments
The Mathematical Lives of Plants "Scientists have puzzled over this pattern of plant growth for hundreds of years. Why would plants prefer the golden angle to any other? And how can plants possibly "know" anything about Fibonacci numbers?"
posted by dhruva
on May 7, 2007 -
31 comments
A very brief history of conservatories,
and another.
And little more on
orangeries.
More than just a place to keep plants warm, conservatories peaked in popularity (and size) in the second half of the 19th century. They popped up all
over Europe, wherever
elites wanted to show off their 'exotic' plunders.
Made from more than a million feet of glass, the
Crystal Palace may have been the awesomest of them all: it was initially built to showcase the wonders of Victorian England, and its exhibits included the latest technological innovations, the largest organ in the world, a circus, objects from Australia, India, and other colonial lands, along with the many tropical plant species we usually associate with big glass buildings. The whole thing was later moved to South London and eventually housed a television station and became associated with
a well-known football club. Finally, it burned to the ground in 1936. Coincidentally, Munich's copycat, the
Glaspalast was destroyed by arson as well. (But each year's
catalog of exhibits has been digitized!)
Conservatories flourish in
North America as well.
San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers was assembled from a kit, survived the '06 earthquake, but had to be rebuilt after successive explosions, fires, rotten wood, and a massive wind-storm. (Don't miss their
cooking tips, but watch out – their site may be
NSFW.)
And although they certainly aren't as popular as they used to be, contemporary conservatories
can be found.
Before you leave the world of glass houses, take a quick look at some
photos of Detroit's hidden treasure.
posted by serazin
on Mar 12, 2007 -
14 comments
"The USDA PLANTS database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories." Among the highlights are a
list of culturally significant plants and a
searchable image gallery you can submit photos to.
Forestry Images is a similar USDA-supported site dedicated to silviculture.
If that isn't enough for you, click on over to the
Germplasm Resources Information Network. There, you'll find a smorgasbord of information on virtually all the food varieties commercially raised in the US:
where the germplasm is held,
lists of species at each site,
detailed descriptions of individual accessions (e.g., cultivars), even
who owns the Red Silk Radish.
If it grows and you can
eat,
drink,
smoke or
inject it, the USDA probably has it cataloged. And if they don't, search
one of these.
posted by cog_nate
on Dec 6, 2006 -
7 comments
The Urban Pantheist is the livejournal of Jef Taylor, where he works out articles for his two zines:
The Urban Pantheist: Loving Nature while Living in the City and
Urban Nature Walk. The LJ became a bit more as he embarked on a project called
365 Urban Species, where he'll post a current photo and short article about a different living thing found in the city each day.
posted by FunkyHelix
on Jul 16, 2006 -
10 comments
Nature's Control: Hired
Thugs Bugs to police your garden.
"If desired, you can keep ladybug adults from flying by "gluing" their wings shut, temporarily, with a sugar-water solution. Half water and half sugared pop (Coke, Pepsi, etc.), in a spray bottle, works fine."
posted by Gator
on Feb 21, 2006 -
13 comments
Plant Cultures - central aim ... is to convey the richness and complexity of links
between Britain and South Asia, through the story of plants and people
posted by Gyan
on Nov 12, 2005 -
2 comments
