Issue 12: June 2022
A Garden of Passion and Compassion: Miami Beach Botanical Garden
By Gayil Nalls
June 1, 2022
An interview with members of a small staff protecting and preserving a plant world oasis in South Beach.
Do Mushrooms Really Use Language to Talk to Each Other? A Fungi Expert Investigates
By Katie Field
June 1, 2022
This professor of plant-soil processes at the University of Sheffield says this ancient kingdom has an electrical language all of its own, transmitting information across thin filaments of a mycelium web linking fungal colonies.
Ukraine Produced a Lot of Grain—Can Farmers Elsewhere Replace the Crops Lost to War?
By Hana Trollman
June 1, 2022
The lecturer in food industry management at Nottingham Trent University says we’re depending on the weather.
Junk Food Is Bad For Plants, Too
By Anne Biklé & David R. Montgomery
June 1, 2022
Humans aren’t the only ones eating junk food. Find out why feeding it to our crops comes at our own expense.
When Plants Go to War
By Mike Newland
June 1, 2022
Plants may appear tranquil but they are under almost constant bombardment from pests. In the fight against insects, plants have evolved an arsenal of ingenious invisible chemical defenses.
City Composting—One New Yorker’s Experience
By Véronique Firkusny
June 1, 2022
Composting is a wonderful way to enrich soil, and even in the city, composting at home is easy and environmentally beneficial.
Issue 11: May 2022
The Narcissus in Art
By Clara Muller
May 1, 2022
Learn about the artistic traditions around the Auvergne narcissus across time, regions and cultures.
Plants Have an “Ear” for Music
By Matthew Sedacca
May 1, 2022
The research suggesting that plants respond to music is very compelling. Learn how sound can stimulate growth.
Pollen Can Raise your Risk of COVID-19
Interview with Lewis Ziska
May 1, 2022
The plant physiologist advises us on why pollen seasons are becoming increasingly intense.
Protecting Biodiversity—and Making it Accessible—Has Paid Off for Costa Rica
By Alejandra Echeverri Ochoa and Jeffrey R. Smith
May 1, 2022
Learn how eco-tourism is paying off for the environment and biodiversity in Costa Rica.
Nature Soothes and Restores: Enjoy the Practice of Forest Bathing
By Gayil Nalls
May 1, 2022
An instruction in how the sights, sounds and the natural phytoncides in forest air can benefit mind and body.
Climate Change Triggering Global Collapse in Insect Numbers: Stressed Farmland Shows 63% Decline—New Research
By Tim Newbold and Charlie Outhwaite
May 1, 2022
Gain insight into the global insect crisis.
Issue 10: April 2022
The Power of Harmony: Musical, Spiritual and Environmental
By Gayil Nalls • April 1, 2022
Plants sense their environment. Not only do they perceive scent, light, touch, wind, and gravity, they are able to respond to sound through the vibrations of music and the human voice.
Taking Plants Off Planet—How do they grow in zero gravity?
By Anna-Lisa Paul and Robert Ferl • April 1, 2022
Learn about research on the development of plants in zero gravity, a pursuit which could teach us more about how plant life will adapt to environmental changes in a future of planetary exploration.
How the Loss of Native American Languages Affects Our Understanding of the Natural World
By Rosalyn R. LaPier • April 1, 2022
The scholar chronicles the ways in which Native languages hold vast environmental knowledge that cannot be sufficiently translated to English.
What the Meadow Teaches Us: Feeling is the physics of the organic world
By Andreas Weber • April 1, 2022
How can we know where we fall into the great network of diverse organisms in the natural world?
Can “Climate Corridors” Help Species Adapt to Warming World?
By Jenny McGuire • April 1, 2022
Urbanization has left natural ecosystems to exist only in small patches surrounded by developed areas, with no paths to other hospitable environments.
When Plants and Their Microbes Are Not in Sync, the Results Can Be Disastrous
By Sheng-Yang He • April 1, 2022
A recent study discovered a condition similar to inflammatory bowel disease, known as dysbiosis, in the plant kingdom.
Issue 9: March 2022
Japan’s Cherry Blossom Viewing Parties—The History of Chasing the Fleeting Beauty of Sakura
By Nozomi Uematsu • March 1, 2022
Every year millions of people set out to view blossoming cherry trees, and take in their beauty and pleasing aroma.
What’s Behind Japan’s Moss Obsession
By Mako Nozu and Brian Thompson • March 1, 2022
Japan has a deep love of calming, ancient, and serene moss environments. Much like cherry blossom viewing, a movement for moss viewing parties and moss-themed everything has taken off in the country.
The Invasive Emerald Ash Borer Has Destroyed Millions of Trees—Scientists Aim to Control It With Tiny Parasitic Wasps
By Kristine Grayson • March 1, 2022
The author shares insights into novel ways to cope with a rapidly spreading invasive species.
E.O. Wilson’s Lifelong Passion for Ants Helped Him Teach Humans About How to Live Sustainably With Nature
By Doug Tallamy • March 1, 2022
E.O. Wilson spent the last years of his life bringing attention to the mass extinctions in progress around the world and calling for action to save as much biodiversity as possible.
The Damask Rose in Art
By Clara Muller • March 1, 2022
Inspiring centuries of creators, the rose, in symbol, form, and scent, has fortified culture.
The US Biofuel Mandate Helps Farmers, but Does Little for Energy Security and Harms the Environment
By John DiCicco • March 1, 2022
As we try to meet our energy needs and move to renewables, it’s important to understand the environmental, political, and economic thinking process behind regulatory changes.
Issue 8: February 2022
In this issue of Plantings, global culture writer and member of WS/C Board of Advisors, Braden Bjella, currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia, shines in his role as our inaugural Guest Editor. This February, Braden takes us to regions across Eastern Europe and Central Asia with an article collection of interviews, stories, and images, bringing knowledge and awareness of our world and its beauty. He introduces us to environmental thinkers, innovators, and trailblazers from Romania, Albania, Germany, Georgia, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan, who are taking actions to protect their part of the world. Each interview illuminates efforts at the forefront of progress during these challenging times, creating hope for us all.
Wild Romania: Europe’s Hidden Wildlife Paradise
February 1, 2022
Romania has an incredible breadth of wildlife — old growth forests, plenty of animals not seen outside Romania, and more. In his photography and new film Wild Romania, Dan Dinu shows that beauty to the world.
Berlin’s Bog as Metaphor—or Why We All Live in the Bog
February 1, 2022
Frances Braden of the collective COVEN Berlin tells us that the idea that cities are separate from nature is a construct that is not real, as she explores the beauty of bogs, using both their power and their destruction as a metaphor for the Internet, life, and more.
Russia’s 99recycle is Bringing Recycling Home
February 1, 2022
The Russian label 99Recycle turns the nation’s garbage into trendy bags and outfits. Its environmentally conscious entrepreneur, CEO, and co-founder, Anton Rykachevsky details the company’s history, the problems they face, and their plans for the future.
Albania’s Goal of Making “The First Wild River National Park In Europe”
February 1, 2022
Olsi Nika inspires us with Albania’s goal of saving the Vjosë, the second largest river in Albania. His resilience and fight for nature encourages us all to persevere.
Meet Your Trash
February 1, 2022
Kyrgyz artist and curator Bermet Borubaeva, who helped launch a trash festival detailing the problem of garbage in Kyrgyzstan, talks about her work and what people in the West should know about the problems of the East.
The Many Secrets of Georgian Honey
By Braden R. Bjella • February 1, 2022
Georgian honey is some of the finest in the world. The country’s unique flora and fauna give the honey a taste like nowhere else.
Issue 7: January 2022
How urban agriculture can improve food security in US cities
By Miguel Altieri • January 1, 2022
Urban agriculture is imperative for more people to have access to fresh and healthful foods.
Fossils suggest an aquatic plant that bloomed underwater was among first flowering plants
By David Dilcher • January 1, 2022
The Emeritus Professor of Geological Sciences and Paleobotany, Indiana University of the Montsechia, explores the fossil record of a plant which lived 130 million years ago.
An environmental sociologist explains how permaculture offers a path to climate justice
By Christina Ergas • January 1, 2022
The ethical philosophy and sustainable practices of permaculture take on a new urgency in a warming world.
Healthy soil is the real key to feeding the world
By David R. Montgomery • January 1, 2022
The professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, embarked on a 6-month trip studying the degradation of soil across farms.
Pétrichor
By Clara Muller • January 1, 2022
Poetry that amplifies our connection to the natural world and its range of emotions that defines the human experience.
Scent and the Male Orchid Bee: A talk with Hsurae
By Gayil Nalls • January 1, 2022
Male orchid bees are perfume makers. They collect scents from floral and fetid objects to compose their perfume which they then store in special organs on the back of their hind legs. A practitioner of BioArt has preserved a form of this fragrance using the science of attraction.
Issue 6: December 2021
The Amazing Growth of the Christmas Tree
By François Lévêque • December 1, 2021
Explore the past, present, and future of the Christmas tree.
Loved to death: Australian sandalwood is facing extinction in the wild
By Richard McLellan, David M Watson, and Kingsley Dixon • December 1, 2021
Part of rituals around the world since antiquity, Sandalwood is facing a crisis.
Your skin can ‘sniff’ certain aromas that help it heal faster
By Hanns Hatt • December 1, 2021
The German scientist, who discovered olfactory receptors throughout the human body, tells us why traditions of aromatic plants use for ‘magical’ healing really work.
Guided by Plant Voices
By Steve Paulson • December 1, 2021
An Interview with plant ecologist Monica Gagliano who knows plants are sensitive, feeling beings.
Inside my painter’s mind
By Catherine Gropper • December 1, 2021
The poet reminds us of our warming world and our shared humanity.
Aromatic Flora and Priority Conservation
By Gayil Nalls • December 1, 2021
Learn how conservationists prioritize endangered species, and why conservation must involve us all.
Issue 5: November 2021
Pennsylvania’s Best Kept Secrets: An Interview with Rebecca Bowen
By Gail Nalls • November 1, 2021
We spoke with the conservationist, who is protecting rare wild plants for the state.
20 Beautiful New Biospheres
November 1, 2021
Take a look at 20 new biospheres that UNESCO has designated to help sustain life on our planet.
Listening to Nature: How Sound Can Help Us Understand Environmental Change
By Garth Paine • November 1, 2021
Learn how exposure to the sounds of nature is good for our health, well-being and happiness and can tell us about the health of the environment.
Learning to Speak Shrub
By Elizabeth Preston • November 1, 2021
An introduction to some thought-provoking ideas about how plants use molecular code to communicate and survive.
Human Tendencies
By Amos Zeeberg, Jonathon Keats & Brandon Keim • November 1, 2021
With good humor, the writers tell us about the traits we share with plants and animals.
Two Poems
By Judith McConnell Steele • November 1, 2021
A guide in poetry through the wilds of Idaho.
Issue 4: October 2021
How other primates self-medicate – and what they could teach us
By Sophia Daoudi • October 1, 2021
An animal behaviorist tells us about monkey species that eat plants, soils, and charcoal to both treat and prevent diseases.
A Fragrance Medicine Wheel Garden
By E. Barrie Kavasch • October 1, 2021
American Indian Medicine Wheel Gardens are an ancient and powerful way of creating a sacred planting space and working with natural energies for healing and renewal.
“Molecular Still Lives” Show the Science in Our Food in Us
By Heather Sparks • October 1, 2021
A journey into the painting subjects that depicts our modern food supply and how it impacts our bodies and lives.
Who Picks Whom?
By Jake Eshelman • October 1, 2021
Through photography and poetry, an artist and visual researcher explores the relationship between people, plants and magic, as told through the work and practice of aTexas-based witch, occult herbalist and microbiologist.
The Wisdom of Plants and the Future of Fashion
By Daria Dorosh • October 1, 2021
A pioneering advocate of sustainable fashion asks us to look to weeds for clothing inspiration.
Two of the Greatest ‘Healing Weeds’ in the World
By Nimal Chandrasena • October 1, 2021
An expert in the utilization of colonizing weed species profiles two highly significant medicinal plants from Eastern cultures.
Issue 3: September 2021
Rediscovering Bee battles: why our native pollinators are losing the war
By Kelsey K. Graham • September 1, 2021
As global commerce grows, the movement of goods is occurring at ever-faster rates. And with increased global trade comes the spread of non-native species. This includes invasive insects that are making life difficult for domestic bees.
15 Health and Well-being Benefits of Plants
By Charles Hall and Madeline W. Dickson • September 1, 2021
Why plants make us more resilient and help safeguard our future
Why Some Species Thrive after Catastrophe – Rules for Making the Most of an Apocalypse
By Nicholas R. Longrich • September 1, 2021
Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth. The world was plunged into darkness, killing the dinosaurs and over 90% of all species alive. Today, every living thing descends from the handful of surviving species. But not all survivors thrived.
Dumbarton Oaks Gardens; Celebrating Landscape and Legacy
By Liz Macklin • September 1, 2021
This year with a fanfare of blossoms and new energy in programs blending science and the arts, Dumbarton Oaks marks its one hundredth anniversary.
Life Always Wins. Follow Me.
By Richard Harkess • September 1, 2021
A botanist is introduced to escapees from the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.
Supporting Pollinators, Yourself, and Your Ecological Community with Anise Hyssop
By Gayil Nalls • September 1, 2021
With fragrance, food, and therapeutic properties, the giant anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) can be a big contributor to an eco-community.
Issue 2: August 2021
Rediscovering Dumbarton Oaks and one of America’s First Landscape Architects
By Liz Macklin • August 1, 2021
Liz Macklin explores the historic garden at Dumbarton Oaks with Director of Garden and Grounds, Jonathan Kavalier, and discuss the genius of Beatrix Farrand’s design and ways to meet challenges in today’s gardens.
We Crush, Poison, and Destroy Our Insects at Our Own Peril
By John Hainze • July 1, 2021
Insects are escape artists. Now they face a threat more pernicious than predation.
Can Plants Think?
By Stuart Thompson • July 1, 2021
They could one day force us to change our definition of intelligence
Why Do Flowers Smell?
By Richard Harkess • July 1, 2021
Animal pollinators can carry pollen from one flower’s stigma to another flower’s ovule as they forage for food
The Plan of the Grounds
By Beatrix Farrand • July 1, 2021
Excepted from the Reef Point Gardens Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 3, September, 1948
Issue 1: July 2021
How to Plant the Forests of the Future
By Lauren Oakes • July 1, 2021
In the past, forest restoration could be informed by what once was. Now we have to make hard decisions about what we’re working toward.
Rising Levels of Carbon Dioxide: It’s personal
By Lewis Ziska • July 1, 2021
A large majority of people, even in the United States, recognize climate change as real, but the percent who are actively changing their lifestyle, aggressively fighting to prevent climate change is much smaller. Why?
How small family forests can help meet the climate challenge
By Gabriel Popkin • July 1, 2021
This 95-acre woods in south-central Pennsylvania’s ridge-and-valley country is a hunting and hiking refuge co-owned by eight families. As much as he loves it, Leiby knows it could be even better.
Mind the Gap Between Action and Impact
By Zachary Adams • July 1, 2021
Learning is rapid and reliable when rewards immediately follow the action and slow and even non-existent when rewards are substantially delayed in time.
A Rare Plant Conservation Success Story from Gibraltar
By Gayil Nalls • July 1, 2021
Dr. Rhian Guillem of the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens discusses the Gibraltar Campion, Silene tomentosa.
One Thing We Could All Do To Make a Difference
By Gayil Nalls and the WS/C Advisory Board • July 1, 2021
I asked WSC’s knowledgeable Board of Advisors who have diverse expertise and perspectives to name one thing they think we all can do to make a difference. This is what they said.