The Biodiversity Heritage Library Flickr photostream contains several digital image collections, including Flowering Plants, Algae, Ferns, Fungi & Mosses, and BHL Books.

Featured in the BHL Books collection is the atlas from Jean Gourdon and Philibert Naudin’s 1871 work Nouvelle iconographie fourragère: histoire botanique, économique et agricole des plantes fourragères et des plantes nuisibles qui se rencontrent dans les prairies et les paturages : avec planches gravées sur cuivre et coloriées / par J. Gourdon, P. Naudin. This item was digitized in 2009 by The New York Botanical Garden’s Mertz Library.

The atlas includes an illustration of a coquelicot, or corn poppy:

Also available on the photostream are detailed and thumbnail views of other illustrations in the book.

(Side note: also in the 1870s, in Argenteuil, France, Claude Monet painted his famous Coquelicots (Poppies), which today resides at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.)

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a consortium of twelve natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.”

The LuEsther T. Mertz Library is a BHL partner.

From August 27 – September 25, families can explore Mario Batali’s Edible Garden in the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden and enjoy daily gardening activities and cooking demonstrations showcasing kid-friendly recipes with the chance to sample and search for ingredients in the garden. We are posting the recipes from Mario Batali’s Edible Garden here on the NYBG blog, Plant Talk, so check back often.

Penne with Arugula, Ricotta, and Pepperoncino

Dan Drohan, Executive Chef, OTTO Enoteca Pizzaria, New York

Arugula Pesto

3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon pine nuts
2 cups arugula leaves, tightly packed, rinsed and dried
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 pound penne
1 cup Arugula Pesto
2 peperoncini
1 garlic clove, sliced
2 tablespoons pecorino romano
2 tablespoons fresh ricotta

Drop the garlic into a food processor to chop. Add the pine nuts and arugula and pulse until the arugula is finely chopped. With the motor running, drizzle in the oil. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in the parmigiano. Set aside. The pesto can be stored in a tightly sealed jar, topped with a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil, for several weeks in the refrigerator.

Bring 8 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot.

Meanwhile, in a small sauté pan, sweat the garlic and pepperoncini until the garlic is lightly toasted. Remove from heat.

When water is boiling, add 2 tablespoons of salt and drop in pasta. Cook pasta until two minutes short of package cooking time, reserving half cup of cooking liquid.

Transfer pasta to serving bowl and toss with pesto, pepperoncini, reserved pasta water, and pecorino. Serve immediately with dollops of fresh ricotta on top

The Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden opens to the public for daily gardening activities at 1:30 p.m. Prior to that time, it is not uncommon to see families sitting in these wonderfully shaded benches in little niches of a giant hedge. It’s like something out of a storybook!

Across From the Family Garden (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)