Plant Science

How Plants Are Used in Centuries-old “Weather Magic” Practices on Islands in the Southwestern Pacific Nation of Vanuatu

Posted in History & People, Plant Science

Together with a group of colleagues in the United States and in Vanuatu, we recently published a study on how plants are used in “weather ... Read More

Not the Last of Us: The Truth about Zombie Fungi

Posted in Plant Science

HBO’s new series The Last of Us has drawn millions of viewers and generated considerable buzz since its release in mid-January. Read More

Cowpeas and the African Diaspora: What Can Natural History Collections Add?

Posted in History & People, Plant Science

Cowpeas, which belong to the legume family of plants, are an annual crop—planted anew from seed each year—grown throughout much of the world. Read More

Cowpeas and the African Diaspora, Part Two: A Life-Giving Crop

Posted in History & People, Plant Science

Genetic, historical, and archeological evidence suggests that cowpeas were domesticated in the Sahelian region of West Africa, and perhaps also in East Africa, several thousand ... Read More

Cowpeas and the African Diaspora, Part Three: Can Herbarium Specimens Fill Historical Gaps?

Posted in History & People, Plant Science

Unfortunately, many of the early written records of cowpeas in the Americas are ambiguous, either because the descriptions of the plants are insufficiently detailed to ... Read More

Color of Biodiversity

Posted in Environment & Conservation, Plant Science

Pink is not just pretty—it’s primeval. And this year, pink is being honored as PANTONE’s Color of Biodiversity. Read More

East End Story: Protecting Shinnecock Plant Knowledge and Biodiversity on Long Island

Posted in Environment & Conservation, Plant Science

The Indigenous people of the Shinnecock Nation have long maintained a strong connection to the plants of their homelands on the eastern end of Long ... Read More

More Than a Decade of Research Yields New Guide to Palms of Belize

Posted in Plant Science

We have combined our interests in plant systematics and ethnobotany to produce a compact yet comprehensive treatment of the most visible and highly useful plant ... Read More

Remembering Thomas E. Lovejoy and Edward O. Wilson

Posted in History & People, Plant Science

This past weekend, two world-renowned biologists who were stalwart advocates for scientific research, biodiversity collections, and plant conservation at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) ... Read More

The Unsettling Lifecycle of a Zombified Ant

Posted in Plant Science

Some of the things we study here at NYBG are a little creepier than others. Hear from João Araújo, Ph.D., Assistant Curator of Mycology at ... Read More