originally posted: September 25, 2001 | by chelsie

Every now and then, determined observers make a chance discovery. Today, there are thousands of people alive because of a flowering annual, yet people pass it by seldom looking twice. Most gardeners do not even know the value of this common plant other than its colorful drought tolerance. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: September 18, 2001 | by chelsie

From genetic and protein studies done on the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) [fa zee' o lus vul gare' is], it appears that the plant was domesticated twice, once in Peru and again in Mexico. Interestingly, it happened at about the same time 7,000 years ago. Two separate peoples began the cultivation of a plant that is now grown world wide. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: September 11, 2001 | by chelsie

In 1763, Catherine the Great invited Western Europeans to settle in Russia. Her invitation offered a stable home to the peoples of war-torn Germany, transportation to Russia, land ownership, religious freedom, and political autonomy. Catherine knew that to build Russia into a world power, it needed a solid agricultural base. Many of the German peasants who took Catherine up on her offer were Mennonites searching for a home where they could practice their religious beliefs. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: September 4, 2001 | by chelsie

A little over a thousand years ago, something remarkable happened in China. A new dynasty, the Sung, was created by military coup. The emperor then disposed of his military supporter. This would forestall any coups d'etat for Emperor Chao K'uang-yin had other plans for his country. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 28, 2001 | by chelsie

About 7,000 years ago, some gatherers, probably women noticed a spontaneous mutation in teosinte (Zea mays subspecies parviglumis). The ears may have been larger or the kernels bigger, but this teosinte was good to eat. More importantly, these women noticed that spilled kernels grew into replicas of the plants from which they were picked. They could scatter the kernels and reap the results--a stable food source. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 21, 2001 | by chelsie

Five hundred thousand is a rough guesstimate of the number of plant species on the face of the Earth. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 14, 2001 | by chelsie

Tea is made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis [ka mee' lee a si nen' sis]. This broadleaf evergreen is native to Southeast Asia and is a close relative of the camellias (Camellia japonica and others) grown for their extravagant spring flowers. According to the legend, tea has been used in India and China for at least 4,000 years. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: August 7, 2001 | by chelsie

It is said that before the United States was settled, a squirrel could travel from the Mississippi River to the Carolinas jumping from tree to tree and never touching the ground. The great forest with deep rich soils offered land and hope to people willing to settle there. But in the early 1800's, a disease was killing these pioneers. Often their cattle died of the "shakes and trembles". No one knew the cause. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 31, 2001 | by chelsie

Columbus was searching for a shorter route to the East Indies when he ran into the New World. The spices were in Far East--India, China, Southeast Asia, and the associated islands--but the demand was in Europe. The Arabs who took great caravans across the deserts to reach the Far East controlled the spice trade. But this kept the supply of spices limited, prices high, and the Europeans felt, the money in the wrong hands. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 24, 2001 | by chelsie

The toxic qualities of azalea honey were probably well known to the ruler of Pontus, a kingdom on the shores of the Black Sea. Mithridates VI received a Greek education before ascending to the throne. He had probably read the works of Xenophon who with 10,000 mercenaries fled Persia 300 years earlier. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 17, 2001 | by chelsie

Azaleas and rhododendrons spend most of the year biding their time like leafy lumps. Come spring they explode with color in a sort of horticultural humor--"Fooled ya, I'm gorgeous!" Flowering just once a year they do not want their blossoms tampered with, not even by bees. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: July 15, 2001 | by chelsie

The opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) [pap' a ver som nif er um] is an annual from southeastern Europe and western Asia. Long has the addictive effect of poppies been known, Gerard (The Herball, 1597) writes, "It mitigateth all kind of pains: but it leaveth behind it oftentimes a mischief worse that the disease itself, and that hard to be cured, as a dead palsy and such like." Opium addicts shake when they need another dose. [Click here to read more...]