originally posted: December 28, 2001 | by chelsie

A panacea is a heal-all or universal remedy. Early physicians and herbalists searched in the belief that a single remedy existed for mankind's medical problems. There is one genus of plants first known from Chinese lore to which Linnaeus gave that designation. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 21, 2001 | by chelsie

In the winter of 1535-36, Jacques Cartier and his men were exploring the St. Lawrence River. Winter set in early. Cartier would later write that starting in mid-November, the ships were frozen in thick ice and snow was piled to four feet. Cartier's men were cold, hungry, and suffering from "the pestilence". Their joints were swollen, their gums bled and teeth fell out, weakness overwhelmed them. Of the 110 men, twenty-five died, forty were near death, and less than a dozen could stand. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 14, 2001 | by chelsie

When one first spots a roserush (Lygodesmia aphylla (Nuttall) de Candolle), it appears a flower out of place: a lone bloom of rose-pink petals held aloft on a thin round stem, dancing among the grasses of a dry prairie. It is a solitary plant; one never finds groups of roserushes. It amazes in its difference to the surrounding scene. One must stop and gaze at the tissue thin petals, the curls of stamens—graceful, fragile, glorious, and alone. David Don named the genus of roserushes, Lygodesmia, in 1829. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 7, 2001 | by chelsie

The Chinese were cultivating the white mulberry, Morus alba in gardens and for silkworm production in 2700 BC. The Romans grew "great forests" of common mulberry, Morus nigra and may have introduced the tree to England after 54 BC. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 30, 2001 | by chelsie

The banana was unknown in the U.S. until 1870 when Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker purchased 160 bunches in Jamaica and sailed for Jersey City. The bananas were an instant hit and retailed for 10 cents each. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 23, 2001 | by chelsie

In ancient India (Sanskrit), the coconut palm was called "kalpa vRiksha", the tree which gives all the necessities of life. The palm is used in Southeast Asia and the Oceanic Islands for everything from food and medicine to ropes, canoes, and construction. In 1280, Marco Polo described the coconut, calling it nux indica, the Indian nut. This Latin name stood in European manuscripts and herbals for the next 460 years. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 16, 2001 | by chelsie

There is a difficulty in backtracking events when we can not imagine the times, when few records were kept and many lost in the intervening years. But stories linger and it becomes a task of sorting facts from fabrications. Modern legends say that Elias was a fool with an irrational fear of water and, perhaps, that is why Linnaeus named a genus of epiphytes after him. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 9, 2001 | by chelsie

Sugar has been with us for thousands of years, but it has only been known to "westerners" for the last eight hundred or so. The cultivation of sugar cane and the refinement of sugar began in India. Sugar was known in Sanskrit as sarkara and in the ancient Pali texts of the Buddhists as sakkhara. The Greeks called the product sakcharon and the Romans saccharum. Sugar was lost to most of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 2, 2001 | by chelsie

The second of November is El Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. It is a celebration in remembrance of those who are gone, a welcoming home for spirits, and thoughts of life and renewal. El Dia de los Muertos is an old tradition probably dating to the Olmecs and coming from a mindset that believes life is a dream and death brings one to full awakening. It is believed that at this time a passage opens between the world of the living and the paradise of the spirits. The spirits pass from the "region of silence and repose" to visit their loved ones. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 26, 2001 | by chelsie

The poorman's weatherglass (Anagallis arvensis) [a nag' a lis ar ven' sis] is native to Europe and eastern Asia, a weed of waysides and fields. The seeds have traveled with people and the weatherglass is now found in temperate zones around the world. From Roman times to the late 1600s, it was believed that the red-flowered form was a male (Anagallis mas) and the blue-flowered a female (Anagallis foemina). [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 19, 2001 | by chelsie

There is a small tree in India and Southeast Asia called the sorrowful tree (Nyctanthes arbor-tristis) [nick tan' thees ar' bor -- tris' tis]. Its fragrant, white flowers open at night and are a source of yellow dye and an essential oil for perfumes. It was used medicinally in the Orient to treat the pain of rheumatism and sciatica, and when mixed with black pepper and honey was supposed to cure malaria. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 12, 2001 | by chelsie

Oh, the scandalous pomme de terre! It causes lust! It causes leprosy! It was the forbidden fruit of Eden! Brought to Europe from the high Andes by the Conquistadores, it was considered food for slaves and the poor. Slowly, the cultivation of the potato spread across Europe. Protestants would not grow it, Catholics planted it on Good Friday, and the poor found that it grew well and they could feed their families. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 5, 2001 | by chelsie

The swamp tupelos or black gums (Nyssa spp.) were named for the Nyseides, sister nymphs who lived on a mountain within a swamp. These sisters were also called the Hyades or "the rainy". [Click here to read more...]