December 2024

With their evergreen foliage, yellow spore-bearing cones, and ropey stems, club-mosses or lycopods (Lycopodium species, in the broad sense) are nearly perfect for shaping Christmas wreaths. Actually, they may be too perfect for their own good. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, club-mosses were often over-harvested for their use as holiday greens. This, in combination […]

One of the mysteries of plant evolution is why some genera are incredibly species rich, while closely related ones contain just a few species. A case in point is Astragalus (commonly known as milkvetch or locoweed) which contains over 3200 species on every continent except Australia, and its cousin Peteria (sometimes called spiny milkvetch) with just 4 species in […]