ethnobotany

Forests and fruits we romanticize as wild — including many plants now in our kitchens and gardens...

If your vegetable garden sits on land that was once a gas station, an orchard sprayed with lead a...

If you have a sunny, dry corner of your yard, prickly pear cactus can produce edible pads and fru...

Chokecherry thickets along roadsides and forest edges are ripening right now, and the dark astrin...

Berry patches you stumble across in open, scrubby terrain aren't accidental — generations of Indi...

If you forage or wild-harvest medicinal herbs anywhere near a power plant, smokestack, or heavy i...

The echinacea, holy basil, and lavender in your herb garden ramp up their protective compounds wh...

Chokecherry thickets lining roadsides and forest edges right now are loaded with clusters of tart...

Dozens of the wild flowers locals in Guangxi have eaten for generations—gathered from roadsides a...

Grain amaranth has fed people through droughts and poor soils for thousands of years, and this br...

Growing a window box of thyme, rosemary, and oregano — and actually cooking with them daily — cou...

Cornflower and Chamomile — plants your grandparents likely knew by name from roadsides and field ...

Common garden vegetables and kitchen staples like avocado, beetroot, and cloves — plants you may ...

Fenugreek growing in your herb garden has been trusted by mothers across Punjab for generations t...

Wild sarsaparilla carpeting the forest floor right now is one of the clearest phenological marker...

Many of the herbs documented here—like cinnamon and pomegranate—grow in temperate gardens worldwi...

Elderberry, chamomile, plantain, and nettles growing in your garden or hedgerow have been quietly...

It shows that a plant used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine to treat coughs and pneu...

Every weed you've ever pulled without a second thought, every shrub you've walked past a hundred ...

The elderberries, rosehips, and culinary herbs you grow out back are quietly stocking your gut wi...

Amaranth greens you can grow in a summer pot or backyard bed vary dramatically in nutritional pun...

That purple yam you might grow as an ornamental or edible in a warm-climate garden turns out to p...

Those buckets of spent marigold blooms you compost after the season could instead be dried and pr...

Gromwell's deep-red root dye has colored textiles and lip balms for centuries, and unlocking the ...

Broomcorn millet is one of the oldest drought-tolerant crops humans ever cultivated — and now gen...

Pacific yew trees, once stripped from old-growth forests to harvest Taxol bark at the rate of six...

Periwinkle, henbane, and barberry growing in botanical gardens or hedgerows are quietly running s...

Wild sarsaparilla carpets the same shaded forest floors you walk through in spring — learning to ...

Stinging nettle has been used in folk medicine for centuries, and now researchers have the geneti...

Rosemary, turmeric, green tea, and the dark berries ripening in your garden right now are among t...

If you've ever tried to grow an orchid and watched it sulk, knowing it evolved in a distinct clim...

A plant you might find listed as endangered in a botanical garden catalog could be the same speci...

The sulforaphane in your garden broccoli and kale is now showing up in lab studies as a molecular...

If you grow medicinal herbs under grow lights, the color of that light — not just its brightness ...

Garlic and ginger already in your garden beds are quietly producing compounds that can slow the s...

The black goji berries you might grow along a sunny fence or find dried at a specialty market car...

Bedstraw plants growing along Mediterranean roadsides and garden edges have been trusted for cent...

Herbs and wild plants that traditional healers have cultivated and passed down for generations ar...

Herbs and medicinal plants that traditional cultures have used for centuries are now being valida...

Those graceful arching stems of Solomon's Seal you cut back each fall — the parts most growers to...

If you mount orchids or other epiphytes on dead wood versus living bark, you are making a choice ...

Gastrodia elata — a rootless, leafless orchid prized in traditional medicine — survives entirely ...

Cannabis is increasingly grown as a specialty crop, and knowing which of its dozens of natural co...

Dendrobium orchids you might grow on a windowsill or find in a specialty nursery have been quietl...

Hardy orchid (Bletilla striata) — the pleated-leaf, magenta-flowered plant already thriving in sh...

Beargrass blooms are a classic sign of healthy Pacific Northwest forests — spotting one and loggi...

Kudzu, the vine smothering roadsides and forest edges across the American South, turns out to car...

Wild sarsaparilla carpeting a shaded woodland floor is a reliable sign you're walking through a h...

Three tropical medicinal herbs traditionally used in Brazilian folk healing can be grown in Europ...

Grandmothers in rural Guangdong have quietly maintained a living pharmacopoeia of 108 bath plants...

Garlic growing in your kitchen garden produces allicin and ajoene — the same compounds scientists...

Tropical plants your botanical garden labels as 'ornamental' may be quietly holding chemistry tha...

Herbal remedies passed down in Caribbean communities aren't frozen in the past — they're a living...

Herbalists and foragers who work with roots versus stems of medicinal plants now have hard data s...

Hopbush, a tough drought-tolerant shrub grown in gardens worldwide as a hedge or ornamental, has ...

Garlic growing in your kitchen garden carries compounds that scientists just mapped to the same i...

A tree you might plant for shade or timber could simultaneously be vanishing from its homeland — ...

Job's tears grain and lily bulbs sold in herbal markets and health food stores were contaminated ...

White mulberry trees grow as volunteers in vacant lots, hedgerows, and backyard edges across much...

Blumea species—aromatic herbs long burned as incense or brewed into fever teas across Asian garde...

Garlic and ashwagandha — plants you might already grow — are cornerstones of a centuries-old vete...

Every berry, herb, and leafy green you grow in your garden is packed with polyphenols that measur...

Yaupon Holly is the only caffeine-containing plant native to North America, and spotting it thriv...

Andrographis is the bitter herb behind some of the most widely sold immune supplements in health ...

Herbal remedies your grandmother swore by — and the plants you may be growing in your garden righ...

Many herbal remedies and plant-derived medicines on pharmacy shelves—from cancer drugs to anxiety...

The towering conifers anchoring your nearest mountain forest or state park are evolutionary survi...

Every bizarre flower shape, carnivorous trap, or prickly stem you've ever marveled at in a botani...

Bugs and fungi have been quietly reprogramming plants for millions of years — galls, mycorrhizal ...

It shows that a climbing vine used for centuries in folk medicine may hold real promise for treat...

Cistanche grows by stealing nutrients from the roots of desert shrubs like saxaul, and the same c...

Pearl millet grows where most grains fail — in scorching, drought-prone soils — making it a resil...

Horny goat weed — a low-growing perennial you can actually grow in a shaded garden border — has b...

Licorice root you can grow in a sunny border and the grapefruit sitting on your counter both carr...

Chirayita grows wild across Himalayan foothills and has been brewed as a bitter tonic tea for cen...

If a rock-based soil amendment that costs nothing to mine and has been used for thousands of year...

Growing chicory, Jerusalem artichokes, or garlic in your garden puts some of the most potent preb...

Fermented bamboo shoots pickled at home or foraged from Asian markets carry a hidden nitrite risk...

A humble seed steeped as tea across Asian households for centuries turns out to work on gut bacte...

Ginseng growing in your woodland garden or shade bed holds polysaccharides in its roots that feed...

Ash scattered around garden beds, crop rotation, neem spray, and chili deterrents — techniques yo...

Every ear of corn you've ever shucked exists because ancient farmers gradually coaxed a scraggly ...

Herbs like ginseng that you might grow or brew as tea contain compounds scientists are now seriou...

Japanese knotweed, the plant many gardeners wage relentless war against along fence lines and riv...

An herb long brewed by Miao healers in southwestern China to fight respiratory infections has now...

Hackberry trees lining city streets and suburban yards belong to the same family as cannabis, and...

Many of the herbs traditional healers have relied on for centuries — things like licorice and clo...

A sticky, yellow-flowered shrub colonizing roadsides around the Mediterranean turns out to pack c...

Seeds and milky sap are the two most dangerous plant parts in this 93-species catalog — a reminde...

It's scientific validation that a garden-worthy ornamental herb used in traditional medicine for ...

Ashwagandha, already a fixture in herb gardens and health-food aisles, contains compounds that co...

Rose cactus is an easy-to-grow edible shrub with leaves high enough in protein and fiber to rival...

Herbs you grow for teas, tinctures, or home remedies—chamomile, echinacea, valerian—could soon be...

Hulless barley has quietly sustained Tibetan plateau communities for millennia at altitudes where...

Many herbal remedies and plant-derived medicines are limited by slow-growing plants, climate, and...

Every herb, vegetable, and wildflower in your garden contains hundreds of unknown compounds that ...

A climbing vine used for centuries in Asian folk medicine just passed a clinical trial — the same...

An ornamental flowering tree grown in Asian gardens for centuries turns out to carry one of the m...

A woody vine used in Chinese herbal medicine for centuries is now showing laboratory evidence tha...

Every wildflower, tree, and shrub in your local nature reserve only gets legal protection, seed-b...

Plants you might recognize — olive trees and African cordia — are being lost to farmland clearing...

Herbs you grow in your garden — chamomile, echinacea, valerian — are part of a global research pi...

Herbs and botanicals you grow or forage — from turmeric to green tea to legumes — may be quietly ...

Hyacinth bean, the sprawling purple-flowered vine many gardeners grow as an ornamental, turns out...

Hundreds of tropical fruits, medicines, and ornamentals that stock nurseries worldwide still lack...

Herbs like turmeric, rosemary, and ginkgo growing in your garden may hold compounds actively bein...

Milk thistle growing at the edge of your garden has been quietly producing one of the most clinic...

Neem trees planted in tropical gardens worldwide have been used as living pharmacies for centurie...

Snake-needle grass, a sprawling groundcover long stocked in Chinese apothecaries and now naturali...

Yellow tea plants, cultivated for centuries in China's mountain gardens and increasingly grown by...

The jimsonweed sprawling across roadsides and the amla tree fruiting in South Asian gardens carry...

The fibrous structural carbohydrates in roots, stems, and seed coats of plants you grow or forage...

Fungi living invisibly inside your garden thyme and sage may be quietly protecting them from dise...

Desert plants that survive Pakistan's brutal Cholistan heat and drought have had to evolve potent...

It's a reminder that the next overlooked shrub in a forest or botanical garden could hold real me...

The Brazilian pepper tree choking out native habitat along Florida's coasts and Gulf marshes turn...

Sacred Datura's large, white trumpet flowers open at dusk and are pollinated almost exclusively b...

Herbs like turmeric, green tea, and berberine-containing plants that you may grow or brew daily a...

Cotton's domestication story is written in its genes — and understanding which wild relatives car...

Chinese thoroughwax (Bupleurum) has been brewed into medicinal teas across East Asia for centurie...

That shaggy, golden bracket fungus you spot on dying ash and apple trees in autumn isn't just a d...

Many of the herbs growing wild around the Mediterranean basin—plants you might recognize from an ...

Rehmannia, the waxy-leafed, crimson-flowered plant sold at Chinese herb markets and grown as a pe...

Herbs you might already grow — astragalus, ginger, licorice root — are now being rigorously valid...

Pokeweed pushing up in a Conroe yard is a signal that disturbed soil nearby is recovering — it's ...

Centuries-old herbal remedies sitting in traditional medicine cabinets worldwide are now being sc...

Every apple, carrot, and bean in your garden packs its cell walls with pectin and other complex c...

Herbs like grapevine, Chinese herbal medicines, and berry-producing plants that traditional heale...

The proteins plants pump into their flowers may be doing jobs we haven't imagined yet — and under...

Pigeonberry's small coral-red berries light up shaded native gardens and are a magnet for songbir...

Galantamine — the only FDA-approved Alzheimer's drug derived directly from a plant — comes from s...

Five plants you might find in a botanical garden or herbal shop — juniper, rhododendron, wormwood...

If you've ever reached for a traditional herbal remedy during a gut flare-up, this study is a rem...

Desert plants that survive on almost nothing often pack their tissues with potent defensive compo...

Many of the aromatic plant compounds in your herbal remedies and essential oils are so scarce in ...

Ginger roots, grapes, and broccoli in your garden produce microscopic particles that researchers ...

Fenugreek seeds have been brewed into medicinal teas and curries for millennia, and now the key c...

Plants you grow and eat — spinach, ginger, grapes — are being harvested for nanoscale particles t...

Kudzu — the vine choking forests across the American South — sheds microscopic particles that rew...

Herbs long used in traditional medicine — many of which grow in kitchen gardens or wild hedgerows...

Milk thistle growing along your fence or in a sunny patch of disturbed soil has been producing si...

Herbs that traditional healers have prescribed for lung conditions for centuries are now being ma...

Plant-derived compounds — the same broad category that includes garlic, thyme oil, and herbal ext...

Shiitake and reishi mushrooms you might grow on a shaded log in your backyard share the same beta...

Every bean plant, lentil row, or nut tree you tend in your garden is producing the kind of protei...

Cannabis plants have been used medicinally for millennia, and scientists are now tracing exactly ...

Farmers in chemically intensive regions are already turning to plants that naturally suppress pes...

Medicinal herbs you might grow in a tea garden — astragalus, goji, licorice root — contain powerf...

The acerola cherry — a tropical fruit you might find at a Latin market or growing in a warm-clima...

Tiny vesicles shed by the edible plants in your garden — not extracted chemicals, but the plants'...

Herbal compounds used in traditional medicine for centuries are now backed by clinical evidence f...

Fermented plant foods — kimchi, miso, sauerkraut — are among the richest sources of the probiotic...

Plants in your garden or local herbal market — like brahmi (Bacopa monnieri), used for centuries ...

Dozens of the most promising experimental Alzheimer's drugs trace their chemical blueprints to ma...

A complete abstract would reveal which plant's traditional uses and medicinal compounds were revi...