ethnobotany

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

The saffron crocuses you plant in fall, the turmeric on a sunny windowsill, and the lemon balm sp...

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...

One-third of all Amazon plant species feed, heal, or shelter the people who live among them, and ...

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...

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

The sulforaphane in the kale and broccoli you grow is now showing up in lab studies as one of the...

The thyme, cinnamon, and turmeric you grow or cook with produce the same compounds researchers no...

Plantain, the 'weed' most gardeners yank from their lawns, ranks as the single most culturally im...

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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

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

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

Herbs and vegetables you grow — garlic, ginger, chamomile, turmeric — don't just flavor your food...

The plant behind this discovery, Cephalotaxus, is endangered in the wild, so figuring out its che...

Herbs like moringa you might grow in a pot or forage dried at a market release far more of their ...

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

Wild and semi-managed relatives of your garden taro are being selectively tended or uprooted by I...

Echinacea, chamomile, calendula, and yarrow growing in your garden belong to one of the most medi...

That unpretentious potted aloe on your windowsill — the one you snap open for burns — turns out t...

Rosemary growing in your herb bed turns out to be one of the more potent natural antibacterials a...

Plants like soursop (Annona muricata) and baobab (Adansonia digitata) — species you may grow as h...

Turmeric, galangal, cardamom, and ginger all belong to the same plant family — and this study rev...

Those spent petals and pruned rose canes you're composting after harvest could be worth keeping: ...

Garlic and onion growing in your garden contain compounds that, applied to skin, could clear acne...

Hemp seeds you might grow for food or fiber carry a nutritional fingerprint set by the variety, n...

Kidney stones affect roughly 1 in 10 people, and a backyard shrub used by Brazilian herbalists fo...

Turmeric growing in your garden or sitting in your spice cabinet carries living cellular machiner...

If you grow spearmint in your garden, the specific variety you chose matters far more than you mi...

Growers cultivating Paris polyphylla for traditional medicine can now target specific beneficial ...

That flat white umbel bobbing along the roadside or field edge is wild carrot, the direct ancesto...

Many herbs and flowering plants growing in gardens or foraged from wild spaces have now been rigo...

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

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 ...

If you've ever grown Tamanu or Milo as an ornamental tropical tree, you're looking at a plant who...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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

If you've ever wondered why herbal ginseng supplements vary wildly in strength, this research sho...

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

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

The lotus growing in your local pond isn't just a pretty water plant, its leaves contain compound...

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

Banana pseudostems are typically hauled off as waste after harvest, so if that fibrous inner core...

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

Bamboo you might grow as a privacy screen and soursop you've spotted at a tropical nursery are am...

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

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

The same instinct that leads Indigenous healers to test bark, roots, and leaves against fever is ...

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

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

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 ...

The rosemary bush on your windowsill or in your herb bed contains compounds now shown to calm the...

If you grow or forage false daisy (also called bhringraj), a weedy little herb common in warm, da...

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

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...

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

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

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...

If you grow basil, mint, or ashwagandha for tea or remedies, the soil they're planted in matters ...

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...

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

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

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

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...

That low, creeping succulent-looking herb sold at nurseries as an aquarium or bog plant has activ...

That rhododendron blooming in your yard each spring produces nectar loaded with a compound potent...

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 ...

The garlic and black pepper in your kitchen spice rack are the same plants that healers in Chitra...

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

If you grow or forage ashwagandha, black nightshade, or datura, the soil they're planted in matte...

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...

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...

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

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...

The neem tree grown as a hedge or shade plant across the tropics, and the sprawling punarnava wee...

A fern growing across East Asian hillsides — long used by Zhuang healers — turns out to make comp...

That echinacea or ashwagandha supplement on your shelf may not contain what the label claims — th...

Dendrobium orchids, long prized in Chinese medicine and increasingly grown as ornamentals, turn o...

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

The lupin plant growing in your garden or wild on roadsides is quietly becoming a star ingredient...

Two herbs sitting in traditional medicine cabinets for nearly two thousand years just had their a...

Devil's walking stick, a spiny native tree many gardeners yank out as a nuisance, has been used f...

Diazinon, the same pesticide class sprayed on lawns, orchards, and livestock, drifts into the air...

Wild bergamot growing in Tennessee roadsides and meadows is a magnet for native bees, hummingbird...

The scraggly, sun-scorched plants clinging to life in the driest corners of the world have been q...

Chinese skullcap grows readily in herb gardens and has been brewed as tea for centuries, and scie...

If you grow a date palm or live near a farmers market that carries fresh dates, you're sitting on...

The leathery peel you've been composting from pomegranates grown in warm-climate gardens or bough...

Barberry shrubs growing in hedgerows and wild edges across North America and Europe have been pro...

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

A woody vine that traditional healers in Thailand and the Malay Peninsula have brewed for centuri...

Several of the plants reviewed here, including Indian gooseberry, cannabis, and the angel's trump...

Cattle ranchers and small-scale farmers across Africa are watching chemical tick treatments fail ...

Kuding tea, brewed from leaves of several Ilex species and sold in Asian grocery stores and speci...

Pastoralists in one of Africa's harshest environments have kept their animals healthy for generat...

Dozens of plants growing in East African highland forests are treating real illnesses right now, ...

Aloe vera on your windowsill makes its famous soothing gel and bitter compounds through a precise...

Artemisia annua, the feathery annual wormwood grown in herb gardens and already famous for yieldi...

Watercress and horseradish growing in your garden concentrate PEITC, the compound shown here to p...

Corydalis relatives grow across temperate gardens worldwide, and understanding which compounds ma...

Neem, a tree you may know as a garden pest repellent, turns out to be one of three traditional-me...

Plants like neem growing in your yard or neighborhood have been fighting skin infections for cent...

Traditional healers across tropical Africa have long used fig tree leaves as medicine, and this s...

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

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

The greens your grandmother might have called callaloo turn out to be dozens of distinct species,...

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...

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

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...

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

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

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

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...

That heirloom tomato or unusual squash variety you grow in your backyard is part of a shrinking p...

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

The ornamental yellowhorn tree grown for its showy spring flowers is turning out to have leaves w...

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

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

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...

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

The beets you grow or buy owe their deep color to compounds now shown to slow cancer cell growth ...

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...

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

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

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

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

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

Many of the herbs your grandmother might have grown for tea or tonics, like licorice root or barb...

The Ficus microcarpa (Chinese banyan or curtain fig) grown as a street tree or houseplant in many...

If you've ever spotted sea buckthorn's spiky silver branches and clusters of tiny orange berries ...

The tangled vine climbing fence lines near wetlands and stream banks this time of year might be A...

The neem tree many gardeners already grow as a natural pesticide and skincare ingredient source t...

If you brew herbal tea for a cough, this shows why knowing which plant you're using matters: elde...

Decades-old pressed plant specimens sitting in museum drawers just revealed a living toolkit for ...

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

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

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

The traditional herbal remedies passed down through generations often turn out to have real, meas...

If you keep bees or garden for pollinators, these stingless species quietly pollinate crops and w...

The African eggplant you might grow for its bitter, egg-shaped fruit carries rutin and quercetin,...

The red-leaved shiso in your herb garden, prized for cooking and traditional remedies, could soon...

The herbal supplement on your shelf claiming to contain a specific desert plant can now be checke...

The ginkgo tree lining your city street or campus quad, easily spotted by its fan-shaped leaves a...

The smell of crushed tomato leaves, the sharp scent of pine sap on your hands, and the bitter def...

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

The papaya tree in a backyard garden or local market carries leaves that scientists are now study...

The passionflower vines climbing a trellis in your garden are locked in a chemical arms race with...

The licorice root in your herb garden isn't just a soothing tea ingredient; a small clinical tria...

The mint-family plant behind this ancient decoction, sometimes grown as an ornamental or medicina...

The gardener growing clematis vines for their showy blooms might not realize a wild relative of t...

The ginger in your kitchen and the grapes on your table are already known to shed nanoscale vesic...

The colorful pigments in berries, tea leaves and grapes that gardeners prize for their antioxidan...

The selenium level in your own garden soil directly shapes how much of this essential mineral end...

That St. John's Wort or green tea you're growing on the windowsill for a soothing cup can quietly...

If you dry your own herbs like echinacea or calendula for tea, this points toward a future where ...

That low, purple-flowered creeper spreading through your lawn or shady beds is ground ivy, a plan...

Roots from wild trees growing near rural Thai villages, brewed into decoctions, represent generat...

The thyme growing in your herb bed isn't just for the kitchen: compounds in its leaves can kill a...

The glossy rubber plant filling the corner of your living room isn't just decoration; traditional...

If you've got a red banana plant in your yard or garden, the sap people traditionally tap from it...

The weeds and wild fruits growing along field edges and forest patches often carry generations of...

If you brew herbal teas or forage wild plants for home remedies, this study is a reminder that 'n...

The reddish new growth you might notice on a banyan or fig tree isn't just decorative pigment, it...

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

The polyphenols packed into the blueberries, dark greens, and herbs in your garden don't just get...

The flavonoids in the citrus peel you compost or the herbs in your kitchen garden are being studi...

The vine tea plant behind this compound has been steeped as a folk remedy in China for generation...

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

The idea that butterflies and the plants they eat shaped each other over millions of years, an id...

The scraggly rue growing along field edges and hedgerows might hold a natural alternative to synt...

That banana peel you toss in the compost bin contains antioxidant compounds that scientists just ...

The hibiscus flowers you might grow for tea and the olive tree in a Mediterranean-style garden bo...

The scrubby, thorny Neltuma trees that survive brutal drought and poor soil across arid Latin Ame...

The turmeric in your spice rack and the green tea in your cupboard contain compounds that scienti...

The person who notices exactly when a squash blossom opens or when bees are working a hedgerow is...

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

The scraggly Siam weed choking roadsides, pastures, and forest edges across the tropics carries r...

If you grow or forage medicinal herbs, the same climate shifts reshuffling their wild ranges will...

The papaya tree in a backyard or the srikaya (sugar-apple) growing in a tropical garden might hol...

The four o'clock flower blooming in your evening garden, along with the quercetin found in onions...

Compounds like gallic acid and ellagic acid, found in many common fruits and plants, appear to fl...

The teapot in your kitchen holds more than flavor: fermented dark teas are packed with plant-made...

The waxy coating on tobacco and tomato leaves in your garden contains solanesol, a compound now s...

The mushrooms, seaweed, and medicinal herbs you might grow or forage owe part of their reputed im...

The astragalus plant, a common perennial in medicinal herb gardens, is showing that what happens ...

The mushrooms you forage, the goji berries you grow, or the seaweed on your plate all contain com...

The showy Dendrobium orchids sold at garden centers and grown as houseplants belong to a genus lo...

The corn lily, a striking but poisonous woodland plant many hikers spot and avoid, produces a mol...

The astragalus root sold in herbal shops and grown in traditional medicine gardens is showing up ...

The scraggly Artemisia weeds many gardeners rip out of borders or spot along trail edges contain ...

If you grow or forage medicinal herbs, this shows that harvest timing matters less than which ind...

The knobby, mango-scented rhizome sold in Asian grocery pickle aisles as mango ginger isn't just ...

Many of the plants growing wild on Balkan hillsides and rocky slopes carry the same iridoid compo...

The sage in your herb garden and the mulberry tree in your neighborhood have long folk reputation...

The feathery-leaved yarrow growing wild along trail edges and in cottage gardens has been a go-to...

The tree healers in parts of West Africa plant near homes for its medicinal leaves just got lab e...

If you grow beans, peas, or other legumes, this study shows how tracing a crop's genetic roots ba...

If you've ever wondered why the same crop grown in different regions tastes or smells different, ...

That afternoon cup of coffee contains chlorogenic acid, the same compound researchers are studyin...

The jujube tree many gardeners grow for its sweet, date-like fruit turns out to pack antibacteria...

Damiana has been brewed as folk medicine for generations, and this kind of formulation work is wh...

If you've spotted a scrubby, sticky-leaved shrub along a dry roadside or hillside, you may be loo...

If you've ever spotted a tough, sticky-leaved shrub thriving in poor soil along a roadside or dry...

That fast-growing, sweet-fruited tree you might dismiss as a weedy roadside plant carries bark co...

That scrappy, fast-growing tree with sweet red berries showing up in tropical gardens and along r...

The purple-rinded tropical fruit sold in Asian grocery stores contains a compound researchers are...

If you or a gardening friend deal with gout flare-ups, this plant used in Chinese herbal medicine...

The compound driving this effect, 6'-O-caffeoylarbutin, comes from a foraged herbal tea plant, a ...

If you grow Panax ginseng or use root extracts, this decade-long review explains the actual cellu...

The legume family that harbors this compound spans thousands of species from garden peas to wild ...

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

The turmeric in your spice rack, the green tea in your cup, and the grapes on your counter all co...

A plant this rare, found in only one small pocket of Iran and already facing extinction risk, is ...

The deep purple in your blueberries, the bitter tang of dandelion greens, and the aroma of rosema...

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

The polyphenols in the herbs and berries you grow don't work alone; gut bacteria have to break th...

The ginseng root sold in health-food stores and grown in shaded woodland gardens may work its med...

The knobby Solomon's seal rhizome sold in herbal medicine shops turns out to work by feeding spec...

The turmeric growing in your herb garden has a lesser-known cousin, Curcuma comosa, whose rhizome...

The ginger in your kitchen and the herbs in your garden may already contain nature's own drug-del...

Knowing which of the 208 plant species each threatened animal depends on, and in which season, te...

The jackfruit tree in a backyard orchard or fruit market isn't just prized for its sweet flesh; i...

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...

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...

Turmeric's healing reputation, long trusted in kitchen medicine cabinets, is now being engineered...

Many herbal remedies your grandmother swore by are only now getting the scientific tools needed t...

Herbs and plant extracts you might grow or forage—from ginger to chamomile—are now being studied ...

Many of the medicinal herbs reviewed—like turmeric, milk thistle, and Chinese skullcap—grow in ba...

Cannabis has been cultivated for medicine for thousands of years, and this research thread is one...

The same seed traditional healers in South Asia have handled for centuries with careful preparati...

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

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...

Native prickly ash, planted by eastern gardeners for zebra swallowtail caterpillar habitat, belon...

The same rainforest trees that folk healers have used for generations are now revealing a molecul...

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

Astragalus, the spiny-leafed perennial grown for ornamental seed pods and traditional medicine, c...

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

The fenugreek seeds sold as a cooking spice or herbal supplement in health food stores don't appe...

The showy yellow-flowered mallow relative some gardeners grow as an ornamental turns out to pack ...

The flavonoids behind this compound are the same antioxidant-rich pigments found in everyday plan...

The bacteria living on the skin of olives, the same ones behind traditional fermentation, are tur...

The sesame seeds you might toss in a stir-fry come from a plant whose oil is showing real promise...

If you grow Vitex negundo (chaste tree relative) as an ornamental or windbreak, this study confir...

The fragrant, finger-like citrus you might spot at an Asian grocery or grow as an ornamental in a...

If you grow taro or cook with it, the big central corm you might toss aside actually holds more f...

If you hike boggy trails near Seward, that low evergreen shrub with curled, fuzzy-backed leaves a...

If you grow beans in a home garden, this shows how much variety choice alone can change cooking t...

The licorice plant many gardeners grow for its sweet roots and pollinator-friendly purple flowers...

Plants like this one, related to citrus and used in traditional medicine across Southeast Asia, r...

The showy Chinese ground orchid grown in shade gardens for its purple spring blooms turns out to ...

The scrappy moringa tree many gardeners grow for its nutrient-dense leaves is being studied for p...

The flavonoids and polyphenols concentrated in everyday herbs, berries, and leafy greens you migh...

If you've ever wondered why the herbal remedy your grandmother swore by never shows up as a docto...

The moringa tree many gardeners grow for its edible leaves and pods is showing up in labs as a le...

Butterfly pea flower, the vivid blue bloom many gardeners grow as a climbing vine or brew into te...

The humble root vegetable behind tapioca and fufu turns out to be a cultural anchor and potential...

The starchy root you might know from tapioca or cassava flour is, for over 200 farming households...

Butterfly pea flower, the plant behind that color-changing blue tea trend, is easy to grow on a t...

Malabar spinach, a common leafy green climbing many backyard trellises, is being studied as a nat...

The same plant chemistry that makes red grape skins and turmeric root prized in herbal medicine c...

The mallow growing along fences and in cottage gardens turns out to have a long folk-medicine his...

The compound behind this discovery, kaempferol, is the same flavonoid found in kale, broccoli, an...

The two plants behind this formula, Chinese privet and false daisy, are staples of traditional he...

The tart rhubarb stalks in your garden and the aloe on your windowsill both produce anthraquinone...

The rain-catching and soil-reading tricks your grandparents used in the garden might pair surpris...

The spicy long pepper used in Indonesian cooking and traditional medicine contains compounds that...

The beans and peas you grow in your garden break down during digestion into tiny protein fragment...

The intensely sweet thaumatin protein comes from the katemfe plant, a West African rainforest shr...

The scrubby, aromatic Helichrysum shrubs some gardeners grow for their papery 'everlasting' flowe...

The soil microbes clinging to a plant's roots can influence how well it grows, resists disease, a...

The bitter, toxic compounds that plants evolved to fend off insects and grazers are the same mole...

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

Dozens of plants in your garden or local woods — from foxglove to monkshood — produce compounds t...

Rhubarb, the tart stalks you might harvest from a backyard patch, turns out to carry compounds th...

Spinach, broccoli, and other leafy greens you grow contain alpha-lipoic acid, and this research a...

If you grow cannabis medicinally or know someone who does, the reason a homegrown tincture can fe...

Great mullein growing along a trail you hike is easy to spot and harvest for its long history as ...

Noni has been used by Hawaiians for over a thousand years as medicine, dye, and food, so spotting...

If you hike Hawaiian forests, this glossy-leaved native tree with striking red new growth is a ma...

That goji berry shrub sold at nurseries as a hardy, drought-tolerant edible landscape plant is no...

The yellow, hibiscus-like flowers you might spot near a Hawaiian shoreline could belong to the sa...

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

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

Cannabis you might grow as a medicinal herb or fiber crop produces compounds that nudge the human...

Cannabis sativa is one of humanity's oldest cultivated plants, and understanding its safety profi...

Traditional plant medicines and agricultural practices passed down through generations in Kenya e...

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

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

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

The tough, ring-shaped proteins some plants make as a defense against pests, called cyclotides, t...

This tree's clusters of crinkled orange flowers and its history as a canoe plant Pacific Islander...