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Nina Elkadi

Nina Elkadi is a post-baccalaureate fellow in the Plant Humanities at Dumbarton Oaks. She received her undergraduate degree in History of Science at Harvard University. Her senior thesis, The Farmers Knew, argued that US farmers knew the harms of DDT in the immediate postwar era. She is interested in the intersection of climate change and agriculture and, at Dumbarton Oaks, is researching the ever-changing value and cultural importance of the soybean.

Medicago sativa
Plant of the Month

Alfalfa: A Crop that Feeds Our Food

In 2023, American farmers grew more than 9 million acres of alfalfa. What makes this grass hay so special?
Crocus sativus
Plant of the Month

Saffron: The Story of the World’s Most Expensive Spice

Appearing in the written record as early as 2300 BCE, saffron can be traced in foodways around the globe, despite the finicky nature of its harvest.
Camellia sinensis
Plant of the Month

Camellia sinensis: Labor and the Tea Plant

Consumed as tea around the world, Camellia sinensis raises questions about plantation labor practices and the environmental impact of monocultures.
Dewdrops hang suspended from switchgrass at Waubay National Wildlife Refuge in South Dakota.
Plant of the Month

Switchgrass: An Old Grass Gets a New Use

The perennial prairie grass used to cover large swaths of the American Midwest, creating vibrant ecosystems where birds, butterflies, and bison roamed.
Sketches of cinchona trees. Aylmer Bourke Lambert, A Description of the Genus Cinchona (1797). Rare Book Collection, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
Plant of the Month

Cinchona: A Legacy of Extraction and Extirpation

The source of quinine, cinchona tells a story about the value placed on parts of plants and how that value can be extracted and distorted in support of empire.
A photograph of Cyanea pohaku from The indigenous trees of the Hawaiian Islands (1913)
Plant of the Month

Cyanea Pohaku: The Plant Discovered Right Before Extinction

Cyanea pohaku, the extinction of which can be traced to human interventions in the environment, was gone before we had a chance to really study it.

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