A cluster of Azolla filiculoides plants.

Azolla filiculoides: Balancing Environmental Promise and Peril

One of the world’s tiniest fern species, Azolla filiculoides may be one of our greatest tools for lowering agricultural pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Monotropa uniflora in bloom by Nichole Ouellette

Ghost of the Forest: Monotropa uniflora

Look for this other-worldly plant in moist, shaded areas of mature forests throughout much of North America, East Asia, and northern South America.
Crocus sativus

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.
Dewdrops hang suspended from switchgrass at Waubay National Wildlife Refuge in South Dakota.

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.

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.
Quinoa seeds

Quinoa: Rise of an Andean Superfood

Once considered a minor crop for Indigenous communities, quinoa’s journey to worldwide stardom was centuries in the making.
Adelbert von Chamisso

The Long Shadow of Adelbert von Chamisso

An exiled French aristocrat who wrote in German and explored California in the name of Russia, von Chassimo inspired Marx, Offenbach, and even Wilde.
Guarana Fruit

Guaraná: Stimulation from the Amazon to the World

Long cherished by Indigenous peoples for its medicinal and stimulating properties, guaraná remains a key element of Brazilian identity.
A botanical illustration of Indigofera tinctoria from La botanique de J.J. Rousseau, 1805

Plant of the Month: Indigo

The cultivation of this plant for its cherished blue dye tells the story of exploitative agricultural practices—and, hopefully, its reversal.
Study of Hibiscus Plants by Adolf Senff

Plant of the Month: Hibiscus

Nearly synonymous with the global tropics and subtropics, hibiscus symbolizes the Caribbean’s transnational past, present, and future.