By Meg Cathcart-James Juniperus communis is the most widespread of the juniper species. Juniperus is within the conifer family Cupressaceae. Whether as a small evergreen tree or a shrub, it…Read More >
#AdventBotany2017
#AdventBotany Day 22: Put a cork in it
By Ali Ayres It’s decided, 2017 is the year I finally contribute to this fine festive botanical blogging tradition. But what should I write about? Holly? Ivy? All the usual…Read More >
#AdventBotany Day 20: Holly
By Patricia Francis The Winter Solstice has been celebrated in many cultures for thousands of years. In our northern latitudes evergreens show how life continues even in the depths of…Read More >
#AdventBotany Day 19: Christmas Kalanchoe – Kalanchoe blossfeldiana
By Will Simpson The genus Kalanchoe (the preferred pronunciation is kal-un-KOH-ee(1)) belongs to the Crassulaceae family. Like other members of this family, such as Aeonium, Crassula, Echeveria and Sedum, Kalanchoes…Read More >
#AdventBotany Day 18: Cyclamen persicum: a Christmas misnomer?
By Karen Andrews They say that you should never judge a book by its cover. Walter C. Blasdale’s ‘Cyclamen persicum: Its Natural and Cultivated Forms’ is an unassuming, concise volume…Read More >
#AdventBotany Day 15: A holiday pineapple for the table
By Katherine Preston and Jeanne Osnas (The Botanist in the Kitchen) This deep dive into pineapple anatomy is our contribution this year to the very fun Advent Botany essay collection,…Read More >
#AdventBotany Day 11: A Sloe Christmas
By Jonathan Mitchley (Dr M) This is Dr M’s contribution to #AdventBotany for 2017 the fourth fantastic year of this true botanical original originating from the School of Biological Sciences,…Read More >
#Advent botany Day 9: Cultivating Christmas pt. 2: Elf and Wellbeing
By Yvette Harvey Who would have thought that the author of Little Women could have had such a significant role in today’s advent blog about plants… For it was Louisa…Read More >
#AdventBotany Day 8: Cultivating Christmas
By Mandeep Matharu & Louise O’Beirne As a kid brought up in India, perhaps my earliest memory of Christmas is looking up at one of my teachers dressed up as…Read More >
#AdventBotany Day 5: Ivy
By Dawn Bazely The first Advent Botany post, on December 1st, 2014, was about ivy, that most classic of British festive season species. English Ivy, as it’s known in North America…Read More >