Soft drinks are the very model of industrially processed food. No one is surprised that they contain artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners. But people might be surprised that root beer,…

When I was young, my grandfather’s driveway was overshadowed by a massive butternut tree (Juglans cinerea) that grew in his neighbor’s yard. Grandpa complained loudly about the…

Native butternut, Juglans cinerea, is steadily disappearing from the woods of North America due to butternut canker, a non-native fungus (Ophiognomonia clavigignenti-juglandacearum) that was…

When my daughter was 2 years old, she and I would walk through the winter woods and she learned the trees by their bark. In the spring, she learned the birds by their calls. Throughout the…

Ferns have been around for a mind-boggling 360 million years. That’s more than twice the time that dinosaurs reigned, and more than 1,800 times longer than modern humans have been…