Another relative, this one called Amorphophallus

AND THE REAL SPLIT-LEAF PHILODENDRON IS. . . 

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A “philodendron” that’s not really one, and this one has eerie flowers, followed by a unique fruit — imagine of corn on the cob tasting like a melding of pineapple and banana.
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Bark of paperbark maple

BARKS OF ANOTHER STRIPE

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Think of the bark of white birch in winter and you're not barking up the wrong tree, just that there are many others worth "barking up." Yew, for example, hackberry, and many more. Shrubs also. Here are some of them:
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Grapefruit chimera, illustration from my book Fruit: From the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection

MYTHOLOGY COMES ALIVE!

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Like the fire-breathing chimera that was part lion, part goat, part dragon, and feasted on humans, plant chimeras are weird-looking. What’s more, they do, in fact, exist. How do they come about and what is their appeal? Read more about these botanical freaks here: 
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My bonsai, 7 years old

MINIATURE LANDSCAPE CARE

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A bonsai evokes a landscape in miniature. Like any landscape, regular care is needed, even the naturalistic landscape of a bonsai. Of course, the landscape care won’t have you working up a sweat, but you do need to follow three basic steps:
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Colorful finger limes

ALL FOR A SLICE OF PIE

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Key lime is not your ordinary lime. And, for an even more extraordinary lime, there’s finger lime. And even more extraordinary is are hybrids of both of them. None are hard to grow, even where winters are cold.
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Jumanji

JUMANGI!!!

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The “True” Jimangi Back in 1995, Robin Williams starred in a rather bizarre movie, Jumangi. The rhinoceroses charging through the living room and the crazed, great white hunter caused more terror than did the bizarre plant that kept threatening Robin Williams. After all, rhinoceroses and great white hunters, even crazy ones, are real enough, but that plant surely had to be no more than a moviemaker’s fantasy. Well, let me tell you, that odd looking plant bore an eerily strong resemblance to a real plant. The moviemakers did not have to stray too far from botanical accuracy to make…
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Macrocarpa, wintergreen planted as ornamental, Bryn Mawr

A WELCOME TOUCH OF GREENERY

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Wintergreen, is it a fruit, is it an aroma, is it a medicine. Is it. . . .well, it’s all of these. And aromatic. And has many names. And . . . adequately covered in my latest blog post:
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Cabbage kin

UGLY WORD, NICE PLANTS

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Did you ever bite into cultivar? Sure you did. Many times. Probably planted one even. So what is a cultivar?
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Kumquat

THIS CITRUS HAS IT ALL

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For a potted citrus — or is it a citrus? — I sing the praises of kumquat. Read more about this wonderful fruit for the northern citrus craver in my latest blog post:
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