Artist Jessica Rath has worked with apple breeders and archivists to create ceramic and photographic works that consider the the beauty, diversity, and existential dilemma of the apple: how do apples propagate, and how do varieties survive? Her exhibit, "take me to the apple breeder," is at the Pasadena Museum of California Art through February 24.
A team of scientists & a photographer recently climbed all the largest trees in Sequoia National Forest and discovered that the forest's older trees produce more new wood than their younger neighbors—that is to say, as some trees age, their rate of growth actually increases. They took lots of measurements and some gorgeous photographs.
In honor of Father's Day, here's a unique tree that goes by the name Old Man Palm (Coccothrinax crinita). Covered in long fibers (crinita means hairy in Latin) that resemble a tremendous beard, the rare species is a favorite among palm collectors and a Cuban native. Along with rum and The Old Man and the Sea, it's a fantastic island export.
Written by French botanists who explored North American forests in the late 1700s, The North American Sylva is a monumental work with masterful illustrations and extensive botanic profiles. The book would help France reforest its post-war countryside, and become a landmark in North American forestry. Today, it remains readable and interesting—certainly a work of evergreen value.
For a conceptual art exhibit in Belgium, Tokyo-based florist and artist Makoto Azuma created two bonsai pieces using unusual techniques: ice and wires.
It is believed that Hippocrates taught under the canopy of a plane tree on a Greek island. Today, a descendent of that tree is hollowed and hallowed and its cuttings and seeds have been grown throughout the world.
If you're the type of person to travel the world for its flora, grab your favorite Indian Ocean field guide and head to Socotra, a remote island that is home to the legendary dragon's blood tree.
Santa Barbara's Moreton Bay fig tree is a legend. It is the largest in the country—the tree's circumference is 42 feet, its height is twice that, and the canopy spans almost 200 feet—in fact, it even has its own address.
In 2008, a rare and unusual palm was discovered in remote Madagascar. Hailed as the most important new species of its kind, the tree made headline news—not for its notable survival, but for its spectacular demise. If the Tahina spectabilis had an epitaph, it would read "The gigantic palm that flowered itself to death."
