My first batch of American Beauty dragonfruit attached to a broken branch ripened in just 41 days after pollination — while its sister fruits, pollinated the exact same day but still attached to healthy stems, were still green. So what gives? Let’s take a closer look. The vascular system (that’s the xylem and phloem, aka…

Gifting Houseplants Giving houseplants as gifts is a bigger deal than most people realize. After all, it’s a living thing you’re handing over with the unspoken expectation: keep this alive. I’ll admit—I’ve been guilty of gifting plants to people who didn’t ask for them and definitely never agreed to the responsibility. Nothing is more awkward…

I’m not a traditional botanist. Not in the sense that I obsess over scientific names. I’m much more of a common-name type of human. Sure, I understand the purpose of Latin binomials, but I’m far more curious about what native peoples around the world called these plants, why they gave them those names, and what…