Botany
Why Did I Hear Popcorn Sounds In the Recent Extreme Heat Wave?
When temperatures crank up, an unusual ecological adaptation begins to play out among our native Monterey pine. We explain why in our latest installment of our reader-funded Ask The Naturalist...
Why Fall Feels Different in the Bay Area: It’s the Smell of Change
Why does fall excite so many sensory memories? Olfactory scientists explain.
California Scientists Release a Fly to Control a Landscape-Suffocating Invasive Ivy
A landscape engulfed in Cape ivy is difficult to take in. Scientists are turning to the plant's natural enemy: a small South African fly.
Mount Tam’s First Botanist: Alice Eastwood and the Plants of Tamalpais
Alice Eastwood made her reputation and found botanical immortality on Mount Tam.
Presumed Extinct, a Wildflower Reappears on Mount Diablo
The Mount Diablo Buckwheat disappeared in the 1930s. It was thought to be extinct. A single population was rediscovered in 2005. And then last year botanists found a new population...
Two Almost Identical Lupines Live in the Same Place. One is Rare, One Not. Why?
A new journal article tries to answer an ecological mystery at Point Reyes.
What Leads to Great Wildflowers? The Formula’s Not Always So Easy.
A lot of rain isn't always the magic formula for flowers.
As Rainy Winter Spreads Sudden Oak Death Pathogen, a Scientist Races to Build Resistance
A Berkeley researcher studies trees that survive what for most is a death sentence
Letter to the Editor: Protecting Diversity Is the Opposite of Xenophobia
Some non-native species are okay. But not all of them.
