Why does fall excite so many sensory memories? Olfactory scientists explain.
Why Fall Feels Different in the Bay Area: It’s the Smell of Change
September 25, 2017 •
Botany
The study and science of plants.
California Scientists Release a Fly to Control a Landscape-Suffocating Invasive Ivy
September 25, 2017 •
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
September 25, 2017 •
Alice Eastwood made her reputation and found botanical immortality on Mount Tam.
Presumed Extinct, a Wildflower Reappears on Mount Diablo
June 28, 2017 •
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 numbering in the millions. How has this rarest of rare plants survived?
Two Almost Identical Lupines Live in the Same Place. One is Rare, One Not. Why?
June 28, 2017 •
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.
March 28, 2017 •
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
March 28, 2017 •
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
February 23, 2017 •
Some non-native species are okay. But not all of them.
A Story About Once and Future California, Written in the Rings of Redwoods
February 8, 2017 •
Why would a scientist count a quarter of a million redwood tree rings?
Naturalist’s Notebook: Good Algae Gone Bad
January 1, 2017 •
Blue-green algae has made some Bay Area ponds dangerous