Santore is known for Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t, a self-described lowbrow approach to plant ecology.
Botany
The study and science of plants.
An Enduring Oak Mystery: Synchronized Acorn Booms
July 5, 2022 •
How do the trees synchronize their reproductive efforts? Oaks, the dominant tree genus throughout much of low- and mid-elevation, temperate California, are full of mysteries.
The Amazing Color-Changing Lupine
April 7, 2022 •
Look for the blue blossoms of Lupinus chamissonis all along California’s coast.
Annotated Nature: a Vernal Pool in Spring
March 29, 2022 •
Wildflowers bloom like fireworks as winter water dries up in the vernal pool ecosystems of Jepson Prairie.
Naturalist’s Notebook: A Plant That Relies on a Mushroom
January 18, 2022 •
The sugarstick is a parasitic plant that relies on the Western Matsutake mushroom.
Learning to Love Dandelions
November 4, 2021 •
It’s the epitome of the unwanted weed — but there are reasons to choose to want dandelions.
Redwood Memory
June 23, 2021 •
Old redwood trees have seen fire many times in their lives. It’s because of their fire scars—not in spite of them—that the redwood forest thrives.
After the Lightning Fires in the East Bay Parks
June 23, 2021 •
The SCU Lightning Complex fires burned 6,000 acres of East Bay Regional Park District land last year. And already, green ground cover, reptiles, and raptors are returning in Morgan Territory.
Naturalist’s Notebook: Fire Pines
June 23, 2021 •
A visual explanation of how fire helps release the seeds of knobcone, bishop, and Monterey pine trees, plus a fun experiment to try at home!
Listen Closely, the Trees are Talking
March 30, 2021 •
When people say that trees “talk” to each other, that’s a concept that rests, in part, on an extraordinary and microscopic relationship between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the roots of 90 percent of all plants.