The English word pepper is ambiguous. Botanically it could be refer to plants that produce black powdered pepper. The angiosperms (flowering plants) who serve as a source of that spice belong to the order Piperales and to the 3600-member family Piperaceae. (Kings play chess only for goodness' sake is a mnemonic for remembering the order of... Continue Reading →
Find out why the suit of clubs is named as such and discover the parallels between the origins of European cards and the natural history of legumes.
When citrus trees are grown from seed, they revert to a wild state and they can take decades to flower. About 15 years after germination I'm still waiting to see grapefruit blossoms in our kitchen, and of course the short days of long winters at high latitudes don't help the matter. But a few years... Continue Reading →
