The legendary Elgin Botanic Garden
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
There are quite a number of public gardens and other worthwhile parks—big, small, and tiny even—in the greater New York area. Of course, not all of these gems are dedicated just to the fuchsia… but they're still thoroughly interesting for the visit…➤ Read More
A new hummingbird in Ecuador
Saturday, October 06, 2018
Ex aequatoria aliquid novum and this time it's a new hummingbird. A little stunner newly named Oreotrochilus cyanolaemus, or the blue-throated hillstar, was only just spotted in 2017 in that hotbed of biodiversity and speciation, Ecuador….➤ Read More
Gregor Mendel and his fuchsias
Thursday, July 20, 2023
The future Father of Genetics was born into a poor, but stolid old family of Moravian German famers on July 20, 1822. At Heizendorf bei Odrau in Moravian Silesia. At the time the little farming village was part of the vast and unwieldy Austro-Hungarian Empire but….➤ Read More
Fuchsia cordifolia. Just for a day.
Saturday, February 14, 2015
I know. I know. Fuchsia cordifolia Benth. is really a synonym of Fuchsia splendens Zucc. A couple of botanists got their descriptions crossed and it’s always, “First come, first served”. But it’s the Feast of Saint Valentine today and the old heartleaf fuchsia...➤ Read More
Charles Darwin and the fuchsia
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Everybody knows Darwin. The man surely needs no introduction. Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was, of course, the great British naturalist, geologist and biologist best known for his seminal and explosive work, On the Origin of Species in 1859...➤ Read More
For the new year, an old fuchsia. Fuchsia antiqua sp. nov.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
I have some good news to share with ardent fuchsiaphiles everywhere. Other botany and horticulture nuts as well. Heck, with everybody. I’m having a hard time keeping my excitement in check...➤ Read More
Happy birthday, Leonhart Fuchs
Friday, January 17, 2014
My, how times flies. That eminent botanist, Leonhart Fuchs, turns five hundred and thirteen today. He was, in case you’ve been distracted the whole long time, the German physician, botanist and professor after whom the genus Fuchsia...➤ Read More
Alfred Russel Wallace 1823-1913
Thursday, November 07, 2013
Alfred Russel Wallace was one of the most brilliant scientists of the 19th century. A naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist, Wallace independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection...➤ Read More