Witch-hazel is fall/winter bloomer, just like the orchids I covered a while back. Perhaps this is part of what makes it “witchy.” In fact, though folk etymologies attribute the name to its use in divining or dowsing, the Online Etymology Dictionary notes that the “witch” in Witch-hazel probably doesn’t come from the common use ofContinue reading “Halloween Botany: Witch-Hazel”
Monthly Archives: October 2020
In the Spotlight: Northern White-cedar
I just got back from a trip up north, which took me into the native range of Thuja occidentalis, also know as Swamp-cedar or Arborvitae. I chose to write about it for two additional reasons: one, because I’ve been reading William Cronon’s classic Changes in the Land, which mentions it as one of the treesContinue reading “In the Spotlight: Northern White-cedar”
recycled paper clips 