The Botany Of Cannabis. Botany. Botany, also called plant science(s) or plant biology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who specializes in this field of study. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη (botanē) meaning "pasture", "grass", or "fodder"; βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν (boskein), "to feed" or "to graze". Traditionally, botany has also included the study of fungi and algae by mycologists and phycologists respectively, with the study of these three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of the International Botanical Congress.
Nowadays, botanists study approximately 400,000 species of living organisms of which some 260,000 species are vascular plants and about 248,000 are flowering plants. Botany originated in prehistory as herbalism with the efforts of early humans to identify – and later cultivate – edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, making it one of the oldest branches of science. Botany.com: Plant Encyclopedia to Identify Plants, Flowers, Trees & More. The Native Trees of Colorado. This web site for anyone who is interested in the trees of Colorado. My goal is to offer a guide to identification of Colorado native trees which is easy to use. There is considerably more detailed and particular help here for identifying Colorado trees than you will find in the national-scale tree guide books or in many regional guides.
In fact many of those books omit some native trees of Colorado. I also describe something about the trees' habits and the role of the trees in the forests of Colorado. Map of Colorado Forests (Colorado State Forest Service). Instant Tree Finder Chart (conifers) Books on Trees and Forests of Colorado The Mountain Pine Beetle and the recent pine beetle epidemic. The Amazing All-Purpose Pine Needle Tea. By Bev Walker (Sundownr)January 26, 2014 (Editor's Note: This article was originally published on February 25, 2011. Your comments are welcome, but please be aware that authors of previously published articles may not be able to promptly respond to new questions or comments.) I learned about pine needle tea a few months ago from a friend who claimed the tea helped him recuperate from a serious illness.
It is a fact that the tea extracted from pine needles is very high in vitamin C, helped keep the early settlers alive through their first winter in America, and to this day, is regularly used by natives, hunters, and explorers in nearly every region around the globe. Historical references tout the nutritional and medicinal benefits of pine needle tea, each claiming a different cure. I could easily accept claims for a few similar cures, but such diverse treatments sounded a bit unbelievable. Make Your Own Heavenly Homemade Vanilla and Peppermint Extracts. Vanilla extract and peppermint extract waiting to be born. Simple vanilla Spirited peppermint drenched Extracts from heaven Or maybe Vodka-bathed nature Peppermint and vanilla Patience – don’t drink yet Yeah. I don’t know what came over me while I was making these, but the haiku gremlin was all up in my head the entire time. Anyway, vanilla extract and peppermint extract recipes.
(Those seem similar in difficulty.) My impetus for doing this was the peppermint that I will (proudly) say is taking over one of my EarthBoxes. My beautiful, beautiful peppermint – waiting to be an extract. It would be nice, though, if all of you could refrain from pointing out that peppermint will grow like wildfire regardless of who’s tending (or most of the time not-tending) it. But, I figured as long as I was making peppermint extract, I’d bloody well better make some vanilla, too. Vanilla – the most misrepresented of all spices (or orchids, as the case may be). It’s also very expensive.
Look at it. Okay. How To Make Lavender Extract. In years past I made cookies from recipes that had lavender flowers in them or used lavender infused sugar on top. This year I decided to make an extract from the lavender flowers in my garden and use some to make cookies. The lavender extract was made from pesticide free, freshly picked lavender heads. (Use lavender flowers that are good for culinary use.) Pour 2 cups of 100 proof vodka into the jar of flowers. To prevent the jar from leaking at the opening when you shake, a piece of plastic wrap can be put inside the lid before you close it. Shake once a day for eight days. Strain through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.
Strain a few more times with the coffee filter. The liquid will be a dark brown. Makes approximately 1 cup of lavender extract. If your lavender is dried try using 50 lavender flower heads instead of 100. Growing the eternal tomato by Leonard Trebor Issue #57. It's an old story to longtime gardeners (and a new story to novices): each spring you buy some superb tomato plants, set them out on May 1 (or thereabouts), then you mulch, water, and spray until about July 4 (depending upon the part of the country in which you live) when you pick your first real beauties of the season. The plants then thrive for the remainder of the summer.
But, about the end of August, they begin to wilt and die. The event is always marked with a tinge of nostalgia as you wonder if you will ever see such wonderful tomatoes again. Of course, there is always next season, but you can never be sure if the new plants will come close to equalling the old ones. The new strains may not be to your liking, or there may be a problem with the plant's ability to resist wilt or cold weather. You wish you could keep the old plants forever. Actually, there is an easy way to keep your tomato plants alive forever. Suckering Many old-time gardeners know about the process called suckering. How to Grow Stevia. Introduction You need not be a South American planter to be a successful stevia grower. While the herb’s native locale may make it appear somewhat exotic, it has proved to be quite adaptable and capable of being cultivated in climate zones as diverse as Florida and southern Canada. True, home-grown stevia may lack the potency of refined white stevia extract; whole stevioside content generally ranges from 81 to 91 percent, as compared to a leaf level of approximately 12 percent.
But it can provide you with a quantity of freshly harvested stevia ‘tea leaves’ to augment your supply of commercial stevia sweeteners. Organic gardeners in particular should find stevia an ideal addition to their yield. Though nontoxic, stevia plants have been found to have insect-repelling tendencies. How to Start Your Own Stevia Patch It would be difficult, at best, to start a stevia patch from scratch — that is, by planting seeds. The Care and Feeding of Stevia Gathering Autumn Stevia Leaves.