Plants

The Stately Conifer of the High Rockies Engelmann spruce is the tree standing at timberline in the Rocky Mountains, a tall, narrow, spire-shaped conifer that thrives in exactly the cold, wet, high-altitude conditions few other trees can tolerate. Look for the tallest, straightest trees near the edge of a subalpine forest, and there’s a good … Read more

Fir trees belong to the genus Abies, a group of evergreen conifers in the pine family recognized by their needle-like leaves that grow directly from the branch and leave a distinctive round, suction-cup-shaped scar once they fall. The genus contains somewhere between 40 and 56 recognized species depending on the source, with most modern counts … Read more

The boreal forest isn’t one uniform block of trees stretching across the northern hemisphere. Ecologists studying the biome, going back to a foundational 1972 classification by researchers Hare and Ritchie, have long divided it into distinct structural zones that shift as you move from its warmer southern edge toward the Arctic tundra, along with a … Read more

The Canadian boreal forest is one of the largest intact forest ecosystems on Earth, stretching across roughly 53 to 60 percent of the country’s total land area, depending on which government or research source is doing the counting. It represents about a third of the entire circumpolar boreal forest that rings the northern hemisphere, and … Read more

Hickory trees belong to the genus Carya, a group of deciduous, pinnately compound-leaved trees prized for producing some of the hardest, strongest, and most shock-resistant wood of any tree native to North America. The genus name comes from the ancient Greek word for nut, a fitting root given that hickory nuts, most famously the pecan, … Read more

Fringe tree is a native North American flowering tree that deserves far more attention than it usually gets, its clouds of delicate, fringe-petaled white blooms rivaling anything sold at a nursery for spring drama, yet it remains a relatively uncommon sight in most home landscapes. The NC State Extension goes so far as to call … Read more

Fringetree gets its common name, and its scientific genus name Chionanthus, from the Greek words for snow and flower, a fitting description for a tree that covers itself in delicate, fringe-petaled white blooms each spring. It belongs to the olive family, the same family that includes ash trees and lilacs, and that relationship has turned … Read more

Basswood trees are large, fast-growing deciduous trees native to eastern and central North America, known for their heart-shaped leaves, fragrant summer flowers, and status as one of the best nectar sources any tree can offer a honeybee. The scientific name for the species is Tilia americana, and it belongs to the mallow family, the same … Read more

Grass tree is one of the most recognizable plants in the Australian landscape, a striking, spear-topped icon that somehow manages to be neither a grass nor, in any conventional sense, a tree. Its dense skirt of narrow leaves atop a blackened, fire-scarred trunk has made it an instantly familiar sight across huge stretches of the … Read more

Lilly pilly is a name that covers dozens of plants within the genus Syzygium, a member of the myrtle family alongside eucalypts and tea trees. Globally, botanists recognize around 1,200 Syzygium species, and Australia is home to roughly 50 to 75 of them, spread from the Kimberley in Western Australia across the Top End, Queensland, … Read more