Curated playlist
Botanical taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
- MaizeMaize relies on humans to survive. Its kernels stay locked to the cob, unlike its wild ancestor teosinte, whose seeds scatter to the ground on their own. Left alone in a field, a corncob would simply rot where it fell. This is a plant that…
- WheatWheat grows on more land than any other food crop on Earth. In 2024, farmers planted it across 219.5 million hectares, and the world harvested 799 million tonnes of grain. World trade in wheat is greater than that of all other crops…
- FraxinusFraxinus, the genus we call ash, is one of the most quietly consequential trees on earth. Its wood bent into the handles of axes. Its seeds spiraled down from canopies in their thousands. Its roots ran through the founding stories of…
- GarlicGarlic, known to botanists as Allium sativum, was placed by ancient Greeks on piles of stones at crossroads as a supper for the goddess Hecate. That single ritual captures something true about this plant: for thousands of years, it has…
- RyeRye, known to botanists as Secale cereale, is a grass that has fed northern civilizations through climates that defeat nearly every other grain. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder dismissed it as a "very poor food" that "only serves to…
- OakThe oak has been alive on this planet for at least 44 million years. Fossil pollen from Austria places the genus Quercus at the boundary between the Paleocene and the Eocene, and fossil leaves from Oregon confirm it was already spreading…
- OatOats, known scientifically as Avena sativa, may be the most underestimated grain on Earth. Samuel Johnson, writing his famous 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, defined oats as a grain which in England is generally given to horses…
- PeaThe pea has fed civilisations for at least ten thousand years. Seeds showing domesticated characteristics have been unearthed at archaeological sites around what is now Turkey, and the crop's reach was already global long before anyone…
- Phaseolus vulgarisPhaseolus vulgaris, the common bean, carries a remarkable secret in its raw form: eating just four or five uncooked, soaked kidney beans is enough to cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea within one to three hours. That toxin, a lectin…
- Sweet potatoThe sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, carries a name that is older than written history and a journey that crossed entire oceans before Europeans had any idea it existed. It is one of the few food crops that can honestly claim to have…
- CannabisCannabis is a genus of flowering plants with a history stretching back roughly 12,000 years, to the early Neolithic period in East Asia. Long before it became a subject of courtroom battles and legislative debates, it was already woven…
- MapleMaple trees have been spinning seeds through the air for roughly 60 million years. Those seeds, known as samaras, are shaped to rotate as they fall, carrying a single nutlet on a papery wing far from the parent tree. During World War II,…
- BasilBasil carries a name that means "royal plant" in Greek, and for thousands of years, people have treated it accordingly. The ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks believed basil would open the gates of heaven for a person passing on. In…
- CitrusCitrus trees began as small berry-producing shrubs, and today they account for nearly half of all world fruit trade by value. That figure, recorded in 2018, came to roughly US$15.2 billion in a single year. What transformed a wild…
- Indigofera tinctoriaIndigofera tinctoria, the plant known as true indigo, once colored the robes of emperors and the canvas of European masters. It is a modest shrub, rarely taller than two meters, with light green leaves and small pink or violet flowers. Yet…
- FragariaFragaria carries more than 20 described species under its name, yet almost everyone who has ever eaten a strawberry has only tasted one of them. This genus belongs to the rose family, Rosaceae, and its name covers a group with many hybrids…
- Gossypium hirsutumGossypium hirsutum, the plant known as upland cotton or Mexican cotton, quietly holds a grip on the global textile economy that most people never think about. Roughly 90% of all cotton grown anywhere on earth comes from cultivars derived…
- Gossypium barbadenseSeven thousand eight hundred years ago, people along the coast of what is now Ecuador and Peru were already using Gossypium barbadense. Archaeologists have traced this back through seeds found on the floors of ancient houses. That same…
- Hyoscyamus nigerHyoscyamus niger, the plant the medieval world called henbane, carries a name that dates back to AD 1265 and translates, essentially, to "thing that causes death". Yet for thousands of years, across Europe, Asia, and the Arab world, people…
- Ficus religiosaFicus religiosa, the sacred fig, holds a distinction shared by almost no other plant on earth: it is venerated across four major religions simultaneously. Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism all trace their origins to the Indian…
- CactusThe first cacti are thought to have been only slightly succulent shrubs or small trees whose leaves carried out photosynthesis. They lived in tropical areas that experienced periodic drought. If Leuenbergeria is a good model of these early…
- Juglans regiaJuglans regia goes by many names: common walnut, English walnut, Persian walnut. None of them quite captures what this tree actually is. Its Latin name translates as "Jupiter's royal acorn," a title bestowed by the Romans who spread it…
- FicusFicus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, and epiphytes found throughout the tropics and beyond. They are collectively called figs, and they are everywhere: shading temples in India, tangling through rainforest…
- Angelica archangelicaDuring its first year, the plant grows only leaves. In the second year, a fluted stem reaches 2.5 meters in height. This is just over eight feet of vertical growth. The root serves as the primary source for flavoring preparations. Leaves…