Florapedia: Dawn Redwood

In 1939 Shigeru Miki, a Japanese palaeontologist, discovered a fossilised tree leaf in occupied China and noting its similarity to the mighty redwoods in 1941 he named this extinct tree Metasequoia. However, the same year a Chinese botanist called Toh Gan discovered a tree that had lost most of its leaves that the locals called

Florapedia: Macadamia

Macadamia nuts are noted for having health benefits if taken as part of a balanced diet, and their popularity as a source of food has skyrocketed over the last century. Humans have been eating macadamia nuts for centuries, but the four macademia species are at risk of extinction, if one species only having 100 wild

Paleo Profiles: Archaeopteris

Not to be confused with the famous Archaeopteryx this week we are looking at Archaeopteris. While Archaeopteryx is known as being the fossil showing the connection between birds and dinosaurs, Archaeopteris is known for being one of the first trees in natural history. Trees make up so much of the planet’s ecosystems today and they

Florapedia: Joshua Tree

The name of a U2 album and a national park in the southwest United States today we’re looking at the Joshua tree. Originally called humwichawa by the Cahuilla and izote de desierto (Desert dagger) by the Spanish the Joshua tree got its name from Mormon settlers as they colonised the southwest. A keystone species in