#botany

Environment

Huế's Fantastic Herbs and Where to Find Them, Now in Book Form

Have you ever walked past a plant and wondered "Hey, I wonder what that could do?"

Environment

A Botanical Illustrator Captures Vietnam's Flora on Paper, One Species at a Time

When science and art commingle in a botanical illustration, it’s as if a magical world appears, where colors, brushstrokes, and lighting work together to not only replicate but also breathe life into nature’s best creations.

In Plain Sight

To Appreciate Tao Đàn More, Study the Park's Past, Present, and Future

Shallow shrub and fern roots tussle to send shoots, tendrils and stalks up and outwards, sprawling across uneven ground and grasping at patches of light. A musky, funky, fetid soil stink emanates from crooks, crevices, and holes ungoverned by grubs, spiders, snails, beetles, and flies. Flowers bloom in vibrant bursts of color amongst vines, the collapsing pulp of decomposing logs and uncompromising boulders; birds trill, cicadas whine, and the air offers its inexhaustible exhale of droplet-rich molecules. We live in the tropics. Often, we forget this. Tao Đàn Park allows us to remember.

Natural Selection

Lêkima: The Flower Worthy of a National Heroine

Don’t you find it bewildering when you have existed for centuries, and are suddenly thrust into stardom due to a small cameo in a nationalist saga?

Natural Selection

Cây Đa: A Tree That Contains Multitudes

Postcards

Hanoi Postcard No. 6: Hoa Sữa by Any Other Name Would Still Smell as Caustic

The fragrance of hoa sữa , or milk flower, is so deeply embedded in the mythology of Hanoi’s autumnal days that singers, poets and authors alike have all sung its praises.