Theobrominated

The word weed  can be a hard one to define.  Most people accept that a weed is a plant growing where it’s unwanted, something that’s in t...

Bird-dispersed woody weeds are some of the worst, and many in New Zealand are escapes from horticulture.  Sometimes there are similar native...

Chance can be an important aspect of biological discovery, even very minor discoveries such as I'm describing today, but a prepared min...

(Note: I've updated this post on 28 September, giving the name of the botanist whose advice led me to these two Veronica s and whose col...

Last week I was at Lincoln, near Christchurch, working in the herbarium at Landcare Research .  I was checking my descriptions and identify...

I lived in Christchurch for 22 years from 1972 until 1994.  Last week I went back for the first time since the earthquakes that shattere...