ve-meta title="Plant Humanities Lab" description="Explore the cultural histories of plants and their influence on human societies."

ve-header title="Plant Humanities Lab" logo=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plant-humanities/media/main/images/phl-website-png-logo.png background=gh:plant-humanities/media/images/header.jpg subtitle="Explore the cultural histories of plants and their influence on human societies" url=/ .sticky

:font-size=1em

Featured Plant Narratives

.cards

Beyond the Silken Shadow: The Mulberry Tree’s Metamorphosis and Homecoming

Kate Aubrecht and Viveca Mellegård

Salvation and Suffering: Potato

Nola Rettenmaier, Alexander Betz, and Jessica Gómez

Jasmine: The Sensual and the Sacred

Adriana Ballinger and Tori Champion

Passionflower: Christian Curiosity, Exotic Vine, Tropical Fruit

Theo Detweiler, Willa Frank, Rose Kent

Guelder Rose: The Powerful Symbolism of a Plant in Ukraine and Russia

Anna Hogarth, Nidhish Birhade, and Matthew Turetsky

The Gulmohar: Becoming Native

Nidhish Birhade

What We Know Now: Tracing the Tamarack

Hannah Hardenbergh

Okra: An Enduring Kitchen Staple

Allison Caban and Malek Charchour

Featured Resources

.cards

How to Read an Herbarium Specimen

Maura Flannery

This essay provides an approachable overview of herbarium specimens and how they are used.

All Plant Narratives

.cards

Agave: A Plant with an Intoxicating History

Ashley Buchanan

Arbor Vitae: In Search of the Tree of Life

Ashley Buchanan

Ayahuasca: Amazonian Plant Lessons

Ashley Thuthao Keng Dam, Diana Heredia-López, Rachael Nelson, and Erin Wrightson

Bananas: Chaos out of Order

Ashley Buchanan

Black-Eyed Pea: Crop, Culture, Class

Sarah Mallory, Emily Kamm, Haley Price, and Christina Hourigan

Boxwood: A Plant That Took Over the Garden World

Anatole Tchikine

The Breadfruit’s Reinvention: Pacific to Caribbean

Elaine Savory

The Broad-Leaf Bark: Friend or Foe?

Bethany Kidd and Sierra Roark

Cacao: Indigenous Network to Global Commodity

Rebecca Friedel

Carolina Rice: An Agricultural Legacy of Enslaved Peoples

Julia Fine

Cassava: From Toxic Tuber to Food Staple

Christina Emery, Rachel Hirsch, and Melinda Susanto

Cinnamomum verum: Discovering “True” Cinnamon

Wouter Klein

Cryptomeria japonica: Climate Change, Cultivation, and Culture

Kira Bre Clingen and Edyth Jostol

Dittany: Women’s Herbs and Reproductive Control

Ashley Buchanan

Dracaena draco: The Mystery of Dragon’s Blood

Thomas C. Anderson, Cati Kalinoski, and Lucas Mertehikian

Eggplant: Food, Sex, and Poison

Ana Carolina Carmona-Ribeiro, Nathan Cornish, and Sheila Scoville

Guelder Rose: The Powerful Symbolism of a Plant in Ukraine and Russia

Anna Hogarth, Nidhish Birhade, and Matthew Turetsky

The Gulmohar: Becoming Native

Nidhish Birhade

Heliconia: Evolution at Work

W. John Kress and Yota Batsaki

Indigo: Layers of Paint, History, and Art

Jordan Noelle Smith, Gianna Welty, and Hayley Blair

Jasmine: The Sensual and the Sacred

Adriana Ballinger and Tori Champion

Maize: Sacred Plant, Global Commodity

Julia Fine

Mint: The Ubiquity of a Commercial Crop

Victoria Pickering

Beyond the Silken Shadow: The Mulberry Tree’s Metamorphosis and Homecoming

Kate Aubrecht and Viveca Mellegård

Okra: An Enduring Kitchen Staple

Allison Caban and Malek Charchour

Opium Poppy: A Cursed Beauty

Carol Chang, Heather Rose Craddock, and Alejandro Garay

Passionflower: Christian Curiosity, Exotic Vine, Tropical Fruit

Theo Detweiler, Willa Frank, Rose Kent

Peanut: From Luxury Food to Livestock Feed

Maria Job, Elizabeth Chant, and Katherine Enright

Pecan: Beyond Thanksgiving Pie to Indigenous Reciprocity

MaryKathryn Underwood, Stefania Rocca, and Paolo Taffaro

Pelargonium: By Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet?

Daisy Reid, Verónica Matallana Chaves, and Yao Jiang

Peony: Pretty and Powerful

Ashley Buchanan

Salvation and Suffering: Potato

Nola Rettenmaier, Alexander Betz, and Jessica Gómez

The Sensitive Plant: Meaning and Movement

Elaina Foley, Sabrina Freidus, and Jordan Norviel

Sunflower: Knowledge, Myth, and Meaning

Kristan M. Hanson

Soybean: The Versatile Miracle Crop

Nina Elkadi

Quinoa: From Indigenous Crop to International Superfood

Matthew Turetsky

What We Know Now: Tracing the Tamarack

Hannah Hardenbergh

Tamarind: From Shady Refuge to Versatile Foodstuff

Allison Fulton, Amara Santiesteban Serrano, and Jeannette Schollaert

Turmeric: Herb of the Sun

Julia Fine

Venus Flytrap: Queen of the Carnivorous Plants

John R. Schaefer

Watermelon: Stereotypes of Race and Class

Anna Lawrence, Camilo Uribe Botta, and May Wang

Wild Yam: The Rhizome of the Pill

Kira Bre Clingen

ve-footer
- A collaboration between: 
- [![Dumbarton Oaks](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plant-humanities/media/main/images/do-logo.svg)`:width:150px;height:100%`](https://www.doaks.org/)
- and
- [![JSTOR Labs](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plant-humanities/media/main/images/JSTOR_Labs_logo.jpg)](https://labs.jstor.org)
- with support from
- [![Mellon](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plant-humanities/media/main/images/Mellon_Logomark_Lockup_Black.png)](https://www.mellon.org/)