https://lab.plant-humanities.org/Plant Humanities LabA minimal, responsive and feature-rich Jekyll theme for technical writing. 2026-04-04T11:48:50+00:00 Dumbarton Oaks https://lab.plant-humanities.org/ Jekyll © 2026 Dumbarton Oaks /assets/img/favicons/favicon.ico /assets/img/favicons/favicon-96x96.png Wild Rice: Connecting People to Place2025-11-25T00:00:00+00:00 2026-04-04T11:48:06+00:00 https://lab.plant-humanities.org/wild-rice Dumbarton Oaks Wild rice sustained Ojibwe communities as sacred food and medicine, central to their identity and migration westward. The White Earth Band granted wild rice legal personhood in tribal court to protect it from pipeline threats. Arabica Coffee: Cultivating Connection and Climate Resilience2025-09-29T00:00:00+00:00 2026-04-04T11:48:06+00:00 https://lab.plant-humanities.org/coffee Nina Foster Arabica coffee shaped global commerce and culture through trade networks and coffeehouses spanning continents. Climate change now threatens cultivation lands by 54-60 percent by 2050, prompting breeding programs to develop heat-tolerant hybrid varieties using wild coffee species. Guelder Rose: The Powerful Symbolism of a Plant in Ukraine and Russia2025-08-09T00:00:00+00:00 2026-04-04T11:48:06+00:00 https://lab.plant-humanities.org/posts/guelder-rose/ Anna Hogarth, Nidhish Birhade, and Matthew Turetsky The guelder rose evolved from a prehistoric food plant into Ukraine's emblem of homeland and resistance, symbolized in the Independence Monument and patriotic song "Chervona Kalyna." Grant Allen's 1881 text first used the term "evolutionary biology" to describe the plant's deceptive sterile outer flowers that attract pollinators to fertile inner blooms. Salvation and Suffering: Potato2025-08-07T00:00:00+00:00 2026-04-04T11:48:06+00:00 https://lab.plant-humanities.org/potato Nola Rettenmaier, Alexander Betz, and Jessica Gómez The potato, domesticated in the Andes ten thousand years ago, shaped empires, famines, and migrations across continents through its resilience and vulnerability. During Japan's forced incarceration of Americans in World War II camps, potatoes provided sustenance while their sack strings were woven into prisoners' clothing. Beyond the Silken Shadow: The Mulberry Tree's Metamorphosis and Homecoming2025-08-07T00:00:00+00:00 2026-04-04T11:48:06+00:00 https://lab.plant-humanities.org/mulberry Kate Aubrecht and Viveca Mellegård White mulberry spread globally for sericulture but failed economically in America, overshadowing its native red mulberry cousin valued by Indigenous peoples. Silkworm cocoons contain 1.5 kilometers of continuous filament, making a single cocoon extraordinarily productive for silk production.