Dr. Lew Feldman, Garden Director Next time you are in the Garden and walking past Southern African Area, stop for a moment and look for the Lampranthus, a genus of plants that have unusually large, bright flowers that appear in summer, and frequently cover the plants entirely. Lampranthus can be distinguished by the large seed…
Dr. Lew Feldman, Garden Director Undergraduate visitors to the Garden often ask me about “window” or “stone plants,” which belong to the taxonomic group known as Lithops. Students want to know, what part of the plant they are looking at, where do these plants grow and why are these plants called window or stone plant?…
Dr. Lew Feldman, Garden Director Have you ever wondered about the how and why of “holes” in leaves of plants, like Philodendron? Whereas we know quite a lot about the mechanism resulting in the holes, we are not sure of the purpose of these holes. Some workers have suggested that because Philodendron is a climbing…
Dr. Lew Feldman, Garden Director As you walk through the UC Botanical Garden and observe the diversity in form, shape, and size of plants, it is easy to conclude that plants must be made up of many different types of parts (organs). But in fact, the construction of plants is amazingly simple, consisting of only…