Welcome to Plant Humanities Lab
The Plant Humanities Lab is an innovative digital space that supports the interdisciplinary study of plants from the various perspectives of the arts, sciences, and humanities, to explore their extraordinary significance to human culture.
Humans rely on plants for our most fundamental individual and social needs: from food, medicine, and construction to our encounters with them in art and literature. Although we think of plants as rooted in place, their global travels over the millennia offer fascinating pathways into the past and illuminate some of the most burning issues of today, including legacies of colonial violence and displacement. Climate change, habitat loss, and accelerated species extinctions add to the urgency of researching plant–human interactions and acknowledging the importance of plants in our environment.
Agave: A Plant with an Intoxicating History
Agave, a genus of about 200 monocot species native to the Americas, is best known today as the source of tequila. Beyond spirits, agave has long held cultural, religious, and environmental significance, shaping ancient Amerindian life, European botany, Mexican identity, and modern sustainability efforts.
succulent, desert, fiber, beverageArbor Vitae: In Search of the Tree of Life
The “tree of life,” or arbor vitaæ, has long been surrounded by mystery and debate over its true identity. This story traces how the St. Lawrence Iroquois used the tree’s medicinal properties to aid French explorers and explores the evidence behind its botanical identification.
tree, conifer, ornamental, temperateAyahuasca: Amazonian Plant Lessons
Ayahuasca, a traditional Amazonian psychoactive brew, has spread globally since the late 1990s, especially through New Age practices and ecotourism. Its deep Indigenous roots and evolving meanings highlight the complex human-plant relationships that have been reshaped in the global marketplace.
vine, psychoactive, medicinal, tropicalBananas: Chaos out of Order
The banana’s familiar image hides a complex history of human intervention and global migration. This story explores the banana’s botanical roots, challenges cultural stereotypes, and highlights the ongoing confusion in its scientific classification.
fruit, tropical, stapleBlack-Eyed Pea: Crop, Culture, Class
The black-eyed pea has a rich global history, shifting from a sacred African symbol to a humble food for laborers and enslaved peoples. Today, it’s celebrated worldwide as both a cultural touchstone and a versatile ingredient that bridges old and new traditions.
legume, vegetable, drought-tolerant, stapleBoxwood: A Plant That Took Over the Garden World
Boxwood, once overlooked, rose to prominence as a popular ornamental plant but now faces serious threat from a destructive fungal disease. This story traces its journey to garden fame and highlights the urgency of protecting it from boxwood blight.
shrub, ornamental, temperateThe Breadfruit's Reinvention: Pacific to Caribbean
Breadfruit, a towering tree with nourishing fruit, has long been a staple across the Pacific, spread by human migration and cultivation. This story explores how its movement reveals patterns of settlement, and how selective breeding over millennia transformed the plant into the seedless, resilient form we know today.
fruit, tropical, stapleCacao: Indigenous Network to Global Commodity
Cacao, the source of chocolate, has a deep history rooted in ancient Mesoamerican cultures where it held spiritual and social significance. This story traces its journey from Indigenous traditions to a global commodity, revealing its role in colonial encounters and cultural exchange.
fruit, beverage, tropical, stimulantCarolina Rice: An Agricultural Legacy of Enslaved Peoples
Carolina rice, once lost after the Reconstruction era, is being revived as a heritage grain with deep historical roots. Its story uncovers a legacy of slavery, settler colonialism, and exploitation that shaped both the British Empire and early America.
grain, wetland, stapleCassava: From Toxic Tuber to Food Staple
Cassava is a vital global food source, feeding millions despite its raw form being toxic. This story explores how human ingenuity transformed it from a poisonous South American tuber into a staple crop cultivated and consumed around the world.
root, tropical, drought-tolerant, stapleCinnamomum verum: Discovering "True" Cinnamon
Once just a kitchen spice—and briefly an internet stunt—cinnamon has a much deeper story rooted in centuries of global trade and discovery. This narrative traces the quest to identify and control “true” cinnamon, revealing its lasting impact on medicine, commerce, and history.
spice, medicinal, tropicalContrayerva
Francis Drake’s 16th-century voyage around the globe helped spark a wave of European interest in exotic plants, feeding the rise of botanical science. This story follows how naturalists like Charles Clusius used explorers’ accounts to build networks, botanical gardens, and a new culture of plant collecting in early modern Europe.
herb, medicinal, root, tropicalThe Corpse Flower - Amorphophallus titanium
The corpse flower, known for its massive size and foul odor, draws huge crowds when it blooms—an event that happens only once every 5 to 10 years. This story explores the plant’s rare and spectacular flowering, its unique pollination strategy, and its rising popularity as a star attraction at botanic gardens across the U.S.
flower, ornamental, tropicalCryptomeria japonica: Climate Change, Cultivation, and Culture
Cryptomeria japonica, or sugi, is Japan’s national tree and has long held cultural and symbolic importance in the country’s landscape. This story traces how sugi’s role is evolving today as Japan grapples with the environmental and social impacts of aging monoculture forests.
tree, conifer, ornamental, temperateWild Yam: The Rhizome of the Pill
Wild yam (Dioscorea villosa), once key to the development of the birth control pill, has a complex history shaped by Indigenous knowledge and commercial science. This story revisits how the plant was studied and represented, challenging traditional botanical illustrations to reflect its deeper cultural and medicinal significance.
root, medicinal, vine, temperateDittany: Women’s Herbs and Reproductive Control
Used for over 2,000 years, dittany has been closely tied to women’s health, especially around menstruation and childbirth. This story explores how historical herbals and recipes reflect women’s knowledge and agency in using this medicinal plant across time.
herb, spice, medicinal, temperateDracaena draco: The Mystery of Dragon’s Blood
Despite its mythical name, “dragon’s blood” is a vivid red resin harvested from certain trees, most notably Dracaena draco and D. cinnabari. This story unpacks the centuries-old mystery of its origins and how human demand has threatened these iconic trees in the modern era.
succulent, ornamental, subtropicalEggplant: Food, Sex, and Poison
The eggplant is more than just a versatile global ingredient—it’s also a cultural symbol, from culinary staple to emoji innuendo. This story traces its journey from domestication and dietary use to its surprising role in digital expression, revealing how food carries layered meanings across cultures.
vegetable, tropicalHeliconia: Evolution at Work
Heliconias, known for their striking tropical beauty, have long been popular in gardens but understudied by scientists due to collection challenges. This story highlights recent discoveries that reveal their complex relationships with animals and their remarkable role in shaping ecosystems.
flower, ornamental, tropicalHow to Read an Herbarium Specimen
This richly illustrated article by Maura Flannery explores how herbarium specimens—pressed, preserved plants—serve as vital scientific and historical documents. It traces their evolution from 16th-century collections to modern tools for tracking biodiversity and climate change. Through case studies like Darlingtonia californica and the Lewis and Clark expedition, the piece reveals how specimens preserve botanical knowledge, collector histories, and even indigenous expertise.
educationIndigo: Layers of Paint, History, and Art
Vermeer’s *Girl with a Pearl Earring* once featured a rich indigo background, now faded with time—along with the memory of the dye’s colonial origins. This story uncovers the global history of indigo, linking its artistic and agricultural uses to the exploitation that fueled its trade, while also highlighting its enduring cultural significance.
shrub, dye, legume, tropicalCercidiphyllum japonicum: The Katsura at Dumbarton Oaks
The katsura tree at Dumbarton Oaks, with its sweeping branches and ancient roots, has stood since before the estate was purchased in 1920. This story traces the species’ long history—from prehistoric times to its poetic and horticultural significance in Japan and North America—revealing how it came to grace this Washington, D.C. garden.
tree, ornamental, temperate, cold-hardyMaize: Sacred Plant, Global Commodity
In 2014, mass protests erupted in Guatemala against the so-called “Monsanto Law,” which restricted the reuse of patented seeds like genetically modified maize. This story explores how the law threatened centuries-old cultural and spiritual ties to maize, highlighting the deep-rooted tensions between traditional knowledge and corporate control.
grain, staple, temperateThe Sensitive Plant: Meaning and Movement
Mimosa pudica, known for its touch-sensitive leaves, has captivated observers for centuries, sparking fascination with plant intelligence. This story traces how the plant’s responsiveness inspired both scientific curiosity and colonial exploitation, while highlighting the resilience of diverse cultural knowledge systems surrounding it.
shrub, ornamental, nitrogen-fixer, tropicalMint: The Ubiquity of a Commercial Crop
Mint is a globally widespread plant with thousands of varieties, woven into daily life through food, medicine, and products. This story uncovers mint’s overlooked role in botanical history, from naming challenges to its impact on medicine and global plant exchange.
herb, medicinal, temperateOkra: An Enduring Kitchen Staple
Okra, a cultivated plant with no clear wild ancestor, has deep roots in tropical regions from Southeast Asia to West Africa. This story traces its botanical history and celebrates its enduring role as a symbol of African diasporic resilience and cultural heritage.
vegetable, tropical, heat-tolerantThe Broad-Leaf Paperbark: Friend or Foe?
The paperbark tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia) was introduced by colonial powers to reshape landscapes—from Hong Kong’s rocky hillsides to Florida’s swamplands—under the guise of progress and productivity. This story reveals how a once-valued symbol of development became a cautionary tale of ecological disruption and unintended consequences.
tree, medicinal, tropicalPeanut: From Luxury Food to Livestock Feed
Despite its name, the peanut is a legume with deep roots in South America, where it was first cultivated over 7,000 years ago. This story follows its global journey through the Columbian Exchange, highlighting its cultural, agricultural, and symbolic significance across continents.
legume, nut, oilseed, nitrogen-fixerPecan: Beyond Thanksgiving Pie to Indigenous Reciprocity
Whether you say PEE-can or puh-KAHN, the pecan’s story goes far beyond pie—it’s a centuries-old staple first cultivated by Native Americans, who formed reciprocal relationships with the tree. This story explores how pecans shaped migration, trade, and diets, and how modern cultivation risks disrupting that delicate balance.
nut, tree, temperatePelargonium: By Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet?
Charles Dickens adored the scarlet “geranium,” but the plant he loved was actually a pelargonium—long mistaken for its namesake. This story untangles their identities and reveals the pelargonium’s distinct history and influence across science, industry, and culture.
shrub, herb, ornamental, temperatePeony: Pretty and Powerful
Peonies are prized today for their stunning blooms, but they also have a rich medicinal legacy spanning over 2,000 years in Europe and Asia. This story uncovers lesser-known episodes in peony’s history, including its use in healing remedies like a “miraculous” infant convulsion powder.
flower, ornamental, temperateOpium Poppy: A Cursed Beauty
The opium poppy has a long, complex history—as a sacred medicinal plant, a source of artistic inspiration, and a driver of addiction and conflict. This story traces its journey from ancient ritual use to modern controversy, revealing shifting perceptions of the poppy as both a symbol of beauty and a global blight.
flower, ornamental, psychoactive, medicinalQuinoa: From Indigenous Crop to International Superfood
Quinoa became a global “superfood” almost overnight, but its roots stretch back thousands of years to the Andes, where it was a vital subsistence crop. This story reveals how rising global demand reshaped the lives of Andean farmers and raises important questions about food justice, sustainability, and cultural appropriation in global food trends.
grain, high-altitude, staple, gluten-freeSoybean: The Versatile Miracle Crop
Soybeans are everywhere—from grocery store shelves to livestock feed—covering six percent of the Earth’s surface and dominating global agriculture. This story explores soy’s journey from a humble wild plant to a genetically modified powerhouse entangled in issues of deforestation, food systems, and environmental politics.
legume, grain, oilseed, nitrogen-fixerSunflower: Knowledge, Myth, and Meaning
The sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is instantly recognizable and widely celebrated in art and imagery, often overshadowing the plant itself. This story traces the sunflower’s cultural and visual history, revealing how its striking form helped shape myths, meanings, and botanical understanding over time.
flower, oilseed, ornamental, temperateWhat We Know Now: Tracing the Tamarack
The Tamarack tree, or Larix laricina, holds deep cultural and ecological significance, especially in Ojibwe traditions where it symbolizes humility and reciprocity. This story explores the tree’s seasonal rhythms, its role in Indigenous storytelling and Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and its potential as a symbol for conservation and interconnectedness with the natural world.
tree, conifer, wetland, cold-hardyTamarind: From Shady Refuge to Versatile Foodstuff
The tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica) is both revered and feared—praised for its medicinal and culinary uses, yet shrouded in myth and mystery. This story explores its deep cultural roots, global spread, and symbolic contradictions as a plant of refuge, resilience, and supernatural lore.
fruit, tropical, condimentTurmeric: Herb of the Sun
Turmeric, prized for its vivid yellow-orange rhizome, has long been used as a spice, medicine, and dye across South and Southeast Asia. This story traces how its distinctive color and flavor not only shaped South Asian cuisine but also played a role in British imperial identity and cultural performance.
root, spice, medicinal, tropicalVenus Flytrap: Queen of the Carnivorous Plants
The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula), once dubbed a “miracle of nature” by Linnaeus, has fascinated botanists and poets alike for centuries with its carnivorous adaptations. This story traces its discovery, scientific acclaim, and the cultural intrigue it inspired, revealing how this small plant captured the imagination of naturalists across continents and eras.
carnivorous, ornamental, wetland, temperateWatermelon: Stereotypes of Race and Class
Though now beloved for its sweet red flesh, watermelon was historically a pale, sometimes bitter fruit valued for its rind, medicinal uses, and hydration. This story explores how Citrullus lanatus evolved over time and became entangled with cultural stereotypes, revealing its complex global and social history.
fruit, tropical, temperate
