Shrub
Woody perennials with multiple stems arising at or near ground level, typically shorter than trees. They can serve as hedges, wildlife habitat, or ornamental foundations. Tag “shrub” aids landscapers in selecting mid-height structure plants.
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Arabica Coffee: Cultivating Connection and Climate Resilience
From its Ethiopian forest origins to global coffeehouses, Arabica coffee shaped commerce, culture, and community as it spread through trade and empire. Today the industry faces climate-driven threats—heat, pests, disease, and price shocks—spurring solutions from agroforestry and relocation to breeding climate-resilient varieties and coordinating conservation of wild Coffea genetics.
beverage, stimulant, tropical, high-altitude, shrub, tree -
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Arabica Coffee: Cultivating Connection and Climate Resilience (2 Column Layout)
From its Ethiopian forest origins to global coffeehouses, Arabica coffee shaped commerce, culture, and community as it spread through trade and empire. Today the industry faces climate-driven threats—heat, pests, disease, and price shocks—spurring solutions from agroforestry and relocation to breeding climate-resilient varieties and coordinating conservation of wild Coffea genetics.
beverage, stimulant, tropical, high-altitude, shrub, tree -
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Boxwood: 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, temperate -
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Guelder Rose: The Powerful Symbolism of a Plant in Ukraine and Russia
The guelder rose has evolved from a prehistoric European food and fuel plant into a powerful Ukrainian emblem of homeland, resistance, and identity. Its striking morphology underpins centuries of symbolism in songs, art, and literature across Ukraine and Russia, now crystallized in contemporary patriotic culture.
flower, fruit, medicinal, ornamental, shrub, temperate -
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Guelder Rose: The Powerful Symbolism of a Plant in Ukraine and Russia (2 Column Layout)
The guelder rose has evolved from a prehistoric European food and fuel plant into a powerful Ukrainian emblem of homeland, resistance, and identity. Its striking morphology underpins centuries of symbolism in songs, art, and literature across Ukraine and Russia, now crystallized in contemporary patriotic culture.
flower, fruit, medicinal, ornamental, shrub, temperate -
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Indigo: 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, tropical -
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Jasmine: The Sensual and the Sacred
Jasmine, native to Central and South Asia, has spread worldwide through trade, empire, and cultivation. Its fragrance and beauty have made it central to religion, art, politics, and daily life—from Hindu and Buddhist rituals to Islamic gardens, from Chinese jasmine tea to French perfumery. Across cultures it symbolizes purity, sensuality, devotion, and transience, while also serving as adornment, medicine, and a political emblem, as in Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution.”
flower, medicinal, ornamental, shrub, subtropical, tropical -
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Pelargonium: 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, temperate -
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The 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, tropical
