Random Encounters with Botany


I made this page so that we can share our own random encounters with Botany that take us by surprise.

 

Friday | February 18, 2011

Snapple Fact #740

"Poison Ivy is not ivy and Poison Oak is not an oak. They are both part of the cashew family."
That would be the Anacardiaceae, duh.

 

Friday | February 18, 2011

Henna & Black Walnut

I was procrastinating grading and starting looking up stuff about henna, which is a plant based dye used to color hair and skin in some countries. It turns out the active dye ingredient, lawsone, (for the henna genus Lawsonia) only differs from the chemical structure of juglone (the black dye in Juglans nigra) by the position of an alcohol group. I also found out that lawsone is found in the leaves of jewelweed, (Impatiens spp.), and there are a few species of that common around here, so guess who's going to try to use it as a henna substitute this fall!