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Ep. 125 - A Conversation With The Plant Messiah
Carlos Magdalena has been called "The Plant Messiah" for good reason. His propagation work at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew has seen species lik…
8 years, 11 months ago
Ep. 124 - Darwin's Backyard
Few may realize just how important plants were to the great Charles Darwin. Luckily, Dr. James Costa is bringing Darwin's botanical interests to the …
8 years, 11 months ago
Ep. 123 - Legumes and Their Nitrogen-Fixing Partners
Many of us are aware that planting legumes helps enrich soils but how do they do this? By partnering with bacteria, of course! My guest today studies…
8 years, 11 months ago
Ep. 122 - Understanding Ferns and Lycophytes
Ferns and lycophytes have been around for a long time. Still, they often get overshadowed by angiosperms but not in the Sessa lab! Our guest today is…
9 years ago
Ep. 121 - Mosquitoes: The Unlikely Pollinators
Mosquitoes are maligned the world over and often for very good reason. However, there are a plethora of different species of mosquito on this planet …
9 years ago
Ep. 120 - Understanding Rapid 'Ohi'a Death
The 'Ohi'a (Metrosideros polymorpha) is the dominant tree on the Hawai'ian Archipelago and it is under attack by two different species of invasive fu…
9 years ago
Ep. 119 - Plant Architecture
Our guest today is Dr. Karl Niklas. His work utilizes mathematics to explain plant growth and form in relation to four basic physical constraints: 1)…
9 years ago
Ep. 118 - Reflections On Summer Botanizing
I am back in Illinois and I met up with my good friend Steve (co-host of The Field Guides Podcast) to wax poetic about summer botanizing. Steve has s…
9 years, 1 month ago
Ep. 117 - Alfred Russel Wallace and Evolution
Today we are continuing our conversation with Dr. James Costa. This week, we take a deeper look at the life of Alfred Russel Wallace, a man who indep…
9 years, 1 month ago
Ep. 116 - Social Caterpillars, Their Host Trees, and the Origins of Evolutionary Science Pt. 1
For Dr. James Costa, a love of biology started early. It eventually evolved into a career studying social insects and their interactions with plants.…
9 years, 1 month ago