One of the most popular houseplants today is the fiddle leaf fig (Ficus lyrata). Yet this arboreal gem is also a candidate ...

Female (left) and male spruce cones at the Arnold Arboretum. It's a more common sight to see separate male and female cones like this. (Courtesy William "Ned" Friedman) Every spring the conifer trees ...

In some circles, figs have gotten a bad reputation, perhaps due to their association with the sticky, boring cookies our grandmothers would keep stashed in the back of the pantry. The chokehold that ...