Are you a plant nerd? Not just a gardener, no matter how passionate, but interested in the plants that aren’t found in a garden? Are you excited about botany? Then, I have a website for you:

In Defense of Plants

I can’t believe I’m only now discovering this source of fascinating information. I’m still contentedly mining the archives, catching up on all things botanical. You can read blog posts on such intriguing topics as “Drunken Pollinators & Chemical Trickery,” Bees Bite Leaves to Induce Flowering,” and “History of Grass Evolution Written in Dinosaur Poop.” There are plenty of photos, some quite impressive, and many of the posts include detailed drawings to illustrate a point.

If you prefer to watch videos instead of reading articles, check out the podcasts. A variety of experts wax eloquent on similarly varying subjects: “Pitcher Plant Symbioses,” “The Ecological and Evolutionary Mysteries of Cannabis,” and “Life in the Savage Garden” to name a few. Or watch one of the 30 videos, either on the website or on YouTube. (It’s much better to use the YouTube channel, as the videos on the website don’t have titles and there is no menu explaining what they are about, just a series of boxes to click on.)

The site is all botany, all the time, but some topics are clear favorites—tropical plants, especially orchids in all their diversity; pollinators; and conservation—or some combination of these. Plus, I wonder if the author, Matt, lives in the eastern U.S., as many of the plants discussed are eastern natives, although the entire globe is covered.

Be prepared to be science-y. While you don’t need to be a botanist to understand the explanations, you do need to be curious about details.

There’s even a store where you can buy t-shirts with “In Defense of Plants” logos or slogans such as “Plant Nerd” on them. I’m very tempted.

I’ll stop here, to give you time to go check out this amazing site. As Matt explains,

It would seem that most people don’t pay any attention to plants unless they are pretty or useful in some way. I reject this reality outright. Plants are everything on this planet. They have this amazing ability to use our nearest star to break apart water and CO₂ gas in order to grow and reproduce. From the smallest duckweed to the tallest redwood, the botanical world is full of amazing evolutionary stories. I am here to tell those stories. My name is Matt and I am obsessed with the botanical world. In Defense of Plants is my way of sharing that love with you.