In the way that you do when you follow a link and then another one and another, I’ve stumbled across Science & Plants for Schools, which “creates opportunities for teachers and students to find out more about plants and to become more interested in plant science” – very worthwhile aims!

Taking the whole evidence-gathering issue back many hundreds of years now to an age before cookery books (cookery, a TV-obsession in the UK…). Amongst their other interesting findings, Brendan Foley et al. (Journal of Archaeological Science) bust the widespread myth that Greek amphorae were just ancient wine carriers (or urn-like containers to transport olive oil). [...]

It has generally been considered that the flowers of Scrophularia are mainly pollinated by wasps. Ortega-Olivencia et al. study the four species with the largest and most striking flowers in Europe and Macaronesia (S. sambucifolia, S. grandiflora, S. trifoliata and S. calliantha) and demonstrate the existence of a mixed pollination system between Hymenoptera and passerine [...]