Brian Kemble is curator at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek. His monthly column focuses on drought-tolerant plants and dry gardens. Gasterias are South African succulents with tongue-like ...

I am reminded of a story told by Professor Wangari Maathai of a hummingbird trying to save a burning forest with drops of water carried on its beak, as larger animal forests watched. Bewildered at the ...

The eastern half of the U.S. has one species of hummingbird, the ruby-throated. Meanwhile, the Sonoran in southern Arizona, with its combination of mountains, creeks and one of the richest deserts on ...

Louise Barton, a graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado Boulder, was not in her cave when I bumped into her in South Africa in February. She was standing at ...