These niche plants catch people's attention as they freely photosynthesize, spread their roots as far as they want, absorb water and nutrients as they want, and bloom.
It would have been the best form of life for plants that could no longer avoid city life.
Perhaps our indoor potted plants, brought from the distant rainforests to Korea and living in dry indoor spaces without sufficient sunlight and water, are actually more unfortunate.
We are confident in the happiness of existence within our own sphere, and we presume upon the misfortune of unfamiliar and distant beings.

---From "A Selection of Urban Niche Plants"

Even if I see something and feel that it is different from usual, I must first reflect on myself.
The same applies when encountering natural phenomena that go beyond common sense.
Maybe my common sense is wrong or my experience data on the target plant is insufficient.
The reason it seemed strange that the spring and autumn cherry trees and roses bloomed in the fall was because I didn't know that roses and cherry trees that bloom in the fall existed.
Before questioning the climate crisis, we must first reflect on our own indifference.

---From "Cherry Blossoms in Autumn, Is It Because of the Climate Crisis?"

A research team led by Dr. Kingsley Dixon at Curtin University in Australia investigated the criteria by which plant researchers in their fields select plants to study.
This study analyzed the relationship between the color, shape, and conspicuous characteristics of the plant species selected as the research topic, based on 280 papers on Alpine native plants published from 1975 to 2020.
The analysis found that researchers studied larger flowers much more often than smaller ones, and brightly colored flowers like pink and white much more often than inconspicuous colors like green and black.
The rarity of the object had no relevance.
Above all, blue flowers, which are rare in nature, have been studied the most.

Dr. Dixon's message through this study is that researchers may unknowingly miss plants that are important to the ecosystem or in urgent need of conservation.
Because the appearance of a plant is not proportional to its value or utility.

---From "The Prejudice That Apples Are Useless Fruits"

Fig means 'fruit without flowers' in Chinese characters.
But this is an error that arises from human error.
Those who first discovered figs thought that they did not bloom because they could not see flowers no matter how long they looked at them, but in fact, figs do have flowers.
Even countless flowers bloom.
These flowers bloom in small, inconspicuous clusters within the flower sac before the fruit is produced.
When we eat a fig, the numerous seeds we chew prove the presence of the flower, so we can feel the flower through texture.
Additionally, there is a small hole at the end of the fig fruit.
This is also called fig eye.
Fig wasps, which help pollinate fig trees, move in and out of the flower sacs through these holes, transferring pollen.

---From "The Misconception That Figs Don't Bloom"

A few years ago, I was asked by a carrot farm association to draw a picture to use for the design of the box packaging they use to distribute their carrots.
To draw a carrot, you need to know about the wild carrot species, so I looked for carrot specimen information through digital data at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the UK.
However, the paper that was presumed to be the original was not the orange color I had thought, but a white color closer to purple.
Moreover, the color of carrot roots recorded in drawings, specimens, and photographs throughout history has varied greatly.
White, purple, red, yellow and orange.
After seeing this data with my own eyes, I could no longer call carrots carrots.
This is because carrots have changed into various colors over time.

---From "Carrots weren't originally orange"

When observing plants, you encounter a variety of colors with a tight margin of error that is not found on a paint palette.
We call the flower colors of the common primrose, the common chrysanthemum, the common pine, and the common chive purple, but when we actually encounter them, we realize that purple comes in many different colors.
Looking at plants is also an opportunity to realize the diversity of colors that exist in this world.
---From "Color Names Originating from Plants"

Our forest also has the ranunculus family, which can be easily found in flower shops these days.
Plum blossoms, frog's cap, frog's nest, and chopstick plants are all in the same family as ranunculus.
All of these have petals that sparkle and shine under the sunlight.
This glow is a survival strategy of the plant to attract the attention of pollinators and attract pollinators.
These days, among the ranunculus varieties, the butterfly type with shiny petals is popular in the flower market, and these petals shine for the same reason.
Knowing the genealogy of plants also allows us to understand that the plants in our flower shops and flower gardens are not separate from those in the forest.
---From "The Forest Where Tulips and Anemones Live"

That's why I had to leave home late in the afternoon to observe the sky.
The sky-tari flower, which seemed to be spewing white petals from the darkness, was so strange that it was difficult to tell whether it was a plant or a small animal.
The next day, when I looked for the sky tari again, the petals were drooping as if nothing had happened the night before.

So why do these plants bloom in the dark of night? The most likely reason is that the insects that help pollinate them are nocturnal.
The reason for seeking the help of nocturnal insects may have been that it was judged that it would be more advantageous to be chosen by insects that are active at night than to participate in the competition to be chosen by insects that are active during the day.
The same reason is why we choose winter flowers like forsythia and snowdrops, which bloom during the cold winter rather than the warm spring and summer.

---From "Flowers that Bloom in the Morning, Flowers that Bloom at Night"

To date, research has shown that a total of fourteen families of plants are known to emit heat.
Among them are some plants that are very familiar to us.
The organ called the flower of the Selloom Philodendron is a long inflorescence surrounded by white bracts (small leaves that are modified leaves and surround the flower or sepals), and it is this inflorescence that radiates heat.
The heat given off not only helps the flowers mature, but also attracts beetles, which are pollinators.
Beetles crawl into the philodendron flowers to find warmth and help pollinate them.
While many thermogenic plants produce heat by burning carbohydrates and sugars stored in their cells, philodendrons are unique in that they produce heat by burning fat.

---From “Plants also have warmth”

The smell from plants is due to volatile organic compounds.
Volatile substances disperse into the air and evaporate, attracting pollinators and repelling harmful animals.
Plants communicate with animals through smell.
Even if a scent is unpleasant to humans, it may be interesting or tempting to some animals.
The scents of the fishy-smelling buckwheat, the pungent-smelling dandelion, and the dandelion are also optimized for their respective pollinators.

---From "Even a bad smell has a reason"

When I was young, I often heard advice from adults about daffodil pollen.
The advice was to be careful not to rub your eyes with your hands near a daffodil flower, as the pollen could get into your eyes and, in severe cases, even lead to blindness.
The pollen of the daffodil flower is hook-shaped, so once it sticks to the skin or clothes, it does not come off easily, and contains toxic substances that can cause inflammation and even blindness.
This rumor has persisted in our country for decades, and some even claim that we should no longer plant chrysanthemums.
However, recent research suggests that this is an exaggeration.
The thing that cleared the false accusation against Nungsohwa was also an electron microscope.
The pollen grains of the daffodil flower, magnified under a microscope, were not shaped like hooks, but rather just ordinary net-shaped pollen grains.

---From "Tiny Pollen Spreading in the Wind"

The colors and shapes of carnations that we know are the result of industrialization that has occurred over 200 years of breeding and cultivation.
Unlike the forest daisy family, which blooms for a moment and then dies, carnations bloom all year round.
The stem is long and straight, and the petals are large and showy.
When comparing the original and cultivated carnation species, the stem lengths are clearly different.
Plants in the genus Carnation are characterized by short, thin stems, while carnations have straight, long stems.
Since short stems cannot be used as cut flowers in a vase, the tallest species among the genus Perilla were selected and the stems were bred to be straighter.
Recently, carnations that have been bred to have smooth edges and erase the pinking on the petal edges that is characteristic of the genus Carnation have also been distributed.

---From "Edited Carnations"

Pineapples enjoyed a boom as a valuable plant for over 200 years before greenhouse cultivation was successful.
Those in power would pay up to 8 million won (approximately $8,000 USD) for a single pineapple, and they would even feel bad about eating it, so they would just display it on the dining table or carry it on their arm like a bag when going out.
It has become a decoration for show, going beyond being an ornamental plant.
Even pineapple rental shops, like modern luxury rental shops, were popular and became a symbol of power.
Because the shape of the pineapple resembles a crown, it seemed like it could make the person who owned it a king.

---From "The Status of Pineapple, the King of Fruits"