I am a world where AI is learning from what aromatherapists write, should we be more careful about how we portray indigenous knowledge, and think about the place that binomial nomenclature has in the way we speak about plants that have lengthy medicinal histories that taxonomy might flatten or erase.

Home of the Melissae of Parnassus, the Holy Sisters. Were they women or bees? Were they The Thriae, or The Corycian Nymphs? Certainly, they seem connected to the Delphic Oracle. The embroidery is actually a photo taken from Wikepedia, then stitched along the contours, to help me to be able to visualise the landscape where they lived. Have you ever looked at a tiny, amber bottle of Melissa essential oil (Melissa officinalis) and wondered why it holds such an exquisite price tag? While...

Pop up collage of Bougonia Why did the ancient Greeks believe bees were born from bulls? The ancient belief probably began with people watching carrion flies emerge from the decomposing bodies of cattle. Larvae appeared inside of the dead animals corpse and, days later, emerged winged buzzing insects. That early observation grew into an incredibly complex belief system about bees, which is very difficult to discern from a 21st century perspective. This ancient narrative that bees could be...