A Christmas Herbarium: The Nature and Culture of Our Favorite Holiday Plants
For immediate release ‐ December 18, 2020
Contact: Jessica Wackes, 919.707.9850. Images available upon request
The Festive season is upon us. Many of us are busy hanging wreathes, decorating trees, and putting up mistletoe in doorways for that holiday smooch. If it’s Christmas you celebrate, most of our traditions go far further back than inflatable characters out of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on the front lawn. And one thing that many of them have in common is that they involve bringing plants, or parts of plants, indoors. It makes sense. In winter, much of the color is gone outside, so those plants that stay green and have red berries very attractive at this time of year, especially for people whose homes where primarily gray stone and brown wood.
By Eric Dorfman, Director and CEO of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences