Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Science

Blooming surprise in upstate New York reveals first new flowering plant species in nearly ten years

Justin Scholten '22 knows the plants growing on the forest floor around the Finger Lakes. There's the white baneberry, Actaea pachypoda and the red baneberry, Actaea rubra. Both are about 30–70 centimeters tall, herbaceous and extremely toxic to humans. But in 2023 as he hiked through Summer Hill St...

Blooming surprise in upstate New York reveals first new flowering plant species in nearly ten years
Image: Phys.org
Justin Scholten '22 knows the plants growing on the forest floor around the Finger Lakes. There's the white baneberry, Actaea pachypoda and the red baneberry, Actaea rubra. Both are about 30–70 centimeters tall, herbaceous and extremely toxic to humans. But in 2023 as he hiked through Summer Hill State Forest, less than 30 miles northeast of Ithaca, he noticed an oddity: a pink baneberry.

Originally published at Phys.org

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