Botanicals & Co
Botanicals & Co is organised into a few connected parts. Here is what each one is for, and how they fit together, so you can start wherever your curiosity takes you.
01
The reference shelf.
Each entry is an in-depth monograph following a single botanical or ingredient from its botany and chemistry to its history, traditional uses, modern evidence, safety and sourcing. Monographs are long and carefully referenced, and are meant to be the place you go to understand an ingredient properly. Recent entries include Lavender, Rose and Vitamin E.
Visit the Botanical Library →02
The way in.
Shorter articles that explore ideas by subject: aromatherapy, herbalism, the botanical kitchen, skincare, living well, stewardship and the more scholarly corner we call the study. Many Journal pieces support a Library monograph by taking a single question from it and examining it more closely. If a monograph feels like a lot, the Journal is often the easier place to begin.
Browse the Journal →03
The history.
Longer essays that follow how plants and ingredients have travelled through time, trade, folklore and culture. The Archives are where we tell the human story behind a material, from the long history of the Damask rose to the way vitamin E travelled from a laboratory experiment on wheat germ into an ordinary jar of face cream.
Explore the Botanical Archives →04
Everyday practice.
Simple, unhurried routines built around botanicals, written with realistic expectations rather than dramatic claims. Rituals are about how plants can fit into daily life: an evening with rose water, a quiet hour on a Sunday, a cup of herbal tea. They are meant to be enjoyed, not to be mistaken for medicine.
Explore Botanical Rituals →How they connect
The four parts are designed to work together. As the Library grows, each ingredient becomes a small cluster you can follow from any direction. Rose is a good example.
Start with any one of them and you can follow the links to the others. That is the whole idea.
Throughout the site we try to separate three things that are easily confused: what a plant has traditionally been used for, what its chemistry actually contains, and what the scientific evidence can genuinely support. We are interested in history and pleasure as well as evidence, but we try to be clear about which is which. Our Editorial and Evidence Policy explains that approach in more detail.