Sharing the health benefits of plants 

It’s not unusual for me to return from a walk bringing with me various plants attached to the bottom of my jeans. One plant in particular has recently become a rather clingy friend, refusing to let go when I leave the garden. I am talking about cleavers (Galium aparine), also known as Sticky Willy, with small hooks on its leaves, stems and even its fruit which act like natural velcro. This characteristic allows the plant to attach itself to other plants (and my jeans!) to fin

It's mid-November and even though the morning temperature has dropped to 3 degrees, the sun is shinning on the Parc de la Maourine in Toulouse. Aside from several joggers and dog walkers who criss-cross the 12km of footpaths, the park is fairly calm. Once land for market gardening, during the development of the surrounding Borderouge area of the city, the Parc de la Maourine was designated to become the district's "green" centre. Roughly 14 hectares in size, the park hosts a

Walking impacts almost every system of our body. Some of the physical benefits of walking, such as the strengthening of bones and muscles and the improvement of posture, are well-known. However, there are many more ways that walking in nature impacts our health. Here are just five of them : 1. Improves cognition and memory Working-memory capacity and creativity have been shown to improve after a walk in nature. The exact mechanisms for this are not fully understood. One possi

Regardless of the season, each walk is an opportunity to discover plants at various stages in their life cycles. On this drizzly Sunday...