Green Nature 808 · An illustrated history
People, research and experience.
A plant woven into human life. Follow its history through the objects, places and people that help us understand it.
Look closely. Follow the sources. Keep asking.
Read the features
Begin in China. Explore an Irish physician’s work in India. Meet the chemist who helped change the field.
ChinaThe opening chapter · 6 minute read
China, early cultivation
and a much longer memory.
What plant genetics, excavated remains and medical texts can tell us about a relationship measured in millennia.
Read the feature ↗
1839The physician · 5 minute read
An Irish doctor, Indian knowledge
and a landmark paper.
Local practitioners and established knowledge were central to his investigation. His original case reports reveal both observations and uncertainty.
Read the feature ↗
1964The chemist · 7 minute read
From a plant’s chemistry
to the body’s own signals.
A life in research, shared discoveries and the long journey from an interesting finding to evidence in patients.
Read the feature ↗Why “So Far”?
This series grew from Barry O’Flanagan’s interest in the people and experiences behind cannabis research. It now reaches further back: into farming, textiles, trade, belief, medicine and the changing place of this plant in everyday life.
We follow the references, credit the people involved and make uncertainty visible. Archaeology, historical accounts and personal experience each have something to contribute. As the collection grows, first-person stories will be shared with permission and care.
A reference, photograph credit or short outline is a good place to start. Please do not send private medical records.
Wellcome Collection, L0039328 · CC BY 4.0. Sixteenth-century Bencao gangmu opening page; source thumbnail, displayed at reduced size.
O’Shaughnessy title page: Wellcome Collection, 1839 · Public domain.
Mechoulam photograph: Sir Shurf / Wikimedia Commons, 26 December 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; displayed crops under the same licence.
Reading trail: Jack Herer’s The Emperor Wears No Clothes — Electric Emperor archive mirror. An advocacy text and a route to further references; individual historical claims require independent checking.
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