The famous photo of LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act. LBJ and the onlookers' heads have been replaced with the heads of 1950s pulp magazine robots.

The Rights of Nature movement uses a bold tactic to preserve our Earth: it seeks to extend (pseudo) personhood to things like watersheds, forests and ecosystems, as well as nonhuman species, in hopes of creating legal "standing" to ask the courts for protection:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_...

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Jobben med å stoppe naturtapet kan og bør starte nå - Altinget Som regjerende Europamester i nedbygging av natur trenger vi nordmenn sårt å komme i gang med effektive virkemidler for å stoppe naturtapet. En ny rapport foreslår at vi bør prøve ut lovende virkemidl...

I en ny spalte i @altinget.bsky.social argumenterer jeg for at vi må komme i gang med reelle tiltak for å stoppe naturtapet *nå*, og heller utrede mer underveis. Jeg støtter meg på en ny rapport bestilt av Regjeringen som foreslår et hurtigspor for slike tiltak. www.altinget.no/artikkel/job...

There are over 830 species of #heather (Erica) - and nearly a quarter of them are threatened with extinction.

A new study maps where things stand for their #conservation, both in the #wild and in #botanic #garden collections worldwide: doi.org/10.3897/natu...

@imperialsci.bsky.social

It's out - our hard won overview of the state of knowledge in Erica species diversity and conservation @natureconservation.pensoft.net doi.org/10.3897/natu... with team including @fossilplants.bsky.social @rkct.bsky.social

New Annon klaxon

Monotropa callistoma (Ericaceae), a new species based on morphological and molecular evidence from Hunan, China The subfamily Monotropoideae (Ericaceae) comprises unique non-photosynthetic and mycoheterotrophic plants. Their extensive morphological reduction often poses significant challenges for species delimi...

Stunning new Monotropa just out in @phytokeys.pensoft.net

Monotropa callistoma (Ericaceae), a new species based on morphological and molecular evidence from Hunan, China phytokeys.pensoft.net/articles.php...

Is bee‐avoidance by bird‐pollinated flowers driven by nectar robbing in Erica? Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Spoiler: it's a 'yes, but...'

Is bee‐avoidance by bird‐pollinated flowers driven by nectar robbing in Erica? - Coetzee - Functional Ecology - Wiley Online Library besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

An historic illustration of bees and other insects flying around a flowering bush.

All BHL staff have been secured! 🧪 As we enter our next chapter, the team who steward BHL’s collections & infrastructure remain in place, led by Colleen Funkhouser in her new role of Managing Director. Meet the team guiding BHL forward:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/celebrating-bhl-team.html

Instead of a bouquet of roses, this Valentine's Day we're hoping we get rose experts to help us form a Rosaceae Taxonomic Expert Network, or TEN. 🌹

To be clear - the @inaturalist.bsky.social link is of course fine - here's the pic of the lovely bullate leaves. But what a lot of other junk there is out there. Presumably already being chewed, cud-like, by new sweeps of AI. Yuck

Cremastosperma bullatum Cremastosperma bullatum in November 2003 by Michael D. Pirie. Type collection

Immediate instinct to show pictures of one of my babies: Cremastosperma bullatum www.inaturalist.org/observations... ... but this sent me down a rabbit hole of online plant profiles trying to find a good link - error, fiction - good grief. Eye opener

Go team Erica!

A new #endemic species from the karst areas of Guangxi and Guizhou Provinces in China, 𝘙𝘩𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦, has been described, illustrated, and is assessed as “Endangered” following IUCN criteria in one of our latest publications:

doi.org/10.3897/phyt...

#Conservation #morphology #taxonomy

Trump may be the beginning of the end for ‘enshittification’ – this is our chance to make tech good again | Cory Doctorow The US president is weaponising tech, but his tariffs and Brexit provide a surprising opportunity to gain back digital control of our lives, says science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory D...

Comment is free
Til you brick my pc

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

New Perspective: "High-performance living plant collections require a globally integrated data ecosystem to meet twenty-first-century challenges" rdcu.be/eYlEi

Living plant collections have critical educational, scientific and conservation roles.

Paper here: doi.org/10.1038/s414... important message for our botanic gardens and conservation community (paywalled - ping me for a pdf)

World’s vast plant knowledge not being fully exploited to tackle biodiversity and climate challenges, warn researchers An international group of researchers says that biodiversity conservation and scientific research are not benefiting from the vast knowledge about the world’s

World’s vast plant knowledge not being fully exploited to tackle biodiversity and climate challenges, warn researchers www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

Please RT: we are looking for a PhD student to work on macrogenetics and quantitative genetics of South African proteas. Amazing collaborative project with @plantecology.bsky.social @debbiemleigh.bsky.social & others, embedded in @terra-cluster.org. Dream project if you love molecular biodiversity!

Erica australis

Erica ciliaris

Erica lusitanica

Happy Erica day to those that celebrate

Taxonomist post at the Herbarium, Singapore Botanic Gardens. www.careers.hrp.gov.sg/sap/bc/ui5_u...

William Bond, defender of grasslands In recent years, one of the loudest ideas in environmental policy has been that trees are the planet’s universal remedy. Plant enough of them, in enough places, and carbon will be soaked up, water wil...

"Bond’s work leaves behind an inconvenient lesson for an era of climate urgency: that speed is not a substitute for understanding, and that good intentions, applied without care, can erase ancient worlds as efficiently as neglect." A beautiful tribute to William Bond. Forever missed by many.

Nice work! In principle distinct, but these can hybridise in cultivation. Invasive in NZ: all bets are off. I'd suggest a bit of sequencing: ITS would tell you one way or the other

As the world faces a biodiversity crisis, precise knowledge about specific species is more important than ever.
World Flora Online’s Taxonomic Expert Networks, or TENs, are collaborations of taxonomic experts who work together to agree upon a consensus classification for their plant groups.

PhD position in systematics and evolution of Malagasy heathers (Erica; Ericaceae) (289897) | University of Bergen Job title: PhD position in systematics and evolution of Malagasy heathers (Erica; Ericaceae) (289897), Employer: University of Bergen, Deadline: Sunday, January 4, 2026

Come join us in beautiful Western Norway! Ping co-supervisor team: @janhackel.bsky.social @vorontsovams.bsky.social
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Conservation gap analysis for Erica (Ericaceae) The flowering plant genus Erica (Ericaceae) includes well over 800 species and numerous formally described subspecies and varieties. Many of these are threatened in the wild. The Global Conservation C...

Chunk of work fed into this - grateful for feedback/interest/collaboration in the next steps:

Conservation gap analysis for Erica (Ericaceae) preprints.arphahub.com/articles.php...

Our friends at the World Flora Online need your help!

They are asking all (potential) users to help them shape a useful plant identification feature to be added to WFO by answering a survey.

Please use the QR codes in the image below to access the survey.

Madrid Code online!! 🎉🪸🍄🌿

www.iaptglobal.org/_functions/code/madrid

Passion and combat on a floral stage: a new species of Uvariopsis (Annonaceae) from Monts de Cristal, Gabon, with notes on its unique pollination ecology Background and aims – Gabon is a major centre of biodiversity. We describe a new species from the tropical plant family Annonaceae: Uvariopsis niangadoumae sp. nov., known from a single population in ...

More new annons! Congrats @tlpcouvreur.bsky.social!
Passion and combat on a floral stage: a new species of Uvariopsis (Annonaceae) from Monts de Cristal, Gabon, with notes on its unique pollination ecology plecevo.eu/articles.php...

Two new rarely collected species of Annonaceae from the Peruvian Amazon While preparing a taxonomic revision of the Neotropical genus Klarobelia Chatrou (Annonaceae), two species new to science – Klarobelia icoja S.Lara & Chatrou, sp. nov., and Malmea abscondita Chatr...

New Annonaceae klaxon! Bravo @larschatrou.bsky.social @phytokeys.pensoft.net
Two new rarely collected species of Annonaceae from the Peruvian Amazon phytokeys.pensoft.net/articles.php...

American Society of Plant Taxonomists The American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) is a community of scientists that promotes research and education in the taxonomy, systematics, and phylogeny of all plants.

Am. Soc. of Plant Taxonomists @amsocplanttaxon.bsky.social is on Bsky! Follow for news, and join our community of naturalists working together to "foster, encourage, and promote education and research in the field of plant taxonomy."

@iaptglobal.bsky.social @botsocamerica.bsky.social

www.aspt.net