Bright purple/blue flower with five petals and prominent stamens arising from herb with ovate hairy leaves.
Last week, I met Hydrolea spinosa (photo) at Cambridge Botanic Garden. Tomorrow, I'll hear a talk on taxonomy of Hydroleaceae at Edinburgh Botanic Garden. The family has 1 genus & 11 species. Part of Solanales. This species doesn't even have its own Wikipedia page :(
@cubotanicgarden.bsky.social
A nail biting Botanical University Challenge semi-final between Reading and Plymouth. Plymouth won on the fourth tiebreak question. Congratulations Plymouth!
Audience for BUC in Sainsbury Centre Lecture theatre.
Botanical University Challenge Semi final 1 is about to start.
www.youtube.com/live/bX_sdw1...
Follow luve on You Tube
#Botany #Plants
Drimia/Squilla coming in to flower in Gozo. It amazes me how plants can invest such energy into flowering in the peak dry season. #geophyte #Asparagaceae #Bulb
A plastic wheelie bin with label 'Kindly dispose pineapple here'.
Sea daffodil flowers.
Visited Comino today. Pancratium maritimum in bloom. My first ever experience of a rubbish bin dedicated to waste pineapples. Instagram craze of pineapple based cocktails on Comino, Blue Lagoon. No idea why. There is a somewhat whimsical 'history' of the craze here lovinmalta.com/opinion/sati...
Extract about PhD study. See full article https://botanicaluniversitychallenge.co.uk/the-thymes/
🌱🌾🌍🍄🌺🌿🧪What is it actually like to work and study for a PhD degree? Read one woman's account in latest newsletter from Botanical University Challenge #BUC2025. @drmgoeswild.bsky.social @thebotanist.bsky.social
As a long-time Cyclamen researcher, this is my first encounter with a cheese named Cyclamen! Looking forward to tasting it!
UK heatwaves led to hosepipe bans across the country. With limited watering opportunities, which garden plants should we prioritise? @thebotanist.bsky.social writes for @theconversation.com:
theconversation.com/hosepipe-ban...
🧪🌍🌱💧
Carduus tenuiflorus flowering next to a white painted metal bollard.
What happens when you photograph a plant next to a mooring bollard and ask AI to identify it? You get told you've photographed a mushroom. What i was siming for was Carduus tenuiflorus. Context is crucial.
doi.org/10.1002/ppp3... out today! It's great to write about an area of #Botany that is growing. @seburbanbotany.bsky.social @herbarium.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @botsocamerica.bsky.social
Are you looking for a PhD post for September 2025? Fieldwork, computational & molecular biology skills will be developed in this project to understand climate change & speciation. Applications by 20th January.
#PhD available for UK student on phylogeny of paleotropical #Acanthaceae with @iaindarbyshire1.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Start September 2025, applications open now.
Botany PhD available via CROCUS DLP. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Open to UK & overseas applicants with interest in botany, evolution, genetics.
These documents produced by the Environmental Horticulture Group, UK.
An absolute nightmare if you are growing them and need to repot! Leather gloves a must.
The HTA just released the latest Unlocking Green Growth reports - It makes me feel good to be a Botanist!
Lots here of relevance to botanists and environmental scientists. Our University of Reading alumnus Alistair Griffiths has been closely involved in much of this work.
hta.org.uk/policy/resea...
It's UN #WorldToiletDay. As usual, plants got there first -several Nepenthes (tropical pitcher plants) adapted to benefit from poo. N. lowii, N. rajah & N. macrophylla absorb rodent fecal matter while N. hemsleyi eats bat poo.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
academic.oup.com/aob/article/...
We do train specialists in zoology and botany!
Peat free cultivation of Sarracenia - trials at Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley. Seen on Saturday. It looks as if Schnell's 1970s recommendation to use Sphagnum still holds true!
Screenshot of home page of In Defense of Plants podcast. Art Deco style drawing of 2 Sarracenia leaves and an orchid flower.
🌱🌍🌿🍄🌾 In Defense of Plants is a great podcast from Matt Candeias.
Interviews with conservation biologists, lab scientists - all with fascinating stories about plants. Based in USA but includes plants and topics of world-wide interest.
indefenseofplants.com
Garden in front of National Convention Center with palms, plumeria, cycads and more.
Me in front of giant bamboo plant.
Conference hall at break time with coffee urns, food and lots of botanists milling around.
Tom Givnish opening Monocots VII at wooden lecturn with conference banner.
Currently at #MonocotsVII in San Jose, Costa Rica. Had nearly a whole day of mycoheterotrophs - Thismia & Corallorhiza among others.
Composite plate. Photo of a single, large white flower by Juuyoh Tanaka CC BY 2.0 The lower panel of images, including thermal image, is from: Wang, R. et al. 2022. Heat production and volatile biosynthesis are linked via alternative respiration in Magnolia denudata during floral thermogenesis. Front. Plant Sci. 13:955665. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.955665
Magnolia denudata (#Magnoliaceae) is another beetle-pollinated species. The pollinators are large #Coleoptera (#Scarabaeidae). The thermal image shows that the stamens & carpels heat up. AOX respiration generates the heat. Thermal image from bit.ly/3S58s0V
#Botany #PlantScience 🌾🧪
Happy bissextile day 🙂
Photo of three fruits floating in water. The fruits are borne in white cupules.
Each nut of Hernandia sp. (#Hernandiaceae) is subtended by a white, cup-shaped bract. When the fruits drop, the bracts act like boats, ferrying the fruits away. Once in New Guinea, I waded through a shallow pool covered by rafts of tiny Hernandia boats. #dispersal #hydrochory #Botany 🌾🧪
Four smiling adults standing in a building next to a parlour palm.
Congratulations to Tomos Jones, University of Reading, Biology for passing his PhD on gardens as a source of invasive plants. #gardenescapers #invasives
@herbarium.bsky.social @drmgoeswild.bsky.social
Cymbidium with spray of green flowers, each with lip of cream with red flecks.
It's National Houseplant Appreciation Day. This Cymbidium is in flower in my conservatory after a summer in the garden. I'll make sure I appreciate it!
@drmgoeswild.bsky.social
I am *thrilled* to finally announce that our department is hiring an Evolutionary Biologist. We are esp looking genetic/genomic expertise, and those who can help us build a more equitable biology community at UCSB. Please apply by Jan 15! recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02635 #unicornjob
