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Tag Archives: botany

Boys and girls come out to play!

We’ve had bluebells galore, so about time for some other woodland plants. Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) is a member of the Spurge Family (Euphorbiaceae) and as with other members of this family the flowers are dioecious, i.e. there are separate male and female flowers.


On Dr M’s Golden Pond – The Solution!

OK it’s not golden and it’s not a pond! Rather it’s a large water-filled plastic flower pot stuffed with aquatic plants! But recently Dr M posted about this “pond”, and despite its diminutive size, there are quite a number of plant species living happily in it at the moment and Dr M presented images of six aquatic plants for your examination and identification.


A voyage round Dr M’s pond!

Dr M says: OK so it’s not a pond, it’s a very large plastic flower pot with the drainage holes bunged up with duck tape and filled with water and aquatic plants! But which aquatic plants and how many species (and are there any ducks)? This is Dr M’s first ever eXtreme aquatic botanical challenge for you! Have a close look at the gallery
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Do you really know your Prunus from your Malus and Pyrus?

Dr M has already posted on the eXtreme botanical and floral distinctions between three fruit trees currently in beautiful bloom in our parks, gardens and countryside. So here, by way of an eXtreme botanical teaser, is a chance for you to test your knowledge and skill in two easy steps (and one slightly trickier one!).


Up the Malus and Pyrus and down the Prunus?

Malus and Pyrus is Dr M’s eXtreme botanical rhyming slang for “going upstairs” – up the the good old apples and pears! More of that later!


Lock up your daughters! eXtreme pornobotany is here!

Dr M says: Botany is sexy, erotic and, well to some minds, even pornographic, its official! Dr M adds: So what’s new?! Erasmus Darwin was one of the first to revel in the sexuality of plants in his magnum opus “The Loves of the Plants” which was a popular rendering of Linnaeus’ works in English. Written in highly sexualized language, it  can be described as a
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Dr M meets a great 18th century polymath and botanist, but who is he?

During the 71 years of my highly productive lifetime I: Said “A fool you know, is a man who never tried an experiment in his life”


Dr M on the road: eXtreme botany through the car window!

With Bank Holiday travels (and traffic jams!) in prospect Dr M says: Let’s play that classic travel game “eXtreme botany through the car window!”


Can you tell your Dipsacus from your Helminthotheca?

Dr M has been reminded in his recent field surveys of two similar (but different!) rosette plants of disturbed ground, both with rough, blistery-bristly leaves and often found growing together, but which can be confused by the beginning botanist – even though they are from rather different families. So how to tell them apart?


Dr M discovers May in mid-April!

A classic spring plant is the beautiful May tree, Crataegus monogyna, (also known as Hawthorn of course) by who’s flowering we know the season must be springtime, the only pretty ring time! even, mayhaps, the first signs that Sumer Is Icumen In!?