A MOOC in plant identification and field botany…?
Dr M has a dream: The University of Reading has just launched a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) in plant identification and field botany…
Autumnal challenges for the eXtreme botanist!
Leaves are turning beautiful shades of yellow, orange, red and brown and are falling from the trees – aided and abetted by the winds, there can be no denying autumn is here!
Imagining Lichens
Dr M has previously posted here about “Imagining Science” a living Science-art collaboration. The next collaborative project for Reading Science Week 2014 is entitled “Symbiosis” and is about art-science relationships and uses lichens – the weird wonderful complex plant-fungus dual organisms – as a source of inspiration!
EFL Showcase Event: eXtreme botany – worth shouting about!
Dr M’s Diary: Day 2 Saturday afternoon Dr M talks eXtreme botany and the audience goes wild!
eXtreme botany: beautiful cow munching grass, but can you hear which grass?
eXtreme botany reaches new heights… …as Dr M and his colleague identify a grassland to National Vegetation Classification (NVC) community by listening to the munching sounds made by a grazing cow! Amazed? Amused? You might be!
eXtreme botany down under…
“Extreme Botany” by Dave Williams Not so long back, Dr M was Googling eXtreme botany to check out developments in the global botanical community. Imagine the surprise and delight when he came across this fabulous painting with the familiar title “Extreme Botany”! So, where was this painting? Who had painted it? Where did this familiar and memorable title come from? Checking out a bit
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Botanical postcard from Romania
Dr M is busy surveying in Romania north of Constanta on the Black Sea coast, nice work if you can get it, although the swarms of ferocious Mosquitoes are something else! The vegetation I have been surveying includes coastal sand dunes, marshes and steppe grasslands. From my botanising, I find that the plant families are generally familiar here (loads of Asteraceae and Brassicaceae for
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Poaceae is a family of grasses green and wonderful!
It’s an open secret that Dr M has a soft spot for Poaceae and is currently busy practicing for a new improved version of the infamous Poaceae song! But here, Dr M turns his attention to having look at some common grasses. Spring is here, and although all that is green is not grass, a lot of it is! On the Whiteknights campus at
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Dr M’s common grass quiz – the answers!
Did you have a go at Dr M’s Common Grass Quiz from the University of Reading Harris Garden? If not try it out here and come back to check the answers below. Below are the images of the twelve grass species with common names (click the images for Latin names). Dr M says: how did you do? Even if you are not yet a grass champion maybe this little
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