DrM

This rather magnificent member of the Pea family – Fabaceae – is very conspicuous on roadsides and waste ground around Reading and much further afield at the moment.

Dr M was surveying coastal vegetation recently on the Isle of Grain in Kent and he came across a small semi-circular beach and this set him thinking about (and photographing) saltmarsh vegetation. Most plants on earth are terrestrial and cannot tolerate seawater which has a devastating effect on the osmotic potential and water relations of most land plants, literally sucking the water and life out
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Cotoneaster is a diverse genus of shrubs and small trees in the family Rosaceae and much beloved of gardeners (but less so by  British conservationists see below!).

For the field botanist finding a new plant is eXtreme botany indeed. Until recently, Dr M had never seen the rare Mousetail (Myosurus minimus) in the wild. But one day, all this changed, for ever!

Day 5: If you go down to the woods today be sure of a big… swarm of biting insects, well if you will go to a wet woodland on a sultry humid day!

This week Dr M and his MSc students have spent a week of field days, visiting a range of sites and habitats around Reading. Here is the fourth and penultimate post from Dr M’s field day diary: Day 4: Visit to Clattinger Farm, an ecological and botanical time capsule in rural Wiltshire and a glorious jewel in the crown of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust

This week Dr M has been taking his MSc students on a series of field days, visiting a range of sites and habitats. Here is the third post from Dr M’s field day diary: Day 3: Botany at historical Runnymede

This week Dr M has been taking his MSc students on a week of field days, visiting a range of sites and habitats not too far from Reading. Here is the second post from Dr M’s field day diary: Day 2: Student botanists on the bog at Wildmoor Heath, Berkshire.

Following the successful field course at the Lizard, Cornwall, Dr M is currently taking his MSc students on a week of field days, visiting a range of sites and habitats not too far from Reading. Here is the first post from Dr M’s field day diary:

A few weeks back Dr M had a phone call from the Dean of Life Science with the informal announcement (perhaps you caught it on Twitter!), but now the formal letter has arrived declaring that Dr M is now officially Associate Professor of Field Botany!