Dr M is teaching his MSc students at University of Reading about Phase 2 surveys and The National Vegetation Classification (NVC). The NVC was developed at Lancaster University in the 1980s when Dr M was a post-doc researcher there working with Andrew Malloch and John Rodwell (the editor of the NVC) during the writing of the NVC and so it is all rather close
Learn more »

OK if you have read the post here and tested yourself, here are the answers:

Dr M is used to a lot of questions from his students on the MSc Plant Diversity University of Reading! And once they started using the veg key then there’s been a lot more questions! But one of the most frequent is “Dr M, with a rosette plant how can we tell if the leaves are opposite or alternate?”

Do you know the muffin man… sorry I’ll start again. Do you know the “Infinite Monkey Cage”? Well, if not it’s a Radio 4 programme with Brian Cox (you know, the Professor of Particle Physics who’s a bit like God, he’s everywhere and everything and probably pretty much infinite too, I’m sure the BBC producers hope so as they seem to be on to a
Learn more »

Corpus Christi College Cambridge report with great sadness the death of Oliver Rackham OBE MA PhD FBA, on 12 February 2015, aged 75 years. Professor of Historical Ecology, Botanist, Master of the College 2007-8, Fellow of the College 1964-2007 and 2008-2010, Honorary Fellow 2008-2015 and Life Fellow 2010-2015, Oliver Rackham was an extraordinary man and an extraordinary academic. Oliver Rackham studied and wrote with great
Learn more »

Friday night is botanical music night, on BBC Four this week at least, with an exploration of the life of Rory McEwen – botanical artist and musician. In the latest episode of BBC Four’s fourteen-part documentary series “Secret Knowledge” Jools Holland tells the remarkable story of his father-in-law Rory McEwen – aristocrat, artist, folk singer and pioneering TV presenter, and the man who brought the
Learn more »

The Twittersphere is a fine place for meeting and making new botanical friends and this is where Dr M met PhD candidate Sarah Jose from the University of Bristol a while back where he noticed her tweets on plant research news and other botanical and environmental stuff. Sarah sees PhD students as “apprentice researchers” and has this advice to new PhD starters – “Make the most of
Learn more »

Finally the day arrived for the latest plant ID test for Dr M’s MSc students, but no ordinary test this one, instead it was to be – Drum Roll – Dr M’s Botany Bingo, yes that’s right Botany Bingo! Unfortunately Dr M was in process of recovering from a flu virus and so instead of the deluxe boxed set of Botany Bingo he had
Learn more »

Dr M attended the three day Association of Science Education (ASE), at the University of Reading, and he joined the SAPS stand – Science and Plants for Schools – to talk to educators about how to get teachers and students excited about plants and “generate a culture of excitement about plants!” Dr M took along with him some plants and other resources including a coat stand
Learn more »

What’s the botanical buzz of 2015? Well, Dr M is taking eXtreme botany and #iamabotanist to the Annual Conference of the Association of Science Education (ASE) at University of Reading 7-10 January 2015.