OK so Dr M is one of the eight barmy botanists (and a driver) who drove in a little red mini-bus all the way from the Czech Republic through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and across the water to Finland, and all in 5 days! We had lots of adventures on the way and you can read about them here! But this post is to
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Day 2 of this eXtreme botanical journey, and Dr M has concluded that this group comprises eight barmy botanists in a bus (and a driver!). So to celebrate this discovery Dr M has started to compose a song to entertain his fellow seven barmy botanists (and a driver) en route through Poland and beyond. And the more Dr M ponders it, the more it fits well
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Day 2: in which the intrepid group of eight barmy botanists (and a driver) travelled in their little red mini-bus across the length of Poland – and all in just one day (over 1000 km (630 miles) and in more than 11 hours!). While pondering this rather immense and extended journey Dr M feels crossing Poland in a day is perhaps unfair to Poland, it
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2014 marks the first anniversary of eXtreme botany and Dr M is celebrating by embarking on a European tour which tracks a botanical transect from the Czech Republic, through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and from thence to Finland – an eXtreme botanical transect indeed! Day 1 Tuesday was a long day! A very early morning start from Reading, travelling to Luton airport (Lorraine Chase comes to
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Is Europe ready for eXtreme botany? Well, ready or not, here he comes, and Dr M’s trusty botanical companion Grasshead simply can’t wait! 2014 marks the first anniversary of eXtreme botany and Dr M is celebrating by embarking on a European tour which tracks an eXtreme botanical transect from the Czech Republic, through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and from thence to Finland. While in Finland
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Dr M has always been particularly fond of art, and although convention wisdom tends to pigeon-hole art and science as separate disciplines Dr M feels that, on the contrary, there is a very natural connection between them, perhaps most obviously seen in the art of botanical illustration, but also much more widely as demonstrated in the recent Symbiosis project. And so Dr M is delighted to continue his series of
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As BBC Radio 4 launches “Roots to Riches” a major new 25 part series on Botany and all about the famous botanists of the past like Carl Linnaeus, it is fitting to showcase one of our most youngest botanists here! Dr M’s own major zillion-part new series of botanical “selfies” continues with young botanist George Garnett who, at just 15 years old, is the youngest
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You’ve got to admire the timing, just as UK’s most prestigious botanical research centre, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, faces  a public outcry over budget cuts, the new Director Professor Kathy Willis presents not one, not two or three but twenty-five programmes about botany, and all on prime-time BBC Radio 4 – in the hallowed slot just before the Archers!

The National Trust has gone crazy wild about getting the nation’s kids outside at the weekend so they’ve put together a list of 50 things to do before you’re 11¾ along with the 50 place finder to locate great places to do them, woods, fields, hills, caves, ponds and streams! They want to encourage kids to get mucky, discover their wild side and get closer to
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Dr M’s new series of botanical “selfies” continues with #3 Julie Hawkins who also admits to a fascination with those squirting cucumbers, read on… I am… Associate Professor of Plant Systematics and Evolution, University of Reading, admission tutor for MSc Plant Diversity. I got into botany… thanks to my Granny, who fought a many-faceted campaign to “make me a botanist”. Highlights included sending a group of neighbourhood kids
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