Dr M says: The critical concept of Plant Blindness has featured on drmgoeswild.com before, for example, Dawn Saunder’s post in the botanical selfie series in March 2015 and Dr M’s account of his lecture tour of Japan in May 2018.  The recent video essay by Bath Spa student Benedict Furness featured here came to Dr M’s attention when a link from Benedict’s tutor at Bath Spa University
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It’s time to revisit this Dr M classic – the Twelve Days of Botanical Christmas! (First broadcast in December 2014!)

YOUR STARTER FOR TEN: The first ever UK Botanical University Challenge took place at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, hosted by James Wong, on 10th March 2016 you can read more about it here.   FINGERS ON BUZZERS!   We are now getting very close to the second Challenge which takes place at the University of Reading on Wednesday 20th February 2019 and is the
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It’s no secret that Dr M is raving potty about Poaceae so imagine his delight when he saw the new and wonderful @Wildflowerhour also getting into the Poaceous groove with their #grasschallenge! This time of year (June) is truly wondrous for Poaceae (but not hay fever sufferers!) as the vegetative shoots spring into action and come alive with flowering inflorescences bearing those strange yet magical
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Earlier this year Dr M wrote posts on two beautiful white flowered shrubs or small trees common in the British countryside and which tend to bloom in sequence from spring into summer.  Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) starts in April, followed by Hawthorn (Crategus monogyna – flowering in May. The final plant in this trio is Elder (Sambucus nigra) usually flowering from June into July, but
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Earlier this year Dr M wrote a post on the beautiful Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa one of the several white flowered shrubs native to Britain which tend to bloom in sequence from spring into summer.  Blackthorn usually kicks off the year being at its best in April, the clear white flowers of Hawthorn usually follow in May (indeed ‘May’ is one of the common names
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Dr M first encountered Leif Bersweden on the twittersphere, as you do these days, and with his regular attractive botanical tweets on orchids and other native British plants @LeifBersweden is certainly one to follow. The first real life encounter however, was at the BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting at the Natural History Museum in November 2017 where Leif was signing copies of his new and
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Dr M is delighted recently to have taken advantage of a generous invitation to visit Japan again more than 25 years after his last visit!  Dr M visited botanical colleagues at the University of Tokyo and presented lectures, including one entitled “We eat, sleep or breathe plants so why are we blind to them?” Dr M says: Never in the history of human kind
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A real favourite of Dr M, and a sure sign that spring is with us, is Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa.  Its pure white blossoms emerge before the leaves and so are set against the very dark, leafless, spiny twigs, surely one of nature’s simplest, coolest and mouth watering colour combinations.

The latest in this series of botanical selfies features Josh Styles, one of the emerging young generation of British botanists who are filling oldies like Dr M with hope for the future of UK botany! Dr M says: I first came across Josh as a contestant on the Edge Hill University team of the very first Botanical University Challenge which I organised with John
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