The clocks have gone back, autumnal colour delights the eye and the smells of autumn abound!  High time then for the latest in Dr M’s special series of botany quizzes – the autumn fruit quiz! 2015 seems to have been an excellent year for autumn fruits of a myriad varieties and so here for your autumnal delight and delectation Dr M has lovingly and selflessly gathered
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It was only week two of the new academic term but that didn’t stop Dr M launching his new students on the University of Reading twin MSc’s Plant Diversity and SISS into an eXtreme botanical quiz! If you missed it stop now and go check it out here, then come back and check below for the answers!  The answers: 1. Dangly ball-like fruit of London Plane, Platanus x hispanica.
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So once again a new botanical term has dawned and Dr M’s eager new MSc students (pictured above) have arrived at the University of Reading to study on the twin MSc’s: Plant Diversity and SISS. And from the four corners of the globe they come, well to be precise from Britain, Ireland, Brazil, China, France and Saudi Arabia, not bad going though! They were
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OK, Listen up plant lovers and botanophiles alike!  Stuff like this really doesn’t happen that often, I mean, when did you last have a chance to attend a Dr M Botanical  course?  Like never, or at least oh so rarely!  We are talking hen’s teeth, we really are! So, come on down to London town and join the botanical love and joy at Dr M’s
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Have you tried Dr M’s spot test from the BES/EFL workshop in Hyde Park? If not check it out here have a go then come back for the answers! Check the pictures against the answers below, give yourself 2 marks if you got the answer correct. If you didn’t quite get the answer correct but were part way there you can still get a mark,
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Recently Dr M and colleague Alastair Culham gave a presentation on creative approaches to teaching plant ID to the BES/EFL workshop in Hyde Park – as Alastair Culham has said in his account of this event (here), “…the audience didn’t know what hit them – two plant ID tests in 30 minutes!” Regular visitors will already know this and you can see Dr M’s summary here.
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Dr M says: It’s that time of year again! Last year’s University of Reading MSc Plant Diversity students (class of 2015 pictured above) are just about finishing their dissertations and we are already wishing them well as they get ready to move on to botanical pastures new, while the class of 2016 are soon to be on their way to Reading for a new exciting
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STOP PRESS: Dr M and his colleague Alastair Culham  presented a workshop on teaching plant ID skills at the Enhancing Fieldwork Learning workshop in collaboration with the British Ecological Society, and supported by the Society for Experimental Biology, at the Isis Education Centre in Hyde Park, London 7-8 September 2015. Building on four previous Showcases, the event aimed to share ideas and practice for innovative
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How did Dr M’s garden quiz go for you? If you didn’t try it yet please here – even if you are not so familiar with garden plants and weren’t exactly sure what was what Dr M urges you to have a go at least to ID the family in each case and then the genus and species if you were feeling more confident
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It’s Summer, it’s Pimm’s o’clock and of course high time for Dr M’s next ID quiz, this time its garden flowers! This is a first for Dr M, not the Pimms (!) but the garden plants which have not really featured much at drmgoeswild.com. Not that Dr M has anything against garden flowers, far from it, nothing more beautiful and rewarding than a garden, and no
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