The Willow family – Salicaceae – includes two main genera – Willows and the Poplars – a family of deciduous trees and shrubs with (usually) simple, alternate leaves with stipules. The flowers are in catkins and there is no perianth (i.e. no obvious petals or sepals). There are 2 carpels and the fruit is a one-celled capsule which bursts to release the many silky
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Dr M says: Botany is sexy, erotic and, well to some minds, even pornographic, its official! Dr M adds: So what’s new?! Erasmus Darwin was one of the first to revel in the sexuality of plants in his magnum opus “The Loves of the Plants” which was a popular rendering of Linnaeus’ works in English. Written in highly sexualized language, it can be described as a
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During the 71 years of my highly productive lifetime I: Said “A fool you know, is a man who never tried an experiment in his life”
Dr M is planning a series of posts on talented botanical illustrators and, just to be contrary, the first of these deals with zoological illustration, but with a botanical twist!
Dr M has been investigating lichen diversity with his MSc students and you can check out the other posts on liking lichen growth forms and foliose lichens, and fruticose lichens. Here Dr M takes a look at some of the crustose lichens that students examined in the lab under the expert guidance of botanical colleague Fay Newbery.
Recently, Dr M discovered a botanical website called simply: “Go Botany“, based at the New England Wild Flower Society in the USA. This wonderful botanical site embraces botany in the 21st century with a whole suite of online teaching and learning tools, basic and advanced online keys, plant sharing and interaction with the botanical community young and old alike.
2013 was drmgoeswild.com’s first Christmas and he got so excited hanging up his botanical stockings and all, awe bless! Launched in April/May 2013 drmgoeswild.com took off (viewing wise) in the Summer and has grown steadily since, now receiving around 3000 views per month.
Dr M loves it when this happens! Stumbling upon some writing which leaves him speechless, thinking: “Oh my! What eXtreme creative botanical mind was at work there?”
Dr M thought it about time he went Christmas shopping. At least that was his plan! But it was absolutely shocking! You see, Dr M is very much out of his comfort zone in the town, there is so little Poaceae around for a start! OK a sprig of Poa annua here and there, but that apart, almost nothing for ages! And certainly not worth going into the Mall,
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Dr M has previously posted reviews of the two indispensable eXtreme botanical books: the veg key and the book of Stace. The eXtreme botanist just cannot be without these on their shelves. But also important are the illustrated plant ID guides to supplement the advanced ID books. You need to be able to check determinations against descriptions of the plant in the floras but also
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