Dr M is the University of Reading mentor for Gatsby Plant Science (part of the Gatsby Plant Science Education Programme at the University of Cambridge) and each year he selects three undergraduate science students on a competitive basis to attend the inspirational and potentially life-changing Gatsby Plants Summer School. The summer school (established by the University of Leeds in 2005) is a unique opportunity for first year BSc
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Dr M has been going wild about plants and nature even way before he launched drmgoeswild.com in April 2013, and so naturally he is delighted to see that The Wildlife Trusts are repeating their 30 Days Wild campaign for June 2016: As the people at the WLT say: “Feel happier, healthier and more connected to nature by doing something wild every day for thirty days this June. No matter
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Did you notice this last weekend (mid April) was the first real sign that the countryside is awakening from its winter slumbers and the trees are coming into glorious leaf? Certainly Dr M saw that it was so in and around Reading and across into Wales. That transition – from the starkly beautiful bare twigs on tree and hedge to the emerging haze green
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Did you have a go at Dr M’s brownfield botany quiz? If not try it out here and come back to check the answers below. Post-industrial brownfield land is home to a host of colonising species both native and non-native species. Amongst the non-natives are many non-invasive naturalised species as well as some more pernicious alien invasive species, several of which are listed on Schedule 9 of
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Perish the thought that Dr M would ever talk rubbish, but recently a survey in the Dagenham area lead to this close encounter of a post-industrial kind, replete with the results of endless fly-tipping, accompanied by a diversity of ruderal plants which you commonly find colonising such places, as well as one or two less common! Below, Dr M shares images of twenty of the
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Dr M says: Botany is everywhere, yes even at Travelodge! Dr M had the pleasure of staying at a Travelodge near Crewe recently. Nice comfy bed and a pleasant view across a meandering stream to a fragment of wet woodland with Salix fragilis (Crack-willow). But be warned: the view will be quite different once summer approaches, but more of that later! Dr M had
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Happy St Patrick’s Day! According to Irish legend, the druids in Ireland looked at the Shamrock as a sacred plant because its leaves formed a triad and the number three (or “tree” in Irish*) was a mystical number in the Celtic religion. But what, exactly and botanically, is Shamrock? Is it one of these? Or these? Well according to a 1988 survey of Irish people
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The first ever Botanical University Challenge is nigh! Hosted by self-confessed @BotanyGeek and Kew alumnus James Wong BUC 2016 will be held in the Jodrell Laboratory at Kew from 2 pm Thursday 10th March 2016. As the final teams swot up and Dr M and colleagues John Warren and Laura Rozario make the final preparations and our host @botanygeek hones his botanical repartee, Dr M
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BOTANICAL UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE 2016 This is the brain-child of Dr M (School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading) John Warren (IBERS, University of Aberystwyth), and Paul Ashton (Edge Hill). The first ever Botanical University Challenge Will take place at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, hosted by James Wong, 2 pm Thursday 10th March 2016 Jodrell Lecture Theatre (Jodrell Laboratory building) TW9 3DS. Preview: Try your luck –
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YOUR STARTER FOR TEN: Haver you ever wished Paxman would ask more botany questions on University Challenge? Well, here’s the answer: Dr M and colleagues John Warren (Aberystwyth) and Paul Ashton (Edge Hill) have masterminded a brand new botanical concept for 2016: Botanical University Challenge! A botanical version of the ever popular BBC formula which will be hosted by James Wong at the Royal Botanic
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