All unusually quiet, even somber, group on the minibus this morning as Dr M drove students to Kynance Cove for their assessed National Vegetation Classification (NVC) assignment. The first taxonomic challenge, was more zoological than botanical: some very fine brown cows were sitting across on the path, Edwina Higginbotham let out a loud sneeze and all bar one struggled lazily to their feet. The
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Awoke today to the sound of heavy rain beating upon the caravan roof and the forecast being for more of the same we took a walk near the camp site and collected material and brought back to base camp for Dr M’s ID workshop, and numerous photo opportunities to catch students using their hand lenses! For the ID Workshop Dr M collected several species
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Today the group visited Kynance Cove a botanical haven and wonderful beauty spot, adding many more plants to lists and quadrats to NVC vegetation surveys. There was a bit of a miniature plant theme running through the day, early on we encountered the immensely tiny Radiola linoides (Allseed in the Linaceae) and mini examples of the annual grasses Aira caryophyllea and Bromus hordaceous ferronii, the
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Sunday 18th May: First day at the Wonderful Lizard! Botany starts early with this group, and barely was breakfast over than the group was off in search of Ranunculus parviflorus (Small-flowered Buttercup) in the barer, scuffed areas of the camp site lawns. A species of special interest to this group as it had made a brief appearance on University of Reading campus last year,
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After what has seemed an eternity waiting for the MSc Plant Diversity UK Field Course Module to start, finally the day has arrived! At around 10.20 a.m. Dr M and MSc Plant Diversity students set off from Reading in their ample minibus stacked with more plant ID books than you might reasonably expect to find at a BSBI annual exhibition meeting! And there was
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Yes, Dr M and his Reading MSc Plant Diversity students are following the Yellow Brick Road in search of the Emerald City!
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 says: So what’s your favourite Cherry blossom? Dr M is particularly fond of the purest white blossoms of the native Prunus spinosus (Blackthorn) but he’s a sucker for most cherry blossom. There’s something about cherry blossom time; first there’s winter, greyness, rain, greyness again, possibly snow and ice and certainly cold! And then somethings says “let there be Prunus” AND THERE IS PRUNUS!
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