Inspiring the next generation of botanists TODAY!
Dr M attended the UK PlantSci 2014 meeting in York, 31st March 2014.
Botany is dead, long-live eXtreme botany!
Last year Dr M was struck by an article entitled“The Death of Botany” in the “Rant and Reason” section of the June 2013 edition of the magazine of the British Ecological Society. In this rant, Dr Markus Eichhorn, botanist at the University of Nottingham, bemoaned the loss of botany degree programmes from UK Universities.
Reading Science week
Reading Science Week was well worth the wait! A feast of scientific delight was on offer, Dr M hopes you joined in and enjoyed the fun!
Dr M’s Marvellous Mosses: 6 Funariales
A small order in Britain (but about 135 species world-wide), including a very common and characteristic species, Funaria hygrometrica, growing on old bonfire sites, disturbed ground and garden and other horticultural habitats.
Dr M’s liking lichen growth forms
“Lichens are not plants!” I hear you say! So what are lichens doing here on this botanical website?! Well, says Dr M, they are at least half plants! Lichens are a kind of symbiotic union between two very different groups of organisms (different Kingdoms even!) a fungus (Fungi Kingdom) and an algae (Plant Kingdom).
The future of UK botany as we know it?
Dr M reports that the Society for Biology has just undertaken the first ever analysis of activities across the UK’s plant science sector. The study involved a year of consultation with over 300 individuals and organisations from the UK plant science community. The report entitled: “UK Plant Science: Current status and future challenges” was released at the Royal Society, London on Tuesday 28th January 2014.
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Dr M’s Spring term plant ID test: vascular plants
Dr M’s students have returned from the vacation and spent the first week of the new term on the New Year Plant Hunt in which they and Dr M found 38 species in flower on the University of Reading campus! This week Dr M set his students a plant ID test of vascular plants and bryophytes. This was a formative test which is a
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Diary of a Desert Garden Plant Identifier
To contrast with the endless rains of recent weeks Dr M is pleased to present this guest blog: an eXtreme botanical story from drier climes! Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a desert, and in that desert was a house, and beside that house was a garden and in that garden was a visitor, a botanist and plant
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The end of botany as we know it?
Dr M is leading a botanical vigil in Forbury Park, Reading and what is at stake is no less than the end of botany as we know it!
Dr M and student’s “New Year” Plant Hunt – The Results!
Dr M’s MSc New Year Plant Hunt (borrowed from the idea by BSBI) took place on Tuesday 14th January 2014. Three groups of MSc students walked the University of Reading Whiteknights campus for 1 hour each in the chilly sunshine collecting any plant in flower and these were taken back to the lab and identified