Dr M takes bryological floristry into the Dragon’s Den!
Dr M is developing a new botanical business concept – eXtreme bryology meets artistic floristry and the result is Bryo-Logical Floristry!
Top 50 plant families USA style!
Dr M is always on the look our for useful resources for teaching an learning plant ID and recently he discovered (belatedly, for it has been around since 2009!) an illustrated manual by Lena Struwe, Associate Professor in the School of Enviromental and Biological Sciences and Director of the Chrysler Herbarium (CHRB) at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA.
Could an animal help you get a girl? No! “Plants are cool too!”
Dr M is particularly fond of video as a modern medium for spreading the botanical word and “Plants Are Cool, Too!“ is a YouTube channel acknowledging that animals are pretty interesting – but plants are cool, too!
Dr M’s students’ eXtreme botany seed challenge at BSBI, London 2013
Two of Dr M’s students, Christine and Waheed, came up with a devilishly eXtreme botanical challenge to test different aspects of the botanists’ ID skills at the BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting on Saturday 23rd November at the Natural History Museum, London!
Dr M’s deleted presentation – an eXtreme botanical love story
Even if you were present at Dr M’s presentation at the afternoon talks of the BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting on Saturday 23rd November you will have missed Dr M’s presentation!
Dr M talks eXtreme botany at the BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting in London
Dr M spoke at the BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting at the Natural History Museum, London on Saturday, 23rd November.
eXtreme botany goes to town!
Yes, Dr M headed into London Town for the Annual Exhibition Meeting of the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland on Saturday 23rd November at the Natural History Museum. Dr M was there with his eXtreme botany manifesto, and with some of his current students who prepared an eXtreme botanical challenge for the delegates!
A walk for the love of trees
Dr M is particularly fond of Vancouver and from his past visits there the wonderful trees left a lasting impression, beautiful and diverse in nearby forest and also in town. Dr M was therefore delighted to find this lovely self-guided tree walk of the amazing tree-lined Kitsilano district of Vancouver,
Dr M tells visiting scholars: “I never expected to be Blogging!”
Yes, just a few months ago Dr M thought blogging was an unfathomable absurdity, a waste of time, done only by those with little to say but too much time to waste, generating endless words floating around the ether, no shelf-life, nowhere to go, so much cyberspace white noise!
Carpels, pistil, ovary, ovules, Uncle Tom Cobley and all!
To key plant families, for example using the Book of Stace, it is very important to understand the structure of the flower very precisely, how many perianth whorls (e.g. petals and sepals), how many stamens (male parts – the androecium) and how many carpels, stigmas, and so on (female parts – the gynoecium).