So, what was Dr M doing on his birthday? Well, after a quick shufty at his birthday cards, including a very cheeky one from young nieces and nephew, off he went to check out some marvellous mosses – including a lovely birthday Bryum – for his forthcoming series on bryophytes! Coming to drmgoeswild.com soon: Dr M’s guide to common orders of mosses and liverworts! Watch
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Dr M has been looking at ferns (the Pteridopsida) with his students recently and found this video where Eddie Watkins from Colgate University, New York, explains the alternation of sporophyte and gametophyte generations in ferns.
Dr M is particularly fond of films and the 2013 film “Project Wild Thing” is coming to Reading Film Theatre on Thursday and Dr M was struck by its aim to reconnect kids with nature through film!
Dr M has been investigating lichen diversity with his MSc students and has recently posted on liking lichen growth forms, crustose lichens and foliose lichens. Dr M continues this series with a look at some of the fruticose lichens that students examined in the lab under the expert guidance of botanical colleague Fay Newbery. The thallus (the main body of the lichen) is branched the branches may be rounded or
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Dr M’s recent lichen post drew a number of appreciative comments, there are plenty of lichen enthusiasts out there it seems, maybe lichenology is not such a threatened species as Dr surmised! Anyway while Dr M draws up his next magnum lichen post, here’s a stunning image of lichens from Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
“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).
Recently, Dr M ran a Spring term plant ID test for his MSc students at University of Reading and has posted the results of Part 1 (vascular plants). Here Dr M posts Part 2 of the test: the bryophytes – the group of lower plants which includes the mosses and liverworts. There were ten species in total: three species to be identified without books
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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 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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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.