The Twelve Days of Botany!
It’s time to revisit this Dr M classic – the Twelve Days of Botanical Christmas! (First broadcast in December 2014!)
Dr M welcomes a new MSc student cohort to the joys of botany!
Dr M says: It’s that time of year again! Last year’s University of Reading MSc Plant Diversity students (class of 2016 pictured above) are just about finishing their dissertations and we are already wishing them well as they get ready to move on to botanical pastures new, while the class of 2017 are soon to be on their way to Reading for a new exciting
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London’s first Moss Trail!
Dr M is delighted to present this post on London’s first moss trail at the South London Botanical Institute (SLBI), based in Tulse Hill, launched London’s first Moss Trail in its garden on Saturday 14 March 2015. The Moss Trail features twelve different kinds of moss, all clearly labelled in a trail around the garden. The Moss Trail launch was part of the SLBI’s “Moss Day”
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Dr M’s botanical selfies head north to a Swedish Sphagnum fancier…
Dr M is always delighted when his students move on from University of Reading to push botanical boundaries forward in their careers, and Charlie Campbell is one such, one of Dr M’s recent MSc Plant Diversity students and now a PhD student and deep Sphagnophile to boot! Charlie is already known to DrMGoesWild, previously seen discussing, you guessed it, Sphagnum (check his previous Sphagnum post here). But now
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Dr M’s Marvellous Mosses: 9 Hypnales – (most of) the Pleurocarps
A very large order comprising most of the pleurocarpous mosses with perhaps 4400 species world-wide!
Dr M’s Marvellous Mosses: 8 Orthotrichales
An order of epiphytic acrocarps, about 100 species world-wide and forming cushions on trees or rocks. The leaves are lanceolate and recurved at the margin, and are either overlapping when dry (e.g. Orthotrichum) or twisted when dry (e.g. Ulota).
Dr M’s Marvellous Mosses: 7 Booby-licious Bryales
Bryales is a large order of acrocarpous mosses containing about 500 species world-wide, and found growing on soil, rocks and walls.
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 Marvellous Mosses: 5 Grimmiales
Dr M loves Grimmiales, well it’s such a wonderful bryological name! And a great big order of epiphytic acrocarpous mosses of walls and rocks and boulders and related habitats.
Dr M’s Marvellous Mosses: 4 Pottiales
Dr M is potty about Pottiales, partly because it can be a tricky group to deal with, partly because it is a common and widespread group of acrocarps so it is an important order of mosses and partly just because Pottiales is such a great name!