OK, so amidst all the hype, the story telling, the agony and the extacy, it’s great to know that we can still rely on plants to pull us through! So in the spirit of Brexit, Dr M offers his 52% leaves quiz, fifty-two of the finest British, European and International leaves for your botanical edification and welcome distraction! These 52 leaves were all found in
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Dr M is the University of Reading mentor for Gatsby Plant Science (part of the Gatsby Plant Science Education Programme at the University of Cambridge) and each year he selects three undergraduate science students on a competitive basis to attend the inspirational and potentially life-changing Gatsby Plants Summer School. The summer school (established by the University of Leeds in 2005) is a unique opportunity for first year BSc
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Dr M has been going wild about plants and nature even way before he launched drmgoeswild.com in April 2013, and so naturally he is delighted to see that The Wildlife Trusts are repeating their 30 Days Wild campaign for June 2016: As the people at the WLT say: “Feel happier, healthier and more connected to nature by doing something wild every day for thirty days this June. No matter
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Dr M and students on the MSc Plant Diversity at the University of Reading have just (May 2016) returned from the annual botanical study trip to the botanical hotspot and Important Plant Area that is the Lizard District of Cornwall. The trip included amazing botanical walks along the stunning Cornish coastline including Kennack Sands to Cadgwith Cove, Lizard Head to Caerthyllian Cove and Kynance Cove. During
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Did you have a go at Dr M’s brownfield botany quiz? If not try it out here and come back to check the answers below. Post-industrial brownfield land is home to a host of colonising species both native and non-native species. Amongst the non-natives are many non-invasive naturalised species as well as some more pernicious alien invasive species, several of which are listed on Schedule 9 of
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Perish the thought that Dr M would ever talk rubbish, but recently a survey in the Dagenham area lead to this close encounter of a post-industrial kind, replete with the results of endless fly-tipping, accompanied by a diversity of ruderal plants which you commonly find colonising such places, as well as one or two less common! Below, Dr M shares images of twenty of the
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Did you have a go at Dr M’s flowers in the moss botany quiz from his stop over in the Crewe Travelodge recently? If not try it out here and come back to check the answers below. Between Dr M’s hotel and the stream was a mossy lawn with shed loads of Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus (Springy Turf Moss) but here and there were some other plants.
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Dr M says: Botany is everywhere, yes even at Travelodge! Dr M had the pleasure of staying at a Travelodge near Crewe recently. Nice comfy bed and a pleasant view across a meandering stream to a fragment of wet woodland with Salix fragilis (Crack-willow). But be warned: the view will be quite different once summer approaches, but more of that later! Dr M had
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Happy St Patrick’s Day! According to Irish legend, the druids in Ireland looked at the Shamrock as a sacred plant because its leaves formed a triad and the number three (or “tree” in Irish*) was a mystical number in the Celtic religion. But what, exactly and botanically, is Shamrock? Is it one of these? Or these? Well according to a 1988 survey of Irish people
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Whether you are a lonely heart, a happy single or a devoted recent of long-standing starry eyed couple try Dr M’s extra special Valentine’s quiz inspired by the forthcoming Botanical University Challenge (10/3 at RBG Kew!). So, fingers on buzzers! Your starter for ten: The Rose must surely be the Valentine’s bloom of choice, but what four other blooms feature in the top five most
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