Dr M says: It’s that time of year again! Last year’s University of Reading MSc Plant Diversity students (class of 2015 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 2016 are soon to be on their way to Reading for a new exciting
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How did Dr M’s garden quiz go for you? If you didn’t try it yet please here – even if you are not so familiar with garden plants and weren’t exactly sure what was what Dr M urges you to have a go at least to ID the family in each case and then the genus and species if you were feeling more confident
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It’s Summer, it’s Pimm’s o’clock and of course high time for Dr M’s next ID quiz, this time its garden flowers! This is a first for Dr M, not the Pimms (!) but the garden plants which have not really featured much at drmgoeswild.com. Not that Dr M has anything against garden flowers, far from it, nothing more beautiful and rewarding than a garden, and no
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Dr M is particularly fond of plant ID quizzes and so, it seems, is everybody else (in the whole world!) judging by Dr M’s dramatic peaks in visits to drmgoeswild.com for his recent quizzes on summer flowers and grasses! So, as Dr M prepares for his next quiz (scheduled for September) he got thinking, what would be a suitable topic to follow summer flowers and
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Tried Dr M’s Poaceae quiz? If not have a go here… then check the answers below… Some common grasses can be ID’d quite easily e.g. Dactylis glomerata (Cock’s-foot) which can often be reliably identified from 100 paces and definitely a species to ID from a moving vehicle at speed! Other grasses can only really be ID’d to genus from a photo and some only
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Dr M says: Your patience is rewarded and here at last is Part the Second of Dr M’s long-awaited Poaceae quiz! Grasses, so the Poaceae song goes, and as Dr M’s students on University of Reading MSc Plant Diversity know well, have “flowers reduced to spikelets strange yet magical”. The grass spikelet is indeed a wondrous thing and has an intrinsic beauty and fascination
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Dr M says: Did you try my summer botany quiz? If not check it out here and then come back for the answers. If you took the summer plant ID test read on for the answers! Here are the thirty-six plants with their common names, see bottom of this post for the latin names arranged by family to check your full botanical answers! Check out Dr
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Dr M has always been going wild about plants and nature, even way before he launched drmgoeswild.com back in April 2013, and so naturally he is delighted to see that The Wildlife Trusts have a campaign for June 2015 they say: Make room for nature this June – no matter where you are or how busy your life! Make this the month when you do
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The CBBC classical music initiative “Ten Pieces“ started in the autumn term of 2014 and aims to inspire a generation of primary children to get creative with classical music. With a week of free cinema screenings for primary schools across the country, the project culminates in two Ten Pieces Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in July 2015. So successful has “Ten Pieces” been in the
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Fascination of Plants Day 2015 brought over 130 local school children to the University of Reading for a Festival of Fascinating Fossils lead by Dr Macarena Cardenas and a Monkey Puzzle walk lead by Dr M and Professor Tomato (aka Professor John Warren). Dr M was amazed! The weather was not on our side, there was wind there was rain but still the schools came and
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