Botany goes Dutch (by Czech!)
Dr M is delighted to introduce this botanical selfie from Jan Wim Jongepier, a Dutchman who has made his home in the little town of Veseli in south Moravia in the Czech Republic near to the border with Slovakia.
It’s bluebell time, get thee to a bluebell wood!
It’s bluebell time and there is nothing quite like the heady scent and radiant sky-blue vistas of a British bluebell wood in springtime. The UK plant charity Plantlife is currently running a competition to choose the Nation’s Favourite Wildflower. Britain is home to many beautiful wildflowers so there are plenty to choose from but it’s probably no surprise that so far, the number 1 position
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Eyebrights – so hard to ID?
A notoriously difficult plant group for the field botanist is the Eyebrights (Euphrasia – previously placed in the Scrophulariaceae now in the Orobanchaceae family). Eyebrights are lovely grassland and heathland plants with little zygomorphic flowers, bright white with a central yellow blotch and purple veins (hence Eye-bright). With approximately 22 species and 70 (yes seventy!) hybrids Euphrasia ID is eXtreme botany to be sure! But recently, Euphrasia
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Dawn Sanders tackles a global pandemic: plant blindness
There’s none so blind as those who will not see, and plants suffer much more than their fair share from this blindness! It is high time then, for Dr M to introduce this botanical selfie by Dawn Sanders as she embarks on an important research project investigating the global pandemic called “plant blindness”. Plant blindness is both fascinating (why is plant blindness so prevalent?) and
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Veg ID – opp or alt lvs on rosette plants – the answers!
OK if you have read the post here and tested yourself, here are the answers:
Veg plant ID: how to tell if rosette plants have opposite or alternate leaves?
Dr M is used to a lot of questions from his students on the MSc Plant Diversity University of Reading! And once they started using the veg key then there’s been a lot more questions! But one of the most frequent is “Dr M, with a rosette plant how can we tell if the leaves are opposite or alternate?”
Eyes down (the hand lens) for a full house! Dr M’s Botany Bingo!
Finally the day arrived for the latest plant ID test for Dr M’s MSc students, but no ordinary test this one, instead it was to be – Drum Roll – Dr M’s Botany Bingo, yes that’s right Botany Bingo! Unfortunately Dr M was in process of recovering from a flu virus and so instead of the deluxe boxed set of Botany Bingo he had
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Dr M (and Grasshead) champions botanical creativity in science education
Dr M attended the three day Association of Science Education (ASE), at the University of Reading, and he joined the SAPS stand – Science and Plants for Schools – to talk to educators about how to get teachers and students excited about plants and “generate a culture of excitement about plants!” Dr M took along with him some plants and other resources including a coat stand
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Dr M Goes Wild about plants at the Association of Science Education 2015
What’s the botanical buzz of 2015? Well, Dr M is taking eXtreme botany and #iamabotanist to the Annual Conference of the Association of Science Education (ASE) at University of Reading 7-10 January 2015.
Wilder still and wilder: highlights of Dr M’s 2014
2014 was drmgoeswild.com’s second Christmas and he celebrated in style with the joint production of #AdventBotany with University of Reading colleague Alastair Culham creating an imaginative and typically sideways glance at 25 Christmas plants.