So #2 in Dr M’s weekend mystery plant mini-quiz was a grass-like plant for sure, but without one of the defining feature of the family, a ligule! Check the images here if you want to remind yourself. A grass without a ligule is that possible? Is it really a grass? Yes it is possible (though uncommon), and yes it is a grass! And from the featured
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eXtreme botany heads North to Malham Tarn Field Studies Centre with Dr M and University of Reading Plant Diversity MSc students, this is #3 of Dr M’s MalHam Diary. Day 3 Monday: which was a day of species-rich vegetation in calcicolous grassland and calcicolous fun in the Ha Ha Fen! The group walked from the FSC centre down the hill to the calcicolous grassland overlooking Malham Tarn looking at its
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This week Dr M has been taking his MSc students on a series of field days, visiting a range of sites and habitats. Here is the third post from Dr M’s field day diary: Day 3: Botany at historical Runnymede
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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2013 was drmgoeswild.com’s first Christmas and he got so excited hanging up his botanical stockings and all, awe bless! Launched in April/May 2013 drmgoeswild.com took off (viewing wise) in the Summer and has grown steadily since, now receiving around 3000 views per month.
Dr M is relaxing for the festive season and offers this morsel from his table of festive botanical fare for your delight and delectation! It is never ceases to amaze Dr M what you can find on the internet these days. For example this very short scrap of a video on YouTube which demonstrates how to pronounce the word Poaceae!
A frost in Reading this morning but no snow, and seasonally it still feels very much like autumn rather than winter. Coupled with this, all the forecasts suggest it will be too mild for snow in England and South Wales where Dr M will be this Christmas period. But wouldn’t it be nice to see some snow, just a little, to get us into
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Dr M has previously posted reviews of the two indispensable eXtreme botanical books: the veg key and the book of Stace. The eXtreme botanist just cannot be without these on their shelves. But also important are the illustrated plant ID guides to supplement the advanced ID books. You need to be able to check determinations against descriptions of the plant in the floras but also
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Can you recognise the commonest plant species in Britain? Dr M has previously posted the 30 most common British plant species based on data in the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora and the Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora.
“Botany is just the best “B” word we have“, Dr M tells the delegates at the BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting at the Natural History Museum, 23rd November 2013.