An interview with a sparklingly botanical man with a mission!
Dr M says: Who can it be?
That was Cherry blossom time, that was!
Dr M says: So what’s your favourite Cherry blossom? Dr M is particularly fond of the purest white blossoms of the native Prunus spinosus (Blackthorn) but he’s a sucker for most cherry blossom. There’s something about cherry blossom time; first there’s winter, greyness, rain, greyness again, possibly snow and ice and certainly cold! And then somethings says “let there be Prunus” AND THERE IS PRUNUS!
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Dr M discovers May in mid-April!
A classic spring plant is the beautiful May tree, Crataegus monogyna, (also known as Hawthorn of course) by who’s flowering we know the season must be springtime, the only pretty ring time! even, mayhaps, the first signs that Sumer Is Icumen In!?
Inspiring the next generation of botanists TODAY!
Dr M attended the UK PlantSci 2014 meeting in York, 31st March 2014.
Botany is dead, long-live eXtreme botany!
Last year Dr M was struck by an article entitled“The Death of Botany” in the “Rant and Reason” section of the June 2013 edition of the magazine of the British Ecological Society. In this rant, Dr Markus Eichhorn, botanist at the University of Nottingham, bemoaned the loss of botany degree programmes from UK Universities.
Reading Science week
Reading Science Week was well worth the wait! A feast of scientific delight was on offer, Dr M hopes you joined in and enjoyed the fun!
Reading Science Week – the Symbiosis project!
The resident exhibition for Reading Science Week was the Imagining Science Symbiosis Project about which Dr M has posted before and within which Dr M is deeply embedded!
Dr M’s liking fruticose lichens
Dr M has been investigating lichen diversity with his MSc students and has recently posted on liking lichen growth forms, crustose lichens and foliose lichens. Dr M continues this series with a look at some of the fruticose lichens that students examined in the lab under the expert guidance of botanical colleague Fay Newbery. The thallus (the main body of the lichen) is branched the branches may be rounded or
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Dr M’s liking foliose lichens
Dr M has been investigating lichen diversity with his MSc students and you can check out the other posts on liking lichen growth forms and crustose lichens and fruticose lichens. Here Dr M takes a look at some of the foliose lichens that students examined in the lab under the expert guidance of botanical colleague Fay Newbery.
Dr M’s liking crustose lichens
Dr M has been investigating lichen diversity with his MSc students and you can check out the other posts on liking lichen growth forms and foliose lichens, and fruticose lichens. Here Dr M takes a look at some of the crustose lichens that students examined in the lab under the expert guidance of botanical colleague Fay Newbery.