#Citrus australiasica, aka the #fingerlime! These flowers are off a cultivar I’ve been growing for several years now. They’re lovely plants if you don’t mind having a living pincushion in your garden (they are absolutely covered in spines).

Leucopogon virgatus var. brevifolous (Ericaceae)! This pecies is endangered in Victoria and ocurrs in a relatively small range of heathland in the west of the state (it occurs outside the state, too!). It’s a small shrub to 50cm and has tiny flowers (4-10mm long) with densly hairy petals.

#Pandorea pandorana, aka wonga vine! This climbing plantncan get over 6m high. It has gorgeous tubular flowers that are white-creamy on the outside and a deep burgundy-purple on the inside. The anthers are pressed up against the top of the floral tube, almost cris-crossing over the style.

#Daucus glochidiatus, aka Australian carrot! This is a plant in the family #Apiaceae and can be anywhere from 3-60cm tall. Its flowers are impossibly tiny, only about 1.5mm in diameter with minute purple petals (which made it difficult to photograph, even with a microscope!).

This weeks features #Dimorphotheca ecklonis (Asteraceae)! This is a species of #daisy from South Africa that’s commonly grown in gardens here. Their ligules (what appear as petals) can be white to purple, while the centre disc florets are a deep blue/purple. They’re quite striking flowers up close!

Excited to share that I'm one of the lucky photographers to get one of my photos published in Ecology Matters by @ecolsocaus.bsky.social! It's incredibly surreal seeing something you made printed in a book. You can spot Manuka buds on page 12! ❤️

#Styphelia ericoides (Ericaceae), aka the pink beard heath! This is a widespread shrub to 2m high that has typical beard-heath flowers: tubular and densly hairy (bearded) on the inside. The flowers are very small (1-1.5mm long), creamy-white with pink tips. #plants #photography

Lets get back into it: weeks microscopy features #Actinobole uliginosum! This plant is so tiny, only a few cm high, that you’d need to be on your hands and knees in the dirt to really notice it exists. It’s an #Asteraceae with cottony leaves and white-creamy coloured flowers.

Wrapped up my field work this past weekend by visiting Acacia daviesii (FFG listed critically endangered)!! Very bittersweet. I'm looking forward to the break but kind of sad I won't see my species for a bit.

#Thrips! Thrips are thrips both singular and plural, and if you do any sort of floral morphology or pollen work you'll come across a million of them. This guy was hiding out in an Osterospermum floret. #inverts #photography

A blue ant (Diamma bicolor)! She's not actually an ant, she's a wasp (though they're both Hymenoptera). A species I've always wanted to see. 🥹

Colour spectrum of Caladenia carnea (pink fingers). They range from hot pink, light pink, a faint blush of pink to totally white. Found out in western Vic. ❤️🩷🤍

Last week I had the most amazing time demonstrating LTU BOT2PDE students out in Natimuk, far western Victoria. Got my hands dirty with inch flora and saw some good flowers. 🌸

A few flowers from the weekend, celebrating wrapping up work at one of my field sites. Not my target species but so lovely to see. ❤️

Had a brief trip to Sydney and saw some very Sydney things. #binchicken

A few snaps of what's growing at one of my field sites that aren't my target species (I did not take enough time to photograph non-study species 😞)

Yesterday was national #wattle day! Here's my two Masters species, #Acacia daviesii (timbertop wattle, first two photos) and Acacia sporadica (pale hickory wattle, last row photos). Both critically endangered, I'm very lucky I get to work with them. ❤️❤️

This weeks #microscopy- #Plagiochila fasciculata! Featuring intercalary androecium (male reproductive parts). They're very common in wet forests and give off a strong camphor/mothball smell. I love getting students to sniff them (they often don't know what the smell is and find it revolting).

Swamp wallaby supervising my field work. 🥹

Zoopsis leitgebiana, a leafy #liverwort in the family Lepidoziaceae found in wet rainforests here in Vic. This was my first time spotting the species, so what a treat to photo it! It's leaves are bi-lobed and made of just a few individual cells. Very tiny species. #bryophytes

A few #Drosera from today! Such amazing little plants. The ground was absolutely covered in them.

#Zoopsis argentea! One of the smallest liverworts in Vic. This leafy liverwort's leaves are recuded to only two single cells (others in the genus don't have such reduced leaves). It's very common on logs and tree ferns in rainforests here. #bryophytes #liverworts

Fun little shot down the microscope of an Acacia polyad (pollen cluster) surrounded my bacteria after sitting in out in avsucrose solution for a few days. Trialing protocol for pollen tube germination. 😊

I got to go trudge through the muddy rainforests of eastern Vic recently, searching for threatened bryophytes. My favourite place. ❤️

I've been hard at work in the background setting up a new Redbubble account. 🎉🎉If you've ever wanted a print or sticker of my photography and art, this is the place! I'll be slowly adding more prints, let me know if there's one you want that I'm missing. 😊 BotanyByYen.redbubble.com

#Hardenbergia violacea! I've shared one of these photos before, but here's two new ones at different angles (including a look at the reproductive organs!). These will be blooming all over Melbourne soon.

#Oxalis pes-caprae, a plant with a unique feature called #heterostyly. This is a floral polymorphism where individuals in a species have variation in the position of their reproductive organs (specifically stigma and stamen). Oxalis pes-caprae is #tristylous, meaning it has three floral morphs.

Little Drosera.

Went to go check how far off my target species is from flowering and I couldn't help but look for #liverworts. This is #Chaetophyllopsis whiteleggei, a leafy liverwort absolutely covered in cilia. One of my favourites but rare to see.

Had a wedge-tail land right in front of us as we were driving into my field site yesterday. And, of course, this was RIGHT after I realised I'd forgotten my binoculars.

Some bits in Fryers Range State Forest, western Vic.

This week's feature- Prostanthera incisa. Their anthers are often clasped together and only seperate after being disurbed by a pollinator. Here the filaments and connective parts are white/pink while the theca are a vibrant purple. They are speckled with pollen that look like grains of rice.

Childlock doesn't work when your cat will sit on the button to turn it off. 🤦

This weeks #microscopy- #Rutidosis leptorrhynchoides (Button wrinklewort)! An endangered grasslands daisy in Vic and ACT. Daisy 'flowers' are liars- they're actually a whole bunch of individual florets! Florets develop from the outside in and each can create one seed. Alt text has more info.

Yuzu helping me plan for field work. At least he knows how to make the most out of a sunny day!

A bit of #microscopy for this week, featuring #Swainsona sericea! You can see its curved style with a line of hairs on its inward side (which is covered in yellow #pollen). This species is endangered in Victoria, but I was lucky enough to work with them on a reintroduction project in undergrad.

Art stall success! Big thanks to everyone who came by to support us students. 🥹

When I've not been busy with Masters work I've been prepping for an art stall at La Trobe uni's World Environment Day event! If you're coming along be sure to stop by the art stall and say hi. I'm selling various photography prints and stickers and would love to talk plants with you!

A rough little snapshot of #Grevillea #pollen from a workshop with year 10s today. Grevillea (and Hakea) pollen are triporate and have a triangular appearance! They're real fun.

Prepping for an introduction to pollen for some year 10s tomorrow! Bit over representative of Proteaceae but it'll do the trick.

Some recon for a new species (to me) at a new location-Acacia sporadica (FFG critically endangered).

Its been a few months since I've done some pollen work! This is Acacia pollen, which is a polyad! Polyads are a group of pollen grains (monads) that are stuck together. In Acacia they're often in multiples of 4 (here there's 12).

I am forever getting silica gel beads EVERYWHERE.

Testing print settings and paper for my at-home printing setup (I sell prints when I have the time and capacity!). Tecor paper (glossy) Vs Canon (glossy II). The Tecor paper is cooler and darker, Canon is warmer and lighter.

Strange visitor in the yard this morning. Definitely a first. (I live in suburbia and am a 5 minute walk from parkland along the Yarra, which requires crossing a busy 4 lane road to get to).

Happy #WorldWildlifeDay. A friendly reminder that livestock cannot replace native biodiversity, despite what you may have heard.

Spotted my blue banded bee photo out in the wild!! At the Nangak Tamboree Wildlife Sanctuary ❤️

OH MY GOD I am beyond excited to share that the multi-access key to leafy liverworts in Victoria is LIVE on Vicflora! I helped build this key two years ago with RBGV, and it was an actual dream come true. Can't believe it's finally out in the world. ❤️❤️❤️ vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/matrix...

Started the printing, laminating and cutting process on a big sticker order I recently received! I feel much too powerful being able to make stickers at home. It's much too fun.

Thanks so much to everyone who voted for my weevil pic in the @vicbiocon.bsky.social photo competition! Always an honour to see such amazing talent we have in our fields, and to have people enjoy the photos I take ❤️❤️