At long last, @paleolorax.bsky.social gives us her Plant-Based History of the Earth!

Featuring @paleolorax.bsky.social and a deep dive into one of the most fascinating biomes on Earth, past and present.

Episode 3 - What's Inside a Pinecone? Out now! Featuring an animated discussion about these CT-scan images from the Regents of the University of Michigan.

Episode 1 - Sex-Changing Plants! Nora brings along some surprising news about trees that spontaneously changed sex, and Aly explains how plant sex works and what makes a tree suddenly swap from male to female. leafittouspod.podbean.com/e/episode-1-...

Episode 2 - Houseplants vs Housepets Why are so many of our favorite houseplants so dangerous to our pets? Nora and Aly investigate the antagonism between plants and animals and share some of their favorite stories of plants vs pets. leafittouspod.podbean.com/e/episode-2-...

🚨 New Podcast Alert! 🚨 If you - like Nora and Aly - feel that we don't talk enough about plants, we've got great news!

Hello! Leaf it to Us is a podcast about the science of plants and their importance to us humans! Leaf it to Us is a descendant of @commondescentpod.bsky.social. They don't talk enough about plants, so we have BRANCHED off and said "Leaf it to Us!"

I'll be giving a free public lecture tonight at 6:30 p.m. for the Botanical Club of Wisconsin. The lecture is online and open to anyone; join us at the zoom link below if you're interested in learning more about oaks! 16 Apr 2025, 6:30 PM Central Time (US / Canada) uwmadison.zoom.us/j/91623580182

We’re proud to announce a new podcast, Leaf it to Us, hosted by Nora Spurling and Aly Baumgartner! As a special preview, the pilot episode and its accompanying bonus episode are both now out on the Common Descent podcast feed! Take a listen and let us know what you think!

The Fish Doorbell is live! THE FISH DOORBELL IS LIVE 🐟 🐠 visdeurbel.nl/en/

In celebration of my monograph being accepted for publication, here's some images of everyone's favourite New York state fossil, Eurypterus, for #FossilFriday! Even among these standard compression fossils, the detail on the cuticle is exceptional. ⚒️🧪

This is a pro honey locust account

Enhancing plant morphological trait identification in #herbarium collections through deep learning–based segmentation New #AppsPlantSci research by Ariouat, Sklab, Prifti, Zucker & Chenin bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @ird-fr.bsky.social #botany #DeepLearning

The first mistake the girl makes is to be herself. The second is to cower.

Three small mushrooms #sciart #mycology #fungi #photography #macro #macrophotography #naturephotography

Catalpa leaf. Sadly the tree has since been cut down. #sciart #botany #botanicalart #art #photography #naturephotography

Fern

top four deranged Australian plants, a thread: 1. the tree that kills you instantly by dropping a 5kg/11lb cone on your head (Araucaria bidwelli) www.botanicgardens.org.au/discover-and...

OK it actually seems pretty isolated, re NSF panel cancellation. Currently, only four panels in the next few months are listed as cancelled. new.nsf.gov/events/propo...

BIG NEWS: Violet Lichen and Apex Book Company are launching a new annual anthology! 🥂📚🍄 ECO: The Year’s Best Speculative Eco-fiction, will showcase a collection of standout ecofiction published within the previous year. Story nominations open January 27th! Check the attached post for details!

The map's form: leaves – small It shows: comparative Its purpose: to speculate

Yes, we are open today. Yes, we have the new Rebecca Yarros. Yes, we are a good place to go if you want to decentralize your shopping because you’re tired of billionaires determining our society. Yes, bookstores are the original Book Tok. Yes, books can make us feel better.

Capsicum

Cucurbita

Finally get to squeeze some squirting cucumbers (Ecballium elaterium) IRL 🤩 The name derives from phenomenon that the ripe fruits squirting a stream of mucilaginous liquid containing its seeds as a dispersal mechanism. This vid here is a slow-mo! #iamabotanist #plantjoy #plantsciences 🧪🌾🌱🥒

Textbooks claim that the boreal region is species poor. This is FALSE. There is a tremendous amount of cryptic biodiversity in the moss and lichen species that literally blanket the north. We just need to slow down and respect the fairy forests.

Travel awards (up to $5,000) are available to support the study of collections in the United States National Herbarium. Applications are due on 15 January: naturalhistory.si.edu/research/bot...

The map's form: heat map It shows: subspecies Its purpose: to be relative

She is worm-sturdy.

The house, like the girl, is an object of admiration to frogs.

The map's form: mushroom It shows: species Its purpose: sacred

I’d just like to talk to Past Me about all the things on my calendar in January. It’s A LOT.

The map's form: model It shows: species Its purpose: allegorical

Only one team beat Alabama twice in 2024… Go blue, baby ! What a way to bookend a year 💙

Apparently K-Pg mass extinction also had a significant impact on plants "plant communities experienced major restructuring, that is, changes in relative abundance and unseating of dominant groups..even though no major..plant groups went extinct" doi.org/10.1017/pab.... 🧪 #EvoBio #Paleobio ⚒️ #Geology

If you ever share / repost anything, please let it be this

The map's form: fossilized It shows: terrain Its purpose: to pursue

The map's form: lichen It shows: buildings Its purpose: a quest

Thanks to @rommel5patton.bsky.social, this screen grab of a Dwarf Tapir skull from the Gray Fossil Site and used in Indiana Jones will go into all of my talks about "unforeseen benefits of museum digitization"

Alright y’all, no botanical emergencies until after the new year, okay?

alt text: a mural of a large blue beetle with darker blue spots, with the slogan in red "impressive bug for you to admire". it is indeed impressive, and i do very much admire it.

The map's form: membrane It shows: plants Its purpose: cartomancy

The map's form: guidelines It shows: plants Its purpose: to warn

The map's form: fossilized It shows: subspecies Its purpose: a quest

One of my favorite #insects. Draeculacephala inscripta the water lettuce leafhopper. Look at that amazing #Dracula face on the scutellum. You can't unsee it when you spot it. #horror #hemiptera #insectwonders The genus name translates to Dracula head

I like to joke that VP-3 is the love of my life and the bane of my existence. Such a beautiful mosasaur but dealing with that exhibit is a NIGHTMARE.

Phenology-on-a-map, by the amazing May Theilgaard Watts, 1943, The Morton Arboretum.