Such a fun project & massive team effort. We sampled tree cores my 1st yr of grad school then took a year to figure out how to grind wood… ! But we were amazed to find such a complex & unexpected ecosystem inside trees. And we’ve just scratched the surface! We explored 150 trees— 3 trillion to go!

Our paper mapping plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity correlations is out! Relationships are weak at the global level, but both positive and negative at smaller scales. Plants are not always proxies for fungi — fungi need their own conservation focus @spun.earth @ethz.ch doi.org/10.1038/s414...

5-25 mio years old fossil nuts - European forests of that time were rich in genera: butternuts (Juglans), hickories (Carya), storax trees (Styrax), hazelnuts (Corylus) and mastic seeds (Mastixia). Most of these species later went extinct in Europe during the ice ages.

Convergent acquisition of disulfide-forming enzymes in malodorous flowers | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The dissertation! 150 pages of prairie, history, & more pawpaws than you'd expect. I've sold over 850 copies of this baby, and the world being what it is, it's far too expensive to print another edition right now. Check it out in pdf form: drive.google.com/file/d/104cf...

If you're not already following Dr Liz Anna Kozik, do! She's a great artist, science communicator, restorationist, prairie ecologist, activist... her dissertation alone is worth the price of admission.

Even common plants with broad-scale distributions are going to feel the effects of climate change. We modeled plant responses using species distribution modeling and demographic surveys to find that B. stricta is at risk of decline. @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Did you ever wonder when to use "conifer", "gymnosperm", "needleleaf", "angiosperms" and "broadleaves"? Us too so we transformed the discussion into this viewpoint. I hope you enjoy the reading as much as we enjoyed the writing! @kateplantphys.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

🌿 Our new study in @natplants.nature.com: Most European temperate forest plants are associated with semi-open, herbivore-shaped habitats—not closed-canopy #forests 🐎🌳🔆🌸 Highlights the need for trophic #rewilding in #conservation & need to avoid uniform dense #reforestation🌿 📄 doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Hot off the presses and so so thrilled. Thanks to @inaturalist.bsky.social + computer vision we found something beautifully simple: Red and orange flowers bloom later than all the other colors in the eastern United States. Paper here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kwzh3QW8S...

New research by R. Muthukrishnan and colleagues explores how species adapt to climate change by altering phenology, behavior, and/or range. We worked together to create an illustration demonstrating ecological responses to a warming climate. Check it out: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I have created a feed "plant insect ecology" for posts on the biology, ecology, evolution, & natural history of plants & insects... to post, simply include #plant-insect. Please post images, opportunities, academic articles w/ links, etc. DM w/ suggestions, it will take some days to optimize

Shifting, expanding, or contracting? Range movement consequences for biodiversity 🌎🌐🧪 www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Closeups of historical seaweed pressings from the University Herbarium in Berkeley for #PhycologyFriday

Excited to see this out!! In this thought-provoking review led by @davidperis.bsky.social and Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente we further demonstrate that insect #pollination was once widespread among #gymnosperms and existed long before the origin of #angiosperms onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The importance of the plant mycorrhizal collaboration niche across scales @natrevbiodiv.bsky.social by Mari Moora and colleagues www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Our new #OpenAccess paper How can long-term #ecology studies survive & resist political & social change, authoritarianism, war, but also embrace positive change? The Białowieża Forest as an example of the resilience of long-term studies in a changing world: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/

Found some beautifully preserved horsetails from the Whitby plant beds! Ravenscar group Middle Jurassic (aalenian stage) #FossilFriday #paleontology #paleobotany #geology

www.indefenseofplants.com/podcast/2025... awesome episode of @shellygaynor.bsky.social work on Galax!

Rewilding cannot ignore the massive ecological voids left by the human-driven Pleistocene extinctions of megafauna. By focusing solely on species lost since the last Ice Age (eg: lynx, wolves), we're *totally* failing to see the full picture. nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Plant translocations and reintroductions for conservation purposes are often unsuccessful. Sandrine Godefroid and colleagues have summed up the outcome of over 3000 plant translocations across Europe, their outcome and reason for success or failure. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Photosynthetic suction cups… Hoya imbricata (Apocynaceae) ascending a brick wall in the Lyman Plant House at Smith College Botanic Garden.

"Global plant crisis as botanic gardens exhaust ability to save plants from extinction." cosmosmagazine.com/people/socie...

Calling grad students researching rare & endangered plants native to the U.S.! Apps close soon for the 🌺 Catherine H. Beattie Graduate Fellowship in Plant Conservation 🌺 📆 due 1/31/25 💸research grant <=$4.5k, compensation for work at a botanical garden by the student saveplants.org/about-us/fel...

Abundant non-native monarch butterflies feeding on non-native milkweeds on the big island of Hawaii

Each year, we offer several #awards for undergraduate & graduate botanical #research, training and symposia. Applications are open for this winter, the deadline for submissions Feb 15, 2025! Learn more and apply here: www.torreybotanical.org/grants-awards/ #botany #grants 🧪🌎🌿🍄🌾

Despite snow & freezing temps - and few active insect prey - this hybrid pitcher plant Sarracenia x areolata has been holding strong, and getting into holiday spirit with ramped up red anthocyanin pigments! Plants use anthocyanins to attract prey, but also shield intense light when temps are cold.

An important review - The ecology of plant extinctions - "Recent warm-edge extirpations demonstrate the growing impact of anthropogenic climate change & show that predictions of massive climate-driven extinctions later this century are plausible" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🌾🌎🧪🌐

For those interested in working at a US botanical garden, this is a great resource that I checked compulsively while job hunting: www.publicgardens.org/jobs/ All kinds of jobs, and a slew of internships are showing up now. #publicgarden #botanicalgarden #horticulture #plantbiology #botany #jobs

Smoke bush, an ornamental Anacardiaceae (cashew, mango, and poison ivy family)

Join us December 6th for Dr. Min Ya's lecture, "Patterning the Meristem - Development and Evolution of the Floral Ground Plan." The meeting will be in Cambridge, Mass. and over Zoom. FREE for members and the public. Non-members must register to attend. Registration and more info at rhodora.org

🌴 How an Alien Palm is Reshaping Ecosystems in the Southern Alps 🌱 Two new 2024 studies by Vincent Fehr explore the ecological impacts of the alien Chinese windmill palm 🌿 in the Southern European Alps 🏔️ More information, links to publications & findings in replies!💬 #palms #alienspecies

Uncovering the mechanical secrets of the squirting cucumber - www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10.... #seedscience

Excited for final stages of fall semester student project comparing insect prey capture between two Sarracenia pitcher plant species - S. leucophylla and S. rubra. Spoiler alert: they eat a lot, including a few butterflies..!

Gymnosperm #seeds can have multiple cotyledons (unlike the one or two typical of angiosperms). Rather than having a fixed number, the number of cotyledons can vary between seeds. Here are some Pinus sylvestris seedlings, their cotyledons making them look like little whisks! 🧪🌲

Big day in the bog - bumper crop of wild cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) this year!

New faculty position in climate change ecology at UW-Madison, applications due in four days for full consideration. Come join us! jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Watching the final leaves drop from my ginkgo tree and contemplating how astonishing and wonderful it is that I can hold a ginkgo leaf-drop from an Autumn 170 million years ago. #FossilFriday

Nitrogen isotopes reveal independent origins of N2-fixing symbiosis in extant cycad lineages 🧪⚒️ #paleobotany #palaeobotany www.nature.com/articles/s41...