Botany One

@botany.one

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BlueSky account for https://botany.one the weblog of the Annals of Botany Company. Non-Profit All Science since 1887. Posts by @alunsalt.bsky.social or @caordonezparra.bsky.social and scheduled well in advance through Buffer.

Botany One graphic asking "What gets lost between the field and the database?" Left side shows a pressed plant specimen with handwritten field notes (altitude, habitat, scent, local name, coordinates). Right side shows the same plant reduced to a sparse digital specimen record on a laptop screen. Call to action: take a 2–3 minute survey for an upcoming special issue on Digital Botany. Aimed at collectors, taxonomists, herbarium staff, and researchers.
Gail Preston giving a talk.
A field of sunflowers, below a blue sky. The horizontal halving between the blue sky and the golden sunflower heads makes it look like an allusion to the Ukrainian flag.
Alun attempting to look human in the morning.
Red flowers, but are they in or out of season?
A hand holding a stem of yellow rattle with its distinctive flowers.
Photo of Dr. Cecilia Zumajo-Cardona smiling at the camera.
A pine cone and a tiny seedling on otherwise barren volcanic ash.
A young dinosaur eating a fern
Workers at Kew in Black and White.
Dr Liedson Carneiro on fieldwork.
Orange and yellow cacao pods (Theobroma cacao) growing directly from the trunk of a tree, showing the natural cauliflory growth pattern. The ribbed, football-shaped pods display various stages of ripeness, with some showing dark spots indicating potential disease pressure. Lichen-covered bark and tropical foliage visible in background.
A young man in a sun hat and fieldwork gear stands, smiling, in a field of flowers.
Close-up view through a magnifying glass of a sugar maple (Acer saccharum) winter bud, showing the detailed brown scales and pointed tip structure against a blurred background of hands holding the magnifying glass.
Dr. Ishida taking a selfie during fieldwork at Serra do Cipó in Minas Gerais, Brazil, smiling at the camera while wearing sunglasses on her head and a white shirt, surrounded by the natural cerrado vegetation where she conducts her parasitic plant research.
A metal spout or tap inserted into the deeply furrowed bark of a sugar maple tree (Acer saccharum) for syrup collection, with a white collection bucket positioned below to catch the flowing sap.
Dr. Juliane Ishida, a smiling woman with long dark hair wearing a black sleeveless top and pearl earrings, photographed against a lush green backdrop of leafy plants with small pink flowers.
Close-up view of Pinguicula crenatiloba leaves showing the carnivorous plant in action. The bright green, spoon-shaped leaves have a glossy, wet appearance from the sticky mucilage coating their surface. A small dark insect is trapped on one of the central leaves, demonstrating the plant's prey capture mechanism. The leaves' surfaces are dotted with tiny glandular structures that produce the adhesive secretions and digestive enzymes. Additional leaves are visible in the background, all growing from the soil in the plant's characteristic compact rosette formation.
A tiny Pinguicula crenatiloba butterwort plant held in a human palm, showing the remarkable scale difference. The carnivorous plant forms a compact rosette of pale green, spoon-shaped leaves less than a centimetre across, with moss and debris attached. A single delicate white flower blooms on a thin, hairy stem rising above the leaves. The plant appears minuscule against the backdrop of the person's hand.
Close-up photograph of a terrestrial orchid flower with pale pink and white petals. The flower has a distinctive anthropomorphic shape with an upper hood-like structure and lower petals that extend outward like arms and legs, with long trailing spurs. The labellum (lower lip) is white with purple spotting and striping. The flower grows on a thick green stem surrounded by blurred forest vegetation in soft natural lighting.
A purple water lily flower in full bloom with pointed petals surrounding a bright yellow center dotted with purple stamens. The flower floats on water surrounded by large green lily pads in soft focus in the background.
A fuzzy bumblebee with black body and orange-brown bands forages on a purple thistle flower. The bee is covered in pale pollen as it feeds on the spiky, globe-shaped bloom, with more thistle buds and flowers visible in the soft-focused background.
Traditional Dutch windmill beside a water channel in green countryside. The stone windmill with wooden blades sits on grassy embankments lined with lush vegetation and wildflowers.
A researcher wearing glasses and a gray t-shirt carefully tends to young tomato plants in a greenhouse laboratory. He is examining or adjusting a plant with small yellow flowers while standing at a work bench with organized plant specimens in containers. The modern greenhouse facility has glass walls and metal framework visible in the background.
Scanning electron microscope image showing an abnormal "shot glass-shaped" structure from a liverwort mutant lacking the SHOT GLASS gene. The structure has tall, narrow walls forming a deep cup with an empty interior, contrasting with the normal shallow gemma cups visible as small circular openings scattered across the surrounding plant surface.
A researcher with curly dark hair and beard wearing a gray t-shirt examines a specimen through a professional microscope in a laboratory setting. He is adjusting the microscope stage with one hand while looking through the eyepiece.
Dense cluster of Amaranthus retroflexus plants displaying bright green, oval to diamond-shaped leaves with prominent light-colored veining and slightly fuzzy texture. The plants show characteristic tall, thick, pale green flower spikes that appear densely packed and somewhat rough or bumpy in texture, rising above the leafy stems. Multiple robust plants grow together in disturbed urban roadside vegetation, with cars, a Raiffeisenbank, and KFC visible in the background.
Amaranthus tricolor plant displaying its characteristic colorful foliage with vibrant red, yellow, and green variegated leaves that have a smooth, glossy texture and oval shape with pointed tips. The plant shows bright magenta-red centers transitioning to golden-yellow edges with green margins, creating a striking ornamental appearance. The leaves appear tender and succulent-like compared to typical weedy amaranths. The plant grows upright with multiple branching stems in a garden setting alongside orange marigold flowers and other ornamental plants.
The image shows a human hand gently holding a red trillium flower with three distinctive deep burgundy-red petals that display prominent leaf-like venation patterns. The flower has six white stamens with cream-colored anthers radiating from the center. Three green sepals are visible between the petals. The flower emerges from what appears to be the characteristic three-leaved whorl of the trillium plant. The background shows bright green forest understory vegetation, including what appear to be other woodland plants. The hand provides scale, showing this is a moderately-sized wildflower typical of spring ephemeral plants in deciduous forests.
The image shows two bright yellow lily-like flowers with six backward-curving petals each. The flowers have distinctive red-orange stamens and pistils protruding from their centers. They emerge from mottled green leaves with brown spots characteristic of trout lilies. The plants are growing among fallen brown leaves on what appears to be a woodland floor, with a blurred forest background.
A stand of Red Stringybarks, not looking very red but looking very stringy, in the Clare Valley.
A map of south eastern Australia with dots indicating Red Stringybark sites all over an arc from Victoria, through the ACT up NSW to the Queensland border, like a rash. And a lone red pimple on its own north of Adelaide.
Bark peeling from the trunk of a red stringybark, with the red colour revealed underneath.
Close-up of white plum blossoms with five rounded petals and prominent yellow stamens. The flowers show medium-sized petals with red markings at the base.
Dr. Ana Bedoya holding vegetation in front of a raging river.
Two researchers peer into the forests of Colombia through binoculars.
Mary Agnes Chase looking over some plant specimens at the photographer with an expression of forbearance.
An aardvark at the bottom of a deep burrow.
A vibrant cluster of bright purple mountain saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) flowers blooms on a rocky alpine slope. The dense cushion of small, four-petaled purple flowers forms a striking contrast against the gray limestone rocks and patches of moss. In the background, dramatic snow-capped mountain peaks rise under a bright blue sky with white clouds. The harsh, rocky terrain shows typical alpine conditions where this hardy Arctic and alpine plant thrives.
A compact, dome-shaped plant with dense green foliage and numerous small white flowers, each with five petals, growing directly from harsh, rocky terrain. The surrounding soil appears mineral-rich and pale, scattered with limestone or serpentine rock fragments. The plant forms a tight cushion growth pattern typical of alpine or specialized soil plants, demonstrating remarkable adaptation to harsh growing conditions.
Plant scientist Dr. Itumeleng Moroenyane examines a soybean plant in his greenhouse laboratory. The young plant's vibrant green leaves frame his face as he observes it closely, demonstrating the hands-on fieldwork that characterizes his research into plant-microbe interactions. He is wearing a look of surprise, as you would if, when examining your plants, you found a camera hidden among them.
A marble statue of Caligula, staring blank-eyed at the future.
Close-up of a small brown bat with its head covered in white pollen grains, held in human hands next to a pale green and white Merremia platyphylla flower. The bat's dark fur contrasts with the dusty white pollen coating its face and head, demonstrating evidence of the bat's role as a pollinator.
A view across a forest in early morning with long shadows from the tree trunks to the viewer, with zeroes and ones overlaid, the idea being something like "the dawn of botanical data".
Dr. Laura Lagomarsino smiling at the camera while conducting fieldwork in a tropical environment. She wears a colorful striped knit hat with red trim and a light-colored field jacket with yellow straps. Behind her is a distinctive tropical plant with large, paddle-shaped leaves arranged in a rosette pattern, characteristic of high-altitude Andean vegetation.
A drop of nectar on the bottom lip of a flower, ready to fall.
A researcher in glasses and a dark blue sweater crouches in a dense forest environment, examining plants with a handheld magnifying glass. He is surrounded by ferns, fallen logs, moss-covered rocks, and leaf litter on the forest floor.
A bright green caterpillar with a segmented body is positioned in a C-shape on a green leaf surface. The caterpillar appears smooth and plump, typical of a young larval stage. The leaf shows some minor surface damage or discolouration where the caterpillar is feeding.
A person in a striped shirt and hat sits on the ground leaning against a concrete wall, with one hand covering their face in apparent distress from heat. They're surrounded by green plants and vegetation in an urban setting with warm, golden lighting that suggests hot weather conditions.