I usually pedal my cargo quadricycle out to the field but a frame design flaw made the frame crack & it'll be at least 3 wks before I can ride it again.
So I'm driving (ugh) and walking in the orchards instead. Here's a dormant cherry leaf bud taken through a 10x loupe. @plantscience
I came to UC Davis to learn plant breeding. Despite the fact the pandemic continues and despite the fact that I've explicitly stated that I need equitable online options in order to participate, I continue to be left out of the UC Davis Plant Breeding Retreat.
The vicious ableism at UC Davis, part of a university system I have paid for all of my adult life, has narrowed my academic & career options.
Botanical Society of America (BSA) did a survey of members' social media use. There were only 246 responses (out of how many thousands?) and based on that they've put all their oomph into BlueSky.
Not just starting an account there but pooling invite codes to help people join BS. Disappointing. @plantscience#Botany#PlantScience
Carob trees bloom around the same time this year's pod crop is harvesting. This is one of Davis' carobs that's in bloom right now. Carobs are mostly dioecious("two houses" from Greek), which means that some trees have male flowers and some have female flowers. A small % of trees have perfect flowers - meaning both male and female reproductive parts. @plantscience#Botany#Carob#Flowers
One of the things I was able to do on the birdsite that there just isn't much opportunity to here is find out "current events" in carob by doing a search every week or so.
If you ever see a carob toot, please forward it to me, especially if it's not a tired carob hippie joke, but actual research or market or real life info re Ceratonia siliqua/#Carob
Tweet by @TheBeerShopper with phto of an amber-colored liquid in a red wine glass next to a brown beer bottle with purple labels with gold text and decoration in an Islamic art-influenced style. Label says "Loura 3.2% vol alc. Moura cerveja de alfarroba. Carob beer." Both glass and bottle are on a white tablecloth and backlit in a clearly sunny vacation spot. Text of tweet says "Another first for me, Carob beer from in Portugal. Tasty. Now have to Google what the hell Carob is."
March 9, 2018 tweet by Emily van der Nagel @emvdn "Here's a treat I haven't had for about 18 years: carob buds, a staple at my primary school canteen in the 90s" with 3 emojis I can't make out. Photo shows view from above of a paper bag of carob "chocolate" candies held in the hand of a pale person. puts on flower crown, falls into a faerie circle Replying to @CoffeeShopRabbi and @RutiRegan "THANK YOU it's just its own thing calling carob 'fake chocolate' is a lesser but similar thing to calling Hanukkah 'Jewish Christmas' 3:51 AM - Feb 11, 2020 - Twitter for Android"
Progress photo of the oldest #Carob flower raceme on my tree. It's hermaphrodite when most carobs have either male or female flowers. Technically, this can self-pollinate, but it'll be interesting seeing if it will do it under the current conditions.
Some stamens are already past their prime. Some are fully ripe, others still on the way. Same with the pistils. If you look closely, you can see the seam on the pistil that would show up in the ripe fruit as well. @plantscience #Flower#Botany
episode 094 of rootbound is a weird one… Let’s transport to an alternate reality where rootbound is not a podcast in the early 2020s but a late night paranormal AM talk radio show circa 1998. Disclaimer: there are no facts in this episode. listen here: https://www.rootboundpodcast.com/episodes/episode-094-root-to-root-am
In my carob work for some time now, I've wanted to get access to the expertise of woodworkers so I can connect the traits that woodworkers value with the plant's anatomy.
Sometimes I wonder how academics find work that's previously been done when it's off the beaten path a bit. If you don't get just the right keywords in Google Scholar or if the work was done a century ago...
I looked again & this time found this study re xylophones & wood species. @plantscience
@plantscience "Classifying xylophone bar materials by perceptual, signal processing
and wood anatomy analysis" isn't precisely the sort of thing I'm interested in, but it's closer. And it's certainly interesting! #Music#Botany#PlantScience
Alright, let's see how many Plant Scientists/Botanists we can reach here in the Fediverse.
Reply to this tweet with an introduction of yourself, what first attracted you to plants, and what you work on now. And boost this toot! #Planticipation#Botany#PlantScience
Black Mountain (ACT) orchids - Dusky Fingers, Waxlips and Brown Caps out in one spot, but not much out at all in others (although I only had a quick look!) Canberra has had pretty much exactly the average rainfall for this calendar year so far - but local bush land and forests still felt a little drier than most really good orchid seasons. Might have to wait until the montane species start to flower later in spring / early summer now to put a lot of time into looking for Canberra orchids.
I didn’t have much luck at the weekend with #botanical#photography - it was rainy and I had a lot of work to do. I want to share, nevertheless, a mobile phone photo of the big #Datura inoxia which showed up between the newly planted #vine#plants in our vineyard… It’s unlikely it came with the vine plants as those arrived without soil, and also the Senior said he has seen Daturas growing on our land in different places before, so it seems to be somewhat established here. May I remind you, that’s not the #Mediterranean, that’s the #Elbe Valley in #Saxony, Germany. (Note: reposted.)
I didn’t have much luck at the weekend with #botanical#photography - it was rainy and I had a lot of work to do. I want to share, nevertheless, a mobile phone photo of the big #Datura inoxia that showed up between the newly planted #vine#plants in our vineyard … It’s unlikely it came with the vine plants as those arrived without soil, and also the Senior said he has seen the Datura, growing on our land in different places before, so it seems to be somewhat established here. May I remind you, that’s not the #Mediterranean, that’s #Saxony, Germany.
@plants@nature This one's an #InsectFriday + #FlowersOnFriday#combo! #bee on Carlina acaulis in the #garden
This is a #composite#flower so those 'petals' aren't, nor are they ray flowers as in many composites (sunflowers, asters, daisies etc)- those white strappy parts are papery bracts, just there to draw #pollinator attention.The actual flowers are all those tiny things in the centre- --cont-
@plants@nature though I can't say I've figured this species out, exactly-- I think those all look like pistillate flowers that are open in the outer rings of the central area, I can't tell whether the whitish middle part will be more pistils, or stamens/pollen.. Nor am I sure whether the various plants bear both ovaries and pollen, or just one or the other, or one at a time... I need to watch more closely, or read up..lol #botany#thistle