J. Chris Pires

YouTube video by Coral Morphologic Coral City Camera | Great Barracuda 6 Minute Hover (Site 2) | 2.25.26

Spend 6 minutes with a Great Barracuda @ the CCC

Congratulations Substack on your new partnership with Polymarket!

And to those publishing on Substack, is this really the tool you want from the folks who take part of your revenue?

Photo of a small, globose cactus in situ with buds and a single open, pink flower.

The definition of serotiny is sometimes expanded to include seed retention of any sort. Mammillaria pectinifera expels fruits in wet years & retains them in dry years—a bet-hedging strategy to ensure seedling establishment. 📷: Noemí Velasco Rubí CCBYNC4. #Cactaceae #serotiny #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a solitary tree with sparse branches and large leaves. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Up this week: Urticaceae tribe Cecropieae. These plants are tropical trees. Cecropia is a Neotropical pioneer tree with a mutualistic association with ants. It produces food bodies as a reward for the ants that defend it from herbivores. Cecropia sp. in Peru. #Urticaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a leafy shoot focused on the petiole bases and stem. Patches of dark hairs are visible just below each petiole-stem junction. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Here’s another look at trichillia. These are on Cecropia obtusifolia from Mexico (but it grows as far south as Ecuador).
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Close-up photo of the petiole base where it joins the stem. A patch of hairs at the base of the petiole has small, white food bodies, like small grains of rice. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Food bodies of Cecropia are produced from patches (trichillia) at the bases of the petioles, as seen here on a Cecropia species. Müllerian bodies, rich in glycogen & lipids, are payment for the ants to keep them on the job defending the plants against herbivores. #Urticaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
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Photo on the apex of a shoot bearing several large, palmately lobed leaves. The apical bud is enveloped in a dark red sheathing stipule. Axillary inflorescences bear clusters of finger-like, fleshy spikes. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

The flowers of Cecropia are small (typical of the family) & borne in dense spikes, which mature into fleshy & edible multiple fruits. They’re like caterpillars for vegetarians! The seeds are tiny & germinate in open areas. 📷: Cecropia glaziovii from Rio de Janeiro. #Urticaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of the trunk of a tree with branches and aerial roots. Some aerial roots go downward, but smaller, thinner aerial roots encircle the trunk.

Coussapoa microcarpa (📷: my friend Tony Rodd, CCBYNCSA2), here cultivated in Sydney, is a Neotropical strangler, much like a Ficus. Notice how some roots grow horizontally, perfect for wrapping around a host (phorophyte)… or around itself. #Urticaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a tree branch bearing large, palmately lobed leaves on long petioles. A cluster of green-turning-red globose fuits are borne close to the stem. Hands are visible holding the branch.

Pourouma cecropiifolia (📷: michel_cortest CCBYNC4) has leaves like those of its cousin Cecropia, but the fruits are very different. The fruits don’t coalesce to form multiple fruits. This species is from the Neotropics. #Urticaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of the upper side of a leafy shoot bearing spathulate leaves.

Photo of the lower side of a leafy shoot showing the pale color of the leaf undersides.

Pourouma minor (both 📷: Robin Heymans CCBYNC4) has simple, unlobed leaves, so unlike P. cecropiifolia that I posted earlier. Like many others in the tribe, the undersides of the leaves are concolorous (the surfaces are different in color). #Urticaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of the branches of a tree: POV looking up at the branches with the sky in the background. The leaves are large and deeply palmately lobed.

Musanga cecropioides (📷: osoandino CCBYNC4) looks, as the epithet says, like Cecropia, but this genus is native to tropical Africa. It is also a pioneer species, favoring open areas, but unlike Cecropia, it does not have a mutualistic relationship with ants. #Urticaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of two people standing in front of a large, sparsely branched tree with very large, lobed leaves.

Close-up photo of two isolated fruits next to a pen, for scale. The fruits are brownish and tessellated. They are multiple fruits, each is the product of many flowers that fuse together as the fruit develops.

Myrianthus is a genus of 8 spp. from tropical Africa. It’s another pioneer species, like Cecropia. These photos are by Scamperdale (CCBYNC2). The tree is M. holstii. The multiple fruits are from M. arboreus. #Urticaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of an array of large, deeply palmately lobed leaves. Each leaf has ca. 20 segments, which are shiny and spathulate.

I’ll end my week-long look at Urticaceae tribe Cecropieae with this beautiful shot of the leaves of the aptly named Musanga cecropioides by Carel Jongkind CCBYNC4. Those deeply lobed leaves are very Cecropia-like. #Urticaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Potted citrus loaded with small orange fruits

Potted citrus loaded with small orange fruits. Also a large golden Chrysanthemum.

A small banner saying “happy new year” in Vietnamese hanging among small orange fruits

In Hanoi, Vietnam, with the International Palm Society for the Biennial. I’m enjoying seeing magnificent specimens of Citrus x microcarpa, the calamondin, left over from Lunar New Year. (The palms are coming) #IPSinVietnam #Rutaceae

Small fan palm with grouped segments.

Super excited to see Lanonia calciphila in Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam. This genus was described in 2011. It was confused with Licuala. #Arecaceae #IPSinVietnam
#Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Smilax vine. Leaves discolorous and pink new shoots. A hand turns over a leaf to show chalky white undersides.

Smilax vine. Leaves discolorous and pink new shoots. A hand turns over a leaf to show chalky white undersides.

A fabulous Smilax sp. from Vu Quang National Park, Vietnam. I haven’t identified this beauty yet. I’m here for the pink new foliage & discolorous leaves. 😍👏🏻#IPSinVietnam
#Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Clustering Palm with wide leaflets.

Clustering Palm with narrow leaflets.

Arenga caudata is highly variable. Some have wide segments; some have narrow segments. Some have undivided leaves. These were near Paradise Cave, Phong Nha–Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam. #Arecaceae #IPSinVietnam #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Fan palm with wedge-shaped segments.

New leaves that are red mottled with pink.

A bipinnately compound leaf whose leaflets are larger and broader at the tips of the rachises and smaller at the bases.

Some more fabulous plants from Phong Nha–Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam. 1. Lanonia centralis #Arecaceae 2. Smilax sp. #Smilacaceae 3. Archidendron clypearia #Fabaceae #IPSinVietnam #Vietnam #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Small waterfalls among rocks.

A begonia with asymmetrical leaves and dark veins.

Waterfalls and begonias! What’s not to love? I don’t have a name on this Begonia sp., and my camera doesn’t do justice to the slight metallic sheen. Phong Nha–Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam. #Begoniaceae #IPSinVietnam #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

U.S. military spending is set to hit a record $1.5 trillion.

Roughly half of defense spending goes to private contractors that routinely price-gouge the government.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has failed EIGHT straight audits.

The military industrial complex is cheering today.

Imagine continuing on the 2 Fwy north of Glendale & reaching Antelope Valley in 20 minutes.

A tunnel route for cars AND rail under the San Gabriels was proposed in the '60s but woulda cost $10 billion (in today's $'s). It was also billed as an escape route if the Russians attacked.

Occupancy Grid versus Topological Map
#STEM Saturday #EngineersWeek #BlackHistoryMonth #STEAM #Engineering #Professor #AcademicSky #BlackAdemic #robot NoireSTEMinist.com

Man it is really crazy that they’re posting from a SCIF

Democracy will not survive without strong independent media Trump and his allies are rapidly taking over our major news outlets.

Not long ago, independent media felt like a luxury. Specialized news subscriptions that provided in-depth information, opinion and analysis were costly and time-consuming. They were purely optional, even indulgent.

That is no longer the case. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/demo...

Trump ripped up the Iran nuclear deal and created this mess. Now, he's putting servicemembers in harm's way with no clear plan and no Congressional approval. The American people deserve answers — and Congress needs to do its job.

Tesco the golden retriever standing out on the porch in the sun, smiling real big at the camera like a very good girl

Things bad, dogs good

'One year of failure.' The Lancet slams RFK Jr.'s first year as health chief In a scathing review, the top US medical journal's editorial board warned that the "destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 in office might take generations to repair."

In a scathing review, the top US medical journal's editorial board warned that the "destruction that Kennedy has wrought in 1 in office might take generations to repair." n.pr/3N9Foa8

Shady JD Vance in 2024: " Our interest, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran.  It would be a huge distraction of resources. It would be massively expensive to our country."

(H/T Home of the Brave)

Arid Mountain Soils May Emit More Greenhouse Gas: Study
->Mirage News | More on "Arid mountain soil nitrous oxide" at BigEarthData.ai | #Soil #GreenhouseGas #ClimateChange

NEW in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
Grazing management in alpine #grasslands: Ecological impacts and sustainable development
doi.org/10.1016/j.ag...

50-day Free: authors.elsevier.com/c/1mhNJcA-Iz...

#SoilOrganicCarbon #soil #agriculture #grasslands #Roots #CO2 #N2O #CH4 #landuse #review