The Mad Botanist, PhD 🌲🧬🧪 🇪🇺

As it’s the season for ghostly apparitions here’s a few Epipogium spotted in France earlier this year.. oooooo 👻

Genetically engineered color-changing Arabidopsis 🧬📷- attempt #3

I think I finally nailed it with this one.

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Elon Musk takes aim at Wikipedia Musk has denounced Wikipedia as "Wokepedia" on X and urged people not to donate to the platform.

I’ve never donated to Wikipedia before but I set up a small monthly donation as a fuck you to the world’s richest psychopath.

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Nepeta glomerulosa Boiss.
Lamiaceae
Yasuj, Iran, August 2025
Altitude: 3100m
#nepeta #Lamiaceae #wildflowers #botany

A Post-Literate Society is a Too-Literal Society Directness is a virtue and subtlety is lost

Oops, here’s the link: open.substack.com/pub/musgrave...

The new issue of CPB is online. Front page
Anacamptis × nicodemi (Cirillo ex Ten.) B. Bock nothosubsp. nicodemi, photo Vladan Djordjević
cpb.bio.bg.ac.rs/2025_49_2.html

Cypripedium montanum in UVIVF

Cypripedium montanum in white light

Cypripedium montanum, an orchid native to western North America where it grows in montane habitats. With a range barely including California, this species is remarkable for being one of few Californian orchids having large flowers.

#cypripedium #calflora #uvivf #glowingflowers #fluorescent

The biosynthesis and immunity function of lettuce sesquiterpene lactones at Gatsby Charitable Foundation on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - The biosynthesis and immunity function of lettuce sesquiterpene lactones at Gatsby Charitable Foundation, listed on FindAPhD.com

Fantastic PhD opportunity to join myself, Nicola Patron and @lichmanlab.bsky.social in uncovering the biosynthesis and function of lettuce sesquiterpene lactones. 4-year fully-funded combining molecular & engineering biology, & plant pathology.

Deadline Nov 25th

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Plant that mimics odour of half-eaten ants to attract pollinators discovered Botanist says new Japanese species of dogbane is first evidence of plants copying ants

Discovered 2024, variety of dogbane plant from Japan, Vincetoxicum nakaianum, exudes scent of alarmed ants. This attracts flies to pollinate plant's flowers.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Needle length in pines as a key trait regulating hydraulic resistance

🌲Check the newly published article ‘Needle length in pines as a key trait regulating hydraulic resistance’ in @annbot.bsky.social by Giovanni Bicego and co-authors 🧵(1/8)

👉 doi.org/p4hr

#AoBpaper #PlantScience #Botany #Forests #Ecophysiology #Conifers #TreeBiology

A Species of Small Antisense RNA in Posttranscriptional Gene Silencing in Plants by Andrew J. Hamilton and David C. Baulcombe Abstract Posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS) is a nucleotide sequence–specific defense mechanism that can target both cellular and viral mRNAs. Here, three types of transgene-induced PTGS and one example of virus-induced PTGS were analyzed in plants. In each case, antisense RNA complementary to the targeted mRNA was detected. These RNA molecules were of a uniform length, estimated at 25 nucleotides, and their accumulation required either transgene sense transcription or RNA virus replication. Thus, the 25-nucleotide antisense RNA is likely synthesized from an RNA template and may represent the specificity determinant of PTGS.

Had to look up an old paper to get the doi. It still completely boggles my mind that TWO Nobel prizes have been given for small RNAs and this work wasn't recognized by either. Abstract is literally like "yeah, we found these tiny antisense RNAs and think they're probably causing gene silencing"

Explore new records and noteworthy data of plants, algae and fungi in SE Europe like Solorina bispora cpb.bio.bg.ac.rs/arhiva/pdf/2... #botany #openaccess

After 160 years, an old drawing leads scientists to a long-lost Sri Lanka orchid COLOMBO — In the mist-wrapped folds of Sri Lanka’s Knuckles Mountain Range, a UNESCO-recognized world heritage site, where clouds softly wrap the rugged peaks in a soft embrace, a group of scientists…

After 160 years, scientists in Sri Lanka have rediscovered Vanda thwaitesii, a delicate tropical Asian orchid, by referring to scientific drawings to make the connection.

Conservationists caution that this rediscovery does not mean recovery and call for urgent measures to safeguard floral heritage.

Corn Spurrey, Spergula arvensis. Up to 50cm. Sticky-hairy. Linear, blunt leaves up to 3cm. Short, silvery stipules. Small white flowers up to 7mm. 5 styles, 10 stamens

A unified cell atlas of vascular plants reveals cell-type foundational genes and accelerates gene discovery A cross-species single-cell atlas highlights a core subset of cell-type foundational genes associated with major vascular plant cell types, enabling the identification of hidden cell types and the dev...

A great example of how comparative genomics across the full range of vascular plant lineages can be used as a catalyst for gene discovery!
Exciting new single cell datasets for gymnosperms, ferns and lycophytes!
The scale of this study is really amazing!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

The grave risks for science as the whole of leaving fundamental scientific infrastructure in the hands of for-profit capitalist company. Essential scholarly services should be internationally curated by value-based societies/orders/colleges.
🧪

Dr Richard Bate & Ghost Orchid

Ghost Orchid (Epipogium aphyllum) © Jon Dunn

The stellar Ghost Orchid hunting skills of @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social on full display this afternoon in the French Alps. Within ONE minute of getting on a new site, he'd found us a flowering plant! There's nobody better at finding these elusive forest wraiths.

Orchis punctulata © Jon Dunn

Ophrys kotschyi © Jon Dunn

Good morning, and welcome to a new week!

Our featured tour this week is Orchids of Cyprus, a marvellous way to start the spring, looking for orchids (and other wildlife) on this warm and friendly island with @thenewgalaxy.bsky.social & Dave Fairhurst. (1/2)

mariposanature.com/tours/botani...

Thin section in the branching stem of a fossil lycopsid showing the tissues. A photo of the surface of the specimen showing the branching is in the corner

Today's fossil is a very tiny branching stem with preserved tissues - check the scale bar! 🌿⛏️🔬 It belonged to a lycopsid (= a clubmoss) that grew in what is now southern France during the early Carboniferous, about 350 million years ago #paleobotany #FossilFriday
Ref: doi.org/10.1016/0034...

Close-up photo of a single flower. The sepals and petals are narrow and white. The corona is short and greenish. The androgynophore (the stalk holding the sexual parts) is long. There are five down-facing anthers and three stigmas.

A few species of Passiflora are bat-pollinated. This is one of them: Passiflora mucronata from Brazil.
What? You were expecting something all black and goth? 📷: Flávio Mendes CCBYNC4 #Passifloraceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

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.

🌱 A tiny carnivore with a voracious appetite 🧪
doi.org/pzxf

A tiny butterwort found in Mexico has surprised scientists with its ability to catch prey. It has to be efficient as it has only a brief time to get everything prepared for the next generation.

#Botany #PlantScience 🧵 (1/10)

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.

🌱 Saving orchids in Serbia 🧪
doi.org/pzvv

Orchids are one of the most successful plant families on the planet, with over 20,000 species, but many of those species are endangered. For the orchids of Serbia, help is at hand.

#Botany #PlantScience 🧵 (1/7)

Moss Medicines: The Next Revolution in Biotech? Plant biotechnologists are favoring moss factories over other models to produce certain valuable proteins.

Moss Medicines: The Next Revolution in #Biotech?
Plant biotechnologists are favoring #moss factories over other models to produce certain valuable #proteins.
Great article based on an interview with yours truly.
www.the-scientist.com/moss-medicin...

I love Pelargoniums! These 5 varieties I have multiplied quite easily from just one plant each that I bought about 3 years ago:

Pelargonien vermehren ist echt einfach:

Pelargonium sidoides
'Prince of Orange' (fragrant leaves as the name says)
'Aristo Black Beauty'
'Occold Shield'
'Concolor Lace'

Photo of a dangling, open legume pod. The interior of the pod is bright red and displays shiny black seeds. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

This red & black color combo is sure to catch the eyes of birds. The shiny black seeds of Cojoba arborea contrast with the red valves of the legume, but neither is edible. The seeds are hard & indigestible. They’re pure deception. #Fabaceae #dispersal #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of an open legume pod with shiny seeds that are half black and half red.

Rhynchosia phaseoloides (📷: Alex Popovkin CCBYNCSA2) seeds look like they have an edible, red aril, but it’s just a deception. They offer no reward. Cheaters can’t be too abundant in an ecosystem lest they starve their dispersers or make them forage elsewhere. #Fabaceae #dispersal #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Turning over a fern leaf reveals an astonishing stencilled constellation of spores:

9/6/24 Lancashire - I’d planned to report on some CT scans this afternoon but fat chance of that happening due to a power cut 🤦🏻‍♂️

So instead, live from the field, the first of the summer #orchids, the Dark Red Helleborine (Epipactis atrorubens) #wildflowerhour @bsbibotany.bsky.social