Lena Struwe

That is amazing! Like a tiny art sculpture.

Photo of an upright stalk bearing whorls of bracts and flowers. The flowers hang down and have 4 lobes. Each lobe has a green spot (a nectary) near its base. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Frasera is a genus of 15 spp in N. America. In 2024, a 19-year-old plant of F. caroliniensis growing in the NC Bot. Garden bloomed for the first & last time. This species is monocarpic (it flowers & dies). The peculiar greenish flowers have nectaries on the petals. #Gentianaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Cluster of showy, 5-lobed, pink flowers with green eyes. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Cluster of showy, 5-lobed, pink flowers with yellow eyes. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

The species of Sabatia (21 spp; 📷: S. angularis) are some of the prettiest wildflowers in the eastern US, Mexico & the Antilles. The similar-looking Zeltnera (27 spp; 📷: Z. venusta) occurs in western N. America but has a much wider distribution (to S. Amer.) #Gentianaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Majority of local insect biomass decline linked to species loss A new study shows that over 90% of insect biomass declines are driven by shrinking species numbers, posing a risk to ecosystem function.

www.idiv.de/majority-of-...

The top bracts kind of look like two coins, very rounded. Just an idea.

Great! If you want ideas - Anthocleista and Potalia with super-numerous corollas. Fagraea auriculata for the largest flowers. Voyrias as achlorophyllous understory mycotrophs. Symbolanthus for gorgeousness :) (Working on a revision for the final half of Symbolanthus, ring-gentians, right now)

Thanks for highlighting this gorgeous and interesting family. The blue species are nearly all in temperate environments. Tropical ones have many other flower colors, and some are very tall trees (Fagraea for example). Largest flower 30 cm across!

Maybe it is mm-grid paper below?

Size?

A diner table seen from above with metal containers for salt, pepper, sugar, teawater and milk, plus sugar packets and orange juice in glasses. Photo by CC Lena Struwe

A reminder that breakfast can be good and beautiful and fun. :) Philadelphia, years ago, a table from above. #diner #food #photography #orange

Summer lake with reflection of white clouds and blue sky from central Sweden, with floating white waterlilies and rushes in the water. Photo CC Lena Struwe.

I agree with your conclusion - but instead I go on Bluesky and look for pretty photos :) I love your photos, here is one in return.

As a provider to GBIF through my work, and a user of its data, I would like to know how you 'clean up the bias' in GBIF, and if you provide feedback to GBIF and the world's scientific community and the public, to improving this open access data that belongs to all on Earth. How do you find errors?

That is a speedwell (Veronica) on the image, not an eye bright (Euphrasia).

Street and building in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Tan wall, turquoise window shutters, turquoise picket fence, and two tamarisk trees along street. (cc) Lena Struwe.

This photo is over 20 years old, but I think this street in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, might still look nearly the same. Timeless. That particular color of turquoise makes me so happy. I think the trees are tamarisk (Tamarix sp.), feel free to correct me :) #blue #color #NM #streetview #tree

Good thread about scientific illustrations, and the current oversimplification in images. When you look in the microscope, the reality you see rarely matches the drawn textbook images.

From Dictionary, copied:
derogatory•informal
1. a stupid or eccentric person.
"I couldn't care about them two dingbats"
2. a typographical device other than a letter or numeral (such as an asterisk), used to signal divisions in text or to replace letters in a euphemistically presented vulgar word.

Me, looks up 'What is a dingbat?' because of what you wrote, and realize it is an actual term in typography, the little symbols we add between joined words ('it's') or, replacing letters and used often like in "f**k". Wow. Learning new things because of Sarah, all the time!

A 5x7 card that says 'season's greetings" printed in green and red alternating letters. Above is a phylogenetic tree in the shape of a Christmas tree, with a red star on top. Card is above envelope with ornaments and pine trees branches around it.

Show your science pride this season with our newly released phylogenetic holiday cards! These 5x7 cards can be purchased individually or in sets of 5.
🧬 🎄 🧬
#phylogenetics #science #evolution #biology #biologist

This is lovely! The star is the common ancestor, and we are all made from star dust too (plus the evolutionary patterns). Or, whatever else others see in this pattern.

This is a great poem - if you can, I suggest you take a moment to read this article and poem. #Thanksgiving #NativeAmerican #poetry

The ceiling inside the medieval Härkeberga Church (kyrka) in Sweden, showing extensive paintings in blue, red, and yellow of flowers, plants, and scenes from the bible. (c) Lena Struwe, 2024

Fascinating #medieval paintings in the well-preserved Härkeberga Church in Uppland, #Sweden, attributed to Albertus Pictor (1400s). Images from events in the bible are interspersed with stylistic flowers and garlands and patterns. Looking up at these is like time travel. #arthistory #history

Embarrassing choice of cover, AI-based and scientifically so wrong.

So disappointing, a scientific journal caring about real science should not do this. Not just AI slop but also phylogenetically completely incorrect. Sigh.

Actually, let me correct myself. Betula is the birch. Beeches are in the genus Fagus, and most of the branches are from that beech, with a birch behind it. I love the yellow leaves against the background

I think you mean Betula pendula for the scientific name. Great photo

Screenshot from NYTimes website, showing the headline of the Nov 6, 2025, opinion piece in Ross Douthat's series 'Interesting Times', titled: Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace? Also mentioned is the producer of the show, Victoria Chamberlin.

I cancelled my NYTimes subscription today, this is the last drop in the bucket. Seriously, whose bad decision was it to publish this anti-woman, anti-justice, and anti-equality piece? Feminism means equal rights and respect for all. "Conservative feminism" is fake, doesn't exist. Disrespectful, NYT!

Socialism is what they called public power.

Socialism is what they called social security.

Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.

Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.

—Harry Truman, 1952

The 5th of 6 faculty positions in UNC Biology is posted. We're working with the @ncbg.bsky.social to fill a joint position as Director of the UNC Herbarium at @ncbg.bsky.social and as Associate Professor within the Department of Biology (BIOL). Please share 1/n
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/308...

@martinebotany.bsky.social your art/botany students might like this assignment

Today in #PlantDiversityEvolution class my students built models of hypothetical fruits for novel dispersal adaptations: snowplows, squirrels, mice in tunnels, sharks, migratory birds, wind turbines etc. Fascinating creativity! The blood-imitating pheromone-soaked fish-mimicry fruit = sharks.