The Botanist in the Kitchen

What’s the first thing I did after I got back home from #Botany2025?

Showed off that sweet bulbous @ijpsjournal.bsky.social journal cover to my mom, which prompted her to then read the article!

The bulbous propaganda spreads!!
✌️😎🧅 #PlantPeopleFTW

24 hours of flower power… “Flower Day” by Sandra Knapp presents 24 mini-essays on diverse plants, highlighting their biology, ecology, and ethnobotanical significance. The book reflects on floral beauty and the …

This week we have an appraisal of a book about plants – mainly angiosperms, and with an emphasis on their flowers and floral biology.
Intrigued?
More at plantcuttings.uk/2025/06/06/2...
Cheers!
#Botany
#PlantScience

Scopes

Chicago Tribune

May 25, 1925: A grand jury in Dayton, Tenn., indicts John T. Scopes on a misdemeanor count of violating the state's law against teaching evolution. Witnesses against him include his high school students who testify he read from a textbook dealing with the banned science. 1/2

Talking Biotech 459 - where did the key domestication mutations in corn come from? Were they present in resident gene pools waiting to be selected, or new mutations? I discuss with @jrossibarra and his student Regina Fairbanks.
@aspb @ASHS_Hort @UF_IFAS share.transistor.fm/s/bed2ffa6

Glad I asked. Thanks!

This is such a wonderful discussion of their exciting new result, but on my (apple podcast) player the recording abruptly cuts off at the 18 minute mark

Without bees and other pollinators a lot of our food wouldn't exist!

When you eat today, think of the tiny helpers who worked hard to produce your food!

#WorldBeeDay #FoodHeroes

This snack company is trying to change the way you think about chocolate Making chocolate wastes most of the cacao plant. Are you ready to try the whole cacao fruit?

This snack company is trying to change the way you think about chocolate.

Making chocolate wastes most of the cacao plant. Are you ready to try other parts of the cacao fruit?

grist.org/food-and-agr...

#Cacao #Chocolate #Food #Vegan #Environment #Agriculture

Migration - 2023 In a Nutshell Oak reproduction, dispersal, migration OUTLINE: Oaks as individuals Reproduction / natural history Dispersal Migration The upshot: genes knitting individuals into populations Andrew Hipp...

Prepping for a lecture in China and just remembered this talk I gave in 2023 about oak reproduction, dispersal, migration. Some of the most fascinating research I've read is represented here... enjoy, and feel free to share.

docs.google.com/presentation...

🌼🐝 We’re buzzing into the weekend with some fascinating pollination science 🐝🌼

A new study reveals how flower health, namely turgor pressure, affects buzz pollination mechanics.

🌸 Wilted flowers = poor response = struggling bees 🐝

📽️ Don’t miss the video showing how tricky it gets!
#PlantScience 🧪

He did both, but a lot of the real bites were unintentional

Epic and useful thread on the cause of climate change by the indomitable @katharinehayhoe.com

Very cool, Alex!

A complete and dynamic tree of birds - out today in PNAS! Teamwork with @eliotmiller.bsky.social and others at
@birdsoftheworld.bsky.social and Open Tree of Life to put together current relationships across all birds. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Images capture the timeless beauty of America's ancient forests Photographer Mitch Epstein's years-long project highlights the majesty and vulnerability of old growth forests across the US

Photographer Mitch Epstein's years-long project highlights the majesty and vulnerability of old growth forests across the US

The average American diet requires about 2 acres of land per person per year (and that’s food grown and raised by people who are experts at growing and raising food)

Could Climate Change and Pollinator Loss Turn Chocolate Back into an Expensive Delicacy? A new study outlines some of the biggest threats that environmental change poses to the worldwide production of cacao,...

Chocolate lovers take note. A comprehensive study across three continents shows natural pollination of cacao is declining while higher temperatures reduce yields by up to 31%. Read about practical solutions for sustainable production.

wp.me/pdRZhH-lUq

Close-up photo of a hand holding a node of a climber with pinnately compound leaves and green legumes. Each tiny stipule has a dark spot, which is an extra-floral nectary. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

What else can stipules do? The dark spots on the tiny stipules of Vicia sativa are extra-floral nectaries. They attract ants, which defend the plant against herbivores. 🐜 #stipule #Fabaceae #EFN #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Please recommend a recent review of GMO crops that are currently being grown.

Beautiful red roses on a pink background with flowing script saying "Roses are red," Violets budding and blooming. "Violets are blue," Hydnora plants opening up looking like terrifying red mouths bursting from the hard sandy soil. "Hydnora are leafless, bizarrely fleshy, and incapable of producing chlorophyll," A splash of cute red and pink hearts. "And so are you. Happy Valentine's Day."

Botany valentine. Another from years past. New one on Monday!

This is a useful thread!

This is an acceptable appropriation

Carrot top pesto through the looking glass Isomers are molecules that have the same chemical constituents in different physical arrangements. Some terpenoid isomers have very different aromas and are important food seasonings. A batch of ca…

Got #Letterboxed in 5 words today by ending with "thymol." Random botanical knowledge pays off. @bitkblog.bsky.social botanistinthekitchen.blog/2017/09/23/c...

What a cool idea to open up your lab meeting

A flyer for the December 4, 2024, Polyploidy Webinar that will be at 11 AM PST on zoom. This month features Pam & Doug Soltis from the University of Florida presenting details on their new Polyploidy Integration and Innovation Institute and Trevor Faske from the US Geological Survey presenting Variance dissimilarities in mixed-ploidy genomic data cause irregular patterns in PCA and other clustering analyses. Sign up for the zoom link at https://www.barkerlab.net/polyweb

Join us on Wednesday, December 4, at 11 AM PST for the next #PolyploidyWebinar! This month we have Pam & Doug Soltis presenting on the Polyploid Integration Institute and @trevorfaske.bsky.social on analyses of mixed-ploidy data! Sign up (if not already!) to get the zoom: www.barkerlab.net/polyweb

Those are kiwi vines.

Flower/octopus lamps made from plastic water bottles at the Alaska Botanical Garden in Anchorage.

I made the mistake of letting my small child watch the Attenborough special on baby animals. He wants you to know that they die in myriad horrible ways.

Here's a first stab at a starter pack of folks with interests/expertise in scientific writing - its history, culture, and practice; and advice for writers!

Will add folks who post frequently about scientific writing - what it looks like, how to do it, where it came from...

go.bsky.app/TwZVnjU

Always grateful there are artistically inclined scientists #scientificillustration