Michael Pirie (@piriemike) — Bluesky Profile

5 days ago

New Annon klaxon

0 0 0 0

2 weeks ago

Monotropa callistoma (Ericaceae), a new species based on morphological and molecular evidence from Hunan, China The subfamily Monotropoideae (Ericaceae) comprises unique non-photosynthetic and mycoheterotrophic plants. Their extensive morphological reduction often poses significant challenges for species delimi...

Stunning new Monotropa just out in @phytokeys.pensoft.net

Monotropa callistoma (Ericaceae), a new species based on morphological and molecular evidence from Hunan, China phytokeys.pensoft.net/articles.php...

2 0 0 0

3 weeks ago

Is bee‐avoidance by bird‐pollinated flowers driven by nectar robbing in Erica? Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Spoiler: it's a 'yes, but...'

Is bee‐avoidance by bird‐pollinated flowers driven by nectar robbing in Erica? - Coetzee - Functional Ecology - Wiley Online Library besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

17 1 0 0

3 weeks ago

An historic illustration of bees and other insects flying around a flowering bush.

All BHL staff have been secured! 🧪 As we enter our next chapter, the team who steward BHL’s collections & infrastructure remain in place, led by Colleen Funkhouser in her new role of Managing Director. Meet the team guiding BHL forward:
blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/02/celebrating-bhl-team.html

67 21 2 6

1 month ago

Instead of a bouquet of roses, this Valentine's Day we're hoping we get rose experts to help us form a Rosaceae Taxonomic Expert Network, or TEN. 🌹

3 2 1 0

1 month ago

To be clear - the @inaturalist.bsky.social link is of course fine - here's the pic of the lovely bullate leaves. But what a lot of other junk there is out there. Presumably already being chewed, cud-like, by new sweeps of AI. Yuck

3 0 1 0

1 month ago

Cremastosperma bullatum Cremastosperma bullatum in November 2003 by Michael D. Pirie. Type collection

Immediate instinct to show pictures of one of my babies: Cremastosperma bullatum www.inaturalist.org/observations... ... but this sent me down a rabbit hole of online plant profiles trying to find a good link - error, fiction - good grief. Eye opener

2 0 1 0

2 months ago

Go team Erica!

2 0 0 0

2 months ago

A new #endemic species from the karst areas of Guangxi and Guizhou Provinces in China, 𝘙𝘩𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦, has been described, illustrated, and is assessed as “Endangered” following IUCN criteria in one of our latest publications:

doi.org/10.3897/phyt...

#Conservation #morphology #taxonomy

5 2 0 0

2 months ago

Trump may be the beginning of the end for ‘enshittification’ – this is our chance to make tech good again | Cory Doctorow The US president is weaponising tech, but his tariffs and Brexit provide a surprising opportunity to gain back digital control of our lives, says science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory D...

Comment is free
Til you brick my pc

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

1 0 0 0

2 months ago

New Perspective: "High-performance living plant collections require a globally integrated data ecosystem to meet twenty-first-century challenges" rdcu.be/eYlEi

Living plant collections have critical educational, scientific and conservation roles.

7 3 0 0

2 months ago

Client Challenge

Paper here: doi.org/10.1038/s414... important message for our botanic gardens and conservation community (paywalled - ping me for a pdf)

0 0 0 0

2 months ago

World’s vast plant knowledge not being fully exploited to tackle biodiversity and climate challenges, warn researchers An international group of researchers says that biodiversity conservation and scientific research are not benefiting from the vast knowledge about the world’s

World’s vast plant knowledge not being fully exploited to tackle biodiversity and climate challenges, warn researchers www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

1 0 1 0

2 months ago

Please RT: we are looking for a PhD student to work on macrogenetics and quantitative genetics of South African proteas. Amazing collaborative project with @plantecology.bsky.social @debbiemleigh.bsky.social & others, embedded in @terra-cluster.org. Dream project if you love molecular biodiversity!

34 60 1 2

2 months ago

Happy Erica day to those that celebrate

2 0 0 0

2 months ago

Find A Job | Careers@Gov

Taxonomist post at the Herbarium, Singapore Botanic Gardens. www.careers.hrp.gov.sg/sap/bc/ui5_u...

7 10 0 0

2 months ago

William Bond, defender of grasslands In recent years, one of the loudest ideas in environmental policy has been that trees are the planet’s universal remedy. Plant enough of them, in enough places, and carbon will be soaked up, water wil...

"Bond’s work leaves behind an inconvenient lesson for an era of climate urgency: that speed is not a substitute for understanding, and that good intentions, applied without care, can erase ancient worlds as efficiently as neglect." A beautiful tribute to William Bond. Forever missed by many.

60 36 1 3

2 months ago

Nice work! In principle distinct, but these can hybridise in cultivation. Invasive in NZ: all bets are off. I'd suggest a bit of sequencing: ITS would tell you one way or the other

1 0 1 0

4 months ago

As the world faces a biodiversity crisis, precise knowledge about specific species is more important than ever.
World Flora Online’s Taxonomic Expert Networks, or TENs, are collaborations of taxonomic experts who work together to agree upon a consensus classification for their plant groups.

2 2 1 0

4 months ago

PhD position in systematics and evolution of Malagasy heathers (Erica; Ericaceae) (289897) | University of Bergen Job title: PhD position in systematics and evolution of Malagasy heathers (Erica; Ericaceae) (289897), Employer: University of Bergen, Deadline: Sunday, January 4, 2026

Come join us in beautiful Western Norway! Ping co-supervisor team: @janhackel.bsky.social @vorontsovams.bsky.social
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

3 3 0 0

4 months ago

Conservation gap analysis for Erica (Ericaceae) The flowering plant genus Erica (Ericaceae) includes well over 800 species and numerous formally described subspecies and varieties. Many of these are threatened in the wild. The Global Conservation C...

Chunk of work fed into this - grateful for feedback/interest/collaboration in the next steps:

Conservation gap analysis for Erica (Ericaceae) preprints.arphahub.com/articles.php...

2 0 0 0

5 months ago

Our friends at the World Flora Online need your help!

They are asking all (potential) users to help them shape a useful plant identification feature to be added to WFO by answering a survey.

Please use the QR codes in the image below to access the survey.

2 2 0 0

6 months ago

Madrid Code online!! 🎉🪸🍄🌿

www.iaptglobal.org/_functions/code/madrid

6 5 0 0

6 months ago

Passion and combat on a floral stage: a new species of Uvariopsis (Annonaceae) from Monts de Cristal, Gabon, with notes on its unique pollination ecology Background and aims – Gabon is a major centre of biodiversity. We describe a new species from the tropical plant family Annonaceae: Uvariopsis niangadoumae sp. nov., known from a single population in ...

More new annons! Congrats @tlpcouvreur.bsky.social!
Passion and combat on a floral stage: a new species of Uvariopsis (Annonaceae) from Monts de Cristal, Gabon, with notes on its unique pollination ecology plecevo.eu/articles.php...

1 0 0 0

6 months ago

Two new rarely collected species of Annonaceae from the Peruvian Amazon While preparing a taxonomic revision of the Neotropical genus Klarobelia Chatrou (Annonaceae), two species new to science – Klarobelia icoja S.Lara & Chatrou, sp. nov., and Malmea abscondita Chatr...

New Annonaceae klaxon! Bravo @larschatrou.bsky.social @phytokeys.pensoft.net
Two new rarely collected species of Annonaceae from the Peruvian Amazon phytokeys.pensoft.net/articles.php...

6 2 0 0

7 months ago

American Society of Plant Taxonomists The American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) is a community of scientists that promotes research and education in the taxonomy, systematics, and phylogeny of all plants.

Am. Soc. of Plant Taxonomists @amsocplanttaxon.bsky.social is on Bsky! Follow for news, and join our community of naturalists working together to "foster, encourage, and promote education and research in the field of plant taxonomy."

@iaptglobal.bsky.social @botsocamerica.bsky.social

www.aspt.net

11 5 0 0

7 months ago

An integrative approach to alpha taxonomy in Erica L. (Ericaceae) with three new species from the Western Cape, South Africa The megagenus Erica L. (Ericaceae) comprises 851 species across its global distribution, with an extraordinary focus of diversity in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) of South Africa where almost 700 sp...

An integrative approach to alpha taxonomy in Erica L. (Ericaceae) with three new species from the Western Cape, South Afri…... by @piriemike.bsky.social published in @phytokeys.pensoft.net sharing data in @gbif.org:

#CiteTheDOI: ✅

#OpenAccess: ⭐️

https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.257.139457

1 1 0 0

7 months ago

Heathers (Erica, Ericaceae) of Madagascar: taxonomy, evolution, ecology and uses The plant genus Erica L. (heathers; anjavidy in Malagasy) has 35 recognised species in Madagascar, but there has not been a taxonomic revision since 1927 and there are few identification resources. We...

New paper by @piriemike.bsky.social in @phytokeys.pensoft.net using @gbif.org mediated data:

Heathers (Erica, Ericaceae) of Madagascar: taxonomy, evolution, ecology and uses 🇲🇬

#CiteTheDOI: ✅

#OpenAccess: ⭐️

https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.256.141375

1 1 0 0

9 months ago

We recognize that this announcement has caused a lot of upset and confusion among people who care deeply about iNaturalist. In the hundreds of comments, we hear that many people feel betrayed, disrespected, and without agency. We sincerely apologize.
With respect for the ethical and environmental concerns raised, we'd like to offer more clarity about our plans with this grant and program. We know that trust is not easily rebuilt, but we'd like to try.

First, to clarify some things we did not clearly communicate:

1. We are not replacing or changing the current human-curated system of identifications. Many of you have rightly pointed out that this is at the heart of iNat, and we wouldn't dream of doing away with it. Anything we explore with Al would only be meant to enhance the experience of some users: by, for example, providing an interesting tip about identifying the species, suggesting that the photographer try to capture a particular aspect of the plant or animal that might aid a human identifier, or explaining the computer vision's logic for the identification it's suggested.
2. We are not giving Google special access to your iNat data, and we have no obligation to use Google's infrastructure as part of this grant. Google is providing funding and advice on how to potentially leverage Al.
3. Naturalist has successfully incorporated machine learning and computer vision (kinds of Al) since 2017, with a very small footprint (primarily three machines running in spaces we control). We understand that new technologies can have much larger environmental impacts, and we aim to quantify the environmental footprint of Naturalist's infrastructure for 2025 and beyond.
4. This grant funds our team exploring new ways to surface and organize helpful identification comments - and if the demo we create is not helpful, compromises data quality, has outsized environmental impacts, or is overall too flawed, we will not keep it.

This project is just getting off the ground, and we …

Done
• inaturalist.org
AA
The Naturalist community has always been a core partner in informing the direction of the platform, and we appreciate and hear your feedback (including but not limited to):
• We understand that you are concerned about inaccurate, out-of-context and/or hallucinated information being provided by a tool like this. We agree that any Al-provided information be clearly labeled as such and that there be a way to upvote/downvote or otherwise flag potentially misleading information, and we are excited to explore more ways for how this may happen.
• We hear that people would like to be able to understand and control how their data is used on and beyond iNaturalist. On iNaturalist, you own the copyright to your data, and iNaturalist Terms of Use prohibit the use of data for commercial Al training. Whether commercial Al companies are beholden to copyright law or terms of use or can argue "fair use" of publicly accessible data is being worked out in the courts and is something we are paying attention to.
• Most importantly, the community will be involved in the creation of this and any major new features.
We will not be implementing any new changes to what you see on iNaturalist right now without involving the community. Our plan is to have an initial demo available for select user testing by the end of 2025. If you have more feedback, ideas, concerns, or questions you'd be willing to share, please use this form so we can more easily keep track of them.
Additionally, if you would like to attend a virtual Q&A session to have some of this discussion in real time, please let us know in this form (more details to be determined).
Again, the project funded by this grant is just getting started. We will proceed carefully and respectfully, and we're immensely grateful for this incredible and engaged community.

inaturalist•org
Update on June 11, 2025 9:15pm EDT
“We are not giving Google special access to your iNat data, and we have no obligation to use Google's infrastructure…If the demo… is not helpful, compromises data quality, has outsized environmental impacts, or is … too flawed, we will not keep it.”

111 33 11 4

9 months ago

Systematics, natural history, and conservation of Erica (Ericaceae) Worldwide, many tens of thousands of plant species are threatened with extinction in the wild. Those that are naturally rare or have narrow distributions are particularly vulnerable. The flowering pla...

This editorial introduces our latest topical collection: Systematics, natural history, and conservation of Erica (Ericaceae).

doi.org/10.3897/phyt...

@piriemike.bsky.social

1 1 1 0