myrden.bsky.social

My prompt list for October daily drawings--moss and lichen fairies!

#octoberpromptlist #bryophytes

Ooooh. Very lovely!

Photo of the base of a rainforest tree and its massive buttress roots.

Aerial photo of a single, dead, leafless tree surrounded by green, living trees.

Here’s a monocarpic rainforest legume tree. This is Tachigali versicolor, which has a spectacular buttressed trunk. After reproducing (& producing wind-dispersed fruits), the whole tree dies. Both photos by Reinaldo Aguilar CCBYNCSA2 #Fabaceae #monocarpy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

The cover image shows Nothoceros endiviifolius, a member of the hornworts - a group of land plants characterized by the presence of pyrenoids, which is a key evolutionary trait. In this issue of Annals of Botany, Peñza-Bojacá et al. explore incomplete lineage sorting and ancient reticulation in hornworts as potential scenarios for pyrenoid evolution, based on phylogenetic discordance in the pyrenoid-free Leiosporoceros, thereby providing insight into hornwort diversification and evolution. [See Peñza-Bojacá et al., pp. 1199–1214. Photo Credit: Juan B. Larraí]

🆕 The new issue of Annals of Botany is now online!

🌡️ Climate change & phenology
🔥 Fire & seed dormancy
🌱 Parasitic plant strategies
🧬 Citrus & bryophyte genomics
🌳 Forest vs. savanna expansion
🧩 Evolutionary insights & knowledge gaps

New issue👉 botany.fyi/U92lSy

Paronychia kurdica Boiss.
Caryophyllaceae
West Azerbaijan, Iran
June 2025
Elevation 2000m

🎉🆕📰🎉: Comparative pericarp biomechanics and germination physiology of Raphanus raphanistrum and Raphanus pugioniformis indehiscent fruits
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

Photo of a cactus growing on barren soil. The stems are cylindrical and spiny. The tips of the stems bear old, dried fruits that have split open to reveal stacks of dry, papery, winged seeds.

Pterocactus (10 spp) means “winged cactus.” These S. American species have dry fruits that break open at maturity to release large, winged seeds. This is a wind-dispersed #cactus! #Opuntoideae #Cactaceae #Tephrocacteae #dispesal. P. tuberosus by Silvina Velez CCBYNC4. #Botany #PlantScience 🌾🧪

Photo of a commercially produced lit white candle in a jar (the screw-top lid resting alongside). The words “soy wax” are circled on the label of the candle.

Soy wax, much used for candles, is not a wax at all! It’s soybean oil (a lipid) hydrogenated sufficiently to become solid at room temperature. It is sometimes blended with beeswax (a wax ester) & essential oils (for fragrance). 📷: Printerval CCBYNC4 #Fabaceae #wax #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
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Close-up photo of a leafy shoot bearing brown, shriveled fruits with pale brown, spreading calyces. These are the fruits of jojoba. The leaves are gray-green and stiff. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Photo of a bottle isolated on a white background of jojoba oil. The label says the golden oil is “100% pure.” Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

Jojoba oil is not an oil! It’s a wax that is liquid at room temperature. It is extracted from the seeds of Simmondsia chinensis, which, despite the name, is native to the desert Southwest & adjacent Mexico. #Simmondsiaceae #wax #Botany 🌾🧪🌱
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Indie creators and devs! Mike (and I) want to work with you! 😁

If you hold open auditions, where do you usually post them? Social media? Casting sites? A roster or casting director? Do you reach out to actors directly? Do actors reach out to you?

Dionysia mallos Mehregan, Weststr. & Lidén.
This species was discovered and introduced in 2023.

Dena mountains, Iran
April 2025
#Dionysia #Primulaceae #Iran

Ooooh very exciting!

In honor of Shakespeare’s birthday, I am very excited to announce a new podcast coming soon: The Pod’s the Thing! Produced by me and featuring many amazing (soon to be announced) co-conspirators.

It’s a Shakespeare podcast by actors, for actors, and everyone else.

@podsthething.bsky.social

Twitch Twitch is the world

Sadly there won’t be any Cavalier Chronicles this week, but tomorrow we will have some (scheduled) Unscheduled Mayhem with @thegreatdilemma.bsky.social as she streams JEFF’S GATE (ie, a Jeff the Cool Elf run of Baldur’s Gate 3). Join her at 2pm EDT!

Twitch.tv/20toMidnight

I’m finally doing as I’ve threatened to do, and am going to stream a Jeff run of BG3 on the 20 to Midnight twitch! Tomorrow at 2pm EDT.

Let’s check out how Patch 8 is with the coolest Elf around.

Baldur who? This is Jeff’s town! 😎

Photo of the inflorescence bearing small, pendulous, white, urn-shaped flowers.

Now that I live in NC, I have fallen in love with Oxydendrum arboreum. It is a small tree with delicate, little, urn-shaped flowers and fiery fall foliage. 📷: Wendy Cutler CCBY4. #Ericaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

We are playing 20 to Midnight again today, but starting just a bit later than normal, around 2:30 EDT.

The end times have come, but we need to make a couple pit stops before saving the world.

Join us!

Twitch.tv/20toMidnight

Photo of a single erect peduncle bearing a white spathe surrounding a purple spadix. Photo by Scott Zona CC BY-NC 2.0.

This week’s topic is the aroid Amorphophallus (“misshapen penis”). I’ve run into a few over the years. They have the most amazing spathes (the surrounding bract) & spadices (the spikes that bear the flowers). This is A. haematospadix. The visible spadix is sterile. #Araceae #aroid #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of leafy shoots. The tips of the shoots bear red, branched panicles of tiny flowers (or flower buds). Large white leaf-shaped bracts subtend the inflorescences like wreaths.

Close-up photo of a single inflorescence with its red branches and white or very pale pink bracts.

Anacardiaceae are not known for showy flowers. Anacardium braziliense (syn. A. spruceanum) brings the bling with showy bracts subtending the inflorescence (=pseudanthium). 📷1 by esa_bt CCBYNC4. 📷2 by mapoflife_rapidassessments CCBYNC4. #Anacardiaceae #tropicalbotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

It's fantastic that it happened twice lol. You do a wonderful job at it.

20tomidnight - Twitch A new Dungeons and Dragons 5E stream, in which heroes must race against the clock if they want to save the world! Our first campaign, the Cavalier Chronicles, begins October 12th at 2:00 PM Eastern Ti...

Wanna watch me @betheyre.bsky.social @schub.es and @gabrielurbina.bsky.social play some DnD?

Tune into our stream 20 to Midnight today at 2:30pm EST! We’re getting close to the end of our campaign, and I personally am hoping to defeat a nemesis today. See you there!

Twitch.tv/20toMidnight

Photo of a tiny white, 5-petal flower that is covered in pink and yellow polkadots.

Photo of a tiny white 20-petal flower that is covered in pink and yellow polkadots.

My favourite wildflower, Prickly Saxifrage. Pic 1 shows the normal 5-petal form of this crazy-beautiful little flower. The other pic shows a rare (I’ve only seen one) 20-petal form. Pics from a few years ago at Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. #wildflower #flower #botany

Listen to my sexy, Lesbian rap music. It is sexy and lesbian.

Live now!

A Cladonia lichen that looks like a nest with several baby Cladonia lichens inside.

In the nest. Cladonia #lichens and Polytrichum #moss. Northwest Territories, Canada. #fungifriends #bryophytes

Back in August I was mesmerised by the gorgeous Marsh Saxifrage Saxifraga hirculus in NE Scotland. Slowly walking along an upland flush counting flowering plants was a privilege indeed. @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiscotland.bsky.social #botany

Photo of a charred branch and a leafy new sprout alongside a scorched “cone” of capsules, some of which are gaping open to reveal a shiny brown interior.

Conifers are not the only serotinous species. Banksia aemula (#Proteaceae) has woody “cones” (clusters of capsular fruits) that open to release seeds only after being heated by a bushfire. Post-fire conditions are good for seedling establishment. #dispersal 📷: Tatiana Gerus CCBYSA2 #botany 🌾🧪🌱

Chalk Milkwort Polygala calcarea on a Hampshire down in May this year. Not common at all, despite the extent of suitable habitat here. Very showy! @bsbibotany.bsky.social #botany

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Euphorbia erubescens
Syn: Euphorbia macrostegia
Euphorbiaceae
Sepidan, Iran
June 2024 Altitude 2050m
There are more than 70 Euphorbia species in the flora of Iran.
#Euphorbia #botanical #ecology

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Fritillaria gibbosa Boiss
Liliaceae
South Zagros, Iran
March 30, 2024
Elevation 2500m
There are about 25 species of Fritillaria in the flora of Iran, and some of them have been introduced in the last one or two years.
#Fritillaria #botany #bulb #Mountain #Ecology #wildflowers