Hypothesized distribution of the belowground persistence types along a gradient of disturbance return time with hump-shaped (first increasing and then decreasing) investment in resprouting (highlighted by intensity of shading). The disturbance return time ranges from less than a year to many decades. source: original paper

🌱 New framework in plant ecology! Researchers propose 6 Belowground Persistence Types (BPTs) — classifying plants by woodiness, clonality, and resprouting ability. This whole-plant view reveals how species persist after disturbance and could reshape how we study resilience.
🔗 buff.ly/LgaPglR
(MK)

Century-old papers saved from the bin reveal changes in Europe’s plant life Plant inventories dating back to 1884 and nearly thrown away enable unique time-lapse study of biodiversity in Swiss meadows

Century-old papers saved from the bin reveal changes in Europe’s plant life

The first day of the 7th edition of the #GoBelowground course! 16 participants from 7 countries and 3 continents are admiring the ecological functions of clonal growth organs. Our mission? Not to overlook crucial plant part - belowground!
Thanks @czechacademy.bsky.social @ibotcz.bsky.social #ExFuMO

We've digitised 155 African sketches of Thomas Baines (1820-1875). ⬆️ Use the link in our bio to explore this collection and many others. #NaturalHistoryMuseum #LibrariesOfInstagram #DigitisedCollections #SpecialCollections #Art #NatureInArt #Africa
Alt text: Watercolours of Southeast Africa.

@greenbeltfestival.bsky.social are the busses from the railway station running?

Our latest publication in the importance of plant morphological knowledge in ecology

With @jitkaklimesova.bsky.social

LOCAL ELECTIONS 2025 Results BREAKTHROUGH STAFFORDSHIRE Green Party Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ

🚀 Green BREAKTHROUGH 🚀

Congratulations to Staffordshire Greens on winning your first seat on Staffordshire County Council!

LOCAL ELECTIONS 2025 Results BREAKTHROUGH Cambridgeshire Green Party Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ

🚀 Green BREAKTHROUGH 🚀

Congratulations to Cambridgeshire Greens on winning your first seat on Cambridgeshire County Council!

🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Niche shifts and localized competitive dynamics influence the persistence and distribution of polyploids in the genus Achillea (Asteraceae)
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

I was advised to use Visikol as a replacement for more toxic clearing agents eg Hoyers medium, but Visikol has been discontinued.

Compositae botanists, what approach do you use for mounting microscope slides (for floral organs) now that Visikol has been discontinued?

@ca-naturalist.bsky.social
@anschmidtlebuhn.bsky.social
@erikarmoore11.bsky.social

Caputia pyramidata flowering at Kew

Huge win! Government announces plan to open up Land Registry This post is by Guy Shrubsole. Today the UK Government has announced plans to open up the Land Registry – which, if delivered, will finally reveal more about who owns land in England and Wale…

Huge win! Government announces plans to open up the Land Registry.

If delivered, will finally reveal more about who owns land in England and Wales.

Read my blog post for more details & how you can write to the Minister to make sure this now happens:

whoownsengland.org/2025/03/06/h...

🧵1/

Grasslands like floodplain meadows are vital for food, carbon storage, water management, wildlife and more. Better coordination from Government can unlock their potential. That's why we’re joining @plantlifeuk.bsky.social uk.bsky.social, NNFN and partners in calling for a Grassland Taskforce.

Groundbreaking botanical discoveries on Captain Cook voyage were thanks to Indigenous people New book reveals that Pacific islands inhabitants helped European scientists identify hundreds of plant species In 1769, nearly nine months after setting sail with Capt James Cook on his first voyage to the Pacific, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander…

Groundbreaking botanical discoveries on Captain Cook voyage were thanks to Indigenous people

The valley of the river Colne has some amazing plant diversity. It must be protected from airport expansion.

Two lynx on the loose in the Scottish Highlands Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) says the animals were at large within its grounds after a suspected ‘illegal release’ Two lynx are on the loose in the Scottish Highlands in what is suspected to be an “illegal release”. On Wednesday evening,…

Two lynx on the loose in the Scottish Highlands

The Global Tree Assessment - Understanding Tree Status Worldwide and Inspiring Conservation Action | Botanic Gardens Conservation International The Global Tree Assessment provides information on the threats to trees and provides the data needed to take effective conservation action.

The Global Tree Assessment reached a milestone with over 80% of trees now assessed on the @IUCNRedList. Trees are now the largest comprehensively assessed group on the Red List, thanks to the work of all our partners and collaborators!

Only 9 hours until #NewYearPlantHunt starts!
Have you planned your Hunt yet? You could hunt with friends & family, go solo (enjoy some quiet time!) or join one of these group hunts: bsbi.org/new-year-pla...
Main thing is to enjoy hunting for/recording wild & naturalised plants blooming in midwinter.

Albuca concordiana (a plant) with tightly curled, spiral leaves.

Albuca bruce-bayeri (a plant) with loosely spiraled, dark green leaves.

Boophone disticha (a plant) with blue green leaves aligned on the same plane (ie flat).

Massonia depressa (a plant) with two large, flat-to-the-ground leaves.

#Monocots have the best leaves and you cannot convince me otherwise.

#Geophytes #IAmABotanist 🌾🧅🌱

Environmental filtering, not dispersal history, explains global patterns of phylogenetic turnover in seed plants at deep evolutionary timescales - Nature Ecology & Evolution This modelling study integrates comprehensive regional plant inventories, environmental conditions and palaeogeographical reconstructions to assess the relative roles of environmental filtering and di...

Phylogenetic turnover of seed plants 🌱 at a global 🌐 and across phylogenetic scales: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New grass phylogeny resolves deep evolutionary relationships and discovers C4 origins • Grasses rank among the world’s most ecologically and economically important plants. Repeated evolution of the C4 syndrome has made photosynthesis highly efficient in many grasses, inspiring inten...

Hello world! Also, the new grass phylogeny is now published: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Buds are everywhere! They are indispensable and super fascinating! Love and explore buds!
Diversity and functional differentiation of renewal buds in temperate herbaceous plants by Schnablová et al. @jitkaklimesova.bsky.social in @newphyt.bsky.social
📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Some of the perennial herbs we studied are 'income breeders' - they make minimal investment to belowground storage and invest far more to leaf growth during the reproductive season. An example of this is the late flowering Agrimonia eupatoria

Some of the perennial herbs we studied are 'capital breeders' - they mostly rely on resources stored before the reproductive season starts to form flowers (some of the plants we studied preform flowers months in advance)

One way biologists have described how an individual's biomass relates to its reproductive phenology has been the distinction between 'capital breeders' and 'income breeders'.

We found that the spectrum of 'low investment to rhizomes' to 'high investment to rhizomes' aligned with different flowering phenologies amongst the perennial herbs studied. Species that flower earlier allocate more of their biomass to rhizomes.

Rhizomes are plant stems that, rather than growing towards the light, grow belowground and produce roots and shoots at their nodes. Rhizomes can make up a small or a large proportion of plant biomass and we were interested in what drives these differences between species.

Perennial herbs in environments that have adverse seasons often have stems that die back and these herbs rely on stored resources belowground to replace these stems. Plants have a wide range of belowground storage organs, but here we focus on rhizomes

Capital and income breeders among herbs: how relative biomass allocation into a storage organ relates to clonal traits, phenology and environmental gradients Perennial herbs of seasonal climates invest carbon into belowground storage organs (e.g. rhizomes) to support growth when photosynthetic acquisition cannot cover demands. An alternative explanation ...

Very glad to share this publication:
Capital and income breeders among herbs: how relative biomass allocation into a storage organ relates to clonal traits, phenology and environmental gradients

Results from a productive postdoc with the Czech Academy of Sciences #ecology
doi.org/10.1111/nph....