"Subramaniam stresses it is not that non-native species can’t, in some cases, go on to be real concerns. (...) “Instead of just blaming the plant and telling the story of the invading foreigners coming to take over, let’s retell it and hold human hubris to account,” she says.
Her takeaway message when it comes to plant science: “Botany, like everything, is political. Question received wisdom.""
#YellowRattle is used proactively to create & restore wildflower meadows, where it aids #biodiversity by suppressing dominant grasses & recycling of #soil nutrients. This improves chances of other species of wildflowers becoming established.
Does anyone know of a website where you can find centers of origin for a plant species as well as what the original growing conditions there were (geology, soils, sun/shade, humidity, temp)? #Botany@plantscience
Creatures with scientific names that betray how frustrated the scientists got trying to sort out their taxonomy.
Probolomyrmex (multiple species)
Camponotus confusus
There have to be more of these. I'd love to know the full story behind the names. Really there is a place in the world for a book that just goes into interesting taxonomic controversies and frustrations.
Have you encountered any scientific names that hint at someone pulling out their hair?
Taxon differentiation in Urtica from Australia and New Zealand initially appears to be uncomplicated, with taxa being easy to distinguish. However, a revision of the type material, more recent collections and a comparison of Australian and New Zealand material shows that three of the names are misapplied.
The paper is paywalled but I'm guessing there was some confusion in figuring this out.
Wikipedia: "The plant is rich in calcium and phosphorus and as such makes up the bulk of the diet of white-tailed deer in the northeastern United States in the spring."
Possibly the looniest native columbine there is: Golden columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha). Those ridiculously long spurs make the flowers look like little spaceships.
This columbine is found in the US southwest from Arizona to Texas, as well as in northwestern Mexico. While the Pacific Northwest has its own native yellow columbine (A. flavescens), its flowers are nowhere near as spectacular.
Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus was born #OTD in 1707.
Linnaeus introduced the two-part system of naming organisms - binomial nomenclature - where each species is given a genus name followed by a species name. This system brought consistency and clarity to the naming of organisms. His work laid the foundation for the biological classification system by categorizing living organisms into hierarchical groups based on shared characteristics.
A genuine wildflower has appeared in our "wildflower" garden patch. We seeded a bit of strimmed-to-the-roots lawn a few years ago with a local mix of seeds. It looked ok, but we gave up. We've left it alone again this year and a Bulbous Buttercup has appeared, which was not in the original mix. So it got here on it's own, so a wild flower. The other "wildflowers" that came from the mix are not, because we planted them. #Nature#Botany#Wildflower
One of the stop's during Davis' Ride of Silence was close to a carob (Ceratonia siliqua) tree I know of. I noticed some dropped branches on the street nearby and picked them up.
Carob is cauliflorous & ramiflourous - its racemes of flowers bloom directly from its trunk and branches. @plantscience@gardening