dorophyte

algae illustrator, aspiring educator, plant & protist enthusiast. exploring the natural world, one drawing at a time!

[dorophyte]

"𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘺, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘺;⁣⁣ 𝘐𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘮-𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦-𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘺.⁣⁣ 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘪𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵,⁣⁣ 𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘐𝘋, 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘵." — Yep...I wrote a poem about kelp identification for one of my classes this summer and this is one of the stanzas. 😅 Happy Phycology Friday! This week's featured friend is one of my favourite kelps, 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘪𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘴. It is the only species of kelp that can stand unsupported in air and only grows in areas with high wave action. One of the reasons for this is that the high wave action removes competitors, allowing space for 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘪𝘢 to grow. — What would you like to see on a future Phycology Friday? Let me know! I will be fulfilling requests over time. :)

[dorophyte]

no formal Phycology Friday post for this week; sorry folks! It's been a pretty packed week for me and I didn't get to finish in time so I'll have it ready for next Friday. for today, here's a throwback to pre-Phycology Friday times! These diatom doodles were from when I was taking a course on algae, when the phycology obsession was just beginning 😅

[dorophyte]

HENLO I am so excited to finally be able to say Happy Phycology Friday again! This week's featured friend is Ceratocorys horrida, an armoured dinoflagellate with winged spines. This is a marine species that is found in coastal areas of warm temperate or tropical waters. — What would you like to see featured on a future Phycology Friday? Let me know!

[dorophyte]

A tad late posting this, as yesterday was World Oceans Day (but hey, any day is a good day to care for the ocean!)

The pollutants we add to our oceans not only contribute to the ever-growing loss of life, biodiversity, and ecosystem stability, but also only become more permanent as they break down.

I am thankful for everything that has led me up to a point in life where I am able to use art as a medium of communicating science. I am grateful for the ocean as not only a provider of the resources that sustain me, but also as a place of healing and learning. This drawing represents a lot of my own discomfort: the discomfort of creating something so different from my usual work, the discomfort of facing the reality of the current climate crisis, and the discomfort of knowing that there is so much more I could be doing to help. So, here's to inviting that discomfort, acknowledging it, and then using it as motivation to change. :)

[dorophyte]

hello I am ALIVE!! Ya girl passed her teaching practicum and has been trying to get her life back in order ever since. 😂 I'm going to try to bring Phycology Friday back soon! I also want this summer to be filled with all the barnacle illustrations I imagined but never got to do last year. Here are some doodles in preparation for that. 😅

[dorophyte]

Is home a place...a person...a feeling? It's Polysiphonia! At least for these epiphytic diatoms. Happy to check this one off the to-digitize list, since it originally made its debut in a really low quality photo. ;w; (8am-5pm classes + Canadian winter = what is natural light??)

[dorophyte]

it's spring break right now but I'm teaching a unit on protists after the break and I am so HECKIN' stoked p.s. digitizing your protist drawings totally counts as lesson planning...right?

[dorophyte]

hey! it's been a while (and I know I say that a lot... 😔) just popping in with a few things: Phycology Friday is on hiatus because I'm currently on my practicum and I've quickly learned that the only self-care I have time for is sleeping and lesson planning with friends 😭😂 but I am taking care of myself! trying to, anyway. so yes, sorry for the lack of posts right now, but rest assured, this isn't the end of Phycology Friday. 😅 I'm still chipping away at digitizing paintings in my spare time. if you have any requests, let me know! this one wasn't a priority of mine to digitize until I got a request for it. 😄 lastly, thank you all for your support despite my disappearances. 

that's all from me for now! take care ❤️

[dorophyte]

Another one digitized ☑️

Chrysophytes are so heckin’ cool! Dinobryon is definitely one of my favourites, but there are still so many more that I want to draw and learn more about. ☺️

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This one is available as a print now! (yes, I opened a shop! I’ll make another post dedicated to it later, hehe)

[dorophyte]

Another one! The seaweed paintings have been a lot easier to digitize than the plankton ones.

[dorophyte]

Hello friends, I know it’s been a while; I won’t have a Phycology Friday post for this week but I’ve been working on digitizing more of my past ones, so here’s one. 😀

Still not sure when I’ll be able to get Phycology Friday back in full swing, but I’ll still be posting when I can and I’ve also made it a goal for myself to get better at balancing work and self-care, so I’ll probably try to bring it back soon! In the meantime, please forgive me for being inactive while I deal with life things. 😅 I often feel bad for not being able to post consistently, so thank you to all who have stuck with me through all these ups and downs and hiatuses thus far. ♥️

[dorophyte]

Hello! I know I’ve been gone for a while, so sorry about that. I’m not sure if I can say that I’m fully out of hiatus mode yet, but I do have a Phycology Friday post for this week. ☺️ 

So yes, happy Phycology Friday! This week’s featured friend is Dinophysis fortii, a species of photosynthetic dinoflagellate. This species is known to produce toxins that cause diarrhetic shellfish poisoning. From filter-feeding, bivalve shellfish (such as clams, mussels, and oysters) accumulate toxins produced by microscopic algae, resulting in illness when consumed. So…yeh! Algae can be hardcore too. Don’t mess. 😉

This one was requested by Instagram user gecrissalvador! Had a lot of fun with this one – I LOVE dinoflagellates 💕 - What would you like to see featured on a future Phycology Friday? Let me know!

[dorophyte]

Sorry friends, going on another Phycology Friday hiatus!

Currently balancing a lot in my life right now (all while being sick) so I’m going to focus on my commitments + getting enough rest for the next while.

I promise the next one will be a good one! :)

[dorophyte]

Happy Phycology Friday! This week's featured friend is Licmophora juergensii…growing on Polysiphonia, a type of red algae! I know I've featured this pair before, but I just had a sudden urge to do a watercolour version. L. juergensii is an epiphytic, marine diatom. Epiphytes are organisms that grow on the surfaces of plants/algae without being parasitic. Members of the genus Licmophora form fan-shaped colonies. 

(Polysiphonia will get its own feature...someday) 

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What would you like to see featured on a future Phycology Friday? Let me know!

[dorophyte]

Hi, I’m back (for this week, at least! 😭) with a rather simple one, since I’m still overwhelmed by schoolwork. 😅

Happy Phycology Friday! This week’s featured friend is Cylindrotheca closterium, a species of pennate diatom. Members of the genus Cylindrotheca are epipelic, meaning they live on the surface of sediments and mud; however, C. closterium has also been observed in open water habitats as plankton.

What would you like to see featured on a future Phycology Friday? Let me know! ☺️

[dorophyte]

Finally getting around to digitizing some of my work! This one is Gyrosigma, a type of pennate diatom -- one of my first Phycology Friday posts and still one of my favourites. 😊

[dorophyte]

Some little moss doodles in my notes from a while ago. Our assignment was to prepare a mini 5 minute lesson on anything we wanted, so I chose to do a how to draw moss/learn about moss morphology activity. 😅 P.S. Phycology Friday will be back this week!!