#botany talk

[cephalopadre]

For the Naturalist ask game,

1, 8, 14, 20?

Hiiii thanks for the ask!! :D

1 - What do you tend to focus on in terms of taxa? Animals, plants, specific orders or families? Marine biology, parasites, other looser groupings?

Flowering plants! Besides the taxa that I work on professionally, I'm really partial to Ranunculaceae (the buttercup family), Melanthiaceae (the bunchflower/deathcamas family), the Southeastern US carnivores (pitcher plants, sundews, butterworts, bladderworts, venus fly traps), and Urticaceae (the stinging nettle family).

I've got a big soft spot for this southeast Asian woody vine in Urticaceae called Poikilospermum. It's got these big congested inflorescences that can be a really pretty shade of lavender.

Photo Credit: P.B. Pelser & J.F. Barcelona, SIU PhytoImages

8 - A species you've seen that's rare in your area

A while back, I saw some Florida milkvine on one of my walks through the woods! I suppose it's not super rare, but it's an endemic to north central Florida and has an IUCN at-risk redlisting, so that was cool.

14 - A common species you still get excited about

White oak! Just a generally pretty tree - the leaf shape is pretty, the crown is pretty from a distance.

Also, stinging nettles! I just got stung trying to get a good close-up of some stinging hairs a few days ago, haha.

20 - An interesting species interaction you've seen

One time, I opened up a big fig and a swarm of newly-hatched fig wasps streamed out of the cut and flew right into my face.

[cephalopadre]

Hi! 5, 6, 10, 22 and/or 24 for the Naturalist ask game, please and only if you want to (the answers can of course be vague)

Thanks for the ask! Yeah, if there's anything that would really obviously doxx me I'll be mysterious about it, haha.

5 - A taxon you're good/best at identifying

I'm learning a pretty tough taxon for work and I'd say I'm proudest of that one, but outside of that I'm not fantastic at any particular group. But I'm perhaps above-average at Carex (in the sedge family), given that it's an uncharismatic group with tiny characters (the bar is low LMAO).

6 - A taxon you would like to learn to identify

Oooh, so many. I think it'd be cool to get good at Lithocarpus (stone oaks), or my little weirdo favorites, Poikilospermum (tropical climbing vines in the nettle family).

Lithocarpus, Philippines. Photo Credit: Leonardo L. Co, SIU PhytoImages

10 - A species you wish you could see that isn't found in your area

Ooh, tough... I'd love to see Helleborus (christmas rose) in the wild in central Eurasia!

22 - Coolest evidence of a species you've seen (nests, prints, seeds, eggs, galls? Some of those are arguably just forms of the species itself but you get the gist)

In Magnolias, the dropped empty follicles (after the achene fruits fall off) can be really pretty. In Magnolia fraseri they're hot pink!

Image Credit: John Nix, Trees and Shrubs Online

24 - A species you think people should know more about (do give details 👀)

Oh man. This is really a tough one, there are too many. Okay, so one of my new favorite fruits to eat is cempedak (Artocarpus integer, in the mulberry family). You can recognize Artocarpus by the fact that all of them are huge trees with big, simple leaves, a large stipule (the covering for the new leaf bud, forms a cone at the end of the twig), and non-toxic milky latex that oozes out when you tear a leaf or wound the bark. If you've ever seen breadfruit or jackfruit, they all look a bit like that.

Cempedak is closely related to jackfruit, and looks quite similar, but the taste is kind of like if you mixed a jackfruit with a durian. It's super sweet, almost overly so, and has a bit of a fishy and bitter aftertaste. In Malaysia, it's eaten deep fried, and god damn, it is so tasty. Maybe it's a bit of an acquired taste (I'm also an absolute fiend for durian), but I'm a huge fan.

[venomouslilith]

started the research for my master's thesis last week and I'm excited and scared and a little overwhelmed but we'll get there! I have a couple of months to make it work after all.