moss and bugs and lakes!!!

☘️ emory, 27, he/she ☘️☘️ amateur bryologist ☘️☘️ ask me about moss ☘️

[oracle-fae-deactivated20260720]

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[crevicedwelling]

you are being ogled by two mushy little animals. how do you respond

[teepeecider]

Apples and pears are naturally waxy. Not the stuff you see on apples in the supermarket which is carnauba wax (from palm tree leaves), but if you pick apples or pears in an orchard then you quickly realise they are. This natural wax or bloom is a complex, multi-layered protective structure, the cuticle (a continuous, non-living extracellular layer) covering the fruit's epidermis is primarily composed of interlinked insoluble polymer matrixes called cutin and hydophobic lipid compounds - waxes often crystalline, it is secreted from is the outer layer of the epidermis which is modified to ramp up production of these compounds. It governs moisture loss, disease resistance, and skin texture.

It is typically measures about 3um in thickness, depending heavily on the cultivar. It is peppered by stomata over the lenticels in the skin underneath which serve as gas exchange pathways but also can provide entry points for microorganisms and moisture loss. The crystalline waxes protrude outwards from the cutin layer.

Some apples and pears are russeted. This can be natural from the cultivar or induced by orchard conditions and is due to damage to the epidermal cells early after petal fall. As the apple grows micro cracks develop over the affected cells in the cuticle. The apple responds by growing a brownish, corky layer of wound-healing tissue (called a periderm or phellogen) to seal the cracks, resulting in a rough, canvas-like tan patch on the skin.

Microscopic analysis of the apple cuticle reveals complex microbial communities (microbiota) of yeasts bacteria and moulds. The cuticle (and its ecosystem changes) as the seasons and weather change and the apple matures and ripens. The organised wax crystals disappear and are replaced by liquid esters which leads to skin greasiness. #cuticle #apples #pears

[shelovesplants]

How do you get to wonderland🦋

[uroko]

Rainy day in Daira Pond, Japan // 雨の日の平池

[gremlininho]

A butternut woollyworm ♡

[leonor777]

Nature held me close and seemed to find no fault with me. (Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg)

[kimiko24]

Happy wet beast Wednesday~ 🐾

[n-vzn]

Winter by the river

[sodapop--stims]

Water Plants

🌿🍵🌱

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[itsallaboutdreams]

[identifying-deer-in-posts]

Mountain reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus)

[fossilframe]

Campo Flicker (Colaptes campestris)

Observed by leandrorezende

[geopsych]

Early morning in late May at the lake a few years ago with bird song

I miss it but probably won’t get out there for a while, for reasons

[drhoz]

Moss Leaf / Hypnum cupressiforme - 1000x microscope

[lichenaday]

thank u for being so enthusiastic abt lichens, i went out walking in the bush where i live recently and was amazed by all the lichens i saw while walking. i would have passed them over completely in the past, but after i started following ur blog i have grown a new appreciation for them. theyre very cool :]!!

This is exactly the feedback I live for. Thank you so much! I wish you all the best in getting to know your lichen neighbors, and maybe in time they will get to know you, too, (unless that freaks you out more than comforts you than don't worry they won't).

[onenicebugperday]

Blue and green land snail, Antidrymaeus stramineus, Bulimulidae

Found only in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean

Photo 1 by josh_2396, 2 by floydh, 3 by peterzik, and 4 by islander784

[less-ismore]

‘It all depends what you mean by a weed’. The definition is the weed’s cultural story. How and why and where we classify plants as undesirable is part of the story of our ceaseless attempts to draw boundaries between nature and culture, wildness and domestication. And how intelligently and generously we draw those lines determines the character of most of the green surfaces of the planet.

The best-known and simplest definition is that a weed is ‘a plant in the wrong place’, that is, a plant growing where you would prefer other plants to grow, or sometimes no plants at all.

Richard Mabey, Weeds: in defense of nature's most unloved plants, 2010.