🌻 The Week in Botany November 11, 2024

November 11, 2024

Today I found there’s no poppy emoji. The site I used to search for one suggested a bagel, but that didn’t seem in spirit with the day. I’d love to say what...

🌻 The Week in Botany November 4, 2024

November 4, 2024

I saw “Hallowe’en Roses for sale this week, which were white or orange roses with a black fringe at the edges of the petals. It reminded me of the time I...

🎃 The Week in Botany October 28, 2024

October 28, 2024

The clocks have changed in the UK, so tonight is going to arrive with a thud. On the plus side, if you celebrate Diwali then the lights will shine brighter,...

🌻 The Week in Botany October 21, 2024

October 21, 2024

I said there would be a slow start to the week. It turned out to be glacial. Fortunately I’m ending the week feeling much better than how I started it. It’s...

🌻 The Week in Botany October 14, 2024

October 14, 2024

My trip to Kew didn’t go as well as I would have liked. What I saw of the plant health event was interesting, but I didn’t see much as I was unwell, and the...

🌻 The Week in Botany, October 7, 2024

October 7, 2024

I learned about renosterveld this week, a type of South African shrubland. I can’t recall hearing of it before, so the author’s description of it as “the...

🪓 The Week in Botany September 30, 2024

September 30, 2024

This week YouTube has been recommending me videos based on what it thinks I’d like. It thinks I’d like Annals of Botany’s interview with Carolina Carvalho on...

🌻 The Week in Botany September 23, 2024

September 23, 2024

It’s felt like an uphill week, with the nights growing longer in the northern hemisphere. I hope it feels downhill for everyone in the southern hemisphere....

🌻 The Week in Botany September 16, 2024

September 16, 2024

My head’s spinning a little this week after reading Jacob White & Felipe Yamashita’s paper on Boquila trifoliolata. They found that Boquila trifoliolata can...

🌻 The Week in Botany September 9, 2024

September 9, 2024

I’m back off holiday and decided to give how I blog and tweet a tweak. I’ve been a little grumpy as putting out 12 tweets a day on various channels is a lot...

🎓 The Week in Botany September 2, 2024

September 2, 2024

My second week off has been a bit more tiring than I expected, but I’m at an age when I can be a curmudgeon and blame the young people. Botanical University...

🌊 The Week in Botany August 26, 2024

August 26, 2024

Electricity is back in the house, and most of the water is out, which is a help when writing emails. Here’s a slightly reduced email this week, as I’m on...

The Week in Botany August 19, 2024

August 19, 2024

While writing this week's email a pipe broke in the airing cupboard, tripping the electrics, and leaving me holding two ends of pipe for an hour and a half...

🌻 The Week in Botany August 12, 2024

August 12, 2024

The first perennial sunflower flower appeared this week by the shed. I wish I‘d kept a phenology diary, as it feels the garden is still weeks behind where...

🌻 The Week in Botany August 5, 2024

August 5, 2024

I wasn’t hit by a bus, but I do have a cold, so it’s another late-night finish for the newsletter. This explains why I forgot to press schedule and had to...

🇪🇸 The Week in Botany July 29, 2024

July 29, 2024

The International Botanical Congress has passed. Twitter activity was much more different than I expected. In Melbourne, it was possible to follow some...

🇪🇸 The Week in Botany July 22, 2024

July 22, 2024

Congratulations if you’ve managed to get to Madrid IBC XX. Assuming Crowdstrike hasn’t killed their travel plans you can meet Botany One editors Michela...

🌻 The Week in Botany, July 15, 2024

July 15, 2024

We’re getting ready for IBC XX, which starts in Madrid next week. I say we, Michela and Carlos are the Botany One editors going to Madrid. I get to stay at...

🌻 The Week in Botany July 8, 2024

July 8, 2024

I’m back from my break, and feel I need another one to get over it. Ventnor Botanic Garden was interesting. I think the complaints that the management is...

🏝️ The Week in Botany July 1, 2024

July 1, 2024

I’ve started falling asleep during the day, so it’s definitely time for a break. I plan to be away on the Isle of Wight from today till Thursday. With luck,...

🍓 The Week in Botany June 24, 2004

June 24, 2024

I’m told this week we had the Strawberry Moon. I’m a bit wary of the authenticity of these names. However, when I took a break in the garden this week, I...

🌻 The Week in Botany June 17, 2024

June 17, 2024

There’s controversy this week. A popular television show has been accused of appalling its viewers in its depiction of (plant) sex. There’s also been a lot...

🌻 The Week in Botany June 10, 2024

June 10, 2024

This week I’ll be starting to think hard about the forthcoming International Botanical Congress. I won’t be going myself, but Michela and Carlos will be...

🌻 The Week in Botany June 3, 2024

June 3, 2024

There’s a slight delay to this week’s email as it was scheduled at 11pm last night, but obviously not scheduled correctly. I’ll now be paranoid about the...

🌻 The Week in Botany May 27, 2024

May 27, 2024

There’s a special issue of Annals of Botany out, African Flora in a Changing World. There was a glitch at launch, but now all the papers are Free Access for...

🌻 The Week in Botany May 20, 2024

May 20, 2024

Often there’ll be weeks when I’ve been busy and feel I have nothing to show for it. This week is different. There are six interviews on Botany One, so the...

🌻 The Week in Botany May 13, 2024

May 13, 2024

Thanks to a news story shared by Angel York this week, I found I can call myself a renegade gardener, as I plant for insects. Normally, it’s for pollinators,...

🌻 The Week in Botany May 6, 2024

May 6, 2024

A while back I started reading How to be a Bad Birdwatcher, and thought a similar book on botany would be helpful. This week I found that the author, Simon...

🌼 The Week in Botany April 29, 2024

April 29, 2024

The diffusion of social media means it’s easy to overlook interesting conversations if you’re not on the same network. This thread from Bluesky by Mark...

🌻 The Week in Botany April 22, 2024

April 22, 2024

This week we’ve arranged for Botany One to be at Student Botany Festival as part of Botanical University Challenge. The exact details aren’t fixed but it...

🌻 The Week in Botany April 15, 2024

April 15, 2024

My fuzzy head last week meant that I forgot to wish people a happy Eid, if they celebrate. If I were still in Leicester then it would probably be much easier...

🌻 The Week in Botany April 8, 2024

April 8, 2024

I hope you're well. I'm suffering a little from the storms passing overhead and giving me headaches. On the plus side, it does make Big Jet TV more...

🐇 The Week in Botany March 25, 2024

March 25, 2024

It's been a grim week, so getting to browse a lot of Botany has been a welcome escape from the news. This week I'm able to add attention from BlueSky into...

🌻 The Week in Botany, March 18, 2024

March 18, 2024

Spring is well on its way here, with the tulips pushing through as the latest round of the bulb lasagne in the flower pots. I was expecting them to be a dark...

🌻 The Week in Botany, March 11, 2024

March 11, 2024

Thank you for all the well-wishes. I've done very little this week, but plan to make a slow return in the coming week. I'm finding recuperation tedious, and...

🏥 The Week in Botany, March 4 2024

March 4, 2024

I'm a little fuzzy this week. On Monday, when the last edition came out, I was in a hospital bed recovering from an operation on one of my kidneys. I've been...

🌻 The Week in Botany, February 19 2024

February 19, 2024

I'll start by flagging up the Plant Health Undergraduate Studentships in the Careers section. The RSB has twelve awards for undergraduates to get some...

🌻 The Week in Botany, February 12 2024

February 12, 2024

🌻 The Week in Botany, February 12 2024 If you're receiving this, then the move to Buttondown went well. One reason for moving is that I hope in the longer...

🌙 The Week in Botany February 5, 2024

February 5, 2024

You may need to check your spam folders next week as, if all goes well, this will be the last TWiB sent through Substack. We’ll be moving to Buttondown for a...

🌻 The Week in Botany January 29, 2024

January 29, 2024

I’m hoping that next week, I’ll start to test negative for COVID. At the moment, I’m positive in both senses of the word. It means I’m still out of energy,...

🌻 The Week in Botany January 22, 2024

January 22, 2024

It’s a much-reduced newsletter this week. Work has been a struggle and every night this week I’ve been ready to sleep by five o’clock. On Friday I found out...

🌻 The Week in Botany January 15, 2024

January 15, 2024

I’m hoping I have this sent on time this time. I had the email written Sunday evening last week, but forgot to press the ‘schedule’ button. Happily, I’m...

🌻 The Week in Botany January 8, 2024

January 8, 2024

It’s a slow start this year, though we should have more things out next week. Something that did happen over the holiday is I set up an account for Botany...

🎄 The Week in Botany, December 18, 2023

December 18, 2023

Welcome to the last Week in Botany for the year. I’ll be taking the last week of the year off, so there’ll be no email on December 25, and no data for an...

🌻 The Week in Botany December 11, 2023

December 11, 2023

This week I heard that the Royal Society of Biology will have a free online event. Professor Jonathan Drori will be talking about the ground rules for...

🌻 The Week in Botany December 4, 2023

December 4, 2023

I spent quite a bit of time out of the office this week. Instead, I was working in Thame, the murder capital of Oxfordshire, which might come as a surprise...

🌻 The Week in Botany November 27, 2023

November 27, 2023

I’m trying a different method of spotting the popular stories and papers getting shared on social media. This week, they’re pulled from Twitter, Mastodon,...

🦃 The Week in Botany November 20, 2023

November 20, 2023

This week I’ve been working on a new system to track interest in stories on a wider range of sites than just Twitter and Mastodon. I was hoping to have it...

🌻 The Week in Botany November 13, 2023

November 13, 2023

It’s a quick Week in Botany this week, as I’ve been rushed off my feet. I got to Friday evening and then fell asleep with exhaustion and I’m not sure I’ve...

🌻 The Week in Botany November 6, 2023

November 6, 2023

It’s a late finish tonight, as I’ve been supervising the office manager over the weekend. It’s Bonfire Night here, and fireworks make his whiskers twitch....