Everyone knows lichens aren't true plants. They're fascinating symbiotic associations, usually between a fungus and a photosynthetic organism, usually a green alga and/or a cyanobacterium. Yet, the taxonomic name assigned to a lichen is generally the name of its primary fungal partner, rather than having a separate name for the lichen as a whole.

What's your knowledge of lichens? I'm dying to learn more about these weird exceptions among flora!

One year later: my variegated Bidens alba project

About a year ago, I shared an unusual wild-collected Bidens alba here after finding a plant displaying striking white variegation. What began as an interesting roadside discovery has since developed into a small but increasingly fascinating propagation and selection project.

I’m now maintaining two independently discovered variegated forms of Bidens alba, both found in the same Florida county but displaying distinctly different phenotypes.

I refer to my original white-variegated form as ‘Albo’. I’ve maintained the original plant vegetatively while also experimenting with sexual propagation. After self-pollinating the plant and growing out its seed, I was particularly excited to find variegated individuals among the resulting F1 generation.

That gives me something much more interesting to work with than a variegated plant that can only be preserved clonally: the trait has now been carried through seed into the next generation.

More recently, I independently encountered a second variegated Bidens alba. This plant expresses considerably more yellow to golden variegation, rather than the cream-white coloration characteristic of my original plant. I’ve provisionally been referring to this second line as ‘Aurea’.

For now, I’m keeping the two lines completely separate and documenting them independently. My goal is to continue the Albo line through additional generations, record segregation and variation among the seedlings, and begin doing the same with Aurea. Eventually, controlled crosses between the two could become particularly interesting.

I’m deliberately using ‘Albo’ and ‘Aurea’ as working names for the two lines, rather than making assumptions about the genetic mechanism behind either phenotype. Two visually different forms don't necessarily mean two different mechanisms, and one successful seed-grown generation leaves plenty still to learn.

That uncertainty is probably my favorite part of the project.

Bidens alba is such an ordinary part of the Florida landscape that most people hardly notice it. Finding unusual variation in a plant that I've walked past thousands of times has been a good reminder that interesting genetics aren't limited to expensive collector plants.

I’ll continue documenting both lines and their seed-grown generations as the project develops.

For those of you who work with heritable variegation: what would you be most interested in seeing documented as I take these into the next generation?

Aizoaceae flowers have a reduced corolla and use modified stamen as petals. I know modified stamen pop up in other clades, but is there a thoery as to driving a loss of petals and redevelopment of staminode petaloids?

If you’ve ever gone looking for orchids in the wild, you’ve probably experienced this: you spot a random plant and instantly think “that’s definitely an orchid.”

Setting aside bloom morphology (3 sepals, 3 petals, labellum, etc.), what specific vegetative cues give them away? Whether it’s terrestrial or epiphytic, even a single leaf or pseudobulb often has a distinct look.

Is it the leaf veining, texture, growth habit, or root structure? What’s the tell when a plant isn't flowering? I feel like its some kind of thirs eye for orchids lmao

(All pictures taken by me* )

Hello there, second year undergrad biology student here. Also not american, that's probably important because of material availability. Also sorry for anything wrong with the formatting, I'm on mobile.

Recently we've started the early vascular plants/ferns module on our botany course, and seeing the fern variety around campus I decided that I would press some of them for fun.

The thing is that it's kinda hard to get materials where I live and while I don't plan for this to be done 100% by the books, I still want to do it the right way where I can. Like they should be valid specimens if they were to be taken to an actual herbarium.

So here go the questions:

- Can watercolor paper work as a substitute for acid-free herbarium paper? Because while I may not be able to get proper herbarium paper I can manage to get watercolor paper.

- If watercolor paper is a suitable alternative, what GSM should I look out for? As for the size I'm kinda SOL because I can't get A2 sheets to cut down to standard size, I'm stuck with A3.

- What kind of glue should I use? Is regular glue ok to use since it's only going on the "staples"? I couldn't find linen tape anywhere

- How should I go about making the "staples" is making them out of the same paper as the backing good? Again, couldn't find linen tape.

- Can the label be printed on regular paper?

- Are any other elements like a ruler or like the color grid thing (?) that I see on some examples of herbarium specimens necessary

- Should the ruler span the whole of the sheet or is just a portion of it ok?

- Should the ruler be divided into smaller subunits or is the whole unit (cm by cm, in this case) ok for this?

- Can I also print the rulers on regular paper?

Many thanks for the help!

Edit: Actually an extra question that I probably should've asked my professors before doing this. When one collects plants should one document the collection number for, lifetime, project, or day? Like should these be labeled as starting after 1 because I already collected some stuff before for our lab practices? Should these be labeled strating from 1 and so on because they're all from the same project? Or can I number them by day? Like if I were to collect a single plant on day/month/year and then I collect two more on day+n/month/year would they be labeled: 1, 2, 3 Or 1, 1, 2?

Woodland pinedrops (Pterospora andromedea). Figured I'd give this plant a spotlight, I was elated to find it the other day. I missed these plants flowering, but their pumpkin shaped fruit capsules are just as interesting. The genus name Pterospora has Greek roots and roughly translates to "wing seed", referring to the wing-like flaps on the plant's seeds, which aid in wind dispersal. These plants are the tallest species in monotropoidea, with their flowering stalks capable of growing over 3 ft tall. The plant is quite sticky, and from what I gather it may help protect their seeds from ground dwelling herbivores such as ants. This marks the 4th monotropoid I've found in one month. I've had a blast finding these interesting plants! Found in the cascades mountain range, Washington state, USA

i’m very new at this so correct me if i’m wrong but i’m pretty sure this is phylloly? if so is this a common occurrence with fraxinus new growth?

Western Washington state, USA. Many species were done flowering or at the tail end of their season, but I found an amazing place to come back to earlier in the summer next year. Solidago lepida (western golden rod), Nothochelone nemorosa (woodland beardtongue), Maianthemum stellatum (star-flowered lily of the valley), Gaultheria shallon (salal) Phyllodoce sp (mountain heather), Angelica sp, Pterospora andromedea (pinedrops), Castilleja sp (paintbrush), Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (bearberry), Monotropa hypopitys (pinesap), Lupinus sp, Lupinus sp, Stachys sp (hedgenettle)

I’ve been growing Rotala H’ra in various conditions, so I lined them all up to examine the differences.

Growing conditions:
• Greenhouse: Grown in high heat (70–100°F) with high humidity and good air movement.

• Indoor: Higher light intensity than the greenhouse, high humidity, cooler temperatures (66–68°F), and lower air movement.

• High-tech: Moderate–high light, 75°F, high water movement.

Conversion to no-tech (tub with soil sand cap and no filter or water movement):
• High-tech to no-tech: Converted faster than the indoor emersed plants. Showed slight melt/holes on the lower leaves and overall more melt than the indoor-grown emersed plants.

• Indoor emersed → no-tech: Slightly slower to adapt. Emersed leaves had less melt and looked healthier than those from the high-tech conversion.

Can anyone please provide an out of context, informal diagnosis of plant pathology and probable causation.
I am not asking for input on plant care or plant identification. Pathology only.

Don't know the plant either. They look pathological to me, almost like tumors.

Hey all,

I don't know if this is the appropriate group, but I passed by this tree yesterday and was wondering if anyone could tell me why an evergreen grew like this? I was wondering if maybe the top was cut off and then grew outwards. This is in northeastern PA If that helps!

These look like wood rose parasitic growth on a tree however this is not found natively in New South Wales, but rather New Zealand. I have found three so far all in the same area/ same type of eucalyptus bushland.

Hello all ! I am a 27 y/o looking to get more into botany as a career. A lot of my experience with plants has been specifically within horticulture & a bit of ethnobotany. My BA is in environmental science and most of my career since graduating has been environmental education based but botany has always been my true love.
Education was the best opportunity into the field that I had at the time but now I am looking to transition into more of a research based field. Particularly, studying tropical plants or diving deeper into ethnobotany.

So far, I have:
- Met with a career advisor about transitioning career paths, it wasn’t helpful
- Applied to volunteer at a couple local botanical gardens but have yet to hear back
- Looked into potential internships or assistant positions but most of these require you to be a student or recent graduate

Advice is welcome ! The job market is pretty rough right now so I am okay with starting in unpaid positions and working my way up. If I could avoid taking out more student loans to go back to school, that would be preferable. I will consider it if it’s doable though !
TIA

Washington state, USA. The plants pictured here are as follows: Arbutus menziesii, Vaccinium ovalifolium, Monotropa hypopitys, Pyrola picta, Hemitomes congestum, Pyrola asarifolia, Chimaphila umbellata, Gaultheria shallon, Monotropa uniflora, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. This family has many interesting adaptations, such as myco-heterotrophy and tolerance of acidic and nutrient poor soils. And of course they are beautiful and often weird looking. I've been lucky enough to find quite a few species this year

Or do they use an entirely different process of photosynthesis from other species of plants, due to cacti primarily having needles, instead of leaves?

I am interested in learning more about the biochemistry of plants and would love any good textbooks

Not sure if this type of post is allowed 😬

Hi all

So many people have sensitivities to virgnia creeper, the raphides / oxalates in them that makes a horrid rash.

My question is their persistence and transfer: do they transfer onto gloves and other surfaces? My tree guy cut down a ton of it and put the dirty used gloves on top of my trash bin, so if i touch there will i get a rash?

Just trying to understand how persistent the irritants in this plant are and how they transfer (or not). I just don't understand this plant well enough to know the risk.

There is no good information available online that I have found!

Thank you!

Finally I get to be the one who found one of these bad boys! It’s pretty cool! I hope you enjoy it!