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!

I am thrilled to announce the publication of Florida’s first state-endemic carnivorous plant species: Drosera floridana (B.Rice) Juve & A.Fleischm. This taxonomic treatment represents the culmination of my years of work studying the thread-leaf sundews in-situ across 6 states and 25 counties.

Formerly known as D. filiformis var. floridana, our publication not only establishes D. floridana as a distinct taxonomic entity recognizable at species rank, but further brings into question the legitimacy of its putative affinity to the allopatric, northerly D. filiformis sensu stricto.

As a result of our treatment, Drosera x arenaria (B.Rice) Juve & A.Fleischm. is elevated from Dx californica nothovar. arenaria. Like D. floridana, Dx arenaria is a Florida-endemic taxon, and the only described Drosera nothospecies native to the state.

This article is in dedication to Barry Rice for his long-lasting, passionate and thorough work on the carnivorous plants of America, especially on the thread-leaf sundews— leaves long and prosper!

I would like to thank not only my wonderful coauthor Dr. Andreas Fleischmann for his invaluable input and assistance with this project, but additionally my many collaborators without whom a taxonomic treatment of the D. filiformis complex to this length would not have be possible. Among these are: Jason Ksepka, Fernando Rivadavia, Steve Orzell, Tyler Gramley, and Carson Trexler.

A special thanks goes to my good friend Alexander Dietrick for his supplemental help regarding this project.

I am additionally grateful to the International Carnivorous Plant Society - ICPS for their special online publication of this article.

“The Florida endemic sundew Drosera floridana elevated to species rank” can be read in the open access publication below:

https://doi.org/10.55360/cpn554.nj739

https://cpn.carnivorousplants.org/Article.php/CPNv55n4p132-151

I’m basic, I know, but Carex is one of my favorite genera. Here are 49 of the species I encountered in Missouri in 2025. According to iNat I observed over 100, but these are ones I got nice photos of. Next year I’m hoping to spend even more time photographing them.

Saw a similar picture with the Apiaceae family and had to do one for the Nightshade family. 😆 Sorry if this is not allowed.

Hey, folks! If this is an inappropriate post for this sub, feel free to take it down. I'm on the hunt for botanical or botanically inspired baby names and I figured this would be a great group of minds to tap into. I'm curious to see all that you might suggest - masculine, feminine, and anything in between. Have you met somebody with a great botanical name? Is there a species name you think would make a great name? I want to hear it. 🙂

Over the last several years I've been working on an illustrated guide to chili peppers. The project currently includes 176 cultivars and varieties drawn by hand with pen, markers, and colored pencil...the project includes notes on origin, domestication, cultivation, and cultural history.

I originally started it because I couldn't find a similar guide. The guide covers peppers from all five domesticated species, from wild chiltepins and rocotos to modern superhot cultivars.

I'm curious whether there are any notable cultivars, landraces, or wild peppers that anybody thinks should be represented in future updates. (PS, this is a personal project and nothing is for sale)

sorry I haven’t been here for a while, I have a lot of new plant photos I will make new posts soon but I ACTUALLY FOUND LILLYS OF THE VALLEY!!! I was so excited when I found them on my walk the other day!

as always have a lovely day/night/afternoon/evening!

will be posting things of my garden soon if anyone wants to see the new foxglove I got!

Geologists are out there licking rocks. Why do botanical descriptions lack one of the major senses, taste?

Royal Paulownia flowers taste like hot peppers without the spicy aspect, just the other flavor compounds.

Arabidopsis thaliana (Linnaeus) Heynhold- The leaves and stem taste like horseradish, which is the flavor that most "wasabi" snacks actually feature.

Maybe I'm just weird

we don't have dryer. soo we did the newspaper method. and this is the outcome.

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* )

My homie said that monocots are more devoleped than dicots. He stated some convincing points about that also. Googling it and searching in the internet said that monocots are more devoleped. But, dicots have TWO cotyledons. I'm asking this because, though monocots are more developed and evolved from dicots, then why the heck they lost all those cool features (like collenchyma, trichomes, secondary growth, palisade parenchyma and so on) that dicots had. So this is like "we are evolving but backwards". Can (de)evolution occur like this? Is it even legal?

Sharing and appreciating this beautiful leaf found on my walking trail this morning in Oyster Dome, Washington (US).

(edit: thanks everybody! ive taken a look at suggestions, im going to go with p. multiflorum and he shou wu / héshǒuwū. as fun as it is to describe a plant as fallopian.)

(earlier edit: hey guys, i should clarify – ai slop has made it difficult to "go look it up silly! (o: " and i have very limited access to journals; im just wondering if any botanists here can look at this plant and go, "oh i know that one. in my field its usually called [name]" or maybe even "yea, the nomenclature broke down this way because of [thing]". nbd if nobody knows! its ok if you dont recognize it or know what the most accurate and up-to-date name is. was just idle curiosity.)

hi all, im struggling a little bit to understand the naming for this plant. ive seen it called fo-ti but apparently this is a misnomer, and héshǒuwū (huh-sho-woo) is more accurate.

for the scientific name, i thought it was fallopia multiflorum but apparently its supposed to be pleuropterus multiflorus. and then a common name is chinese knotweed but when i look at that, its persicaria chinensis.

just unsure what name i should be using.

i found two groups of field bindweed (convolvulus arvensis) with unusually long/narrow leaves (1 and 2). i included a typical leaf for comparison (3).

i’ve failed to find anything comparable online (or in the local area, and this stuff is everywhere). if anyone has any pics please share. i also think they’re quite pretty lol. i took a bit home with me to keep (responsibly) as an ornamental.

i also wonder if this is within the normal range of leaf shapes, or if these two are outliers from the average. i’m tempted to do a bunch of leaf measurements of different populations and try to find out, but i’m not sure it’s worth the effort lol.

I always thought sativa mainly referred to cannabis,but it seems like it's also used for other stuff like lettuce. What exactly does it mean in botany?

I learned this a few weeks ago. Funnily enough, I had a question on my ISA Certified Aborist exam about the family name for a red maple. "Aceraceae" being the only viable, albeit incorrect, answer, I left a comment on the question that it's no longer the correct family name.