There will be interesting presentations at tomorrow's The Linnean Society of London student conference (and it's for free!). I'll also be around with a poster on saxifrages and herbarium phylogenomics - or how to sequence lots of DNA from crummy old plants.

Spanish moss can be found draped throughout greenhouses in most botanic gardens. Still, I was today years old when I first noticed they have tiny yellow flowers. #Bromeliaceae

Great #PhD opportunity in #phylogenetics and #biodiversity research. Do share :)

Orchid hunting along Croatian roadsides was difficult due to booming Polygala populations, hiding all other flowers with shades of pink and purple among them. But we were lucky enough to find green-winged and three-toothed (??) orchids. @tessa_desi #Croatia #orchid

In the depression between the European and Dinaric Alps there are still non-alpine #Saxifraga species living in vastly different habitats. S. tridactylites on sun-scorched ruins and S. rotundifolia at ever-wet Plitvice Lakes.

The #Lobelia species in the #alpine zone of the Uganda #Rwenzori mountains are giants compared to their lowland representatives (one pictured). The flowers on tall spikes are the most striking feature of the landscape, and are frequented by endemic sunbirds. #alpineplants

Just some of the most striking fungi we encountered in the #Rwenzori mountains (06/19). The #Cordyceps turning the moth into a droopy cave ceiling is my absolute favourite. More specific IDs are welcome! #Fungi #Ascomycota @tessa_desi

A recent field trip in the Swiss Alps resulted in a meeting with endemic cliff hugger #Saxifraga diapensioides. Sadly, only dried-out flowers remained. As a mild comfort, the #orchid department was still showing off. #alpineplants

Woah, that's an interesting #vanilla #orchid flower. There's at least 2 major mistakes, can you spot more? #photoshopfail

The area around Aira Force is teeming with opposite-leaved golden saxifrages (Chrysosplenium oppositifolium). Lacking petals, their sepals and bracts create gold specks near the base of the waterfall #LakeDistrict @tessa_desi

Good to see this data paper online, resulting from work done by the diverse team of teachers and students Plant Functional Traits Courses. Big thanks to Prof. Vigdis Vandvik @bjenquist Sean Michaletz et al., teaching best practices in field of #planttraits and #OpenData.

Finally went on this years first orchid hunt: bee, pyramidal, and {common} spotted growing packed together in Leicestershire #wildflowerhour @tessa_desi

I can't ignore a request from Sir David, so I did my part. While I could only report an underwhelming 2 species from the 'easy-ID' chart, I am mostly relieved I did not have to ID any of the skippers I found #ButterflyCount

Went looking for flowering saxifrages s.l.: conveniently co-occurring, but filling different niches. I was too late for purple saxifrage, too early for mossy saxifrage, but right on time for golden saxifrage. Pen-y-ghent, 08/05/'21. #wildflowerhour #Saxifraga BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland

Walked up #BenLawers recently to collect functional trait / environmental data on #Saxifraga cernua. An ice-age relict that's restricted to cracks in gnarly rocks on a few mountains in Scotland. Sad to see such a small population impacted by dwindling snow-cover days.

Please RT! Interested in #island #plants? Want to apply macroecological methods to unique databases to learn how floras assemble? We have a vacant, fully funded PhD position in functional island biogeography BioGeo Göttingen in the @DynaCom project. see: tinyurl.com/37svshas

!!Alert!! New PhD project on large-scale #phylogenetic comparative methods applied #mutualism with #plants, notably #seed dispersal, #pollination, indirect #defences, #mycorrhizae, #N-fixing root nodule symbiosis available in my lab at Ecology and Evolutionary Biology findaphd.com/phds/project/t…

Diverse flowers along Aberlady bay's seaside marshes this weekend. Bogbean, butterwort, thrift and marsh orchids (early, northern?). #wildflowerhour

It took me a few repeat trips to find a flowering (though somewhat roughed up) #Saxifraga hirculus at the Pentlands. Beautiful, but fragile and small population.

Glad to announce our paper is out! Within #Saxifraga we show the relative contribution of processes behind alpine speciation through time: hopping between major mountain systems and upslope biome shifts, where the latter is more prevalent. nature.com/articles/s4146…