Classes are over!! A year in review of the Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants

My first dissection of a fall-blooming Anemone hybrid, family Ranunculaceae, order Ranunculales, showing a cross-section of the bracts, receptacle, the fruits and the stamens. 

So....it's been more than a week since classes were over and now I'm coming down from, literally and figuratively, a vacation and extra Beltane performance at the Museum Late Celts Evening at the National Museum of Scotland. Whoa!

Needless to say, this year has been insanely busy, challenging, hectic, crazy, insane, borderline manic, amazing, insightful, and full of good people, great plants, and incredible experiences.

Monday I start my thesis work (in not so many words: evaluating how existing ecosystem services evaluation systems are able to assess botanical garden collections), but I thought it would be appropriate to reflect back on the year of classes on angiosperms (what most folks know as flowering plants), gymnosperms ('naked seed plants', or what most folks know as conifers, Gnetophytes, and Ephedras), and evolution of all the plants and all the things associated with plants, like algae, fungi, and fossils (which Scotland is rich in!!).

The common themes you'll probably notice from the photos are flower dissections and plant walks with Louis and Jenny. I will work on trying to annotate the photos so you know what I was trying to look at!

Click here for more photos!

Nathan being a human yard stick to show how big these Vireya Rhododendron trusses are.

Orchid Days in November

It has been such a dreamy day in Edinburgh, thinking about orchid, snow and history.

Well, it all started last night with the snow. I was hanging out with Tom after class and as we walked to the Old Town the snow started. It was beautiful against the trees outlined in with Christmas lights.

Today I took a moment to visit the farmers' market and take a walk through the city. It was a bit unnerving that 1 p.m. looked like 4 p.m., but the golden light on the old buildings was worth it. The streets were full of tourists visiting for the Christmas celebrations and the farmers' market was full of tasty meats and produce from local farmers and artisans. Lots of great spoils from the day, thanks to the wonderful ladies and gentlemen there who helped me get some great deals (including a pack of local striped bacon and three pounds of local Aberdeen Angus for 12 pounds). I was even fortunate to catch a glimpse of snow on the hills north of here as I walked home. Stunning.

The view from the kitchen window this afternoon, about 2:30 p.m.

Anyway, the night was complete with a surprise Christmas fireworks show right outside of Patrick Geddes Hall and homemade hot chocolate I made to celebrate the chilly occasion. A busy, productive day.

It's a bit of a stretch, but this is a fitting way to end a great week!

Dracula bella, an orchid that is pollinated by fungus gnats, which you can understand if you give the mushroom-like lip a sniff.

Click here for more photos from orchid classes.

We've turned toward conservation issues and focused on orchids this Thursday and Friday. Of course I was beside myself most of the time, because orchids are my favorite plants (among many)! We had a lecture about orchids Thursday morning, followed by a practical in the afternoon, where we drew flowers, talked about morphology, and scents. Friday morning we were in another practical on basic pollination biology. It was nice to get back to the plants again.

In honor of this occasion I'd like to finally share my photos from my afternoon in the orchid greenhouse at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. While what you'll see at the link below might just seem like a stream of photos, it can also contribute to a body of work on the phenology of orchids, or the studying of timing of natural cycles in plants (and animals). Even so, they're just so cool!!

I would like to leave you with the final thought Kerry left us with after his orchid lecture:

'Man's mastery of the Earth pays him greatest tribute when he achieves the humility to leave some of it alone.' -Unknown

Click here for photos of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh's Orchid Collection.

Rhynchostylis? of some kind.

A glimpse of Edinburgh

 

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Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. There are so many posts in the works, so many photos of beautiful things, but I have to be realistic: I'm still in graduate school and I can't forget that!

It was a beautiful weekend though, and this afternoon, despite it getting almost completely dark by 4 p.m., was stunning. Time to share some photos while I can. You can read more about each photo at the link above.

Class is going well and we only have a couple of weeks left of actual class. We'll have some time to breathe, but it will still be filled with studying and preparing for our 12-day trip to Belize in January. In the mean time there will be an American Thanksgiving dinner and a British Christmas dinner.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh- the first glimpse

The first book I opened in the library at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh was:

“It is a piece of weakness and folly merely to value things because their distance from the place where we are born: thus men have traveled far enough in the search of foreign plants and animals, and yet continue strangers to those produced in their own natural climate.” – Martin Martin, 1698, A Late Voyage to the St. Kilda

The old, but poignantly relevant, quote struck a painful cord in my homesick heart. Second thoughts were rife in my mind as I tried to struggle with why I’d decided to travel so far from home.

And then I saw the familiar form of a Metasequoia glyptostroboides, dawn redwood, marking the entrance to the garden and my heart skipped. This was why I was there.

The menagerie of plants I saw in the Scottish Heath Garden, Rock Garden and the other areas I could reach in my brief breaks showed me I still had tons of plants to learn and that was why I was there. I had a purpose and I had time to devote myself to it.

Left, left, left….but look right: settling into Edinburgh

“Left, left, left….” My cousin and I chanted, as my grandfather pulled out of the rental car place in Glasgow in 2003. That was my first time in Scotland and it was an unforgettable trip.

As I rode the bus from Granton, my nerves were on end as the double decker drove through the narrow streets. On the wrong side of the road. Of which I was reminded of after getting on the bus going the wrong way because I was standing on the wrong side of the road. Again.

And then there was crossing the street. We’ve been told since we were little to look both ways to cross the street. Okay, I’ve got that. But, what I didn’t realize is that in the United States we look left then right, because the traffic is coming from the left. Well, here it isn’t.

There are thousands of people from all over Europe and Asia here for the festivals, so it’s been hard to gauge the normal Edinburgh society. Throngs of tourists have flooded the streets and tourist shops are everywhere in the Old and New Towns. I’m not a native, but even I am tired after a few days. And these poor folks have had to deal with the festivals for the past month. Yuck.

There is a lot of Mediterranean, Turkish and American food and the traditional Scottish food is faded in the background (although there is plenty of fish and chips to be had). And then there’s plenty of whisky to be had too. It’s its own food group anyway. Thinking now though, this is a major metropolitan area, and just like in the U.S., the “traditional” foods of the region aren’t really front and center and readily available to visitors (or are only known by the locals, of which I’m working on). The backbone of the society is dictated by “The Council” and social programs are pretty well-organized, you just have to figure them out! Things are certainly more expensive here and it will be nice to be able to cook for myself.

So, in a way, it’s very much like being in Charlotte: the weather’s similar, the people look similar, there’s a smattering of immigrants, and there is are a lot of options shopping/food-wise; except…..the accents are definitely not the same and it’s in Scotland.

But, traffic and people aside, Edinburgh has been amazing. It is set in a beautiful place, full of beautiful, ancient buildings. Thankfully they thought to save many of them in the 60s and 70s. The view from Holyrood Park is incredible and you can see north to the Highlands and far into the Firth of Forth. I’ve been able to learn the city by walking around and looking around from the tops of the buses.

As an American, I think I can appreciate the architecture more than most of the native folks. Just the other day I went to an art show that was part of the Fringe Festival and it was held in the courtyard of an old, stone abbey and Edinburgh Castle filled the skyline behind it. The Londoner, Irishman and lady from Spain couldn’t understand why I was so excited. Everywhere you look there is history. Even as the bustle of modern society fills in most of the available space around me, and the skillfully crammed buildings of the streets of Edinburgh, I can still appreciate that I am in one of the most beautiful places in the Western world.

I'M GOING TO EDINBURGH

Well, I have been very slow about my recent updates; I've still got three more posts from my trip back in December (and they are still coming!). It's been a pretty busy time being back in North Carolina and moving down to Mobile, Alabama.

Center circle of the Millie McConnell Rhododendron Garden in the morning light.

But, I have some very exciting news!

I've been accepted into the University of Edinburgh's Master's of Science in the Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants!

That's right: Edinburgh, Scotland. The year-long program is done in conjunction with the researchers at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and looks to provide an incredible opportunity to gain more training and experience in field botany and applied taxonomy (also to explore the beautiful country of Scotland and be involved with RBG Edinburgh). Wow.

I have some more good news.

I will be staying on at the Mobile Botanical Garden in Mobile, AL over the summer working on the grounds and staying plugged in with their other programs. I can't wait to really dig in and get more involved in the collections.

Finally, I would like to send out a general thank you for everyone who has kept up with me and my travels. It has meant a lot to me that I have friends and family that care about me and what I'm doing. I would appreciate if you would take some time to view my GoFundMe page and think about if there is anything you would care to donate.

Just like this little Pinus palustris seedling, I am just getting started, but I am well on my way.