gravity’s rainbow

Welcome to the 9th edition of Berry Go Round, your favorite botanical carnival!  This is my very first carnival hosting experience, so I hope you like it!

I’m taking a plant morphology class this semester, and my professor has me a bit wary about the looming section on ferns with statements like “if you think this is complicated, just wait until we get to ferns.”  Christopher Taylor over at Catalogue of Organisms has a great post up on the details of a fern life cycle that I will certainly be referring back to!  Did you know that the “normal” fern plant with two sets of chromosomes develops from a totally different looking fern plant with just one set of chromosomes?  Luckily, the panic induced by trying to figure such crazy things out is greatly reduced by actually looking at ferns.  Emily has many incredible pictures of ferns at her blog, No seeds, no fruits, no flowers: no problem, like this lovely fertile frond of Blechnum spicant.

Blechnum spicant

Mary has another very informative post up, this time about the Verbena Family.  Since I have a special place in my heart for plants with angular stems, I particularly enjoyed this post.  Who needs a plant taxonomy class when you can just read A Neotropical Savanna?

At botanizing, we are treated to a beautiful post that may cause you to take a closer look at inconspicuous orchids.

Botany Photo of the Day recently profiled the somewhat mysterious Jovellana punctata, which I promptly fell in love with (don’t worry, there’s no bad poetry hiding behind that link).

Jovellana punctata

Matt Mattus at Growing with Plants shares several gorgeous fall blooming plants and his enviable tomato harvest.  If you aren’t jealous, don’t tell me.  I don’t want to hear about how easy it is to grow tomatoes when you don’t live in the desert.

Allium callimischon ssp. haemostictum

Seeds Aside regales us with the history of tomatillos, which he refers to as miltomate.  In northern Arizona, we’ve already had a few close calls with frost this year.  I’m hoping the tomatillos from our garden fill out before the first hard freeze.  I’m pretty jealous of the bounty from verdure’s garden.

And speaking of gardens, GrrlScientist and the very respectable Professor Steve present their recent trip to Darwin’s garden.  There are some absolutely gorgeous flower photos, so make sure you go check it out.

Thanks to everyone who submitted to this edition!  I’m not sure where the next Berry Go Round will be hosted, so while I do some sleuthing, go check out last month’s edition over at Not Exactly Rocket Science and don’t forget to submit entries for October’s Berry Go Round, which will be hosted at Catalogue of Organisms.

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Math is beautiful.

No, plants probably won’t save us from global warming.

Diets don’t work, and people know it.  Weight watchers and all you other diet companies, I hope something really really awful happens to you.  You took advantage of hateful attitudes towards fat people and fanned the flames of self hatred for profit.

My new favorite plant, Jovellana punctata:

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Biology in Science Fiction’s post on A Field Guide to Surreal Botany was featured in this month’s Berry Go Round.  I am now desperate to read it:

an anthology of fictional plant species that exist beyond the realm of the real. … Fully illustrated in gorgeous full-color by Janet Chui, the specimen entries are by turns witty, hilarious, and very strange.

Also, I’ll be hosting the next Berry Go Round on September 28th.  I can’t wait to see what interesting things get submitted!

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One of my tomato plants finally has tomatoes.  Tiny, tiny tomatoes.  There is no way they are going to be ripe before the first frost.  The other plant doesn’t even have tiny tomatoes yet.

The one with tomatoes blew off my porch in a storm and its stake broke.  Now it’s indoors, propped against the window.  Poor thing…  But it does seem to be doing better than the other one.  Maybe they’ll do better indoors.  I don’t think they like how cold Flagstaff gets at night.

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I know you don’t look at my blogroll, so I thought I’d point you in the direction of a few blogs I really enjoy.

If you like plants, Seeds Aside is awesome (and has a great sense of humor). If you’re addicted to shoes, Manolo’s Shoe Blog points out the best. If you’re into art, Le territoire des sens finds some great pieces. If gender turns you on, you should be reading Sugarbutch Chronicles. If you’re going to grad school, or thinking about being an ecologist, Ruminations of an Aspiring Ecologist lets you know what you’re getting yourself into.

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The 6th edition of Berry Go Round is being hosted this month at Seeds Aside.  Check out these fantastic orchids featured in the carnival.

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Just outside of my classroom here at KBS is a large mulberry bush.  The mulberries are just beginning to ripen.  I had a small, but very tasty, handful today.  I’ve never really eaten anything made with mulberries before.  I was thinking they’d be good with pancakes.  Any suggestions?

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Monitor Mix is complaining about the same music being redone.  Have you ever heard of Cilla Black or Sandy Shaw?

Doing science in a nutshell at Seeds Aside:

If you don’t make mistakes, you’re doing it wrong.   If you don’t correct those mistakes you’re doing it really wrong.  If you can’t accept that you’re mistaken, you’re not doing it at all.

Pandagon discovers that voter ID laws have prevented a woman who has voted in the last 19 presidential elections from registering to vote in Arizona.  And I believe it.  I had to try 4 times before I’d given them all the paperwork and information they wanted.

The Edge of the American West presents “Things that it has been empirically demonstrated academics do not know,” including

Asking a question is not the same thing as giving a speech.

This is painfully evident at departmental seminars.

A video of McCarthy you should have seen over at The Edge of the American West.

Some plants can recognize genetic relatives and modify their behavior based on that information.  Full length explanation at A Neotropical Savanna.

Hottonia inflata is now on the list of plants I have to see in person.

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That bulge is where new leaves will grow from.

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The 5th edition of Berry Go Round is being hosted at A Neotropical Savanna this month.  A Neotropical Savanna is one of my favorite blogs, so you should definitely go check it out.  But if you’re too lazy, I’ve got the best bits right here:

• Mutant!
• I love questions about why a particular morphology exists.  Seeds Aside answers one I asked a professor last year: Why do leaves in the tropics often have such long, skinny tips?
• One of my favorite trees

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