tree of life of trees (flowers, really)
May 16, 2024 8:56 PM Subscribe
Old and improved, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew recently released a lovely tree of life of... well, plants [pdf].
But wait, there's also An unexpected noncarpellate epigynous flower from the Jurassic of China
[pdf]. I was surprised that there was a controversy so ancient and about such fascinating beings: flowers. This is the first post I wanted to share with you all. Enjoy!
But wait, there's also An unexpected noncarpellate epigynous flower from the Jurassic of China
[pdf]. I was surprised that there was a controversy so ancient and about such fascinating beings: flowers. This is the first post I wanted to share with you all. Enjoy!
There's a lot to love here. Occasionally, as here in the pdf link, Nature, a commercial venture, puts something big the other side of their paywall. The planty thumbnails for Fig.1 are from the hands of great 19thC botanical illustrators, incl. Wm J Hooker the father of Darwin's pal Joseph Hooker. The Hookers held Kew Gardens as a dynastic fiefdom from 1841-1886. The project is a fine example of institutional collaboration and sharing of material; which is why herbaria are old fashioned but important [MetaPrev].
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:54 AM on May 17
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:54 AM on May 17
I know, I'm threadsitting. Apologies! I just had to reply to say: thank you for the wonderful papers! Please also thank Mike on my behalf for the knowledge about Moa (Kowhai, kereru, etc.).
Thinking about all this as I have my avocado toast :-)
posted by HearHere at 4:19 AM on May 17 [1 favorite]
Thinking about all this as I have my avocado toast :-)
posted by HearHere at 4:19 AM on May 17 [1 favorite]
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A neat paper from Kew. I love phylogenetic trees (and at family level often useful to find indicators of likely related species, very useful for difficult planting design).
Re An unexpected noncarpellate epigynous flower from the Jurassic of China one of the authors, Mike Pole is a friend (via twitter) and quite local. A geologist and botanist he has recently published on the probable pre-human flora of dryland Otago NZ [blog post on Mike's page, link to paper from there].
and another author Xing Wang [researchgate page] has written a (relatively understandable) thesis on Stable Isotope Analysis of Water [.pdf 3Mb, domain .nl ] a very useful reference.
posted by unearthed at 10:37 PM on May 16 [4 favorites]