Best of Seeds Aside 09

Here are the posts that got the most reads this year: Drip tips drain leaves more efficiently. (I had no idea it would be so successful as to throw out #3… Seems like this was an unanswered question that found its place in the internet) What are the two sexes of a plant moss? (Maybe [...]

PSOTW: Aloha Aloe!

Aloe Plant. Originally uploaded by Just chaos Plant species of the week.

Can this question possibly belong to the exam?

I can’t possibly produce an excerpt from this post without actually quoting the whole… You should go read this wonderful letter at Adventures in Ethics and Science. Especially if you ever had students asking questions about the exam that you could not imagine were actual or relevant questions but hopelessly designed to get bits if [...]

Buds and ends

In plants, buds differ in size and that matters. If you want a way to illustrate how buds length varies between plants using pictures, than you’ll have to use anything worth calibrating. For example, insects would. So is this what one would call scale bugs? Scale Bug (Poss) (Pulvinaria regalis) Originally uploaded by Eco Heathen

Kiwano (quick)

Kiwano is the fruit of Cucumis metulliferus, or Horned Melon. I have known the fruit for a long time without ever affording one (this was more because I couldn’t find it, though the price would have made me think twice before buying one). It is very attractive, with a bright orange epiderm and more or [...]

When will Seeds Aside go extinct?

Link drift caused me yesterday to read a blog post (unfortunately, not a blog I knew, and I can’t remember anything allowing to get the link back now) investigating the publication rate for that blog over time. I did the same for Seeds Aside (# of post / months spent since creation), and got this:

Stapelia glanduliflora flower

Stapelia glanduliflora flower. Originally uploaded by Martin_Heigan Plant of the week! What do you think of a weekly share of plant diversity?

No more veggies please!

I belong to this kind of biologists that takes natural selection quite seriously, though this is a conceptual bias I rather easily acknowledge. It doesn’t mean that I’m completely indifferent to other processes impacting biological evolution neither*. I’m perfectly aware that the omnipotence of selection to shape life is a long standing and recurring debate, [...]

CotS #45

You can read Circus of the Spineless, 45th edition, down there at Greg Laden’s Blog (link). This edition includes many blogs I don’t know, so if you’re like me there’s lot of reading in perspective. Go have a look at thee arthropods and Molluscs (or mollusks… should I even try mollux?).

The Botanist Next Link

The Botanist Next Door. This blog exists since over a year and I just realise. I have to remember when updating the blogroll (no time but real need). Please have a visit!