Today was one of those odd days you get here in southern Bavaria, where the wind comes from the South – föhn they call it here, which in my book translates to hair dryer, which makes total sense. If that happens and the skies are clear, the sun gets quite warm, and it can suddenlyContinue reading “Hair dryer”
Category Archives: botany
Five is all it takes (pt. 2)
It felt pretty good last week to write some words on the things I was grateful for. Grateful is good. Gratitude can turn your mood from shit to alright. Typically if you feel alright, you forget that you should practice gratitude. So, it is best to make gratitude a habit. That’s what this is: meContinue reading “Five is all it takes (pt. 2)”
They’re still here!
It’s been quiet on the plant front lately. When I moved into my new place in December, obviously I moved my plants with me. This was quite a tricky thing with temperatures far below zero at the time. My aroids don’t like frost much. Or any temperature lower than 15 centigrade. For two months, theContinue reading “They’re still here!”
Time for a transition
Over the past couple of months I’ve been running an ecological experiment investigating the effects of artificial light at night on plant growth and phenology. Some effects were clearly visible in flowering phenology of two of the three species. Especially yarrow plants flowered much earlier, and in larger numbers, under artificial light than with darkContinue reading “Time for a transition”
Spot the differences
Some mild science for today’s blog. One of my core research subjects in ecology is the investigation of how light pollution by artificial light at night affects plants, and how this may affect whatever is feeding on the plant. It’s still a bit of a niche area, and there’s not too much going on inContinue reading “Spot the differences”
This one doesn’t learn
My tiny Monstera deliciosa ‘variegata’ is doing well lately. She’s tiny compared to some of my other plants, but she’s growing better than some others in terms of new leaves. This week she showed and unfolded her third leaf for the year. At this rate she might even pop another one or two out beforeContinue reading “This one doesn’t learn”
Friday findings – volume 6
Trust me. I’m aware that it’s a Saturday. But I don’t care. Yesterday I wanted to write about my son’s special day. Today I want to share highlights of my week in ecology. It’s my blog – stop whining! 1) Accepted – An important paper got accepted this week. This paper is the first paperContinue reading “Friday findings – volume 6”
The cure to heatstroke?
What a day today. In the morning I started off developing a mild heat stroke, as we were labeling and sorting plants in the absolute blistering heat. What can I say. It’s not great labeling in blistering heat, but it was important! The alternative was labeling inside the greenhouse. In that sense we used theContinue reading “The cure to heatstroke?”
There’s no way I could have resisted this
Regular readers will know this. I love plants and I love snakes, and I love their appearance even more when you put white spots on them. There’s just something about variegation that makes every color pop more. I think it’s amazing. About a year ago I bought my first variegated Monstera deliciosa. A second followedContinue reading “There’s no way I could have resisted this”
Friday findings – volume 4
This week was rough. All four family members have been sick, and one of them twice – with a four day healthy intermezzo. Yet, things have also been quite great in my life in ecology. Here’s a couple of highlights (no real lows this week): 1 – I had a shared first author paper acceptedContinue reading “Friday findings – volume 4”
Robin Heinen 