I have taken exactly 1 programming class. I know about this squints at gap between fingers much Python.
I really, really want to build a tiny little database thingie for plant taxonomy. I have enough Python written up to make a JSON dictionary or a CSV that I can then feed to a web thingie that makes pretty force-directed graphs. I'm a very visual person, so to relate to this data I want floating bubbles GIMME FLOATING BUBBLES THEY MAKE ME HAPPY.
I'm trying to figure out how to download/scrape or whatever the info from places like calflora and the USDA plants database to populate my thing. In the meantime I've manually typed up about 500 partial entries.
I'd really like to at least be able to generate a taxonomy tree. From the species binomial it should be easy to just relate each plant to its parent branches-- species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom. Simple, right? Ish?
Later I also want to be able to tell my bubble cloud to rearrange itself according to, say, which plants need more or less water, which ones are edible, which ones grow together in different habitats in different areas, all sorts of different things.
Oof. I miss being in class, where I could go to the computer lab and hunker over this sort of thing with buddies.
"Duke University has decided to close its herbarium, a collection of 825,000 specimens of plants, fungi and algae that was established more than a century ago. The collection, one of the largest and most diverse in the country, has helped scientists map the diversity of plant life and chronicle the impact of humans on the environment.
The university’s decision has left researchers reeling."
I'm trying to find out about people & institutions working in the emerging Plant Humanities. I'd like to be able to do an informational interview with someone in this field to see if it's where I'd like to head.
A waxing gibbous moon framed in the fork of an eroded branch of a Pinus longaeva (Great Basin bristlecone pine) at ~3,048m (10,000ft) in the White Mountains of California. (This is a single frame photo made by a human, #notAI.)
Alright, let's see how many Plant Scientists/Botanists we can reach here in the Fediverse.
Reply to this tweet with an introduction of yourself, what first attracted you to plants, and what you work on now. And boost this toot! #Planticipation#Botany#PlantScience
anyone know of a plant identification app that actually works in the spring when the leaves aren’t full adult size? seek isn’t cutting it #hiking#botany#nature#camping
Most of Plant Science Twitter seems to be on Bluesky. What are your favorite Fediverse accounts (institutional and/or personal) for keeping up with academic botanical news? #Botany#AskFedi@plantscience@academicchatter
The 1st flowers have just opened on the small-leaved kowhai tree, Sophora microphylla, at my parents' house in Ōtautahi-Christchurch. The tree came from Gore Bay as a seedling.
We first thought it was the earliest year ever, but no, that was 2017. It's been amazingly variable.
2012: 8 July
2013: 6 July
2014: 2 June
2015: (full bloom on 6 September so a late year)
2016: 31 July
2017: 4 May
2018: 8 July
2019: 23 June
2020: 6 June
2021: 21 July
2022: 19 June
2023: 28 May
I didn’t have much luck at the weekend with #botanical#photography - it was rainy and I had a lot of work to do. I want to share, nevertheless, a mobile phone photo of the big #Datura inoxia which showed up between the newly planted #vine#plants in our vineyard… It’s unlikely it came with the vine plants as those arrived without soil, and also the Senior said he has seen Daturas growing on our land in different places before, so it seems to be somewhat established here. May I remind you, that’s not the #Mediterranean, that’s the #Elbe Valley in #Saxony, Germany. (Note: reposted.)
Made my semi-annual trip to the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden. It's pretty early in the season so there's not much going on outside, but the conservatory is always worth a look.
1/4 #gardening #houseplants #botany #greenhouse #rhododendron
Red berries are everywhere in the bush now: raspberries, strawberries, ... and these, not edible, berries: Red Baneberry (Actaea rubra) and Northern Bush Honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis). #forest#plants#botany