Spring foliage doesn't get as much attention as the spring flowers but these baby fern fronds are pretty great! These maidenhair (Adiantum pedatum) fiddleheads are a gorgeous reddish-pink and this bulblet bladder fern (Cystopteris bulbifera) has a few little bulblets forming!

SUCH a strong showing from all contestants in the VT Biology Bake Your Research competition 🏆

Here's a spring ephemeral update before everyone is focused on the solstice! Lots of great things blooming in the NRV. I spotted columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), wild ginger (Asarum canadense), trout lily (Erythronium americanum), and red trillium (Trillium erectum), and others!

We had our second annual herbarium easter egg hunt yesterday! My student researchers made quick work of finding eggs before our lab meeting.

We had a great visit from Stacey Rosenquist, a VT alum working for DOD, in Plant Taxonomy yesterday! She talked about her work and federal job opportunities for students.

I always love visiting the greenhouse and seeing some treasures. These bird of paradise flowers (Strelitzia) and amaryllis flower (Amaryllis) really wowed me!

Awesome to see Dr. Cassandra Quave🌿⚕️ 's op-ed on the importance of herbaria! Definitely worth a read.

These plant libraries are key to humanity’s future. Let’s preserve them. wapo.st/4cpWQ28

Safety first--I buckled in the video dissecting scope for a presentation! ;) I used it while talking ferns with the Virginia Native Plant Society NRV chapter last night.

Torrey Botanical Society NHM Botany Jordan Metzgar Then he got even shunned by the other US botanists for being a 'foreign competitor'. Rugel hoped to make long collecting trips across the US but never received replies and became botanically isolated.
I think, he'd be happy to see his collections in US herbaria now.

Torrey Botanical Society NHM Botany Jordan Metzgar I'm happy to see that the specimens arrived well and are appreciated.
Rugel wanted to connect to US botanists (and did initially), but he was bound by contract to send everything to Shuttleworth.

Anyone interested in co-organizing an alcohol-free social or networking event at #Botany2024 with me? I've organized The Botany Scoop alcohol-free social the last 2 years but am happy to change formats.

Here's the link with info and last year's event ad:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

Thanks Virginia Tech News for the feature! Check out the story for pics and video of our 'new' specimens from the 1840s! These plants were collected in the SE USA in the 1840s and just made their way here from the NHM Botany.
news.vt.edu/content/news_v…

We tasted history in Plant Taxonomy this week! I made tiger nut cake from Tasting History for our monocot lecture. We tried a tiger nut cake made with yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) from the sedges (Cyperaceae), with date palm syrup (Phoenix dactylifera, Arecaceae)!

We're hiring a new VT Biology greenhouse manager! Details and application here: careers.pageuppeople.com/968/cw/en-us/j…

The VT community is invited to attend an engaging, interactive event with rockstar scientist and fierce advocate for diversity and access in STEM, Dr. Jessica Ware. The talk/panel will be on March 22nd, at Steger Conference Center 2-3:30. Please register using QR code on flyer.

We had our annual yam vs sweet potato taste test in Plant Taxonomy! The true yams are monocots in the Dioscoreaceae. They get confused with sweet potatoes, in the morning glory eudicot family (Convolvulaceae). We tried both Ghanaian yams and orange sweet potatoes after lecture.