Let’s Botanize! 101 Ways to Connect with Plants” is officially published!
We believe in the future of botanizing as a hobby for the 21st century—a hobby that is accessible to all, built on scientific depth, and has the potential to expand and enrich our understanding of the world. This book presents our vision for this natural history hobby, and offers a collection of 101 prompts for active observation of plant life. Think of it as a botanist in your pocket, or a workout plan for your intellectual botanical muscles—appropriate for the beginner and the experienced plant nerd alike.
We are really proud of this book and forever grateful to the talented team at @storeypub for bringing it to life. Check it out for yourself or for the plant-curious person in your life at the link in our bio!”
#plants #book #naturalhistory #botany #STEM
Fern vasculature! Lots more to the story, but here’s a glimpse.
This video is part of a plant collecting expedition in Ecuador with @alpinebotanist@emiliotrujillori@phinaea . The video is filmed by @yazanphoto
Further reading:
Mahley et al. “Geometry, allometry and biomechanics of fern leaf petioles: their significance for the evolution of functional and ecological diversity within the Pteridaceae.” Frontiers in Plant Science (2018)
Suissa and Reyes. “The evolution of leaf traces in eupolypod ferns.” New Phytologist (2026).
I was first introduced to the beautiful flowers of Bishop’s cap (Mitella diphylla), Saxifragaceae, Saxifragales) on the sterile medium of a PowerPoint slide. I was struck by the elaborate architecture of their petals. The five white structures look more like snowflakes, than plant organs. When I finally saw them in the parenchyma (plant flesh), I was sort of underwhelmed. The projector made them appear so much larger than their actual size of ~2mm.
However, after pulling out my hand lens and observing them in 10X magnification, the fascination returned. The detail of each petal was more complex than the pixels projected. They were not so much like snowflakes, but more like fishbones, with around 10 pairs of ribs carefully dissected along a central spine.
In most plants, showy petals are often adaptations for attracting pollinators. Large petals act as signal flags, calling insects or birds. That was my initial assumption when I first saw an image of Mitella. But, how could such miniscule petals possibly serve as an attractant?
Others shared my suspicion about the nature of these flowers and conducted experiments on them. Turns out that Mitella is pollinated by gnats. By surgically manipulating petals, Katsuhara and colleagues demonstrated that Mitella petals don’t actually serve as direct attractants for their pollinators - flower visitation rates did not change when petals were removed. Rather, the petals act more as a holding pad for the gnats, they grab onto the crevices of petals. Surgical manipulation decreased the probability of successful gnat landing and pollination.
It’s easy to be fascinated by large charismatic organisms with nothing more than the unaided eye. However, for some organisms like Mitella, we have to work a bit harder to find their beauty, but when we do, it pays off greatly.
#plants #botany #stem #flower #spring
Further reading:
Katsuhara, et al. 2017. “Functional significance of petals as landing sites in fungus‐gnat pollinated flowers of Mitella pauciflora (Saxifragaceae).” Functional Ecology.
Let’s Botanize Presents the 2026 Internship Series - Botanical Illustrations of Families
In this series, we aim to illustrate the connection between science and art by showcasing a variety of plant families alongside their respective botanical illustrations.
Let’s look at our seventh family - Solanaceae
*Illustrations are sourced from public domain images from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Further reading:
Woodrow, C., Jafferis, N., Kang, Y., & Vallejo-Marín, M. (2024). Buzz-pollinating bees deliver thoracic vibrations to flowers through periodic biting. Current Biology
#plants #stem #botany #tomato #natute
Getting the right words is hard… so, here are some attempts!
Our intern Cruz put together a good blooper reel.
We hope you enjoy!
#blooper #botany #plants #stem #nature
Botanizing is a natural history hobby based on observing and appreciating plants 🌱—like birdwatching, but for the botanical world. On Thursday, April 30 join Ben Goulet-Scott (@harvard_oeb PhD ‘22) from @letsbotanize at the FREE evening museum event ArtsThursdays: Botanical Wonders.
Ben will guide visitors on how to botanize, use a hand lens, and use the new book “Let’s Botanize: 101 Ways to Connect with Plants” (@storeypub ). While you are here, complete a botanizing scavenger hunt inside the New England Forests gallery to get a Let’s Botanize sticker!
#ArtsThursdays #LetsBotanize #Harvard #HarvardMuseums #ThingstoDoBoston
A fun trip to Central Park led to a great observation of sycamore flowers. Let’s Botanize! @centralparknyc
Further reading:
/species/platanus/occidentalis/
#botany #plants #stem #centralpark #nature
Flowers of Epigaea repens (Ericaceae, Ericales).
Flowers are composed of several parts. Petals are often attractive, enticing animals. Stamens are composed of a stalk (filament) and the anther, which produces pollen. The carpel has three distinct parts: the ovary or fruit (where the seeds are housed); the stigma where pollen is deposited; and the style that connects the stigma and the ovary. The style is a critical junction, as it acts as the highway for sperm inside the pollen to get to the ovules.
The style is critical for pollination. When an animal visits a flower they will get dusted with pollen. Where they get dusted has tightly co-evolved as the relationship between pollinator and plant becomes more intimate. Upon visiting another flower of the same species, the pollen will then be deposited on the tip of the stigma. The placement of pollen on the animal pollinator and the orientation of the stigma will likely correspond.
There is an issue with the way flowering plants have sex. Since they can produce flowers with both pollen and ovules, they have the opportunity to self fertilize—meaning pollen from a single flower or plant may land on the stigma of that same individual flower. This is not ideal, as it leads to inbreeding.
Flowering plants have evolved many strategies to inhibit self-fertilization and to promote outcrossing. For instance, some are dioecious: they produce individuals that only make pollen flowers (“males”) and others that make seed flowers (“females”). Others have evolved heterostyly, where some individuals will produce flowers that have short styles and other individuals have long styles. There is a dizzying array of variation around this theme. It is thought that heterostyly could be an intermediate step in the evolution of dioecy.
The floral polymorphism of Epigaea repens has caused confusion since the late 19th century; but it is suggested that the species is dioecious, not heterostylous. That said, E. repens have evolved roughly eight distinct flower morphs.
Further reading:
Barrett, Spencer CH. New Phytologist. (2019).
#flower #STEM #botany #plants #botany
Let’s Botanize Presents the 2026 Internship Series - Botanical Illustrations of Families
In this series, we aim to illustrate the connection between science and art by showcasing a variety of plant families alongside their respective botanical illustrations.
Let’s look at our sixth family - Orchidaceae
*Illustrations are sourced from public domain images from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Further reading: Shrestha, M., Dyer, A. G., Dorin, A., Ren, Z. ‐X., & Burd, M. (2020). Rewardlessness in orchids: how frequent and how rewardless? Plant Biology.
We are excited to share the trailer for the documentary short film ‘The Forest in the Trees’, which is the first project to be executive produced by Let’s Botanize Productions. It was co-filmed and directed by filmmaker @mattshelleyreade and our very own Ben Goulet-Scott over the course of two years and tells the story of a forest ecologist’s 30+ year research project that is as humble as it is invaluable to the scientific community.
With only a pair of binoculars and a notebook, ecologist John O’Keefe has walked the same trail through the woods at @harvard.forest for more than three decades, carefully recording seasonal changes. What started as a pet project has transformed into a landmark dataset, providing scientists with unparalleled data on how New England forests respond to climate change. Beyond his data, John’s patient, persistent approach yields much needed wisdom during a moment of climate anxiety and a society out of sync with the natural world. But John is not sure how much longer he can walk the trail and gather his observations. As a devoted chronicler of his local environment, he grapples with the fate of this remarkable project – will the study continue? What more might we learn about a changing climate? And what, ultimately, will be the legacy of a career spent investigating this forest?
The film premiered at the Environmental Film Festival at Yale (@yaleeffy ) in March and will be screened at Independent Film Festival Boston (@iffboston ) and the Easthampton Film Festival (@easthamptonfilmfestival ) in April. After its festival run, the film will be posted online for all to view!
Let’s Botanize Productions is a new mechanism for supporting longer format audiovisual projects that are beyond the typical scope of our short videos but embody the same mission of sharing engaging plant stories grounded in scientific rigor. Stay tuned for more work executive produced by Let’s Botanize Productions in the future!
#plants #botany #movie #stem #forest
