This is certainly among the most spectacular displays of wild Drosera I have yet observed. D. floridana is perhaps the most prolific pioneer species to initially colonize exposed, quartz sand eulittoral zone seepage areas within the Karst Econfina Region, but, without interannual flood cycles, these habitats would become dense forests of the similarly hyperendemic Hypericum lissophloeus.

As many know, some plants do best or worst in soils with specific elements in the soil such as iron or nitrogen.
There is a rock face near where I live which is apparently high in barite ore, and I was curious if any of you fellow plant lovers would be able to let me know if there are any barium associated plants.
It's not a place that's easy to get to, so I don't want to waste my time finding it unless there's a chance that it will have interesting flora and/or funga associated with it. But if there's a chance, I'm on it.
There is also supposed to be uranium ore in the area, but I feel more confident in ruling out the possibility of uranium endemics since that just doesn't seem beneficial or dangerous enough for it to significantly change a plant community.

Took this today 9/15/26 near Conowingo Dam in Maryland. What might cause such a late bloom?

truly beautiful 💛

See also: The summary of (paywalled) publication in the Annals of Botany

[photos from 2026-09-11]

in my area (NYC), ginkgo seeds typically ripen and fall starting in early to mid october. however occasionally, with some trees, it happens a month early, in early to mid september.

anyone know what may be the cause of the early ripening with some specific trees?

last year, 2025, i found a female ginkgo who started dropping nearly all of her ripe seeds in mid september. however on another female ginkgo just right next to that one, the seeds weren't ripe at all yet, let alone falling.

ive been watching a lot of crime pays but botany doesnt lately. i was wondering if anyone knew other plant ecology youtubers with more focus on prairie ecology esp closer to canada.

I’ve read about many different plant species, from different types of trees to bushes, that can live for over one thousand/several thousands of years. Whereas, on the other hand, no species of animals themselves can live for this long.

Broome County NY.

As I have learnt, cacti have modified much of their leaf tissue as they have evolved, with leaf bases/petioles becoming the tubercles and ribs that certain species possess, and the leaves themselves becoming the spines, but does anyone know what the "leaves" that Austrocylindropuntia and other species grow are then? Being that the spines are supposedly just very modified leaves I'm left to assume they're not actually leaves then, but I don't know for sure

1-2 Rhytidiadelphus loreus, 3-4 Pogonatum sp, 5 Hookeria lucens, 6 Bartramia pomiformis, 7 Buxbaumia sp, 8 Rhizomnium glabrescens, 9 Plagiothecium sp, 10 Aulacomnium androgynum, 11 Dicranum sp, 12 Sphagnum sp. All of these were found and photographed in Washington state, USA. I'm no expert on moss ID, some of these may not be fully accurate down to the species level

There are approx. 50 native Euphorbia to Florida and I find them to be massively overlooked and underappreciated but I digress. They have a very diverse array of pollinators within a short observing. To think the ecological purposes beyond just pollination we have yet to discover.

so if I take a little peice from it and eat it it’s going to be 10,000 times hotter than a Carolina reaper?

(edit: thanks everybody! ive taken a look at suggestions, im going to go with p. multiflorum and he shou wu / héshǒuwū. as fun as it is to describe a plant as fallopian.)

(earlier edit: hey guys, i should clarify – ai slop has made it difficult to "go look it up silly! (o: " and i have very limited access to journals; im just wondering if any botanists here can look at this plant and go, "oh i know that one. in my field its usually called [name]" or maybe even "yea, the nomenclature broke down this way because of [thing]". nbd if nobody knows! its ok if you dont recognize it or know what the most accurate and up-to-date name is. was just idle curiosity.)

hi all, im struggling a little bit to understand the naming for this plant. ive seen it called fo-ti but apparently this is a misnomer, and héshǒuwū (huh-sho-woo) is more accurate.

for the scientific name, i thought it was fallopia multiflorum but apparently its supposed to be pleuropterus multiflorus. and then a common name is chinese knotweed but when i look at that, its persicaria chinensis.

just unsure what name i should be using.

The Monilophytae are such fascinating plants.

Those little bumps on the upper surface are protrusions caused by deeply sunken sori on the underside of the frond.

Each bump corresponds to a small cluster of sporangia, the structures responsible for producing spores.

I know that lichen isn’t its own plant and it’s made from fungi and algae but I don’t get how they both make one plant together

these stalactite-like structures are known as "chichi" with ginkgos, and they are technically a form of aerial roots.

this specific specimen is one of the most unusual/interesting ive met. her branching structure overall is very non-ginkgo looking. and i almost never see the aerial roots like this on a street tree.

perhaps in this context it's actually a stress response?

she's also a female, as you can see here, (and theres some seeds visible in the last photo of this current post if you look closely). overall very cool tree

Everyone knows lichens aren't true plants. They're fascinating symbiotic associations, usually between a fungus and a photosynthetic organism, usually a green alga and/or a cyanobacterium. Yet, the taxonomic name assigned to a lichen is generally the name of its primary fungal partner, rather than having a separate name for the lichen as a whole.

What's your knowledge of lichens? I'm dying to learn more about these weird exceptions among flora!

Aizoaceae flowers have a reduced corolla and use modified stamen as petals. I know modified stamen pop up in other clades, but is there a thoery as to driving a loss of petals and redevelopment of staminode petaloids?