Yen

A microscopy image of a bunch of opening Grevillea flowers. They have bright pink styles looped down into the flower, forming a series of pink arches.

Bright pink and triangular pollen on a pollen presenter (tip of style).

Dissection of an unopened flower showing pollen presenter nestled up against anthers packed with bright yellow pollen. The pollen turns pink as the floret matures before opening.

Grevillea barklyana, aka the gully grevillea. Endemic to Victoria and critically endangered (this is from a horticulture plant). When you take a close look you'll notice it has PINK pollen. From my own dissections the pollen starts out as yellow and turns pink as the florets mature and open.

A tortoiseshell cat with green/yellow eyes sniffing the eyepiece of a dissecting microscope on top of a desk.

A tortoiseshell cat with green/yellow eyes rubbing her face on the eyepiece of a dissecting microscope on top of a desk.

Teaching Fish microscopy (thankful she waited till after I was done using the microscope to rub her face all over it).

And that's a wrap for #VicBioCon26! Thanks to everyone who came to chat, you're all amazing 🫶

Here in the Plants and Pollinators 1 session at #VicBioCon! 🎉 🎉

Tomorrow I'll be presenting at #VicBioCon! I've got a speed talk in Plants and Pollinators 1 (at 11:45am) and have a poster that evening at 5pm. Come say hi and ask me about my Acacias! 😊

Senna artemisioides (Fabaceae)! Unlike typical peas, these have 5 rounded petals of unequal size and a showy display of long brown anthers at their centre. It is a buzz-pollinated plant (it has poricidal anthers), requiring bees to vibrate at a specific frequency to release its pollen.

#Cryptandra tomentosa! This plant is in the #Rhamnaceae family, with its genus name referring to its anthers being hidden by hood-shaped petals. Unfortunetly, the specimen I had to photograph weren’t very fresh so this is a species I’ll need to come back to in the future.

A closeup of a brilliant yellow star-shaped flower. It has five petals, a central stigma that is 5-lobed and yellow anthers on long yellow filaments.

A cross-section of the same flower, focusing in on the 5-lobed stigma atop a thin style. The ovaries underneath are covered in dense white hairs.

A macro photo of a flower bud. It is round in shape but you can clearly see the furrows outlining the five petals it has. The outside is covered in stellate (star-shaped) hairs.

Starting off the new year with #Asterolasia trymalioides subsp. trymalioidea (Rutaceae), aka the alpine star-bush! An alpine plant found in NSW and Vic, its five-petaled flowers look like little yellow stars, and the fine petals shimmer under light (really hard to capture via photos!).

A macro view of a fingerlime flower looking almost top-down. It has three petals which are ovoid and white on the inside with pink on the outside. In the middle are yellow anthers on pink filaments. The leaves in the background are a vibrant green.

A macro view of a fingerlime flower looking at it from the side. It has three petals which are ovoid and white on the inside with pink on the outside. In the middle are yellow anthers on pink filaments. The leaves in the background are a vibrant green.

A macro view of a developing fingerlime flower from the side. The petals are ovoid and white on the inside with pink on the outside. In the middle are yellow anthers on pink filaments. The leaves in the background are a vibrant green.

A macro view of a fingerlime flower looking almost top-down. It has three petals which are ovoid and white on the inside with pink on the outside. In the middle are yellow anthers on pink filaments. The leaves in the background are a vibrant green.

#Citrus australiasica, aka the #fingerlime! These flowers are off a cultivar I’ve been growing for several years now. They’re lovely plants if you don’t mind having a living pincushion in your garden (they are absolutely covered in spines).

Leucopogon virgatus var. brevifolous (Ericaceae)! This pecies is endangered in Victoria and ocurrs in a relatively small range of heathland in the west of the state (it occurs outside the state, too!). It’s a small shrub to 50cm and has tiny flowers (4-10mm long) with densly hairy petals.

#Pandorea pandorana, aka wonga vine! This climbing plantncan get over 6m high. It has gorgeous tubular flowers that are white-creamy on the outside and a deep burgundy-purple on the inside. The anthers are pressed up against the top of the floral tube, almost cris-crossing over the style.

A microscopy photo showing most of a Daucus plant, including seed pods on shoots to the right and a shoot to the left with flowers.

A close-up of the seed pod of the plant. It's ovoid and covered in spikey white bristles.

A close-up of the flowers of the plant. They have 5 tiny purple petals on top of a ovoid ovary. they are incredibly small and most of their parts are covered in bristles, obstructing much from view.

#Daucus glochidiatus, aka Australian carrot! This is a plant in the family #Apiaceae and can be anywhere from 3-60cm tall. Its flowers are impossibly tiny, only about 1.5mm in diameter with minute purple petals (which made it difficult to photograph, even with a microscope!).

A microscopy image of a daisy with white ligules that are purple at their base, and a centre full of deep blue/purple disc florets. The outer circle of disc florets is starting to flower and are expulsing bright yellow pollen.

A microscopy image of a daisy with white ligules that are purple at their base, and a centre full of deep blue/purple disc florets. The ligules are covered in many clear hairs at their bases. The outer circle of disc florets is starting to flower and are expulsing bright yellow pollen.

A closeup of the base of the ligulate florets, showing how hairy they are.

A closeup of a disc floret, showing its five purple petals and the sex organs at the centre of the flower expelling bright yellow pollen.

This weeks features #Dimorphotheca ecklonis (Asteraceae)! This is a species of #daisy from South Africa that’s commonly grown in gardens here. Their ligules (what appear as petals) can be white to purple, while the centre disc florets are a deep blue/purple. They’re quite striking flowers up close!

A smiling person with glasses and shoulder-length brown and blue/green hair is standing in front of a fig tree holding a hardcover book titled "Ecology Matters".

A zoomed-in photo of an open book, looking at a photo of manuka flowers buds.

The original Manuka buds photo, showcasing two pink flower buds against green needle-like leaves and a pink background.

Excited to share that I'm one of the lucky photographers to get one of my photos published in Ecology Matters by @ecolsocaus.bsky.social! It's incredibly surreal seeing something you made printed in a book. You can spot Manuka buds on page 12! ❤️

A white flower with 5 pink-tipped petals looking like a star, the insides of which are covered in dense white hairs.

A branch of developing flowers (almost bullet-shaped, they're long and pointed at the tip and are white and pink) and deep green leaves on a hairy brown stem.

#Styphelia ericoides (Ericaceae), aka the pink beard heath! This is a widespread shrub to 2m high that has typical beard-heath flowers: tubular and densly hairy (bearded) on the inside. The flowers are very small (1-1.5mm long), creamy-white with pink tips.

#plants #photography

A green succulent-looking plant covered in cottony white hairs with a inflorescence with white 'petals' in the middle.

A green succulent-looking plant covered in cottony white hairs, peering down into the inflorecense in the middle.

A cross-section of the same plant showing inflorescence structure. Florets are long and yellow-green with a pale ovary (where the seed will form) at their base.

A cross-section of the same plant showing inflorescence structure. This plant has two inflorescences forming, one in the centre which is more developed than one to the right.

Lets get back into it: weeks microscopy features #Actinobole uliginosum! This plant is so tiny, only a few cm high, that you’d need to be on your hands and knees in the dirt to really notice it exists. It’s an #Asteraceae with cottony leaves and white-creamy coloured flowers.

Wrapped up my field work this past weekend by visiting Acacia daviesii (FFG listed critically endangered)!! Very bittersweet. I'm looking forward to the break but kind of sad I won't see my species for a bit.

A thrips peeking out from a floret of a daisy. The petals are a deep violet and there is bright yellow pollen everywhere.

#Thrips! Thrips are thrips both singular and plural, and if you do any sort of floral morphology or pollen work you'll come across a million of them. This guy was hiding out in an Osterospermum floret.

#inverts #photography

A photo of the ground with dirt, plants and a very metallic blue ant-looking wasp. She has bright red legs.

A photo of the ground with sand, plants and a very metallic blue ant-looking wasp. She has bright red legs.

A blue ant (Diamma bicolor)! She's not actually an ant, she's a wasp (though they're both Hymenoptera). A species I've always wanted to see. 🥹

A very hot pink Caladenia carnea flower.

A light pink Caladenia carnea flower.

Caladenia carnea flower with just a faint blush of pink

Completely white Caladenia carnea flower

Colour spectrum of Caladenia carnea (pink fingers). They range from hot pink, light pink, a faint blush of pink to totally white. Found out in western Vic. ❤️🩷🤍

My hands holding a small green inch flora, Halosperma demisium.

Caladenia tentaculata flower hidden within a dead shrub.

Two Chamaescilla corymbosa flowers.

A Glossodia flower covered in drops of rain.

Last week I had the most amazing time demonstrating LTU BOT2PDE students out in Natimuk, far western Victoria. Got my hands dirty with inch flora and saw some good flowers. 🌸

Nodding greenhood with my index finger for scale (it's maybe 3cm high).

Dusky fingers against a blurry rock background.

Early nancies

Climbing sundew flowers.

A few flowers from the weekend, celebrating wrapping up work at one of my field sites. Not my target species but so lovely to see. ❤️

A bin chicken eating out of a rubbish bin in the Sydney CBD.

Had a brief trip to Sydney and saw some very Sydney things.
#binchicken

Grevillea alpina?

Hovea

Drosera

A few snaps of what's growing at one of my field sites that aren't my target species (I did not take enough time to photograph non-study species 😞)

Yesterday was national #wattle day! Here's my two Masters species, #Acacia daviesii (timbertop wattle, first two photos) and Acacia sporadica (pale hickory wattle, last row photos). Both critically endangered, I'm very lucky I get to work with them. ❤️❤️

This weeks #microscopy- #Plagiochila fasciculata! Featuring intercalary androecium (male reproductive parts). They're very common in wet forests and give off a strong camphor/mothball smell. I love getting students to sniff them (they often don't know what the smell is and find it revolting).

A scrubby box ironbark woodland with a dark brown Swamp Wallaby in the center, partially obscured by a small shrub.

Swamp wallaby supervising my field work. 🥹

An individual branch of Zoopsis leitgebiana stretching out off the soil. It tapers at its tip and is bright green.

A green mat of liverworts growing on top of soil.

Zoopsis leitgebiana, a leafy #liverwort in the family Lepidoziaceae found in wet rainforests here in Vic. This was my first time spotting the species, so what a treat to photo it! It's leaves are bi-lobed and made of just a few individual cells. Very tiny species.

#bryophytes

A few #Drosera from today! Such amazing little plants. The ground was absolutely covered in them.

A microscopy image highly zoomed in on a flattened green shoot of Zoopsis argentea, against a backdrop of brown substrate. You can clearly see the individual cells making up the plant. Its 'stem' is made up of rectangular cells (2 wide) and its 'leaves' are also made of two cells, coming out each side of the 'stem'.

A microscopy image of a large mat of flattened green shoots of Zoopsis argentea, against a backdrop of brown substrate. You can clearly see the individual cells making up the plant. Its 'stem' is made up of rectangular cells (2 wide) and its 'leaves' are also made of two cells, coming out each side of the 'stem'.

A microscopy image highly zoomed in on a flattened green shoot of Zoopsis argentea, against a backdrop of brown substrate. You can clearly see the individual cells making up the plant. Its 'stem' is made up of rectangular cells (2 wide) and its 'leaves' are also made of two cells, coming out each side of the 'stem'.

A microscopy image highly zoomed in on a mat of flattened green shoots of Zoopsis argentea, against a backdrop of brown substrate. You can clearly see the individual cells making up the plant. Its 'stem' is made up of rectangular cells (2 wide) and its 'leaves' are also made of two cells, coming out each side of the 'stem'.

#Zoopsis argentea! One of the smallest liverworts in Vic. This leafy liverwort's leaves are recuded to only two single cells (others in the genus don't have such reduced leaves). It's very common on logs and tree ferns in rainforests here.
#bryophytes #liverworts