Author - Alun Salt

A Wollemi Pine in a cage

Phriday Photo: Wollemi Pine

I was in London earlier this week for an editorial meeting with many of the Annals of Botany members. As part of it, I took my first trip to Kew. So long as you’re not thinking, you can take a pleasant stroll...

Cover of the Ambonese Herbal

The Ambonese Herbal revisited

The Linnean Society of London and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science and the Society for the History of Natural History, hosted a joint symposium “Visions from the Blind Seer of Ambon – A celebration of...

Three-toothed cinquefoil, Sibbaldiopsis tridentata

Secret to Saving Money is Biodiversity

Biodiversity could be the secret to creating a successful “green roof” according to new research published in the April issue of Annals of Botany. The research, led by Scott MacIvor and Dr. Jeremy Lundholm...

Chinese Bridge at Biddulph Grange Gardens

What I did on my day off

I visited Biddulph Grange Garden, a National Trust Property in Staffordshire. As visits go it wasn’t a huge success. The sky was solid cloud that hammered the light flat, meaning there was no real light and shade...

Botanical Art you can wear

Botanical Art you can wear

Botanical Art blog ArtPlantae Today has an interview with artist Carol Creech. She’s started offering her work on a t-shirt at Zazzle. The interview itself is mainly about the how art reproduces on Zazzle, but the...

A mapping tool to add to my wishlist

A mapping tool to add to my wishlist

This tool from Gatewing looks like the kind of mapping equipment I dream about. It’s a very simple idea. You can use a groundstation to control a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) equipped with various devices to...

What happens now to agriculture in Japan?

What happens now to agriculture in Japan?

There’s an interesting post on Alex Tiller’s Blog on Agriculture and Farming that I missed earlier. Alex asks Will Agriculture in Japan Survive? It’s a timely question as the recent tsunami hit over...

Life Ascending by Nick Lane

There’s a tendency to look back to at earlier times as some sort of golden age. Even scientists to this despite the fact that “2011 is the most futuristic year there’s ever been” to misquote Paul...

It's great when you find Botany you like

Looking for things to like

We’re reworking our Facebook page, now that the new layouts are available. You could use the page as a sampler for the blog, but I’m wondering if we can do more with it. One of the things Facebook is good at...

What should link to where?

I’ve linked to stories from two sites recently. As well as the blog posts, something else happens to them when they reach the RSS feed, Facebook and Twitter accounts; the headlines shouldn’t link to the blog...