jtothecurcas

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Molt... prism... power

I have a Patreon now!

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BRYOPHYTES SPOTTED

Not just mosses but LIVERWORTS!! Tears of the Kingdom game of the century let’s goooooo

<- Moss / Liverwort ->

I made a post here with more weird species I've spotted in TOTK

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[image id: a four-page comic. it is titled “immortality” after the poem by clare harner (more popularly known as “do not stand at my grave and weep”). the first page shows paleontologists digging up fossils at a dig. it reads, “do not stand at my grave and weep. i am not there. i do not sleep.” page two features several prehistoric creatures living in the wild. not featured but notable, each have modern descendants: horses, cetaceans, horsetail plants, and crocodilians. it reads, “i am a thousand winds that blow. i am the diamond glints on snow. i am the sunlight on ripened grain. i am the gentle autumn rain.” the third page shows archaeopteryx in the treetops and the skies, then a modern museum-goer reading the placard on a fossil display. it reads, “when you awaken in the morning’s hush, i am the swift uplifting rush, of quiet birds in circled flight. i am the soft stars that shine at night. do not stand at my grave and cry.” the fourth page shows a chicken in a field. it reads, “i am not there. i did not die” / end id]

a comic i made in about 15 hours for my school’s comic anthology. the theme was “evolution”

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All about rodenticides! Bird Friendly London (www.birdfriendlylondon.ca) hired me to make this comic with a grant from Nature Canada. Rodenticides are harming my local raptors so it's an issue that's close to my heart.

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Herbertus aduncus or common scissor-leaf liverwort. It’s found on trees in open tundra, as well as on coniferous trees in the temperate rainforest. It’s often mistaken for a moss. Photos copyright John Reynolds and Nancy Shackelford

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I went walking to Dirty Harry’s Balcony this morning with some friends, and I was on the lookout for liverworts that look like mosses (hiking with me is agony)! I’m pretty sure this is Scapania liverwort, but I think from a glance, it definitely could look like a true moss. Other than the general shape, a tip-off is the sporophyte maturing prior to seta (stalk) elongation. In mosses, the seta tends to mature first, so you see sporophytes on really long stalks before the capsule is mature. 

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tundra texture tuesday

I have no idea what moss this is but it is so round and nice.

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I'm not yet sure how well my tweets will translate to tumblr posts, and how this account is going to look/read if I migrate my whole twitter persona to this highly compartmentalized space. But let's see what happens.

New old friends, welcome to my Tumblr. Backread at your own peril 😅.

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/Conocephalum conicum/ s.l., snakeskin liverwort, ジャゴケ Family Conocephalaceae Part two of our double-feature is easily one the most distinguishable liverworts. /C. conicum/ is a common species in the field and in gardens, and can cover large areas of the soil, if moist enough. The gametophyte body is flattened [botanical term: thallose], shiny and speckled with air pores that are separated by deep grooves*,**. /C. conicum/ is dioecious, with male plants developing antheridial pads (Fig.1) and female plants developing 6-7 lobed archegoniophores (Fig.2) at their apical ends. Unlike seed plants, C. conicum and other bryophytes produce flagellated sperm in their antheridia (the dark regions in the antheridial pads in Fig. 1). Rain and moisture disperse the sperm and allow them to access the female bits (archegonia in the lobes of Fig.2), where fertilization takes place. After fertilization, the stalk of the archegoniophore (possibly?!) gets raised*** as the zygote matures into the sporophyte (black tissues under the hood in Fig.3), a short-lived structure that is sort of the bryophyte's version of the flower. The sporophyte dries up in a controlled manner, and releases spores, both male and female, which will grow into new plants in the gametophyte generation! When not feeling frisky, /C. conicum/ gametophytes produce overwintering buds at their tips, which grow into new plants in the spring (Fig. 4) 👶. . . *Taxonomy note: Liverwort specialists, esp in Japan, tend to reassign plants with this specific feature to another species /C. salebrosum/ or /orientalis/ or /purpurubreum/ or /toyota/ or whatever I am tired (Fig. 5 maybe?). As a non-specialist, I have no way of telling the species of Conocephalum apart, so I just call them all by the old name /C. conicum/, 'sensu lato' (latin for 'in the broad sense') . **Math nerds: do you see the Voronoi pattern? . ***My hypothesis. I anguished over this photo, and clarification is very. much. welcome!!! . Photos taken at Sankeien, Yokohama and Mt. Yoshino, Nara . Useful reference: Akiyama 2022. Humans and Nature 32: 1−45. . . . #liverwort #bryophyte #spring #plants #plantlove #plantsofinstagram #botanize #japan https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch52D-thYWw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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/Aucuba japonica/, アオキバ, Family Garryaceae It's been a while since the last plant post, so this time we're having two plants in the spotlight. First up is A. japonica, my first encounter with the family Garryaceae. This family of plants is distributed in warm, temperate/subtropical regions, and doesn't occur in the Philippines. The genus Aucuba itself is Native to East Asia, with the name being derived from the local アオキ葉 or アオキ. Aoki grow along shaded streams and moist thickets. Its variegated form is popular in gardens. The plant is distinguishable by its opposite, broadly lanceolate leaves with toothed margins and opposite veins. The stipules are large and also opposite [but unlike Rubiacs like coffee, not interpetiolar?]. Male and female plants in this family are separate, a condition called dioecy. Aoki flowers are arranged in cymes, and are 4-merous [having four of each part], with deep purple petals. The stamens of male flowers alternate with the petals. The ovaries of female flowers are inferior [positioned below the perianth]. Can you tell which of the photos is male or female? Floral formula Male: Ca4 Co4 A4 Female: B2 Ca4 Co4 G1inf Fruits are bright red; tantalizing but toxic! One of the Japanese garden plants closely related to Aoki is the Kousa (dogwood, Cornaceae). If you don't count gardenias and coffee. Scroll down my feed to find a related post! 🤣 Reference: Fell, Derek (1992). The essential gardener. Gramercy . . . . . . . . . . #spring #japan #aucuba #plantlove #plants #plantsofinstagram #vsco #garryaceae #gardens #sankeien #botanize (at 三溪園) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch4j7mOhgpv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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春の3つ目: . あのはしで 落ちた桜と、 まつのかな… . . . . . . . . #haiku #俳句 #三溪園 #横浜 #yokohama #神奈川 #kanagawa #春 #spring #日本 #japan #vsco (at 三溪園) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChfC1FuhLA-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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春の2つ目: . 日が高く いしのあいだに しのぶしだ . . . . . . . . . . #俳句 #haiku #三溪園 #sankeien #横浜 #神奈川 #yokohama #kanagawa #japan #spring #vsco https://www.instagram.com/p/ChPpWFGhJ0y/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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春、１つ目: 畳替え ながらながめる しんりょくを . . . . . #haiku #俳句 #三溪園 #yokohama #横浜 #kanagawa #神奈川 #japan #spring #vsco https://www.instagram.com/p/ChM8IcSBASF/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Visitors to Sankeien are encouraged to write haiku inspired by the garden. One can drop their Sankeien haiku in a box at the entrance, and every spring the garden holds a haiku exhibit (俳句展), featuring select poems from the past year (if I understood their explanation correctly). Photography and video are off limits inside the hall. . So many parts of the garden are indeed worthy of poetry, although I didn't pretend to have the time or skill to submit one. . . . #三溪園 #yokohama #kanagawa #japan #vsco (at 三溪園) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChM0kqChVnv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Sankei-en. Late post from Spring 2022 . There were many places to visit in Yokohama City: the harbor, the moving Gundam statue, the Ramen Museum, or just downtown. With limited time in the city, I chose to spend my day in Sankei Garden. . Built in the early 1900s by the great silk entrepreneur Hara Sankei of Yokohama, the 175,000-sqm complex consisted of an outer garden open to the public, and an inner garden for private use of the Hara estate. . The garden hosted artists, poets, and tea ceremony practitioners, and became central to the cultural growth of the city and prefecture in the contemporary era. . When I visited last spring the garden hosted many newlywed couples having their marriage photoshoots. Spot the couple in the photo? . . . . . . . #spring #yokohama #kanagawa #japan #culture #heritage #gardensofinstagram #vsco https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg2kHCBhfGa/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=