Amanda Rasmussen

Plants need champions! People who can tell engaging stories about plants. People who understand plants and explain how plants function People who can explain that plants are critical for human survival. Books shown from David Attenborough, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Jonathan Drori, Richard Powers, Danny Chamovitz, Ferris Jabr, Malcolm Wilkins, Charlotte McConaghy, Andy Weir, Beronda Montgomery, and Amanda Rasmussen.

It's gift-giving season!
Why not give the gift of plant knowledge?
Here are some excellent, accessible books to engage & excite.
Fantastic offerings from @berondam.bsky.social (& a new one out in Jan)
@jondrori.co.uk (& a new kids book)
@razda5.bsky.social 💚
@ferrisjabr.bsky.social 👍
Novels too!

Thanks Mary! Available in all good bookstores ;)

Super stoked to see work from our lab on BBC tonight! tree cuttings prepared by Vaishali Panwar, one of my PhD students, were CT scanned by Brian Atkinson and Craig Sturrock in the hounsfield facility were shown on Gardeners World this evening! watch it on iPlayer!

The AAB Applied Tree and Forest Biology group is hosting ‘Creating Canopies II’ at the grand Crown and Mitre hotel in Carlisle. 🌳
Kicking off w Chris Quine and Ruth Mitchell #AABCreatingCanopies

The Scottish Forestry Trust is proud to have once again supported the Association of Applied Biologists' Travel Grants for early-career professionals attending the Creating Canopies II Conference. #AABCreatingCanopies web.cvent.com/event/7e93d2...

Fantastic D1 #AABCreatingCanopies with great talks, stimulating discussion and a successful (dry) forest walk!

Amory Ngan

Scarlet Maguire

Martin Evans

Elliott Colley

D2 morning includes trees from the urban environment in Toronto and then plenty about Ash!
👏 Well done Scarlet Maguire for a great first conference talk!
#AABCreatingCanopies

Also had a very proud supervisor moment as my PhD student Vaishali gave a wonderful talk today about her tree cuttings #AABCreatingCanopies

Photo of tall pines with diverse broadleaf and shrub understory.

Apologies my account wouldn't load but it's been a fabulous 2 day meeting with #AABCreatingCanopies thanks to @aabiologists.bsky.social and all our funders. Thanks to everyone who came along! Thanks to Ted and the wonderful volunteers who took us around Coombs wood yesterday!

Our first keynote, Chris Quine introducing forests and forestry, preparing the context for our meeting #AABCreatingCanopies

Kicking off with #AABCreatingCanopies Ted introducing us to Carlisle and the forest surrounds! @aabiologists.bsky.social

Today is the last day of my two weeks annual leave, but gees what a doozie of a day it is.

RHS What to Grow for a Climate Resilient Garden As the world's climate changes, this timely book from plant expert, Dr Amanda Rasmussen, explains what we should be planting in our outdoor spaces. What t...

Learn how some plants are adapted to certain conditions...I hope it helps people choose plants better suited to changing local climates....out now! www.hachette.co.uk/titles/amand...

Me sitting behind a table with plants on it. The plants were used in medieval medicine. Blue skies outside the Camelia house windows.

Calm before the storm at Science in the park!

As a dual AU/UK citizen, with family and friends just hit by a cyclone, I've been thinking about the way each culture faces adversity...UK: keep calm and carry on; AU: hold my beer (Cracking jokes). Born into AU, that's my natural state but it's worth noting that doesn't mean we don't care...😉

Love the sound of students having fun! Best cohort yet in my third year class. It's a self-directed group work session and the majority of the class are here, talking, laughing, working.

Winter garden with bright pink and white heather flowers under a brilliant white birch tree

Looking up toward the sky along the trunk of a conifer into the twisted branches above.

Purple crocus scattered on the hillside sloping toward the waterfall.

Me at sunset with the misty trees in the background.

A few snaps from Kew Wakehurst where we're visiting the millennium seed bank for an event tomorrow @vilasjohn.bsky.social

Flowers below and bulbs above Commentary and photos by F. Curtis Lubbe and Jitka Klimešová from the Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Flowers belowground The belowground world can be quite surprising —…

Merry surprices: plantlifebelowground.wordpress.com/2025/02/26/f...

Science under threat | Royal Society The Royal Society will use its voice and the expertise of our Fellows to resist the various challenges to science.

Well!
royalsociety.org/news/2025/02...

A fossilized leaf imprint is embedded in a textured stone background. Overlaid on the image are bold white banners with black text. The top banner reads “BSA Paleobotanical Section Awards,” the central banner highlights “Michael Cichan Paleobotanical Research Grant,” and the bottom banner displays the application deadline, "March 15, 2025." The website "www.botany.org" is listed at the bottom.

🌿 The Michael Cichan Paleobotanical Research Grant, presented by the BSA Paleobotanical Section, is open! 🌿

Up to $2500 for post-docs or non-tenure track positions to support researching paleobotany.

Apply by March 15, 2025: botany.org/home/awards/...

#BSAawards #IamaBotanist

What I love about teaching? Having students come back after a break in our 3 hr class telling me they were just messaging their mum to tell them about stuff they just learnt! (a 3rd yr, not a 1st yr!)

Book cover. The title is Lessons from Plants, the author is Beronda L. Montgomery. The cover is pale green with colorful drawings of plants surrounding the title.

#BlackHistoryMonth
Now more than ever, we must uplift, amplify, & celebrate Black scientists, scholars, & leaders.
Beronda Montgomery @berondam.bsky.social is a plant scientist who researchers & teaches about mentoring & culture.
Read "Lessons from Plants" ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

Moodle is great in educational settings. But it's not meant for collaboration. The real world, whether we like it or not, is hybrid and, (at least for the time being), globally linked. Surely essential transferable skills include both team skills and familiarity of digital collaboration platforms?

Yes that last comment was heavy with sarcasm.

My 3rd yr class uses Teams to collaborate for a semester-long project (more on my webpage)...this week a 3rd yr student told me they hadn't used Teams since secondary school....🤯..we really have reverted to preCOVID dark ages...good to know students are well prepared to use Moodle in the real world!

#PeerReview and #ScientificPublishing should focus on collaboration instead of gatekeeping.

We'll create a more inclusive environment and get better science because of it.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. 🧪

🌾 Postdoc Opportunity! 🌾

Join Prof. Dr. Wolf B. Frommer’s research team at @hhu.bsky.social for an exciting postdoc position in disease resistance in rice!

📩 Apply now! Send your CV & motivation letter to apply_healthycrops@hhu.de

RT & share! 🌱
#Postdoc #PlantScience #RiceResearch

Yaye! I look forward to hearing what you think!

Thanks Sjon!!!

Thanks Mary :)