Category Archives: Plants

All plant categories

The Palm Family: Plants with a Heart

Posted on 2017/04/05 by martincummins

The Arecaceae, better known as the palm family, is one of the world’s most iconic plant groups. Comprised of approximately 2600 species across 181 genera (Christenhusz and Byng, 2016), this is a large and diverse family, yet simultaneously one of … Continue reading →

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Dryopteridaceae on campus and in the UK

Posted on 2017/03/30 by Teri Lim

Taxonomy Division Pteridophytes Class Polypodipsida Order Polypodiales Family Dryopteridaceae

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Think outside the Box

Posted on 2017/03/23 by sphagnum

Buxaceae at Whiteknights There’s a man buried vertically, head downwards on a hillside called Box Hill near Dorking in Surrey. You could say he was off his head when he died in 1800. No, maybe on his head… “the world … Continue reading →

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Orobanche hederae – Ivy Broomrape

Posted on 2016/07/12 by Alastair Culham

My last blog was on the common broomrape, Orobanche minor, the only species I had seen on campus in the past few years.  Today I was excited to receive an email from Phöbe, one of the volunteer Friends of the … Continue reading →

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Orobanche minor on Whiteknights campus

Posted on 2016/06/15 by Alastair Culham

Parasitic plants, particularly ones with large and colouful flowers, are always a cause of curiosity from the casual observer, and are generally uncommon enough to exite field botanists. For many years there were numerous flower spikes of Orobanche minor on … Continue reading →

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White Letter Day

Posted on 2015/07/24 by Chris Foster

I had the distinct honour of adding a butterfly to the campus species list this week, in the shape of a rather smart White Letter Hairstreak. New moths come along on a near weekly basis – hardly surprising since we’ve recorded barely … Continue reading →

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Ulmaceae | 1 Comment

Bees in the grass

Posted on 2015/06/15 by drmgoeswild

Every one loves bees these days and pretty much everyone loves bee orchids (Ophrys apifera) too! The University of Reading campus is no exception and there is a small population flourishing in purposefully unmown grass opposite the Hopkins Building and … Continue reading →

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Slender speedwell

Posted on 2015/05/22 by Fay Newbery

Like the Common field speedwell (Veronica persica), the Slender speedwell (Veronica filiformis) has relatively large bright, blue and white flowers, each held at the end of a long stalk, well clear of the leaves. The Slender speedwell can occur on bare patches … Continue reading →

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Common field speedwell

Posted on 2015/05/15 by Fay Newbery

True to its name, this is one of the most common speedwells on campus. It is certainly much more common than the other field speedwells. The common field speedwell (Veronica persica) turns up on wasteground and disturbed ground amongst other … Continue reading →

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Speedwells – well represented on University land!

Posted on 2015/05/08 by Fay Newbery

Speedwells have small blue (occasionally white, lilac or pink) flowers, either occurring as single flowers or in a spike. There are 20 native species of Speedwell (Veronica) in Britain. A surprisingly large number can be found on campus, with even more … Continue reading →

Posted in Flowering Plants, Plantaginaceae, Plants, Scrophulariaceae | Tagged , , | 1 Comment