Blog Archives

Whiteknights Flower Rich Campus

Posted on 2014/10/10 by Alastair Culham

This gallery contains 5 photos.

Victoria Wickens from the Centre for Agri-Environmental Research (CAER) has kindly provided a series of photos taken on campus over the summer.

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Welcome week MSc Plant Diversity plant ID quiz

Posted on 2014/09/24 by Alastair Culham

This gallery contains 20 photos.

To help the new MSc Plant Diversity students settle in, and to provide us with a baseline against which we can tailor our teaching, the annual plant ID quiz is now running.  For each of 18 samples the students were … Continue reading →

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Fagaceae – A significant presence in Whiteknights

Posted on 2013/01/12 by Liew, P.S

This gallery contains 10 photos.

The Whiteknights tree collection is famous for its Fagaceae!  For example, in his twelve favourite Whiteknights trees, University of Reading’s tree expert Mr Rupert Taylor included 6 Fagaceae: 5 Quercus robur and 1 Castanea sativa (BBC, 2008). Three important genera of the Fagaceae in … Continue reading →

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Mysterious Maples

Posted on 2012/11/21 by Lisa Malter

This gallery contains 20 photos.

As you walk around the Whiteknights campus you can find at least twenty two species of maples, in the genus Acer (family Sapindaceae). They can be identified by their helicopter-like fruits, opposite branching, and mostly 5-lobed palmately veined leaves (Photos 1-3). There … Continue reading →

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Which Vanessa?

Posted on 2012/08/13 by Justin Anthony Groves
Image 1 Painted lady showing the upper side to the wings Copyright Justin Groves The University of Reading

This gallery contains 9 photos.

Two butterflies, the Red Admiral (Vanessa atlanta) and the Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui), are both migrants to the UK from their breeding grounds in Europe, and in the case of the Painted Lady, North Africa and Arabia. Both species can … Continue reading →

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Violaceae – The Violet Family

Posted on 2012/01/21 by awprice

This gallery contains 4 photos.

  When you think of a pansy, you likely think of a pretty ornamental flower found in many gardens and garden centres, probably with a distinctive ‘face’ pattern adding to their charm.  Its name in fact comes from the French … Continue reading →

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Achilles and his fake carrot

Posted on 2011/11/17 by drsol

This gallery contains 9 photos.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) flowers June – November so its blooms still brighten campus grasslands. Typically of the Asteraceae,  Yarrow `flowers’ are clusters of tube-florets surrounded by 5 ray-florets masquerading as petals. These capitula gather further  into dense heads, or corymbs, … Continue reading →

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Cleavers – a very common member of the Rubiaceae on campus

Posted on 2011/11/16 by Zooellen

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Galium aparine, with its covering of tiny hooked hairs is much more frequently referred to as Cleavers, Stickyweed, Goosegrass, Stickywilly, Hedge Burs and Catchweed.  An herbaceous annual plant, it thrives in many environments such as field margins, scrub, hedgebanks, gardens and arable … Continue reading →

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Fat Hen; pesky weed or nutritious fare?

Posted on 2011/11/11 by rq022077
(Fig.1: Leaf form of C. album)

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Chenopodium album L., or Fat Hen is a renowned agricultural weed throughout temperate regions (Aper et al., 2010), so somewhat unsurprisingly it has found its way onto Whiteknights campus! Although farmers seek to eradicate this troublesome weed to reduce crop losses … Continue reading →

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Solanaceae – The Nightshade Family.

Posted on 2011/11/10 by wq018612
Atropa belladona also known as Deadly Nightshade

This gallery contains 3 photos.

Solanaceae are herbs and shrubs often of a poisonous nature, the most famous being Deadly Nightshade Atropa belladonna. Typically for plant names this one tells a story: Atropa is named for the Greek Fate Atropos who would cut the thread of … Continue reading →

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