Dearest TWiB Readers,

Everything that begins well must, alas, come to an end. And as June draws to a close, so too does our month dedicated to Digital Botany, with the final articles in the series published today.

We begin with Ben Carson’s piece on the impressive work being carried out by the Te Papa herbarium in New Zealand. To conclude in fitting style, the editor of this special month, Juniper Kiss, offers an editorial that brings together both the inspiration and the behind-the-scenes effort that shaped this series of articles.

But do not despair. From Tuesday, we shall return to our usual schedule of excellent articles and fascinating stories from the world of botany.

Below, we share the latest Botany One stories, botanical news, conversations from Mastodon and Bluesky, as well as career postings. You can also try your hand at this week's Sudoku Garden or Plant Hunt and learn more about Sphagnum palustre, this week's Plant of the Week.

Until next time,

Carlos (webmaster@botany.one)

On Botany One

Digital Botany Focus Issue Week 4:

Interview with Bob Allkin about Name Games: How to Untangle the Web of Plant Names and Uses?
What name do you go by? Does everyone call you the same name everywhere you go? Probably not, and the same stands for plants. The names we give plants can vary depending on our relationship to them, what we use them for, where they grow, and the properties they have.
Botany OneMagda Upton
María Susana Sánchez Chávez on EDGE, data and conserving Pinus culminicola on the ground in Mexico
Digital botany can do something extraordinary. It can take records, DNA sequences, phylogenetic trees, threat assessments and maps, and use them to highlight species that need urgent attention. One example is EDGE, short for Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered: a way of identifying species that are both threatened with extinction
Botany OneJuniper Kiss
How Your iNaturalist Photos Feed the Digital Botany Revolution
Every plant photograph you upload to iNaturalist holds an untapped scientific superpower, thanks to PhenoVision. This new machine learning framework has processed nearly 40 million iNaturalist images, feeding directly into Phenobase, a live, rapidly growing platform that now hosts over 76 million research-ready plant phenology records combined with other
Botany OneErika Alejandra Chaves-Diaz

Regular Featured Article:

Scaled Gardeners: How Fish Dictate the Future of the Amazonian Flooded Forest
When Amazonian forests flood, fish take over the work of seed dispersal, carrying viable seeds through rivers and helping plants colonise new areas.
Botany OneErika Alejandra Chaves-Diaz
High in the Mountains, Every Degree Matters for Pollinators
Research from the Australian Alps reveals that some mountain flowers act as miniature solar heaters, providing pollinators with warm refuges when cold conditions would otherwise keep them grounded.
Botany OneVictor H. D. Silva

Plant of the Week:

Sphagnum palustre
Our first moss for Plant of the Week: the blunt-leaved bog moss.
Botany OneCarlos A. Ordóñez-Parra

There was also last week's Week in Botany, with Week 4 of Digital Botany.

In AoBC Publications

News & Views


With new law, European Union can more quickly greenlight gene-edited crops

Final political hurdle overcome, easing regulation of certain modified plants
science.org

Prominent climate scientist argues it's time to ditch the 'myth of neutrality'

Canadian Katharine Hayhoe says scientists are human, and more than just 'brains in a jar.'
cbc.ca

Is restoration chasing ghosts?

Restoration is often trying to recreate ecosystems that no longer exist — or can’t
predirections.substack.com

Science Shared

Three botany papers widely shared on Bluesky this past week were:

  1. A chromosome-scale super-pangenome of the lichen genus Peltigera reveals genome architecture and expanded interaction repertoires shared across pathogenic and mutualistic fungi 🆓
    Joisten-Rosenthal et al. · bioRxiv
  2. AI, Comparative Advantage, and the Next Decade of Ecological Research 🆓
    Drake · Ecology Letters
  3. Organelle positioning as a principle of metabolic regulation and stress tolerance
    Fernie et al. · The Plant Journal

You can see the top 20 with more details at Science Shared: June 27.

Careers on Bluesky

Please note these are not jobs I am offering. Nor can I help you with any visa requirements. At time of writing there are around 100 other jobs posted at Botany One.

Postdoctoral scholarship in Plant Cell Wall Biology, Biophysics, and Spatial Transcriptomics, Umeå
The Department of Plant Physiology (Umeå University, Umeå Plant Science Centre, Sweden) invites applicants for a postdoctoral scholarship in plant science. The expected starting date is November 2026 or according to agreement (latest possible starting date: 15 April 2027).
se umu.se
Postdoc in soil biodiversity analysis across Europe, Wageningen
Soils host most of the world’s biodiversity and deliver important ecosystem services, yet many soils are currently considered unhealthy. We are looking for a motivated candidate with a PhD in soil ecology or a related discipline. In the EU‑SOB4ES project, samples have been collected and analysed over consecutive years for soil biodiversity and physicochemical parameters across a range of land‑use types and pedo‑climatic conditions in Europe. With your expertise in soil ecology and statistical analyses you will: Analyse soil‑biodiversity patterns of microorganisms and fauna across time and space using the SOB4ES databases; Write scientific publications and present your research at conferences and scientific meetings; Make results accessible to a wider audience; and Mentor students and, where relevant, early‑career researchers.
nl knaw.nl
PhD Studentship in Forest Structural Assessment, Cork
Applications are invited for a fully-funded PhD in Forest Structural Assessment with the C-BioStock project, to be supervised by Dr Markus Eichhorn and Dr Ramiro Crego at UCC. Forests in Ireland provide an economic return from timber and are also valuable for their contributions to biodiversity and climate change mitigation. C-BioStock is a DAFM-funded project which aims to capture the development of forest structure and composition across the harvesting cycle in Irish forestry estates. Production forests are typically managed in rotation with periodic clear-felling. The C-BioStock project will evaluate changes in forest structure, biodiversity and carbon across the felling cycle to increase understanding of their development and inform management approaches to achieve complementary outcomes. This will be achieved through surveys of chronosequences (different aged stands) and continuous monitoring to capture change in structure and biodiversity (vegetation, birds and soil). Production stands will also be compared to native woodlands to evaluate trade-offs in land cover decision-making.
ie University College Cork

Cover Image: Writer of Botany One's Focus Issue on Digital Botany. From the top left to the right: Ana Valladares, Filippo Guzzon, Ben Carson, Magda Upton, (second row) Alisa Abramovich, Carlos A. Ordóñez-Parra, Erika Alejandra Chaves-Diaz and Juniper Kiss. Sources: the authors.