An unlikely pair of collectors today from my Trinity #herbarium tour today, Darwin and Lamarck.

Things written on the back of herbarium labels are fascinating. This is a particularly enigmatic scribble. Is it a map?

Bluesky, who is good at early 19th Century French signatures? This a from a letter where a botanist casts shade on one of my botanical heroes, approx 1820.

Spring Quill (Scilla verna) on Wicklow Head #WildflowerHour

👀

Joe Walker@evojfwalker.bsky.social · 3mo ago

RNA from herbarium samples is more stable than previously thought and can be extracted for different uses genome.cshlp.org/content/earl.... Study led by @atyszka.org and in collaboration with @philcarella.bsky.social @khongsamchia.bsky.social @phylonatworks.bsky.social @sciencedrew.bsky.social

We've now passed 70k records and should pass 50k images shortly! If you are revising a group, get in touch and we will prioritize it for digitisation.

Peter Moonlight@petermoonlight.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Trinity College Dublin herbarium are now on @gbif.org! We have just 52k records for now and mostly minimal data with full data and images to follow, but its a big step forward. www.gbif.org/dataset/5ec4...

The International Association for Plant Taxonomy mourns the passing of Dr. Peter H. Raven, whose extraordinary life transformed the Missouri Botanical Garden and helped shape botany as a truly global enterprise.

Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

Its strangely apropriate to name this after somone famous for having her data stolen and not being given credit

Colin Carlson@colincarlson.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Naming your biology LLM after Rosalind Franklin is… hell is not hot enough

Ah that old chestnut, where a reviewer rejects your methods as "too ambitious" when they are routine, just weren't when the reviewer last did labwork two decades ago...

If you want to know how fast Irish trains are, my train left central Dublin 15 minutes before this ferry. The ferry is further south, at speed of 23.2 knots.

🌿🌍 Join us to learn about the newly published “No evidence for the niche breadth – range size hypothesis in big plant genera” in @annbot.bsky.social by Ludwig Baldaszti and co-authors. (1/9) 👉 doi.org/qnrq @baldasztil.bsky.social @caroaceae.bsky.social @petermoonlight.bsky.social #PlantScience

We are looking for a dedicated and passionate digitisation assistant to help us image the historic herbarium collections in Trinity College Dublin. If that sounds like you, please get in touch and apply! my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...

BHL's new chapter has begun! 🌱 Our latest #BHLTransition Update shares where BHL is now: stable, fully operational, and nearing completion of its transition. BHL has retained its people, its expertise, and its ability to operate effectively. 🔗 blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2026/01/tran... #ILoveBHL

We are looking for a dedicated and passionate digitisation assistant to help us image the historic herbarium collections in Trinity College Dublin. If that sounds like you, please get in touch and apply! my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...

Really exciting to get some press coverage on our Prototaxites paper @instmolplantsci.bsky.social @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Aberdeenshire fossil dating back 410 million years joins museum collection

Researchers say the fossil found in Aberdeenshire is neither plant nor fungus as previously thought.

bbc.co.uk

A proper day out in the Cairngorms on this day 7 years ago.

@siobhanleachman.bsky.social A challenge for you! Who was Miss Schultz? She was collecting in Norfolk Island, probably in the 1840-60s. This writing is in William Henry Harvey's hand in TCD. I think specimens by Miss Schultz are attributed to various male Schultz botanists in Kew.

Scaffolding for Scientific Knowledge – the Nomenclatural Checklist stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/40823

Scaffolding for Scientific Knowledge - the Nomenclatural Checklist

A checklist of the plant family Putranjivaceae has just been published in the Edinburgh Journal of Botany (Quintanar et al. 2025). It’s a list of all the species accepted in the family. But it is more...

stories.rbge.org.uk

Is anyone on BlueSky hot on their late 17th to early 18th century European playing cards? I turned this one up in Trinity College Dublin Herbarium today, with a herbarium collection of a similar age.

We have a new Dr in #paleobotany! Congratulations to @thibault-durieux.bsky.social who successfully passed his viva. It was a great journey & he made the advising job very easy for @petermoonlight.bsky.social, Carla Harper and I. Big thanks to the examiners Jenny McElwain & @sandyheth.bsky.social!

The UW Herbarium @ Burke Museum is hiring a Research Mycologist! 🍄 Focus: fungal systematics & evolution, collections-based research, and outreach. Initial 3-year appointment, renewable pending funding. Apply here! wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u... Please share widely!

It takes a special level of incompetance from @deltaairways.bsky.social to drop their passengers in one terminal in the busiest airport in the world and send the luggage to a different terminal entirely, only connected by bus.

Just over three weeks left if you are thinking of applying for this amazing job!

Peter Moonlight@petermoonlight.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Calling botanical researchers, the School of Natural Science at Trinity College Dublin is hiring a tenure track Assistant Professor in Plant Biodiversity and Conservation. I know this is someone's dream job, so let me know if that is you and you want to chat! my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...

The first European animal declared extinct in my lifetime will not be the last.

Dr Alex Bond@thelabandfield.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today. Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

A new article on the recently uncovered specimens of 18th century botanist/spy for Louis the 16th of France, Joseph Dombey in Trinity College Dublin herbarium, out in #TrinityToday

Calling botanical researchers, the School of Natural Science at Trinity College Dublin is hiring a tenure track Assistant Professor in Plant Biodiversity and Conservation. I know this is someone's dream job, so let me know if that is you and you want to chat! my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...

🔥 Britain is about to launch a new GCSE in natural history – a vital step toward restoring our knowledge of and respect for the natural world.

Fellow creatures: the new GCSE in natural history

The new GCSE in natural history is a vital step toward restoring our knowledge of and respect for the natural world

westenglandbylines.co.uk

Calling botanical researchers, the School of Natural Science at Trinity College Dublin is hiring a tenure track Assistant Professor in Plant Biodiversity and Conservation. I know this is someone's dream job, so let me know if that is you and you want to chat! my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...