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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Did you find any good fungi? I bet there were some nice things in the churchyards.

Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

James McCulloch @jamesimcc.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

New species now out in @soilorganismsj.bsky.social! soil-organisms.org/SO/article/v... The latest addition to the UK's springtail fauna: Entomobrya terraeincognitae sp. nov. I found this species on fieldwork for my PhD @sangerinstitute.bsky.social at the Cambridge botanics. 🧵

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

justingoodrich.bsky.social @justingoodrich.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Registration now open for the Non Seed Plant Meeting in Edinburgh on Dec 15. All welcome. Registration link and poster below www.epay.ed.ac.uk/conferences-...

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Erica McAlister @flygirlnhm.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Researching old Entomology books for an upcoming talk in the @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social From 1823, a series of pamphlets (all together here) by Christian F Vogels ‘Schmetterlings-Cabinet für Kinder’ or Butterflies for children was published. 200 years old & still wow @royentsoc.bsky.social

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Sophie Carr @sophiecarr.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

You can't beat the raw power of a very fast exposure. 1/5000 second captures this incredible spectacle - Háifoss in #Iceland.

A portrait orientation photo of the bottom part of a waterfall where the water crashes against some rocks on the back wall and spray comes out over some large black rocks. B&W conversion to give it a bit more oomph and atmosphere.

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Dean Mac Cú Uladh @dmac00.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

How amazing to find Mountain Everlasting (Antennaria dioica) on Sliabh Muc, Co. Down after a long hiatus of 146 years since Praeger last recorded it!! Other lovelies included parsley fern, beech fern, alpine club moss and dwarf willow. The Mournes deserves so much more conservation attention!!

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Phil Carella @philcarella.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

RA position working on Marchantia reproductive development in the Penfield group at JIC. Deadline is August 18th!

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Congratulations!! This is awesome :)

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Jamie Warren @mossmalarkey.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Haplomitrium hookeri (Hooker's Flapwort) growing on the edge of the afon Wysg 19.7.26 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @bbsbryology.bsky.social

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Jamie Warren @mossmalarkey.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Marchantia polymorpha subsp.Polymorpha (star-headed Liverwort) growing on the edge of the afon wysyg 19.7.26 ,love that broad conspicuous black midrib 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @bbsbryology.bsky.social

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Carlos M Herrera @cmhmaliani.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Let me introduce the main characters in this story, the Gladiolus and its two Metschnikowia yeasts

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Thanks Stuart! It's still early days and it looks like WOX13LC genes are only part of the puzzle. But it was a super cool phenotype to see :)

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

This reminds me of Sclerococcum / Dactylospora. The hymenium is very tough in these species (if indeed it is).

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

For more info, do check out the link. Huge thanks to everyone involved, especially Jill for all the help and support, James Clark for his phylogenetic expertise, and Max Bethell for a manic lab grind to make the reporters. Thanks also to the SWBio DTP / BBSRC for funding my PhD at Uni of Bristol.13/

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Plants bearing multiple sporophytes fail to support all offspring efficiently. Sporophytes on polysetous shoots take longer to mature and are smaller than those of monosetous shoots. It is better for the majority of mosses to put all their energy into a single sporophyte. 12/

Data showing that spore capsules from polysetous shoot apices are on average smaller in diameter than those from monosetous apices. This means that they produce significantly fewer spores in addition to having longer maturation times. A disadvantage for mosses.

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

This fascinating phenotype is opposite to the Ppwox13lab phenotype of no sporophytes reported before. It suggests that -c opposes A/B to suppress the formation of more than one offspring per shoot. But why would moss want to do this? 11/

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

When we knocked out -C using CRISPR, all lines grew like WT and had similar shapes and numbers of gametangia. However, all 4 -c mutants had an increase in polysety - twin and triplet sporophytes originating from different fertilised eggs on the same plant apices! 10/

A wild-type shoot with a single apical sporophyte (left) beside a Ppwox13lc mutant with three sporophytes on the same shoot (right).

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

However, when plants with very early embryos were examined after fertilisation, the embryos lacked expression while surrounding inactive eggs/zygotes stained strongly. Expression was therefore absent from the one egg of several that eventually becomes the single embryo/sporophyte of the moss... 9/

A shoot apex of a PpWOX13LC promoter-reporter line containing several archegonia with eggs/zygotes following fertilisation, and a central archegonium containing a very young embryo. As this is WT, only one embryo/sporophyte normally forms per apex. The embryo lacks -C promoter activity while the adjacent archegonia with inactive eggs/zygotes strongly stain. This suggests that -C may have a role in sporophyte activation similar to its full-length counterparts, PpWOX13LA/-B.

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Next, we further validated this by generating and examining promoter-reporter lines. Here, we visualised promoter activity in reproductive organs, particularly in eggs... 8/

Archegonia (egg-producing) and antheridia (spermatozoid-producing) gametangia have C promoter activity in the gametes during development. In archegonia, activity is switched off when the egg is mature.

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Checking recent moss expression browser datasets indicated that -C transcripts accumulate specifically in sexual reproductive organs and not in photosynthetic tissues. This cell-type specificity may be why it was not picked up previously. We validated this using RT-PCR in plants with gametangia.. 7/

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

We investigated predicted 3D protein structures of the two classes of genes and found that the DNA-binding homeodomains (HDs) of the -C genes were conserved and intact. All -C genes lacked 3-prime motifs but gained a small, postitive charged extension to the HD. This again suggested function... 6/

Motifs and 3D protein structures of PpWOX13LA and -C

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

We sampled 19 moss genomes and were surprised to find that PpWOX13LC belonged to a larger clade of similar truncated moss WOX genes present in all sampled genomes except for Sphagnum and Takakia. These genes are present in 99% of extant mosses, indicating that they may indeed be functional! 5/

Cladogram showing that WOX13LC proteins arose long ago in moss evolution and were retained in most mosses. Interestingly, Sphagnum mosses have independently evolved truncated WOX genes in two clades - they are not C-like and we have no idea what they do.

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

The third gene, PpWOX13LC, was considered a pseudogene as it is truncated and was not detected in RT-PCR in several tissue types. This is where out study kicks off... 4/

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

A previous study found that PpWOX13LA and -B, which are paralogues, are redundantly required for embryogenesis to occur in the moss reproductive cycle. Mutant zygotes do not or very rarely develop into sporophytes (Sakakibara et al. 2014)... 3/

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

The background: P. patens moss has 3 WOX genes, PpWOX13LA, -B and -C. They all belong to the so-called T1 clade that are present in all land plant genomes. T3 genes like the famous WUSCHEL gene, which is vital for maintaining the growing tips of flowering plants, are lacking in bryophytes... 2/

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Happy to announce our study that has just been published from work done during my PhD at the University of Bristol working in Prof. Jill Harrison's lab. It's about WOX genes and sporophyte development in the model moss, Physcomitrium patens. Take a look 🧵👇

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Perhaps we need knee *and* elbow pads, haha.

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I have a pair of tough, cushioned builders pads that I just keep in the car and put on before I go out. People sometimes look at me funny, even other Naturalists, but I get the last laugh when my knees are not killing me at the end of the day 😂

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

A fellow knee-pad wearer. They really help :)

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Back in the UK, it would be interesting to know if other Campylopus species are affected, and how. The decline of C. brevipilus, for example, correlates with the spread of C. intro, and perhaps there is a grey v red squirrel with virus thing going on. We will see, hopefully!

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

I think a good step could be do to some population genetics / genomics to see whether the effective population size indicates an invasion bottleneck or there is genetic diversity. I'd also love to see if it grows in other places in the S Hemisphere but that is difficult.

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

About life histories, the fungus infects adult and young leafy shoots. I don't see sporelings of the same plant emerging from the necroses so I suspect it kills them as well. On the other hand, I have seen liverworts and other mosses growing out of the rings.

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

I have had a look at C. atrovirens using herbarium material and it is difficult because the sprodochia fall off when dry, even after a short time in recent preserved collections, so finding it is time consuming. Thinking about a sequencing approach for that as well as direct observation...

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Those are all great questions. I've had a go at most of them but no conclusions yet. I searched for the fungus on Campylopus species in South Africa in 2023 but did not see it - but that's not much to go by and it may not cause as severe symptoms elsewhere...

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Thanks Anthony. I really hope it is indeed good news. It will be useful to monitor some sites through the winter to see how the dynamics change through time. Still a lot to learn but I'm happy it got some attention - more than I could have imagined.

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Nathan Probably @nathanprobably.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Big congrats to the exceedingly fungal @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social for their BBC debut. Was really fun to work together on this and a real tribute to the excellent work that George does (and continues to do!) 🍄 www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRHz...

youtube.com

'Killer fungus' destroying invasive plant in UK | BBC News

YouTube video by BBC News

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

*Thanks. Gosh, didn't see that slip-up for a while!

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Thank Astrid! Great to see the small stuff get some time in the spotlight and hopefully we can continue to learn more about the fungus, its host range and its ecological impact.

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Plant Science Spotlight @plant-sci.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Don’t reach for ChatGPT Images or Nano Banana as your first option when creating scientific images There are multiple free and open-source images, icons, and tools for creating scientific illustrations. #plantscience @stephenturner.us blog.stephenturner.us/p/free-open-...

blog.stephenturner.us

Free and open-source images, icons, and tools for creating scientific illustrations

Phylopic, NIH Bioart, Bioicons, Scidraw, Open Science Art, Health Icons, Servier Medical Art, Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Noun Project, Segment Anything, Excalidraw, draw.io, Biographics

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Nice. How is the gorge? Last time I went there, landslides had destroyed a lot of the paths and reduced accessibility. It's a wonderful spot.

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I was very excited to find Pignut growing out of a cowpat today that had its undescribed Plasmopara. It's amazing what shows up in a quadrat! #FungiFriends #WildPlantDisease

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George R. L. Greiff @ilichenmoss2.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Interesting. I've not seen anything like that before. It's a lot larger than most other parasites of Frullania.

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Sophie Carr @sophiecarr.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Celebrating five years of drone ownership, renewing my flyer ID today with 38/40 on the test (yay!). Here's a few of my favourite drone photographs from the past few years from #Iceland. Such a fun addition to my trips there :) #DJIAir2S #DJIMavic3Pro #DronePhotography

Drone view of hot lava streams over dark black lava landscape. In the distance is a mountain with a patch of sunset brightness on the horizon. Blueish smoke rises.

A drone view over a river estuary where there are pretty channels meeting a paler grey area with visible streams and ripples. Looks a bit like a wave breaking.

A view over a colour river estuary with pale cream and blue streams and channels, with some brown and gold sand banks visible.

A view over a hot bubbling pool with some colourful run-off. It looks a bit like a burning comet falling through the air, an eye with tears or lashes streaming from it, or a jellyfish with long tentacles. The pool is blue and the run off area is pale pink and green, with some green grasses and red rocks surrounding it.

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Reposted by George R. L. Greiff

Johannes Merz @mosssoup2.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Sphaerocarpos cf europaeus, a strange looking liverwort growing on bare disturbed soil in extensively managed arable fields, endangered across Europe 🌿

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