iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I just learned that I've been mispronouncing " #Nicotiana alata" wrong. Apparently it's supposed to rhyme with 'data' [steeples fingers knowing exactly what he's done]

Nicotiana alata blooming last July. I love the long tubular white flowers. It bloomed at dusk with a lovely perfume. Native to South America, these are growing as an ornamental. N. alata is also called winged tobacco or jasmine tobacco.

290

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Mike also likes... his new role in higher ed administration. I my new colleagues: So have I joined a cult? They laughed. I laughed. They showed me where to leave my worldly possessions. Joking aside, I do like my new gig in #honorseducation & still like plants

010

Reposted by MikeLikesPlants

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Citrus fruits are a kind of berry called a hesperidium (referencing Hera’s Golden Apple of the Hesperides). The segments = carpels, multiplied through selection. Juice sacs = trichomes (hairs) on the interior of the ovary. 📷: blackeiffel CCBYNC2 #Citrus #Rutaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱 1/2

Photo of several citrus fruits. A lemon is shown whole. One half of a seedless grapefruit and the two halves on a seedless orange complete the composition.

18622

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

It's science presentation season! Check out Connor Lachesky telling the take of his senior #honors #undergraduateresearch at #NCAS2026

Undergraduate researcher Connor Lachesky presents his exploration into using fruit flies as a model for treating concussions.

060

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

#mossmonday ! Highlights from #moss lab a few weeks ago for Plant Anatomy. The students wander campus in search of 2 different types of moss. We use what they bring back to talk moss anatomy, life cycle, ecology, & 🌱 evolutionary history

Various misses cultured for weeks on a grow rack. I *think* the species in the foreground is creeping feather moss. I love the capsule diversity among moss species. Capsules are the tops of the stalks.

A single moss plant. We usually see moss as a colony either with or without stalks. The most persistent part of the life cycle is the one without a stalk - the "leafy" bit at the bottom of the one pictured. It's the gametophyte. All its cells are haploid, just 1 set of chromosomes, and it will make the sperm or egg cells. Fertilization results in a diploid structure called the sporophyte, the stalk with a bulbous capsule at the top. All of these cells have 2 sets of chromosomes. The capsule will make spores by meiosis. Those haploid spores disperse to grow new gametophytes!

0171

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

My San Pedro cactus survived and thrived! When life gives you 3 feet of San Pedro cactus, you share it as littler plants! I love seeing the vascular ring get thicker and woody farther from the growing tip.

Three foot long stem of San Pedro cactus Trichocereus pachanoi on a kitchen table. Small dog on the floor nearby is there for scale. The species is also known as Echinopsis pachanoi.

I cut the San Pedro in six-inch lengths from the top for rooting. Shown are the five six-inch segments laying away from our perspective. The cross sections look like six-pointed stars with a dark green border and a light green-to-colorless center. From left to right, the vascular ring changes from faint to thick and woody. The vasculature tissue thickens farther from the tip of the stem. Cool!

071

Reposted by MikeLikesPlants

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

My San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus pachanoi) has scale... and it's so cool! Likely cochineal scale, these insects cement themselves on the stem and vampire the sap. These suckers have been used to collect red pigment for a natural textile dye. I'll gently clean them off my cactus now. 🌾🌱🌵

Cochineal scale on San Pedro cactus. Scale looks like multiple dots many with a red center surrounded by a cream-colored ring.

Two-foot tall San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus pachanoi) in my windowsill.

2142

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Mike-also-likes... ... ice on the pond. First time in 9 years that it's been thick enough to walk on. #ice #ididn'tfallyoufell #pond #barn

Icy pond leading to a snowy bank of trees. A snow-covered barn peaks through the trees.

Me laying spread-eagle on the icy pond. I didn't fall... hard.

1161

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

While true that Mike Likes Plants, Mike-is-ambivalent-to-pants. Welcoming an optimistic 2026 full of gratitude for family, friends, and our farm.

Door mat that reads "Hold on We're probably not wearing pants"

2131

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Islands of tiny moss colonies called to me this #mossmonday. Each clump is an island of tiny plants that started from tiny spores. I wonder how related they are. Are the colonies cousins to one another? siblings? clones from chunks of earlier colonies? Each is possible.🌾🌱

Macro picture of a bright green colony of moss. This clump of tiny plants have their microscopic sexy parts at their tips. Water splashes sperm from male tips onto female tips. When these fuse, the resulting cell divides and develops into a stalk with a capsule (absent in this picture). The capsule will make spores that will germinate into the next generation of tiny plants.

Scattered tufts of green moss on black asphalt shingles of a shed roof. Perspective looking up the roof surface near shingle level. Each tuft is an island of individual moss plants in the gametophyte generation. That means each little plant started from a spore with one set of its chromosomes.

4203

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Humulus lupulus! Expto patronum! Shazam! I love the scientific name for #hops. I harvested these back in September, but the pointy green hop flowers remind me of the Grinch today. Their alpha acids flavor and preserve beer. But I'll make sleepy tea from these. #smallfarmlife 🌱

Flowers of the common hop, Humulus lupulus. Go ahead, say that one out loud for fun! Multiple green, cone-like flowers hanging down in the shade of their own leaves on a trellis. In the background, there is a bonus luffa fruit, long and green like a zucchini. Also in the background is an unopened, yellow luffa flower. We grown hops as a perennial on a trellis for shade. I happily harvest the little flowers for tea.

Close-up of a female hop flower with the yellow resin dusting the bottoms of the light green leaves. These flowers contain many secondary metabolites that give beer its bitter flavor. Different cultivars contribute other flavors, some more citrus while others a bit more funky. Some cultivars smell a bit like Cannabis sativa, which is also in the same plant family. This is the H. lupulus cultivar 'Nugget'. It grows well in NC.

A white bowl of light green hops flowers like a bowl of very soft, green pine cones... of the Grinch with his hair brushed up into points. I'm too lazy to brew beer, but I will use these to make a relaxing tea in the evening.

4110

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

While most students are looking forward to winter break, my #undergraduateresearch student is eager to take one more week of data. Homer Drexel Short's enthusiasm and curiosity are inspiring. He's testing connections between cotton and a fungi friend found in the soil. #gossypiumhirsutum

Homer, an undergraduate research in my lab, working under sterile conditions in a laminar flow hood. When working with plant-microbe interactions, you want to control the kind of microbes you're working with. This means surface sterilizing seeds, pots, and deep sterilizing soil.

Here, Homer is placing his pots in a growth chamber so he can control light, temperature, and humidity as his cotton plants growth and an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) colonizes the cotton roots.

After the first replication, he's seeing subtle differences between this plants with AMF and plants without AMF as they are challenged by another treatment. The plants he expects to look nice are a lovely green.

080

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Finally finished #Pawpaw: In search of America's forgotten fruit. Love the connections of this North American native fruit to places and people - connections to #ethnobotany, #botany, and YUM. We got the first #Indianabanana on my farm this year! #Asiminatrioloba #smallfarmlife

Book cover of Pawpaw: In search of America's forgotten fruit by Andrew Moore. Pawpaws are known by various names in different states, but I like Indiana banana the best. They are a native fruit to North America. Fist sized fruit have green skin and creamy-to-yellow pulp. Sweet tasting, sticky, and tropical in flavor.

A cluster of pawpaws on one of my trees.

Three ripe pawpaws balanced precariously in one hand - together these fruit dwarf my big dude hands.

Ripe pawpaw cut in half to reveal the creamy-yellow, sweet, custard-like pulp. They were ripe in August, and I can't wait for the harvest next year.

3150

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

Just shelled this year's flint #corn! Now thinking back to the fire I set to burn the weeds (too lazy to hoe) and an amazing carpet of #morningglory and #amaranth seedlings that followed. A little hoeing ain't bad. I'll grind, separate the #flintcorn into winter flour and grits #smallfarmlife

A burned garden patch showing bits of blackened, charred wood over soil. Tiny green seedlings of an amaranth species and morning glory (Ipomea tricolor) rose from the ashes making a thin carpet of green a week after the fire. I didn't find any information in a lazy search connecting fire adaptation to either of these plants. They might have just taken advantage of the empty space.

A close-up of the heart-shaped cotyledons on the morning glory seedlings. If they look familiar to you farmer types out there, it may be because they look like sweet potato seedlings - they are in the same genus! That is, if you start your sweet potatoes from seed instead of slips. Hey, you do you! I love the distinctive leaf shape.

Corn seedlings 3 weeks after planting and hoeing the amaranth and morning glory seedlings between rows. Some of the rows still have the 'weed' within row. The corn was outpacing them, so I mostly left them.

160

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Student: Are we going to do more labs like this? Because this was a lot of fun! #cellbiology teaching win! My heart swells when students love a classic #tetrahymena feeding lab. #undergraduateresearch

140

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Hey... you wanna see some smut? #cornsmut! I love finding the immature fungus on my corn because it makes AMAZING #huitlacoche soup. Too late for this one - the mature fungus burst black spores all over the top of this cob.

Corn smut is a fungus that grows on the ears of maize. It's largely been bred out of our commercial fields, but you can still find some here and there. It grows on several of the heirloom maize varieties I grow for flour... and I'm stoked when I find it! The fungus makes grey, smooth, and enlarged galls from the corn kernels. I love making huitlacoche soup from the immature fungus. Sadly, I'm too late. The galls have burst to release the black fungal spores. Better luck next year!

0100

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Starting the week with peaceful thoughts as I look back on a refreshing dip in the creek this hot summer. #mossmonday #moss

Large mossy rock along a sparkling creek from the perspective of sitting in the water.

1170

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Green #moss makes a vibrant bed for a #fungifriend - wood ear. Wood ear is a wine-red jelly fungus. I *hear* that it's edible, but I've yet to nibble these lobes. Observed these on a satisfying walk by the river after last night's storms.

Green moss on a log provides a backdrop for wood ear jelly fungus. The wine-colored fungus contrasts beautifully with the green moss.

36911

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Some balls are held for charity and some for fancy dress but when they're red and sticky they're the ones I want to test ... ... for how well they reduce insect damage to my apples 😋 Sticky traps to catch apple maggot flies #smallfarmlife

Red ball sticky trap in my apple tree. These aim to capture apple maggot flies to improve fruit quality in my tiny orchard.

1140

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

A sunset as sweet as a yellow plum. This yellow #plum tree is the first to blossom in our mixed orchard. Easily my favorite fruit tree we planted. #smallfarmlife

Grass sloping gently to a plum tree with white blossoms in the middle ground. Background a line of tall trees silhouetted by a yellow sunset. All topped by a faded blue sky.

1221

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Hey, pal, where are you going?Looks like this #screwpine is wandering away from the landscaping. It's #adventitiousroots drop down, and make more roots! The surface bumps and specialized cap fascinate me. #botany

Cultivated Pandanus species with many adventitious roots (prop or stilt roots). They provide further support and access to soil nutrients as the shrub grows. Some species have grooves on their prop roots to channel water to the ground.

Closer view of prop roots branching down from a main prop root. Looks like the frame of a teepee. The area at the top where they diverge reminds me of the crown where maize prop roots grow from the stem.

The tip of Pandanus species prop root emphasizing the specialized cap at the root tip. This root is about as thick as a big, middle-aged man's pointer finger.

1110

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

holiday in The Bahamas reveals so many new-to-me plants and #algae Enjoy some green bubble algae, #Dictyosphaeria cavernosa.

Macro photo of green bubble algae, Dictyosphaeria cavernosa, in my hand.

My hand with green bubble algae fitting in the groove of the second knuckle of my middle finger. The pale green amorphous bubble is about the diameter of a US quarter.

0120

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Mike-also-likes... ...to support friends, family, & other scientists whose federal science jobs have been taken. I'm with you. Read about the importance, function, & history of the NSF.

091

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Nature brought us flowers today! These crocuses are (nearly) the first blooms of the year. Crocus overwinters underground in its #corm, a special stem adapted for that job. Flowers & leaves grow in early Spring. Some #crocus species are the source of #saffron! #plantbiology

Four lavender crocus blossoms reaching from under a blanket of fallen leaves. These blossoms are nearly the first blooms on the farm. They beat the daffodils!

1211

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Mike-also-likes... wildlife on the farm. This Eastern screech owl is snug as a bug. #SuperbOwlSunday

Eastern screech owl chilling in a knot on a river birch.

1110

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Now here's a better picture of ovule culture - no weird circles in the background. my #undergraduateresearch student uses this type of #planttissueculture to see an effect of a compound on fiber growth. #plantbiology is cool!

Looking down on cotton ovules growing in a six-well plate. Each well contains growth medium and a different concentration of a compound we're testing. We're seeing an effect on ovule growth and fiber growth. Higher amounts of the compound results in smaller ovules, fewer fibers, and apparently tissue death - big white ovules to tiny brown ones! After 14 days of growth, I think the healthy fibers and ovules look like tiny sheep swimming in a tiny pool.

040

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

How about a concentration-dependent effect on a Friday? Why, yes, I will have some of that. My #undergraduateresearch student had success with their experiment this week! #plantbiology #gossypium

Cotton ovules growing in a six-well plate. Each well contains growth medium and a different concentration of a compound we're testing. We're seeing an effect on ovule growth and fiber growth. Higher amounts of the compound results in smaller ovules, fewer fibers, and apparently tissue death! Trust me, it's exciting.

050

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Mmmmoss. Mossssss. moss. All in all, it was just some moss on a wall #mossmonday

Moss on the surface of a brick in a wall.

1231

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Planted my #yaupon holly over the weekend! May look like teeny things now, but in time their leaves will pack a punch. #Ilex vomitoria is the only caffeine-producing plant in North America. Looking forward to green tea on the farm. #plantbiology #smallfarmlife

Two bare-root seedlings of yaupon holly, Ilex vomitoria.

5181

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

I think of this red #oak as The Party Tree, like from LotR. I love its shape. When it warms up, I'll begin my #plantbiology labs under it. #thicktrunkthursday

gray brick path leading up to a red oak tree on a college campus

1140

Reposted by MikeLikesPlants

JRR Jokien (joshcarlosjosh) @www.jrrjokien.com · 11/01/2025

me when any program's AI assistant asks me if I want help writing:

Gandalf the White saying, "Be silent. Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth"

2492212849

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

There's a trend that people over time start to look like their pets. Lesser known is how people start to look like their plants. These are seeds from rose-of-Sharon, #Hibiscus syriacus sporting seed trichomes like a rooster's comb. #Malvaceae #plantbiology

Dude with a gray mohawk hair cut and short gray beard looking at the camera suspiciously.

Brown seed with tan seed trichomes in a line along the 'top' of the seed and on the 'chin' of the seed like a mohawk hair cut and beard. The seeds are from Hibiscus syriacus, commonly called rose-of-Sharon in North America.

An assortment of Hibiscus syriacus seeds.

1154

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Luffa are so cool. Grew #luffa over the summer and I think these #cucurbits are gourd-geous. We use them as our sponges & give them as gifts. I also love their structure. I look into the weave & imagine how these fibers grew & matured as the fruit developed. #plantbiology #loofah

Luffa gourd hanging from a trellis. Hand giving a 'thumbs up' next to it for scale. The luffa is about 4 'thumbs up' units long when using the heel of the hand to tip of the thumb.

Two long, dried luffa gourds with the fruit skin removed. They now look like recognizable luffa sponges. A small pencil sharpener is in the bottom left for scale. These luffa are about the same length as the hanging gourd in the first picture.

Close up of a luffa to show the net-like, spongy texture.

2160

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

My dad got me this fine book about oak trees. I'm stoked to already be learning about the relationship between #oaks and #bluejays. #plantbiology Wishing all a restful end of December 🌱❄️

Cover of the book The Nature of Oaks by Douglas W. Tallamy. The cover shows an oak seedling. I'm in the second chapter and learning a lot about oak ecology - even though I've been teaching plant biology for a decade 😀🌱🌾

5243

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Hey yew Standing in a cemetery Or outside this library Can you feel me? Happy #solstice! Symbol of renewal. #Taxus #evergreen #botany

Yew growing as a shrub snuggled in a brick walled corner on winter solstice. Angle of the shot is close pointing slightly up. It's a heroic shot of this Taxus species.

Yew shrub in all its sprawling habit. Member of the Taxus genus. Likely Taxus baccata, common yew, since it was planted as an ornamental here.

2121

Reposted by MikeLikesPlants

SlenderSherbet @slendersherbet.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

It isn't really Christmas until you've dressed your Venus fly trap as Santa. 🎥: youtube.com/@klunatik

14563131

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

One of my favorite trees on campus (don't tell the other trees). About 20 feet in the air, this little pine has been clinging to the edge of this brick wall for at least 5 years. @biologycarly.bsky.social I dig this little buddy as a metaphor #plantbiology #resilience #botany

4.5x zoom on a little pine tree growing from the top of a brick wall. It's a scrappy plant friend.

An approximately 20 foot brick wall. Looking closely at the top, you can see the little pine friend.

3190

Reposted by MikeLikesPlants

𝐀𝐤𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐢 𝐀𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐬 @akhateli.farm · 15/12/2024

☁️🌱 The inevitable conclusion of the cotton flower:

cotton flower and boll, small potted specimen

matured, dried cotton seedpod still on plant

cotton seeds separated from ‘fluff’ (pencil for scale)

1364

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

#Moss to enjoy. Doing its best to colonize the cracks between the bricks.

Green moss in the cracks between rectangular gray pavers.

Macro picture of tuft of green moss bulging from around the pavers.

2140

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Gamify the final day of grading! Slay the 15 student research proposals for cell bio lecture. That's 1500 hp. Reward: month of rest... and cookies #studentresearch

040

Reposted by MikeLikesPlants

Susana Wadgymar🌿🔬 @smwadgymar.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

I'm very happy to share with you the results of a collaborative experiment between the Catawba Indian Nation and faculty, staff, and students at Davidson College. Yield, growth, and labor demands of growing maize, beans, and squash in monoculture versus the Three Sisters🌽🫘🎃 A few take home points:

(a) The raised beds on June 15, 2023. (b) The Three Sisters planting design typically forms a large circular shape with maize/bean mounds interspersed with squash. In our study, the Three Sisters were established in raised beds by planting four maize seeds in a 6-in. (15.2 cm) square each with a bean plant 3 in. (7.6 cm) toward the edge of the bed on a diagonal with the center of the maize square. Maize/bean squares were spaced 4 ft (1.2 m) apart within each row. Squash seeds were planted in pairs between each maize/bean square.

1220687

Reposted by MikeLikesPlants

Casey terHorst @ecoevolab.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Anybody who thinks having a PhD is indicative of a particular level of intelligence has never sat through a faculty meeting

2905

Reposted by MikeLikesPlants

Science Magazine @science.org · 04/12/2024

This high-speed video of squirting cucumbers’ seed dispersal helped researchers figure out exactly how they achieve this explosive feat. Learn more in #ScienceAdviser: scim.ag/41ilazy 📩 Sign up for the free #newsletter: scim.ag/3Vn3X4m

213024

Reposted by MikeLikesPlants

Xavier Picó @xavierpico.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

First #Cardamine #Arabidopsis comparison across #Iberia: partially conserved genetic mechanisms of trichome pattern diversity, but different environmental drivers. In other words, a similar genetic machinery under contrasting evolutionary scenarios for the same trait doi.org/10.1093/plph...

Arabidopsis & Cardamine pictures of fruiting plants and details of leaf trichome patterning for each species

22215

MikeLikesPlants @mikelikesplants.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Upland #cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) has varieties with different colors, too! Starting left and going clockwise are heirloom cotton seeds sprouting brown, green, and light green fiber. An 'elite' cultivated variety with white fiber points down. 🌱🌾 #plantscience #heirloomseeds

Four cotton seeds arranged like a plus sign each sprouting natural colored cotton fiber. Green background. From left and going clockwise: rusty brown, green, light green, white fiber. The varieties in the same order: Mississippi Brown, Arkansas Green, Erlene's Green, and Texas Marker 1. The colored cotton are heirloom varieties.

1141