iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

For the first time ever I returned my ballot within 24 hours of receiving it in the mail.

Photo of a sealed Colorado ballot going into a ballot drop box with all the red white and blue and stars that you would expect on an American ballot drop box.

🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Some of the Texas madrones (Arbutus xalapensis) at Denver botanical gardens. I have become somewhat charmed by this small tree.

A small tree with green leaves, this one grows up narrowly next to a dome. The leaves are large and in clusters whirling around the stem ends.

Close up of Texas madrone leaves showing their leathery texture and the smooth edges. Each one is slightly folded towards the middle rib and comes a narrow point.

The pealing chalky orange bark revealing smooth pale yellow bark under it.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Ferns inside the parking structure at Denver Botanical Gardens.

Many different species of ferns, some with the classic longer leaflets others with nearly round ones like a maiden hair fern. All covered in drops of water with spiderwebs under also with clinging drops like little diamonds.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Cultivated penstemon hybrid 'cha Cha Cherry ' at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

An inflorescence with more than a dozen funnel shaped red flowers with white streaks inside the throats and narrow spear head shaped leaves attached to the stem below the flowers. In the background there is a large greenhouse.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Checked out a book called The Atlas of Botany from the library. Lookit what I found inside:

A big ol' leaf pressed inside a book on a page with the header RESCUE MISSIONS at the top right. The leaf appears to be a maple, but without the bark I'm not going to guess. Dull green from being pressed and dry.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

To be fair, whomst among us has never? We all had that play set when we were kids.

A black and white line drawing of Wednesday and Pugsley playing next to the Christmas Tree with the new doll and guillotine set.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Not feeling my best today so I am having a cup of tea.

A glass tea cup in a pewter holder holding red-brown tea in it sitting amid the leathery small green leaves.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Burrito is happening. Spicy veggie burrito. Illegal Pete's in Denver.

A mostly unwrapped burrito half eaten on end. Filled with multi-colored veggies, black beans, and rice. Outdoor seating.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It is amazing how tiring just sitting in a seat can be. And I am now in Canada. For the next two hours in the airport. I found the plants. Such as they are.

A group of fairly standard indoor tropical plants. Front and center there are ones with large variegated leaves. Taller and to the right are some with shiny, leathery leaves attached to thick stalks. Opposite near the base and becoming somewhat to completely alternating towards the apex.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Exited the EU, sorta kinda, in the airport liminal space. I am within the area effect of travel. Eating my apple.

A lovely red and gold apple head in the hand at the airport.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I think I am changing my mind on this free book titled "Das Drachenbuch". It would be a perfectly fine exercise to translate it to learn more German, but I'm not sure what I will get out of it will be worth the carbon to fly it home with me. Going to leave it at the airport.

A book titled "Das Drachenbuch" by Ditte and Giovanni Bandini. It has a green dragon on the cover with crossed arms on a hoard of gold behind a person dwarfed by both.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Ho-boy, the old Vienna trams are hard to get onto with a fully loaded roller bag. But, fortunately, the lovely people of Vienna came through giving my bag little lifts and pushes to make it easier. I liebe Wien!

An old style Vienna tram with gently rounded metal curves and bi-folding doors. All the windows are rounded as well with the whole back of the tram curved around, a classic of 20th century design, cream white above and red below and the red and blue Wiener Linien symbol above the number 1486. A rider is reading their phone in the back as it departs the station going up the street.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I have packed. I have checked for the third time that my passport is where I expect it to be. I am carrying approximately 1 kg of Lebkuchen. Lite this candle! And as @tkingfisher.com says, all hail The Line.

Two bags, both black, because of course. One a large black backpack. The other a REI rolling duffle with a bandana tied to the strap, also black.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Last treat here in Vienna. Chestnut Eis.

An ice cream cone with one scoop of tan colored gellao/Eis held out on a street with out of focus tables and a scattering of tiny yellow leaflets, especially around the trunk of the tree growing from the pavement at right.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Decisions, decisions. Get another box to make the chocolates completely safe or put them in the top of the backpack?

Lage black backpack open wide with a box filled with tea, Lebkuchen, and a Stolen. Two small packages of chestnuts for snaking atop some clothing in the upper part.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

There were a few more plants, but they are a bit vague on what they are intended to be. Not all the way to being the "laurel" leaves in many decorative wreaths, but I could not reliably identify them beyond "aster family".

Bronze decoration that might have been gilded at one point. The flowering heads appear to be composites, but each one is slightly different from the others in the number and size of ray flower petals around the edge even though they are attached to the same large stems with substantial leaves. More an artist's impression of flowers than real flowers.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

In a library looking for plants. Found some.

A book, wider than it is tall with black and white illustrations of daffodils from 1591 (!), two on the left and two on the right. "Icones Stripivm" by Matthias de L'Obel. All are displayed with the bulb and roots.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I was more tempted by the "dragon" backpack. Seemed more durable.

A black backpack with scale patterned probably ersatz leather details on its pockets and closure with a row of decorative rings down the middle of the flap.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I was halfway tempted even though it was €80. But instead I think I will get a better backpack and figure out how to make a large fern patch or something.

Black gothic backpack with a green fern leaf embroidered upon it.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I am glad I pushed myself a little when I woke up very, very early and caught the U-Bahn to Stephansplatz. I came out into a light rain and an almost empty plaza.

Lit up at night, the south tower of Stephansdom, the St. Stephen Cathedral in Vienna, rises up from the rain slick paving. The spotlights light up the tower against the dark sky and reflect back from some of the raindrops falling upon the gothic tracery of the immense tower and the striped roof.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I am glad I pushed myself a little when I woke up very, very early and caught the U-Bahn to Stephansplatz. I came out into a light rain and an almost empty plaza.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

If I were a master photographer, maybe I could impart how it feels to stand next to the south tower. It is like a mountain. A carved cliff. It is 136 meters tall.

The inset corner, angles of stone gray limestone rough with age though it was probably smooth when placed 500 years ago. Above the first ledge the stone rises with carved details like small pillars to arch shapes, to intricate finials atop decorative empty arches, with further and greater detail higher and high into brightly lit gothic stone against a night sky.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

So, I got to Stephansplatz to change to the U1 and there was some kind of delay. With a crowd backing up I exited from the U-Bahn into the plaza above to come upon this:

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

And this was all me just walking in Tor 1. I did not go far or long looking for this. And it is also an active place of memorial, not an abandoned victorian cemetery. There were a half dozen lit candles on headstones.

A candle burning inside a red glass inside a rectangular box protecting it from the wind and elements upon a gray granite memorial.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Lots and lots of black... granite? Marble? Black gravestones. I'm impressed. A+ for embracing death. Or maybe this was trying to defy death and failing because while impressive art this is still just part of all things perishable. So many expensive tombs with time gnawing at them.

A row of graves covered with panels, some with rings for ease of lifting off? Each of the tombstones at the back is hugely tall and stands shoulder to shoulder with its neighbors. Many of those are black stone, though three of the ten are white. Goth! The people buried here were probably very normal upper middle class types, but to the modern eye the graves could belong to someone who wore black lipstick.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

And, yes, there were trees with mistletoe to complete the theme of the day.

A tree beyond a garden wall with clumps of darker leaves in its upper crown. The wall is gray and faintly red brick and the sky above is the color of slate.

A disfigured tree with its trunk and many branches cut short and clumps of mistletoe in some of the remaining branches. The light is fading and it is almost a silhouette against a gray-blue sky.

Golden sun setting kisses the tops of trees with mistletoe growing high up. The sky is cloudy with different shades of gray to almost white.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I ate my strawberries while mosquitos tried to eat me. Wow. Natur!

A package of strawberries, very red as the sun sets beyond the many gravestones and tombs

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

If a Hollywood set designer came back with some of this, I think they would be told to tone it down a bit.

The upper part of a tomb with horse skull decorations and possibly olive laurel decorations.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

No, way more goth than anything I have ever experienced.

Fallen almost unreadable gravestone amid other graves.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Good heavens. This is goth as fuck.

Just inside gate one at the central cemetery and the gravestones are huge!

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I have now tried the vegetarian Döner. It was good, I would happily substitute it for chicken even though it is more expensive, at least on occasion. Though I slightly prefer chicken.

Pita stuffed with salad and saitan for a vegetarian Döner. Hummus and yogurt on mine and spicy.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

And now entering the grounds of the Belvedere near Wiedner Gürtel.

Mistletoe emerging from a bur on the trunk of a linden tree, the canopy shading it from a bright blue sky. Within reach of a tall person.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Not sure if I'm primed to see it or lucky, but more mistletoe in Vienna. This time in a park near the historic arsenal. Many different species with it. Some kind of walnut, two maples, and a linden.

A good sized park tree with compound leaves and globs of darker stems emerging here and there in its crown. It is healthy, for now. Quite a few trees with it should anyone need to decorate for Christmas... That is a question. Is mistletoe at Christmas a thing in Austria like it is in England?

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I have only just begun to pack, but the roller bag is swallowing the black void that is my wardrobe, happily. I do, need to get a small box for Lebkuchen and chocolates, as I do not wish for them to be crushed or broken.

Black sweater on black sweater on black jacket wrapped around a bottle of black tea liquor. My color is black, black, black...

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I think I knew of this species, Berberis oiwakensis, before... *Checks Wikipedia* Yep, I moved the article almost three years ago because Mahonia is mostly considered a synonym. First time I have seen it in real life though. Wonderful structure.

A narrow planting of Berberis oiwakensis, looking almost like a cross between holly and a tree-fern. One central stem has long compound leaves, one leaflet at the end with a narrow tip and a few points on the edges, and then as many as seven leaflet pairs. Atop each stem is a bud beginning to add to the stem and grow more leaves.

A bud atop a stem breaking open with many leaves, still small and soft looking compared to the thick almost plastic looking mature leaves below. The new leaves are pale gold-green with a blush of red.

The top of a stem with a bud still emerging at the top looking rather like a light tan acorn while the leaflets on the mature leaves look rather like plastic holly leaves, thick and dark green with widely spaced points. I do not want to fall into this bush.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Hey Vienna, I'm in the park murdering Ailanthus seedlings. Muhahahhahah.

Many Ailanthus altissima with their characteristic compound leaves with ~5 pointed leaflets laying on the brown leaf litter with their white taproots exposed. Whoever did this will have hands that smell like the ailanthus chemicals, nasty.

There are some round leaves, probably a violet, that have been spared by the serial killer.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I am a ridiculous person, and I accept this. Here is the whole grain and nut croissant I had this morning. Only slightly sweet.

A whole grain pastry, which is moderately silly. It also has a bite out of the end of one point because I have the self control of a kitten. It is a lovely golden-brown with thin flakes of almond and oats. The bag it is on reads, "Deine Vollwertbäckerei" with the next line larger in script "Gradwold".

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Ah. History. That is a giant flak tower. Still, all part of the life of a place, history and people. Fun and sad.

The Stiftskaserne flak tower looming very large beyond the apartment building at the end of Lindengasse, though feeling very small in this photo. The wide angle and the fact that it is behind other buildings hide how large it is.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Let's keep walking. Hey, there is a blockage up ahead. I have read about this, it is U5/U2. No, not a fusion Austrian/Irish band, they are working on a new U-Bahn line. I have been seeing work sites all over the place. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U5_(Vie...

A big gate in the street with a graphic of a blue block with U5 in white text and under it a purple block with U2. The blocks are surrounded by an abstract of grass with some blobs representing bushes and trees. On the other panel it reads "Sie haben Fragen?" Meaning "Do you have questions?" There is contact information under this.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Yes indeedy, those are linden trees. I love an urban linden. "Don't you love all trees?" Yes, fine, I do. I love all trees. But these are the trees I am near right now so I love them in particular.

Photograph of one of the trees with the sunlight on it taken from under the other. The trunk of the near tree is at the right edge and mostly in its own shadow. The other tree has a small trunk and stands before a building with windows covered over by green paper, one reading, "On Wien".

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

That is looking more hopeful up ahead.

Two trees far ahead framing a narrow street paved with gray blocks. Older buildings with extensive decorations rise to four stories on either side of the street and the round upsidedown bowl of a street light is suspended from the buildings by light cables.

Someone, who's face will never appear, is casting a Shadow down the right side of the street near chained up bicycles.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Also, this is definitely blue false indigo (Baptisia australis) from North America.

Dark, dark brown seed pods cracking open with compound leaves, large green leaflets that are hairless.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

So far not very hopeful about the number of linden trees on Lindengasse (Linden Street/Alley) in Vienna. Nice cultivated hardy hibiscus though. 🌺

Newly planted hardy hibiscus with white flowers that has been shaped into a tree-like form with one trunk and no branches almost head height. It is supported by a temporary frame of three substantial poles to a small triangular frame at top. The setting sun shines down the street with the hibiscus and its frame casting long shadows onto the flower bed at its base between the sidewalk and narrow, one lane street.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Will I turn down this street purely based on its name? Why is this a question fictional interlocutor? Do you even know me?

Photograph of a blue street/address sign on the side of a tan stucco building that reads "7., Lindengasse". Gasse is more or less alley, but from an American perspective these are not alleyways because they are not the half abandoned service accesses that people are not intended to walk down.

Hi alt text readers, I promise that my carnivorous plant spawn won't eat you alive.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

So much was familiar at the main library, but then different in details. The book displays celebrating diversity. The modular metal shelving units. Everything familiar and strange.

Six books on display on a shelf end cap.

Freida McFadden "The Crash", "Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did)" Tess Sharpe, "Friday I'm in Love" Amryn Garret.

R.F. Kuang "Katabasis", "Toffee" Sarah Crossan, and nearly unreadable due to a reflection I didn't notice when taking the picture Kathryn Foxfield "It's Behind You"

Three sections of shelving labeled "Jugendbücher" at the top each with six shelves and no books on the bottom nearly floor level gray shelf. The books in the right union are very few with the covers facing out on display while in the middle and left there are more shelved books showing the spines and the yellow library labels at bottom. The bookends are integrated into the shelves in some fashion, wrapping around the front of each shelf, very different from the magnetic ones common in America.

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Logs into iNaturalist Hurm... I'm intrigued.

Screenshot from iNaturalist

My Observations and three lines for menu at the top and the search function and the three dots for more settings

Observations tab is active with 706 as MtBotany's current number. The tabs next to is Species with 275 above it and Identifications and 188 above that.

Banner for event:

🐿️ 🌻 iNat Together:
September 18-18 🐸 🦋
Find your nature friends!
Over 280 events to join! Click to learn more.

Then three observations with tiny thumbnails of trees on a cloudy day. Each labeled European Mistletoe Stadion, 1020 Wien, Austria, 21 h

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🍂M.T.Botany @mtbotany.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

None of my pictures are particularly great, but while walking near the stadium along U1 I spotted mistletoe growing in several trees.

A clump of darker leaves on a tree branch silhouetted against a gray sky, there are other clumps nearer the main trunk. The tree's leaves are mostly brown, probably the heat over the summer rather than already turning for the fall. Not sure if the tree was an American or European linden.

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