Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 11/06/2026An unlikely pair of collectors today from my Trinity #herbarium tour today, Darwin and Lamarck. 071
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 29/05/2026Fragments of a list of genera on the back of 8 Australian orchid labels. 030
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 29/05/2026Things written on the back of herbarium labels are fascinating. This is a particularly enigmatic scribble. Is it a map? 171
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 28/05/2026Bluesky, 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. 000
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 24/05/2026Spring Quill (Scilla verna) on Wicklow Head #WildflowerHour 0252
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 13/05/2026We'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. 131
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 19/02/2026If 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. 010
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 23/01/2026We 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... 1114
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 11/01/2026A proper day out in the Cairngorms on this day 7 years ago. 020
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 11/12/2025@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. 370
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 17/11/2025Is 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. 021
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 08/10/2025A 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 060
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 01/10/2025Calling 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... 03957
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 01/10/2025Curators and botanists, does anyone know what this could be? It belonged to William Henry Harvey, botanist, collector, and former curator of TCD herbarium (1844-66). It is a 1.2m high, 25cm wide metal tube that once had a locking lid. Perhaps watertight. 351
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 27/07/2025Meanwhile, in the real world, we just missed out flight because of a 1 hr queue to check in a baby seat followed by a 2 hr security queue at Birmingham airport 🤬 010
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 15/06/2025Do they count as #UrbanPlants if growing on the wall of a derelict seaside castle? #WildflowerHour Who cares, especially when Limonium binervosa is so cool 😍 1345
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 12/06/2025That has got to be the best "herbarium ghost" I've seen. 040
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 08/06/2025A seaside quartet from Brittas Bay, County Wicklow, for #WildflowerHour The Sticky Stork's Bill was a new one for me 💚 0387
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 04/06/2025Niche, but can anyone on Bluesky date a 1980s (?) Irish Lucozade bottle? This one turned up under a floor in a historic building, and we'd love to know when someone was last down there. 011
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 03/06/2025A #RandomActofCrochetKindness by Andrea, found somewhere on a train on the east coast today. Looks like a fly agaric (Muscaria amanita) to me, and is now happily in its natural mossy habitat. 091
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 15/05/2025I am delighted to have been involved in the description of Begonia chucantiensis in @phytokeys.pensoft.net. This was collected by Juan Carrión and colelagues, who contacted me to see if we could describe it together. doi.org/10.3897/phyt... 052
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 27/03/2025And to whoever stole the flowers from our Tulips, screw you. 😡 010
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 27/03/2025Could the real Diastema racemiferum please stand up? This species is only found in semi-deciduous forests east of the Andes. In life they are pretty easy to tell apart (flower colour, glandular hairs, etc) they are pretty tricky once dried to a herbarium sheet. 000
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 27/03/2025Introducing Diastema calcola J.L.Clark & Moonlight, just described in the Gesneriaceae. This species is found on limestone in S. Ecuador and N. Peru and Vulnerable under IUCN Criteria. Genetic and morphological work shows that while superficially similar to D. racemiferum, it is distantly related! 2101
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 27/01/2025If you see this quote with flowers from your gallery. We can all use some beauty right now. Sonchus acaulis from the highest point of Gran Canaria 042
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 10/01/2025We got stolons, rhizomes, tendrils, prickles, spines, scorpioid cymes, lots of types of real-world venation, all from shapes and lines in a powerpoint. Amazing creativity and attention to detail. 010
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 10/01/2025Some "species" from today's plant description workshop. Students had to design their own plant (from a selection of organs in a powerpoint) and paste them together to make a plausible plant, then come up with a botanical description for it! 141
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 08/01/2025#BegoniaOfTheWeek is cinnabarina. This is a tuberous species from montane forests in Bolivia and Argentina. 071
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 07/01/2025Very disppointed to receive this feedback from peer review with Diversity and Distributions. This is not a professional quality of peer review, and it should not have been forwarded by the editors 😡 Peer review should never be an opportunity to anonymously insult our colleagues! 🧪 240
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 17/12/2024There are 9 duplicates of 2 collections of this species, but 23 unique records on @gbif.org with four different sets of coordinates. Do we really want this many duplicate records based on the same specimens, often with subtly different data, on the main aggregator of biological data? 260
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 17/12/2024#BegoniaOfTheWeek is corazoniae, an endangered species described from the Philippines by Mark Naive this week and classified as Endangered uunder IUCN Criteria. 083
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 13/12/2024Domingos Cardoso and I described Keraunea confusa (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales) last year! Yesterday he was in Parque Nacional Cavernas do Peruaçu (Minas Gerais, Brazil) to see it in person. Its the trailing plant blanketing absolutely everything here 😍 040
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 11/12/2024#BegoniaOfTheWeek is olsoniae... sort of. This species is a complex perhaps containing two different species. These two photos show the extremes in leaf colouration. 071
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 11/12/2024Browsing the TCD herbarium specimen images for a presentation, and this has to be one of our most gorgeous specimens. The holotype of Petalidium linifolium T.Anderson (Acanthaceae), collected in Damaraland, South Africa. 220
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 02/12/2024#BegoniaOfTheWeek is grisea, one of the few Begonias able to grow in full sunlight. This species is found in the Serra do Espinhaço range in Brazil. 092
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 29/11/2024A tasty and informative cake at #BotanyBakeOff as Emily Symington discusses what #herbarium specimens can tell us about drougjt tolerance in #chocolate wild relatives 060
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 25/11/2024We have just had a set of photographs commissioned to show Trinity College Dublin #TCD #Herbarium before some building work begins. They really capture the feel of the place 😍 0142
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 21/11/2024#BegoniaOfTheWeek is margaretiana! This species was described in 202 from the "royal road" leading inland from the Brazilian coastal town of Paraty. 192
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 19/11/2024#Insect #Entomology bluesky, is this a thrip? It is approximately 0.25mm long. #Herbarium bluesky, are thrips known herbarium pests? I can't find anything documented. 201
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 15/11/2024@rdmpage.bsky.social FYI, the HUEFS data is back to normal on CRIA. I don't know about GBIF, but I'm sure that will follow. p.s. good to see you on here! 120
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 13/11/2024Time to revive the #BegoniaOfTheWeek from the heyday of twitter. Each week I'll tweet a Begonia species, with no agenda. Whatever species caught my attention that week. This is Colombian cloud forest endemic Begonia ferruginea. Giant (probably) hummingbird pollinated flowers. What more do you want? 0104
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 13/11/2024Spot the difference. Living Metasequoia glyptostroboides and a #fossil 35 million year old M. occidentalis 030
Peter Moonlight @petermoonlight.bsky.social · 12/11/2024Chrysobalanus atlanticus is a new rainforest tree species in the #Chrysobalanaceae, published today by my lab member Renata Asprino and colleagues in Brittonia! It is from the Atlantic Forests of Coastal Brazil! 030
