/r/botany

Photograph via snooOG

Botany is the scientific study of plants, including their biology, physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, pathology, and classification.

This sub is a place for questions and discussions of botany at any level. Beginners and experts alike should feel free to post anything that helps people learn more about plants and plant sciences!

This sub is a place for questions and discussions of botany at any level. Beginners and experts alike should feel free to post anything that helps people learn more about plants and plant sciences!

What is botany? Botany is the scientific study of plants, including their biology, physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, pathology, and classification.

If you have any questions or want to discuss the science of botany, please feel free to post a question or discussion topic.


If you need a plant ID'd, please head to /r/whatsthisplant

If you need help taking care of a plant please go to /r/plantclinic

Other Science Subreddits*





If your subreddit is not listed, or you would like to suggest a subreddit, please message the mods


Assessing botanical capacity report

Online botanical resources

/r/botany

140,190 Subscribers

1

Question: Help! Why is my Seqouia drooping?

I feel like maybe my seqouia seedling is getting overwatered so I’m not watering it currently but I want to ask around for any advice!

0 Comments
2023/06/06
02:55 UTC

2

Question: Are there flowers or plants that are only rumoured to exist but have never been found?

Like in local lore or folk tales? Or like a genetic missing link that should exist but there’s no record of?

6 Comments
2023/06/05
22:16 UTC

40

Question: Why do only male A. Kolomikta have variegation?

6 Comments
2023/06/05
21:19 UTC

1

question: can trifoliolate plants mimic fruits and/or vegetables?

I just wanted to know if a common "weed" could mimic a fruit?, it does not need to be edible, I won't lick it I swear!

7 Comments
2023/06/05
21:12 UTC

1

Question: In which native environment do lawn grasses thrive?

Lawn grass appears very delicate, requiring a lot of watering, fertilizer, and other care to prevent it from dying. What is the native habitat of lawn grass where it doesn't die either in the summer heat or a modest amount of time without rain? Or is lawn grass kept artificially fragile and needy by things people do like cut it short?

4 Comments
2023/06/05
20:43 UTC

0

Question: Is the pappus an identifiable character before the plant is in fruit?

Self titled. Keying out some Lasthenia.

Edit: obviously there are discernable when in flower, but I wasn't sure whether their shape would change. I see the pappus (as described), but there is a fringed ring about the top of the flower intermixed with the pappus as well, and this isn't described.

0 Comments
2023/06/05
15:32 UTC

3

Question: Why is my pothos growing a cluster of small leaves?

0 Comments
2023/06/05
04:36 UTC

3

Question: Are seed swaps a bad thing ?

I posted about doing seed swaps on a gardening subreddit of my country (Switzerland) and another of our closest neighbour (France), someone told me seed swaps are a really bad idea because of all the diseases that seeds can carry and the risk of introducting pathogens, their example was plum pox.

Seed swaps and seed librairies are such a big thing, and it made me question how good/bad it is to swap seeds.

So now I am wondering, are seed swaps bad ? Should we only use seeds sold by companies ? Is there a way to 'treat' seeds so there is not risk of pathogens ? How risky is it really ?

7 Comments
2023/06/04
22:00 UTC

2

Question: are valerian and celery part if the same family?

I’m growing celery for seed, in a bed next to some valerian, and they look fairly identical to me - same height, size and shape of growth, leaf type, flower heads, flower head arrangement, everything. I can only tell them apart because I know what beds I planted them in. I can’t find anything easily to tell me if they are in the same family, so I hoped someone could let me know if my eyes are deceiving me!

6 Comments
2023/06/04
20:29 UTC

57

Discussion: I hope someone here gets this

17 Comments
2023/06/04
19:27 UTC

2

Question: Would trees still experience Fall on a space station?

If we, humans, were to launch into space and create a space station completely dethatched from the earth and the sun, and we wanted to bring trees with us, what would the trees still experience Fall? On a space station, the environment would be maintained and stagnant. There would be no temperature fluxuations, there would be no change in light level, intensity, or access to water. Would the trees, with no external changes whatsoever, still lose their leaves, or would they just always have them? Would all the trees die with no Fall season?

3 Comments
2023/06/04
16:55 UTC

4

Question: did this seed have an extra leaf in it?

Sorry, I'm no botanist, don't know what exactly all the flairs are meant for. Pardon me if i used the wrong one.

Im currently growing some russian terragon from seed, and i think one of the seeds contained an extra seed leaf. Im not certain i didn't just miss that one growing in though, and im having a hard time finding much from Google. Could this have happened? If so, is there some reason how and/or why?

4 Comments
2023/06/04
15:52 UTC

6

Discussion: This individual zinnia is much more prone to sunburn than its peers planted next to it, and it produced a flower with very light colours. Could it be suffering a deficiency in ability to produce pigments, rendering it more vulnerable to sunlight due a lack of UV absorbing pigments?

0 Comments
2023/06/04
12:46 UTC

2

Question: what is in situ and ex situ grafting ?

Please explain the difference in both the processes.

1 Comment
2023/06/04
12:23 UTC

81

Question: What is happening to this tree?

Saw this today in Southern New Hampshire. A tree covered in webbing or threading. What is it? Some sort of bug infestation?

18 Comments
2023/06/04
05:35 UTC

2

Question: why is it that if I grow a seed from a fruit i get at the supermaket, the fruit I get from the resulting plant won't have the same characteristics as the fruit I got the seed from?

I've heard a lot of youtubers say this but they never say why

also holy god I hope I used the right tag

10 Comments
2023/06/04
04:45 UTC

3

Question: Purple Locust flower Mystery

This year something strange is happening to the locust trees around my town. We had record winter with the amount of snow and cold temperatures (this is in Northern Nevada) and many of the purple robe locust trees that have been purple for the last 10-20 years have bloomed white flowers instead of purple for the first time ever. I know that the black locust graft they use for these trees have white flowers, and runners of the root stock will sprout up white but none of these purple robes died back, they simply just have white flowers this year instead of the normal deep purple. At first I thought it was a one off, but it’s happening to a bunch of the trees here now. I’ve never really heard of something like this, and I can’t find any information about it on google. What sort of mechanism would have caused this reversion?

4 Comments
2023/06/03
21:31 UTC

8

Question: What is the best field guide for identifying trees in the Midwest United States?

I got a job as a utility forester and will be working mostly in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. I'd like something where I can make identifications quickly, and something not a too heavy (or has an ebook available).

5 Comments
2023/06/03
17:00 UTC

29

Looking for experienced mods to help with big picture stuff, mainly building the community, and helping this sub realize its full potential!

Right now this sub is mostly a "post and forget" type sub. People have questions they want answered, so they use the sub as a resource. While that is totally fine (and encouraged!) this sub is huge, and is growing fast, and that means it has so much potential. While there's no magic formula for this sub to realize its full potential, one of the things the mods have noticed is there's essentially no sense of community, which leads to mostly low effort posts.

So many people could learn so much more about botany if we fostered a sense of community and really increased the overall quality of the content instead of being a "post and forget" type sub. We hope to always be the same great resource that r/botany currently is, but we'd also like to grow the community and have dedicated community members help increase the quality of the content, and foster deeper conversations about the scientific study of plants.

So... we're looking for some experienced mods to join the team! We're not looking for mods to do the boring minutia of modding like removing posts and tweaking rules. We're looking for experienced mods who can dedicate serious time to growing the community and help drive the sub's content.

If you're interested, please DM me directly with some information about yourself, specifically:

What's your experience with modding a subreddit? Please provide links to the sub(s) you moderate or have moderated in the past.

What's timezone are you in?

What is your background in the plant sciences? (you do not need to be an expert in botany to be a mod on r/botany, it's just helpful for the mods to know)

What would you do to foster a sense of community? (please be specific)

What would you do to help increase the overall quality of the content on this sub?

How much time can you dedicate to this project? (focusing on big picture stuff is going to be a huge commitment!)

0 Comments
2023/06/03
16:34 UTC

32

Question: What are those little spikes?

These are lime leaves and i was curious about the little spikes on them. Can anyone explain?

11 Comments
2023/06/03
10:29 UTC

2

Question: Do you know any plants where the seeds germinate while still attached to the mother plant?

Of course that would limit the dispersal but It could give the seedling a huge headstart If it Had Access to water and nutrients from the mother plant.

8 Comments
2023/06/03
09:34 UTC

0

Discussion: This is mostly a joke, with a hint of truth. Could I collect, and transplant water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) into my chlorinated pool?

It’s very late at night and I just had this thought. Any input would be appreciated. This is an extremely invasive species in my state, and I could easily harvest 15 plants from the lake nearby my house. I just wanna know if it’d be possible for them to live in the pool. It’d be rad to have plants in the pool when I’m swimming.

8 Comments
2023/06/03
08:01 UTC

11

Discussion: any taughts about using this book for learning plant I'd and plant systhematics

1 Comment
2023/06/03
06:20 UTC

5

Question: Should I get a botany degree?

Hello everyone! I am a sophomore in college and I am second thinking my major. Right now I am pre-med but I don’t really have any drive or interest to be a doctor. This past semester I took a botany class and thought it was amazing! Ever since then I hav been thinking of switching my major to the plant science concentration instead of pre-med. I guess j am worried about jobs and opportunities with this degree and if anyone has a botany degree I would loveeee your input. Thank you!!!

5 Comments
2023/06/03
03:20 UTC

6

Question: Could this have been prevented by juvenile pruning ?

What exactly is going on here? Poor pruning from the start ? Trying to understand the anatomy of trees better so any information is helpful.

7 Comments
2023/06/02
15:24 UTC

109

Post Flair Now Required

There's a huge uptick in rule breaking posts, primarily plant care posts. We get it, it's summer, you're interested in your plants, and botany seems like a generic enough community.

This is not a general plant subreddit. This sub is about the scientific study of plants. Which is specifically biology, physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, pathology, or classification. It is not for plant ID or gardening advice.

From now on, posts will require flair that specifically mentions one of the topics above.

The mods will give this a try for about a week. If people keep spamming the sub with rule breaking posts, and just choose a random post flair, this sub will switch to approved posts and users only.

Feedback is welcomed

25 Comments
2023/06/02
14:03 UTC

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