Flora

Friday Flora: The Spirit Tree

I was entering caption information for the botanical photographs in the Department of Botany collection. This involved matching the digital reference image on my computer screen to the physical mounted photograph on my desk, deciphering the hand-written plant identification scrawled…


Friday Flora: Hats Off!

While faculty from the Department of Botany explored the state to identify plant life in the early 1900s, department photographer C.J. Hibbard not only provided photographic documentation of their observations, but also took the opportunity to explore a bit of…


Friday Flora: Caption this!

In addition to some flora, since it is Friday, let’s add some fun… The actual caption for this photograph from the Department of Botany collection reads, “Talus vegetation, lichens and small shrubs, Lake Superior region” Something tells me that…


Friday Flora-Fungi: The final image

We reached a milestone on the Exploring project this week – completion of metadata entry (to include scientific names, families, additional captions, and geographical locations) for the 2,273 mounted botanical photographs from the Department of Botany records. Now ends the…


Where’s Waldo?

While growing up, I had several editions of Where’s Waldo? on my bookshelf. First published in England in 1987 as Where’s Wally? (Waldo is the American version), each book includes a series of highly detailed illustrations by British artist Martin…


Friday Flora: Something sketchy…

If you have been a regular follower of the Exploring blog, you likely have noticed the black and white color scheme apparent throughout the posts, indicative of the archival materials and the time period we are dealing with. Though the…


Minnesota Seaside Station

On page 676 of Vol. 19, No. 487 of the journal Science, a notice appears from Conway MacMillan, professor of Botany at the University of Minnesota, and State Botanist for the Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey. The notice informed…


Friday Flora: Seedlings

An important component in the study of plants is an understanding of the plant life cycle, the process of germination, and how a seed becomes a flower. Therefore it isn’t too surprising to find images of these little seedlings in…


Exploring Minnesota – electronically

Last summer I made a resolution to explore Minnesota by visiting destinations in my home state that I have not yet experienced. I started with an excursion to Ely and the Sudan mine last August, and just this past…


Friday Flora: Rock vegetation

This University of Minnesota botanist is intensely dedicated to his study of Minnesota flora… – Rock vegetation, lichens, and mosses on sand bluff, Minnehaha, July, 1902 (From the photograph collection of the Department of Botany)…