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Mayhaps baobabs and that neotropical walking palm also qualify as beasts

i have nothing but respect for baobabs and the fact that theyre incredibly silo-shaped for optimal water storage but idk they dont quite hit the same beast vibe imo..... same with redwoods and giant sequoias..... enormous Dudes, definitely some of the plants of all time but somehow not quite beasts....like i look at them and they are shockingly large but my brain still recognizes them as trees from a distance. i simply do not feel threatened enough.

Socratea exorrhiza, the walking palms, however. THOSE are beasts, yeah. they dont actually move but the stilt roots look like they SHOULD move to the point where i think if i was walking alone at night near some i would check over my shoulder, you know. like. VERY disconcerting and the texture of the roots REALLY doesnt help. distressing pics for reference

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Ollie being a blanket snuggler like his late papa Marty. Took him 8yrs to get here, but it’s finally happening.

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Fursona update

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The twist is they are all dragons

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HEY UHHHH THIS FACT MESSES WITH ME FROM TIME TO TIME BUT APPARENTLY MUSHROOMS AND FUNGI ARE CLOSELY RELATED TO ANIMALS AND I HAVE NO IDEA IF YOU CAN ELABORATE ON IT OR NOT

yes!!! mushrooms (which are the fruiting bodies of fungi, but not all fungi make mushrooms) are more closely related to animals than they are to plants, and are close enough to us in DNA that it’s harder for our immune systems to fight off fungal infections than, say, a bacterial infection. 

a question I get every so often, and a question that confounded biologists all through the pre-victorian ages, is what fungi actually is. in modern biology, all life is split into three domains: Domain Bacteria, Domain Archaea, and Domain Eukaryota. everybody is pretty decided that archaea (which are like.....uh.....like, they’re weird, like the full name is ‘Domain Archaeabacteria’ or ancient bacteria, and theyre pretty fucked up X Treme lads that live in some wild conditions and have some special characteristics but i dont know enough about them to go into that here) and bacteria (which are like...you know, normal bacteria) are all separate from Domain Eukaryota, which encompasses pretty much everything that’s not a bacteria or an ancient bacteria. 

from THERE, you have the kingdoms of the Eukaryota domain, which can differ and can get realllyy wild and debatable (humans want to sort things into little neat categories but life and biology arent good at being sorted into little neat categories so the lines are constantly redrawn and everybody has a different opinion), but the main general, non-specific ones that they’ll teach you in a lot of basic bio classes are Kingdom Animalia, Kingdom Plantae, and Kingdom Fungi (and maybe Kingdom Protista, which i also am not experienced enough with to talk about here). 

Kingdom Fungi encompasses a wide range of stuff: yes, they are more closely related to animals than plants, but they very much are their own thing from both and encompass everything from mushrooms to mold to some single-celled members like yeast. broadly, not counting any exceptions or debatable cases that may arise, members of this kingdom have the chemical chitin in their cell walls, often act as decomposers in their ecosystems, and do not photosynthesize; they ‘eat’ by secreting digestive chemicals into what they want to absorb and slurping up the resulting liquified good stuff (heterotrophy) as opposed to making their own food (like plants do). animals....yes....are also heterotrophs and enjoy slurping up some liquified good stuff. like, we as mammals have compartments for that and it’s considered distasteful to flaunt one’s digestive fluids, but you know. 

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for some reason i definitely thought this was going to be one of those fuckin… infinite chocolate things. or like, some really weird trick involved. literally it’s just “put the tomatoes in some dirt and they grow into MORE TOMATOES 😱” which like… yea… that IS how plants work but i don’t know if it’s a life hack

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wound up on the USDA agricultural research service website for info on a plant and got a popup asking if i’d like to sign up for email updates. i am not someone who usually does this, but i was most definitely not expecting to be offered an email service from the USDA this evening and decided why the fuck not. after typing in my email, i was taken to another page with a dropdown menu, and in short this is how i discovered that not only does the USDA agricultural research service offer email updates, but you can sign up for text message updates too, and goddamn if i’m not gonna blindly jump on that strange and unexpected opportunity 

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Do you have any favorite domesticated food plants?

i mean, i’ve lived in iowa my whole life, so i might be a bit biased, but maize. evolution put teosinte on this planet and roughly 9,000 years later it’s decedents absolutely beg for release from our mortal coil. for those not acquainted, heres an illustration of teosinte, the species of native mexican grass maize was domesticated from, next to modern maize

dont get me wrong, it’s a worldwide staple and an amazing crop from an ethnobotanical standpoint, but biologically…….oh no

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Just trying to get a drink of water

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Thank you, @blurrysleeps for tagging me in this!

I love to do these, so thank you for tagging me! 🌸🌸🌸

Were you named after someone? No, I wasn’t. But! My mom combined two names to come up with mine.

Last time you cried? It’s been a while, actually. I think the last time I cried was earlier this week? Probably over something small..

Any kids? No, but I think having at least one kid will be nice eventually. Kids actually make me nervous.

Do you use sarcasm? A lot! Almost always when I’m talking to my boyfriend.

First thing I notice about someone: I usually pay more attention to people’s voices and body language than anything else. I try to gauge wether they like me or not.

Eye color: a tricky question! My eyes are gray, but have a ring of navy blue on the outer part of my iris.

Scary movie or happy ending? I prefer to watch animated movies over anything else, so I guess happy endings are better for me.

Special talent: I pick up on people’s emotions very fast, and tent to absorb them like a sponge. Not really a good talent sometimes, but it’s still useful!

Birthplace: Mount Holly, New Jersey.

Hobbies: gardening and drawing, mostly.

Pets: a 14 year old cat named Marty, and two twin gray cats who are around 4 years old.

Height: 4’9”

Favorite subject: I’ve always enjoyed science and history!

Dream job: anything involving agriculture. I hope to have a small botanical garden some day.

I tag @m0n0rebl00gs @elvensociety

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A collection of more art. It’s hard to keep up with uploading. The weird shadows on the paper are because they’re photos of work drawings, and the light is actually right over my head.

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i know im more on the science side of things and know absolutely nothing about actually growing plants but jenna marbles did a video today where she shows that holy fuck she knows how to actually grow plants and loves them so incredibly much and anyway i deeply appreciate her

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I’ve submitted this to another blog but I’d thought you would like it too, it’s titled “Pumpkin screams at floating moss ball” (submitted by @plaguedocboi)

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A huge and lovey thanks to @condensedginger for drawing all these lovely little pieces for me. My Elder Scrolls Characters. ❤️💛❤️

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(top left) Altharmar and Condensed Ginger

(top right) Altharmar being hot.

(middle) Altharmar being mischievous.

(bottom left) Suramondalf and Morsara

(bottom right) Farlendel.

She is a lovely and talented artist! Go give her some love!!

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my new roommate tomorrow when i move in and she sees me putting books up on my tiny dorm bookshelf and theyre all on plants, disturbing epidemics, or science fiction horror

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Here’s the boy, colored. I’m not too fond of the color scheme on his clothes and sword, so I’ll probably end up changing things around again until I get a design I actually like. But I love how his face and hair turned out, that will stay the same.

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A nice Altmer man, for all you good people who like banana elves. I’m working on coloring him as we speak, I’m trying not to tarnish his good looks.