Bringing you Berries!

Here we are: February's issue of the Berry-Go-Round plant blogging carnival has reached your mailbox. What is a carnival? Hollis will clarify the concept at In the Company of Plants and Rocks, with a post designed to encourage more plant blogging, and not coincidentally, more carnival submissions! We did well this month, thanks to reminders via email and twitter (#berrygoround if you'd like to join us).

Jessica at Moss Plants and More has recently moved from one side of the U.S. to the other, and now brings us user-friendly photo field guides to help identify mosses of Sequoia National Park. She also shares her up-to-the-minute research on the paradox of cryptic species. I prefer my species a little more obvious (aka "easy"), but "morphologically austere," that sounds intriguing!

Hollis also presents a couple of newsworthy items, with The Plant Press reporting that leaf identification software is trending, and Helen McGranahan reminding us that lichens have a lot to tell us about air quality.

A Taste of Spring

The Phytophactor declares the official first day of spring on February 13th. (Oh, eeps!) Can you guess which of the plants in his neighborhood is his harbinger? He also offers a winter edition of Friday Fabulous Flower I can't resist adding to our collection this month. And, being the Phactor, many more posts of botanical interest.

Spring is not unique to TPP's area, as JSK of Anybody Seen My focus? knows, but in February you have to really look for it. On February 14th, she sneaks up on her target, with fascinating results!

Arts and Crafts

Susannah, On the Other Hand, decides that joining the National Phenology Network will help with her PhD project, as she enlightens us on the phenology of pollen. In another innovation, she also starts a life list of gymnosperms. This should catch on! Why let birders have all the fun?

Speaking of fun, Kim Gilbert of The Modern Forest tells us what it takes to have adventures in the field and survive them! If indoor sports suit you better, check out herbarium fun and games, another entry from the Phytophactor, who strives to interest his students in "reality taxonomy" via specimens.

Laurent, founding parent of this botanical carnival, is back! Now finding himself with more time for blogging at Seeds Aside, he submitted four entertaining posts. His gift for wordplay is well exercised, with an exploration of "chori", which is, of course, the plural of chorus, but in plant form. In other words, everything you wanted to know about how plants get around. More words bring us randomly generated poetry with, he writes, "small bits of botany and Academia."

Are you more visual than verbal? Before BGR, maybe even before we knew Laurent, he introduced It's been beesy (yes, more wordplay), featuring a technique for making plants a little more lively than usual. Now he's moving into a new art form, with his charming Peanut Leechy Gallery (more samples at this post)! I am going to have to try this, though I sense it won't be nearly as elegant in dusty brown Colorado.

Remember how you've been wondering "what is wuyuanzao"? Luigi answers all (except how to pronounce it) at the Agricultural Biodiversity weblog. In another post submitted by Jeremy, Luigi explains all about agroforestry and conservation and why we should care about this approach to the rainforest.

Jeremy introduces Another Blasted Weblog and assures us that Mentuccia is not pennyroyal. He reminds us it's good to know exactly what's cooking, especially when herbs are labeled ambiguously.

Sally delves into, but does not solve, the mysterious Hackberry here at Foothills Fancies.

That wraps up this month's edition. Hope you found some good reading, and if so—don't forget to share your appreciation with a comment or two at each stop! Next month's Berry-Go-Round will be hosted at In the Company of Plants and Rocks. Thanks, everyone!!