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Andrew Hipp

@andrewlhipp.bsky.social

3.6K followers 3.6K following 1K posts

Plant systematist, herbarium director, naturalist, in the Chicago suburbs; posts reflect my views, not my employer's. Recent book: Oak Origins: From Acorns to Species & the Tree of Life https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo236998258.html

press.uchicago.edu

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Reposted by Andrew Hipp

Dr. Hilary Rose Dawson @hilaryrosed.bsky.social · 1d

@andrewlhipp.bsky.social gave a stirring talk promoting #NaturalHistory at the #Botany2025 @amsocplanttaxon.bsky.social lecture. He has preprinted an essay based on this lecture which is worth a read if you need some hope in ecology.

doi.org/10.32942/X2MS85

Fostering a natural history community

doi.org

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 18h

Thank you! I enjoyed seeing you at Botany 2025 and am glad you liked the talk. I appreciate you sharing it.

Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 1d

Evening snack time, The Morton Arboretum. @mortonarboretum.bsky.social

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 1d

A clear illustration of at least one reason why inferences from macroevolutionary (Ornstein-Uhlenbeck) adaptation models don't reliably predict microevolution.

Schluter D. 2024. Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society 3: kzae016.

doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Figure 3. A, a hypothetical adaptive landscape with multiple adaptive peaks (+) oriented along a corridor, some of which are occupied by species (grey ellipses). Contours represent population mean fitness as a function of population mean in two traits. The direction of maximum genetic variation within species (gmax) is indicated by an arrow. The heavy dashed line indicates the major direction of the corridor of adaptive peaks. I assume the hypothetical species occupying the landscape are broadly sympatric (otherwise adaptive peaks from different regions would need to be superimposed somehow). B, the OU stationary distribution or ‘surface’ estimated from the means of the five species in A superimposed on the same adaptive landscape. Species means are indicated by filled circles. Contours indicate probability density of the fitted bivariate Gaussian OU distribution. The grand mean is indicated by θ. The stationary distribution was estimated using the mvMORPH package (Clavel et al. 2015) in R 4.3.2 assuming a random phylogeny for the five species.

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 2d

thanks, Theresa!

Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 2d

A small sample of oak heroes who have had a disproportionate influence on my thinking and work, from Mexico, France, and the U.S.

Names in the alt text; from the International Oak Society meeting last week in Oaxaca.

Join www.internationaloaksociety.org today!

Top row (L to R): Maricela Rodriguez Acosta; Hernando Rodríguez Correa; Antoine Kremer; Victoria Sork; Paul Manos

bottom row (L to R): Alan Whittemore, Andrew Hipp, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Antonio Gonzalez Rodriguez, Susana Valencia-A.

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 2d

Tom, we should talk about this some time. I'd like to hear your thoughts. My own opinions on this have shifted in the past few years, and currently my ideas about individuality are entangled with my ideas about moral standing. Not altogether cleanly.

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 2d

My last letter for Poetry Clinic, responding to the question, "what is an individual?"

poetryclinic.org/what-is-an-i...

Millipede in moss (Callicladium?). Santa Catarina Ixtepeji, Oaxaca, 11 Oct 2025. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320137561

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 2d

Gems from Sierra Norte de Oaxaca, Friday: Conopholis (@skunkcabbages.bsky.social), dahlia, butterwort, witch's butter.

Conopholis alpina (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320141134)

Dahlia (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320147537)

Pinguicula orchidioides (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320146821)

Witch's butter, jelly fungus (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/320141138)

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 10d

First afternoon in Oaxaca... International Oak Society meeting starts tomorrow night!

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 11d

Silver-spotted skipper on purpletop vervain. The Morton Arboretum this afternoon. @mortonarboretum.bsky.social

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 12d

Burnham Park this evening, looking over Lake Michigan towards Gary IN.

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 13d

"Even the strongest and greatest of trees is built up of minute cells, which constitute its stout trunk with its wood and bark, its leaves, flowers, and acorns. All the potentialities of this massive tree were packed into the cells of the acorn."

- Knight and Step 1913, Popular Botany

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 13d

Amaranth in the garden.

Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 13d

thank you! I looked but somehow missed this.

Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 13d

Get symposium and colloquium proposals together for Botany 2026, the joint meeting of @amsocplanttaxon.bsky.social @botsocamerica.bsky.social @herbariumcurators.bsky.social @iaptglobal.bsky.social + Am Bryological Society and Am Fern Society... best meeting of the year!

mailchi.mp/botany.org/b...

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 14d

Thanks, Chris!

Reposted by Andrew Hipp

Chris Martine | Plants are Cool, Too! @martinebotany.bsky.social · 14d

And definitely check out @andrewlhipp.bsky.social's outstanding essay (and address from #Botany2025), Fostering a natural history community. Soon to appear in Systematic Botany. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 14d

In a broken, evasive world, reality is what we mean to celebrate, to be partakers of, within this music's sound: look, where the world comes, listen, hear.

-- William Bronk

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 15d

Woolly bear time!

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 16d

Asters and goldenrods, Maple Grove Forest Preserve, yesterday morning. Fight for democracy, science, human decency, and the natural world, and continue celebrating what you are fighting for.

Aster shortii; Maple Grove Forest Preserve, 27 Sept 2025

Zig-zag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis); Maple Grove Forest Preserve, 27 Sept 2025

Drummond's aster (Symphyotrichum drummondii); Maple Grove Forest Preserve, 27 Sept 2025

Calico aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum); Maple Grove Forest Preserve, 27 Sept 2025

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 16d

Completely agreed.

Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 16d

Herbarium tour starts in 5 minutes... Focus on the Mexican oaks! We have another one at 2:00 p.m. if you feel like joining us, Morton Arboretum herbarium.

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Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 16d

I just noticed this post... Congratulations! I'm psyched to read it.

Andrew Hipp @andrewlhipp.bsky.social · 16d

Fascinating essay by @martinebotany.bsky.social on spiny solanums (tomato et al. relatives) as an example of all the important natural history research left to be done. Great observations on pollination and symbiosis... A very inspiring Sunday morning read!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The inherent values of observation and description: A case study in the spiny solanums of Australia

Click on the article title to read more.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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