Andrew Hipp
@andrewlhipp.bsky.social
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
Recent book: Oak Origins: From Acorns to Species & the Tree of Life
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo236998258.html
Sky over Joshua Tree; August 2025
November 22, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Sky over Joshua Tree; August 2025
red raspberry slime mold; Fullersburg Woods, July 2025
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
November 22, 2025 at 3:47 PM
red raspberry slime mold; Fullersburg Woods, July 2025
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
"Then I gulped the frosty air - I could not contain myself... There was the whole plateau, glittering white, within reach of my fingers, an immaculate vision, sun-struck, lifting against a sky of dazzling blue. I drank and drank. I have not yet done drinking that draught." - Nan Shepherd
November 22, 2025 at 3:25 PM
"Then I gulped the frosty air - I could not contain myself... There was the whole plateau, glittering white, within reach of my fingers, an immaculate vision, sun-struck, lifting against a sky of dazzling blue. I drank and drank. I have not yet done drinking that draught." - Nan Shepherd
Brilliant demonstration of how maple samaras catch the wind; The Huntington, January 2025
November 22, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Brilliant demonstration of how maple samaras catch the wind; The Huntington, January 2025
Massive Phytolacca, the Huntington, January 2025
November 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Massive Phytolacca, the Huntington, January 2025
Huntington Garden, Jan 2025
November 22, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Huntington Garden, Jan 2025
"So the geographies over which we are so suicidally passionate are, on this scale of events, fleeting expressions of the earth's face. Two hundred million years ago the Atlantic did not exist and all the land-masses of today were clasped together in one continuity, in pre-Adamite innocence..."
November 22, 2025 at 3:01 PM
"So the geographies over which we are so suicidally passionate are, on this scale of events, fleeting expressions of the earth's face. Two hundred million years ago the Atlantic did not exist and all the land-masses of today were clasped together in one continuity, in pre-Adamite innocence..."
Charlie Harper mosaic "Web of Life" and detail (Io moth, Pacific starfish, woodcock, bullfrog, redbeard sponge), 81 organisms in total. Miami University Department of Biology this past week.
November 9, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Charlie Harper mosaic "Web of Life" and detail (Io moth, Pacific starfish, woodcock, bullfrog, redbeard sponge), 81 organisms in total. Miami University Department of Biology this past week.
Sugar maple sea, Maple Grove Forest Preserve this evening.
November 7, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Sugar maple sea, Maple Grove Forest Preserve this evening.
Moon this morning, trail along Four Mile Creek, Miami University (with barred owls wooing in the background)
November 6, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Moon this morning, trail along Four Mile Creek, Miami University (with barred owls wooing in the background)
Maple Grove Forest Preserve this morning: sugar maples, yellow; waterleaf (probably Hydrophyllum appendiculatum), still green; sugar maple seed lodged in a hole in a fallen ash; puffballs.
November 2, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Maple Grove Forest Preserve this morning: sugar maples, yellow; waterleaf (probably Hydrophyllum appendiculatum), still green; sugar maple seed lodged in a hole in a fallen ash; puffballs.
Not to sound like a Luddite, but the auto-complete feature of VSCode in whatever prose I happen to be working on bugs and worries me. I mute it, but until I do, it chugs along in the background (with millions of other computers), gobbling up resources and draining creativity.
Muting it again now.
Muting it again now.
October 30, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Not to sound like a Luddite, but the auto-complete feature of VSCode in whatever prose I happen to be working on bugs and worries me. I mute it, but until I do, it chugs along in the background (with millions of other computers), gobbling up resources and draining creativity.
Muting it again now.
Muting it again now.
October light on swamp white oaks, @mortonarboretum.bsky.social East Woods this evening.
October 29, 2025 at 11:00 PM
October light on swamp white oaks, @mortonarboretum.bsky.social East Woods this evening.
Ginkgo, east border of Garfield Park this morning
October 28, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Ginkgo, east border of Garfield Park this morning
October 26, 2025 at 4:27 PM
A magnificent swamp white oak, floodplain of Salt Creek, Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve this morning.
October 25, 2025 at 2:29 PM
A magnificent swamp white oak, floodplain of Salt Creek, Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve this morning.
Sunrise and mist over Salt Creek this morning.
October 25, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Sunrise and mist over Salt Creek this morning.
Frosty cordgrass morning, tallgrass prairie on the east side of @mortonarboretum.bsky.social
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
October 24, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Frosty cordgrass morning, tallgrass prairie on the east side of @mortonarboretum.bsky.social
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
Venus (I believe) over the BNSF tracks this morning. Downers Grove.
October 24, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Venus (I believe) over the BNSF tracks this morning. Downers Grove.
My colleague AP bio teacher @jeffgrantscience.bsky.social in @science.org (10/9/25), on the now-shuttered climate.gov: "I always provide [students] with the latest research."
By contrast, Donald Trump on climate change: "the biggest con job ever perpetrated." Plus side? Jeff is the one teaching.
By contrast, Donald Trump on climate change: "the biggest con job ever perpetrated." Plus side? Jeff is the one teaching.
October 24, 2025 at 12:55 AM
My colleague AP bio teacher @jeffgrantscience.bsky.social in @science.org (10/9/25), on the now-shuttered climate.gov: "I always provide [students] with the latest research."
By contrast, Donald Trump on climate change: "the biggest con job ever perpetrated." Plus side? Jeff is the one teaching.
By contrast, Donald Trump on climate change: "the biggest con job ever perpetrated." Plus side? Jeff is the one teaching.
Clouds over Lake Michigan this morning, from the Roosevelt CTA Station.
October 24, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Clouds over Lake Michigan this morning, from the Roosevelt CTA Station.
Peromyscus from the prairie, photographed 5 yrs ago.
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
October 20, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Peromyscus from the prairie, photographed 5 yrs ago.
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
White snakeroot, wild ginger, severed sugar maple nursing elm seedlings and hosting a happy, healthy poison ivy. Maple Grove Forest Preserve this afternoon.
October 20, 2025 at 9:01 PM
White snakeroot, wild ginger, severed sugar maple nursing elm seedlings and hosting a happy, healthy poison ivy. Maple Grove Forest Preserve this afternoon.
A near-perfect Friday collecting at Warren Woods Ecological Field Station, University of Chicago, with @mortonarboretum.bsky.social Team Herbarium.
Featured: R Mohn, L Worcester, B Kim, C Rodriguez, E Bretl, skunk cabbage, beechdrops.
warrenwoods.bsd.uchicago.edu/about/
marramcollaborative.com
Featured: R Mohn, L Worcester, B Kim, C Rodriguez, E Bretl, skunk cabbage, beechdrops.
warrenwoods.bsd.uchicago.edu/about/
marramcollaborative.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:55 PM
A near-perfect Friday collecting at Warren Woods Ecological Field Station, University of Chicago, with @mortonarboretum.bsky.social Team Herbarium.
Featured: R Mohn, L Worcester, B Kim, C Rodriguez, E Bretl, skunk cabbage, beechdrops.
warrenwoods.bsd.uchicago.edu/about/
marramcollaborative.com
Featured: R Mohn, L Worcester, B Kim, C Rodriguez, E Bretl, skunk cabbage, beechdrops.
warrenwoods.bsd.uchicago.edu/about/
marramcollaborative.com
Sign up for @laymonstera.bsky.social's free ASPT @amsocplanttaxon.bsky.social webinar, "Phylogenomics and macroevolution of a florally diverse Neotropical plant clade," featuring phylogenomics, biogeography, niche & pollinator evolution!
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
@tropicalbotany.bsky.social
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
@tropicalbotany.bsky.social
October 15, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Sign up for @laymonstera.bsky.social's free ASPT @amsocplanttaxon.bsky.social webinar, "Phylogenomics and macroevolution of a florally diverse Neotropical plant clade," featuring phylogenomics, biogeography, niche & pollinator evolution!
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
@tropicalbotany.bsky.social
us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
@tropicalbotany.bsky.social