Glenda Mendieta-Leiva
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gmendietal.bsky.social
Glenda Mendieta-Leiva
@gmendietal.bsky.social
480 followers 320 following 14 posts
Research fellow Uni Marburg. Epiphyte ecologist, leading the Epiphyte Inventory Network: using epiphytes to understand Neotropical diversity, check us out at https://www.epigdatabase.org/

🌿 Botanist 🪷| Latina 💜| Firstgen 🎓 | PhD | LAC 🌎
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gmendietal.bsky.social
Discovering the beauty of Asturias:
an idyllic "Hayedo" and a terrestrial orchid (Orchid mascula)... 🌳🌲🪻
So many species and habitats yet to see and learn.
April 17, 2025 at 4:38 PM
gmendietal.bsky.social
One of the fun things about living in Gijón!

An incredible talk on arqueobotany by Leonor Peña-Chocarro. A trip to the past through the remains of plants and their fruits! (And much more...)

🌿🌳🍑🌽🫘

Organized by the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón and the University of Oviedo.
Using taxonomy to identify remains of seeds/plants (in this case for cereal species) Bog bodies (conservation techniques of current remains in wet/humid conditions). The most unexpected to me, a sample of half a coke can (150 ml) contained more than 21 000 seeds!
March 26, 2025 at 6:38 PM
gmendietal.bsky.social
#Invasives as
#AccidentalEpiphytes

I spotted young #palms🌴 on the knotholes of 2 Platanus trees 🌳.

A few meters ahead... Trachycarpus fortunei: Introduced as ornamental across the 🌍.
In northwestern Spain is #naturalized, & north Switzerland is replacing local #vegetation, an invasive #neophyte!
Young 🌱 individual of a palm tree (Trachycarpus fortunei) growing inside the knothole of the main branch from a Platanus sp. tree. It shows three leaves and it was growing at about 5.6 meters high (of the tree). Two adult individuals of the palm tree 🌴 Trachycarpus fortunei growing in a park, with fruits. In the background, the two individuals of Platanus trees where some individuals of this invasive palm were found growing on. A relatively large individual (approximately 1.3 meters) of Trachycarpus fortunei, growing in the middle crown of a Platanus sp. tree (also established within a knothole). In the base there was also an unidentified dicot and Hedera sp.
March 21, 2025 at 2:50 PM
gmendietal.bsky.social
Fun visit to the Atlantic Botanical Garden of Gijón with @borjajimalf.bsky.social and a #botany class.

At least eight species of plants 🪴🏵️ growing as #accidental #epiphytes.

Quercus full of surprises! I wonder if this counts towards the value of centenary #Quercus for #biodiversity.
Front entrance of the "Jardín Botánico Atlántico" de Gijón, below, an group of students observing the organization of the botanical garden (looking into a map). Mature individuals of Polypodium cf. cambricum (one of the most common species of Polypodium in the botanical garden) growing along a branch of a centennial Quercus tree. The branch is covered in moss in its upper side. Individuals of four species growing on the lower trunk of a Populus. There are moss patches and the back site is some sort of crevice. Three maple (Acer sp.) seedlings were observed, but the individuals of the other species (Polypodium cf. cambricum, Cymbalaria muralis and perhaps a Viola) do not seem to be juveniles. A healthy individual of the tree Prunus laurocerasus (cherry laurel) growing on the main crotch of a Quercus ruber.
March 2, 2025 at 1:05 AM
gmendietal.bsky.social
Did you know that many "normal" plants grow accidentally as #epiphytes?

🪴🌿🪷🏵️

G. Zotz created this project www.inaturalist.org/projects/acc... to understand how often this happens? Under which conditions & in how many species occurs?

Here examples from #Asturias! You can also contribute!
Cellphone screenshot of an iNaturalist entry in the project accidental epiphytes. The photo shows a southern polypodium (cf Polypodium cambricum) growing on mossess covering the bark of a Magnolia tree. The individuals are distributed along the trunk from 3 to 6 meters high. The photo shows adult and young individuals, and the tree was found in an urban park near the coast of Gijón, Asturias. Cellphone screenshot of an iNaturalist entry in the project accidental epiphytes . The photo shows a southern polypodium (cf Polypodium cambricum) growing on mossess covering the bark of a Magnolia tree. The individuals were growing along the trunk from 3 to 6 meters high. The photo shows adult and young individuals, as well as the location (urban park) near the coast of Gijón, Asturias. Screenshot of the project "accidental epiphytes" on a web browser, showing the number of observations (2928), species (770) and people (825) participating. It shows the occurrences/observations across de Globe. Polypodium cf. cambricum grows on a bent trunk of a Sambucus, also covered by mosses. The tree occurred in a creek close by a beach on the way to Cantabria. The photo shows a single mature individual with four fronds.
February 24, 2025 at 10:18 PM
gmendietal.bsky.social
🙋🏾‍♀️ 🔵🦋, 4 my 1st 📬, I will like to introduce my study system: vascular epiphytes & our working group: the Epiphyte Inventory Group (EpIG).

Check us out at:
www.epigdatabase.org

#Neotropics
#biogeography
#conservation
#diversity
Parque Nacional Yanachaga Chemillén, Perú Orchidaceae, Epidendrum sp. [Possibly endemic, possibly threatened according to Peruvian legislation]. PNYCh, Peru. Orchidaceae, Maxillaria sp. Understory epiphyte. PNYCh, Peru.
December 2, 2024 at 10:55 PM