Richard Hay🌾
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harvestofhay.bsky.social
Richard Hay🌾
@harvestofhay.bsky.social
Mostly I just grow things hey🌱

Curator: Future Africa Indigenous and Orphan Crops Collection, University of Pretoria

Conservation Project Coordinator: Botanical Society of South Africa
Urban botanising a little population of natural Aloe marlothii X A. davyana hybrids in amongst a moerse population of Aloe davyana🌱
August 28, 2025 at 10:01 AM
This household is having a grand old time in the kitchen at the moment!
July 16, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Blows my mind that we have the technology to measure photosynthesis
April 30, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Tsenza making emails bearable (Don't say anything about my 40 million open tabs)
April 23, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Sending up the Cabbage Signal for @makenziemabryphd.bsky.social 🔦
Researchers describe a new crucifer species from eastern China.

doi.org/10.3897/phyt...
March 12, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Luffa cylindrica fruit in the early stages of development
March 11, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Our Work Integrated Learning students planting out their spinach, bell-peppers, and purple sweet potatoes into the Giving Garden🌱
March 10, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Yesterday our Work Integrated Learning volunteers from TUT split and packaged Egyptian walking onions (Allium x proliferum) and Zimbabwean ever-ready onions (Allium cepa 'Perutile') to distribute to 248 home and community food gardens through the ABBA Embrace Foundation's food garden campaign.
March 8, 2025 at 7:48 AM
Some incredible work from my colleague for his Culinary Arts practical demonstration turning snippets of my gardens into a vibrant salad🥗
March 7, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Richard Hay🌾
A new study has explored how we can use competition and engagement to empower plant-aware students and prevent the "ticking time bomb" of botanical skills debt.

The Botanical University Challenge is much more than just a contest (@bucbotany.bsky.social). Read more 👇

bit.ly/3XtNzQw
The Botanical University Challenge - bridging isolation and empowering plant-aware students
bit.ly
March 6, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Richard Hay🌾
My latest article, for @yalee360.bsky.social, about South Africa's plant poaching crisis.

Please share the link!

e360.yale.edu/features/sou...
A Craze for Tiny Plants Is Driving a Poaching Crisis in South Africa
South Africa’s Succulent Karoo is the most biodiverse arid region on the planet, with thousands of plants found nowhere else. But to meet a demand fueled by social media, criminal networks have been p...
e360.yale.edu
March 6, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Scarlet rosemallow (Hibiscus coccineus) flowering in our rainwater attenuation dam. This semi-aquatic hibiscus is native to the Southeastern United States where it's found growing in wetlands such as swamps and marshes🌺
March 6, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Another one of my side quests: using horticulture for ecological restoration🌱

www.up.ac.za/news/post_32...
UP experts and volunteers spearhead first large-scale Magaliesberg aloe reintroduction | University of Pretoria
Rare-plant experts from UP are spearheading the reintroduction of thousands of critically endangered Magaliesberg aloe seedlings into the wild.
www.up.ac.za
March 6, 2025 at 4:26 AM
As part of the Centenary Symposium for the University of Pretoria's Schweickerdt Herbarium and Manie van der Schijff Botanical Garden, we brought in undergrad students from the Department of Consumer and Food Sciences to create a lunch from ingredients harvested from our gardens (1/5)
March 4, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Just a very wholesome day getting some of the novel crops from the collection into community gardens in Alexandra🌱
February 11, 2025 at 4:28 PM
With the most ridiculous edible roots as well
January 31, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Some very angry little wire chompers in the irrigation control boxes today
January 29, 2025 at 5:50 PM
No beer like a field beer 🍻
January 29, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Richard Hay🌾
In agriculture, "there are no solutions, only trade-offs." Here, the common biodiversity vs. productivity.

"a reminder of the challenge in reconciling conflicting aims in farmland management."

Open access.
www.nature.com/articles/s4...
Trade-off between pollinator-wildflower diversity & grassland yields
npj Biodiversity - Trade-off between pollinator-wildflower diversity & grassland yields
www.nature.com
January 26, 2025 at 4:57 PM
9 weeks after being mailed to me and 4 weeks after planting, the first of the Adenium swazicum is flowering despite not being watered yet😬
January 25, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Richard Hay🌾
I've built a machine that can be Confidently Wrong. It can also make pictures that all look a bit the same, as well as make a video of you kissing any celebrity or person you know. In payment, I'd like to boil the world's oceans dry, & steal all literature. For some reason, my head is not on a spike
January 24, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Right, @adamwelz.bsky.social recommended I give this site a try so let's give it a second chance. Customary offering of (potato) flowers upon arrival
January 24, 2025 at 8:45 AM
March 4, 2024 at 5:33 AM
!Nara (Acanthosicyos horridus) is spiney cucurbit endemic to the Namib desert. The species is typically found growing in the interdunes and is one of the toughest plants I've ever come across.
March 3, 2024 at 1:59 PM