George R. L. Greiff
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ilichenmoss2.bsky.social
George R. L. Greiff
@ilichenmoss2.bsky.social
Plant scientist working on PhD at the University of Bristol. Interested in evo-devo and natural history. Microbotanist - bryology and bryo-mycology
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success
November 17, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
First record of large leafy liverwort Bazzania trilobata for co Derry (H40) since 1834! Also growing alongside it was Hymenophyllum tunbrigense which is a new county site too.

Ness Country Park, Co. Derry.

@bsbiireland.bsky.social @bbsbryology.bsky.social

#bryophytes #ferns #botany
November 3, 2025 at 8:18 PM
A final micrograph for today showing mycelium of an Epibryon sp. fungus inside liverwort cells. Most cells are infected but some in the lower part of the photo are healthy, as evidenced by the absence of hyphae and the presence of oil bodies.
September 23, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Micrograph of a rhizoid gall caused by a chytrid on Bryum moss. The infected cell contains several zoosporangia, some of which have thread-like exit tubes that release flagellated spores. Chytrids are interesting fungi that mostly lack hyphae and have mobile spores.
September 23, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Great to find the fungus Bryobroma scapaniae on Scapania undulata in Bannau Brycheiniog in Wales a few days ago. I think this is the third ever record of the species, and I see how it is very easy to miss, with the dark fruitbodies disguised against the black host stem. From a rock in a stream.
September 23, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
An opportunity of a lifetime for budding lichenologists. The National Trust and the Royal Botanics, Edinburgh are offering a PAID lichen traineeship in #Scotland! The work programme looks fascinating and a great opportunity to develop skills. Deadline: 3/10/2025. www.asva.co.uk/jobs/trainee...
September 5, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Thanks, Jill! It was an unexpected honour and it has been amazing to see how my cohort has grown and developed over the years. Now, for the final push! @gpsep.bsky.social
So very proud of my student George Greiff for winning the David Hanke Medal for the best student talk at this year’s Gatsby Plant Science network meeting in Oxford. Well deserved at the end of a busy and productive PhD 👏🏻💕.
September 5, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Using one of my favourite bryophyte books to help with my thesis. It is a difficult read, densely packed with all kinds of interesting and almost forgotten information. I must have read it half a dozen times, and each time, I notice something profound that I either missed or didn't understand before
August 13, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
"PhD-level experts in your back pocket" is a completely nonsensical description of AI but a pretty good description of social media if you follow the right people
August 9, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
It's publication day for Mosses, Liverworts and Hornworts of the World!

Immerse yourself in the miniature world of these fascinating plants, delve into their evolutionary past and look ahead to what might be in store for their future.

More details at: shorturl.at/Zmtfe
August 5, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
Petoskey stone is a fossil coral and Michigan's state stone. This is from the Devonian Rockport quarry north of Alpena. Most Petoskey stone is found on the beach and rounded smooth.

#FossilFriday
August 1, 2025 at 7:49 PM
It was nice to go for a run past the spot that got me interested in bryophytes 10 years ago when I was staying at my grandfather's place. I was struck by the outerwordly appearance of the liverwort Conocephalum conicum, which was completely covering the wall of this bridge back then.
July 12, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Happy to announce a new species bryophilous fungus, Bryocentria insolens. It is a parasite of Orthotrichaceae and known from Switzerland and Belgium so far. Thanks to my coauthors for finding great specimens - it all started from an AscoFrance post over 2 years ago.

pfsyst.botany.pl/-Bryocentria...
<i>Bryocentria insolens</i> (<i>Hypocreales</i>) – a new bryophilous ascomycete on <i>Lewinskya</i> and a preliminary phylogenetic analysis of European <i>Bryocentria</i>
The bryophilous genus Bryocentria comprises nineteen species of mostly hepaticolous parasites exhibiting a range of distinctive ascospore features and host-parasite interactions. While Bryocentri...
pfsyst.botany.pl
July 9, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
New Article: "Ordovician marine Charophyceae and insights into land plant derivations" rdcu.be/eoSkA

Marine Charophyceae fossils from the Upper Ordovician confirm that morphological innovations key to the evolution of terrestrial flora predate emergence of land plants.
May 31, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
phases of the dandelion
May 15, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
SoftAlign: End-to-end protein structures alignment https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.09.653096v1
May 14, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
Read & RP. New preprint by Alex Gavrin from his time in our team - Inactivation of Medicago Glucan binding protein 1 (GBP1) offers: An approach to enhance symbiotic nitrogen fixation.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
April 24, 2025 at 4:46 PM
The fungi that grow on bryophyte (moss) sporophytes are usually completely different to those on gametophytes. One feature is less apparent specificity in many, where generalists can grow on decaying vascular plants and "woody" moss sporophytes. This is a spore of Pleospora cf. herbarum ... 1/2
April 12, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
[🚨Pre-print alert🚨] Excited to share our findings on the enigmatic ericoid mycorrhizal symbiosis.

🔴For the first time we provide evidence that ericoid mycorrhizae evolved from ancestral
arbuscular mycorrhizae through the co-option nutrient-dependent regulation 👇!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Leafy liverwort genomes shed light on the evolution of ericoid symbiosis
Mycorrhizal symbiosis has been fundamental to colonization of terrestrial ecosystems by plants, influencing population dynamics, biogeography, and their evolution. The emergence of the ancient arbuscu...
www.biorxiv.org
April 2, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
Leafy liverwort genomes shed light on the evolution of ericoid symbiosis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.01.646537v1
April 1, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Amazing flower variation in Ficaria verna!
Some of the Ficaria verna weirdos flowering in the garden today
March 30, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
Some of the Ficaria verna weirdos flowering in the garden today
March 30, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by George R. L. Greiff
Another preprint! I was privileged to be asked to be involved with this project. Well done to everyone, particularly the first author, Hannah McConnell of Veronica di Stilio's lab at UW, who's tenacity and hard work really shines through 🙂
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#Plantscience
#Fern
#LEAFY
LEAFY demonstrates ancestral reproductive functions in the gametophyte and not the sporophyte of the fern Ceratopteris richardii
Flowers are a key reproductive innovation of the angiosperms. They evolved as a modification of the ancestral plant life cycle whereby the haploid gamete-producing generation (gametophyte) became encl...
www.biorxiv.org
March 26, 2025 at 12:13 PM
A hornwort, Phaeoceros laevis, I think, on a seepage. Lovely to see the plant is still abundant at the site.
March 22, 2025 at 8:41 PM