Andrew Hipp
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andrewlhipp.bsky.social
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
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
Sugar maple sea, Maple Grove Forest Preserve this evening.
November 7, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Moon this morning, trail along Four Mile Creek, Miami University (with barred owls wooing in the background)
November 6, 2025 at 11:37 AM
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
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.
October 30, 2025 at 1:53 PM
October light on swamp white oaks, @mortonarboretum.bsky.social East Woods this evening.
October 29, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Ginkgo, east border of Garfield Park this morning
October 28, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Witch-hazel blooming this morning at Starved Rock State Park.

www.inaturalist.org/observations...
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
Sunrise and mist over Salt Creek this morning.
October 25, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Frosty cordgrass morning, tallgrass prairie on the east side of @mortonarboretum.bsky.social

www.inaturalist.org/observations...
October 24, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Venus (I believe) over the BNSF tracks this morning. Downers Grove.
October 24, 2025 at 1:11 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.
October 24, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Clouds over Lake Michigan this morning, from the Roosevelt CTA Station.
October 24, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Peromyscus from the prairie, photographed 5 yrs ago.
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
October 20, 2025 at 11:10 PM
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
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
October 20, 2025 at 4:55 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
October 15, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Evening snack time, The Morton Arboretum. @mortonarboretum.bsky.social
October 13, 2025 at 10:50 PM
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...
October 13, 2025 at 1:44 PM
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!
October 13, 2025 at 2:42 AM
My last letter for Poetry Clinic, responding to the question, "what is an individual?"

poetryclinic.org/what-is-an-i...
October 13, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Gems from Sierra Norte de Oaxaca, Friday: Conopholis (@skunkcabbages.bsky.social), dahlia, butterwort, witch's butter.
October 12, 2025 at 5:59 PM
First afternoon in Oaxaca... International Oak Society meeting starts tomorrow night!
October 5, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Silver-spotted skipper on purpletop vervain. The Morton Arboretum this afternoon. @mortonarboretum.bsky.social
October 4, 2025 at 2:31 AM