Ben Gahagen
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bgahagen.bsky.social
Ben Gahagen
@bgahagen.bsky.social
16 followers 36 following 4 posts
Associate Professor of Biology @ ABAC #iamabotanist | hemiparasitic plants (Seymeria) | plant systematics • phenology • ethnobotany

#botany #plantscience #ethnobotany #systematics #phylogenetics
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bgahagen.bsky.social
Already ordered!
botsocamerica.bsky.social Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · 14d
We 💚 the Stranger Plants—and now they’re on #BSAswag!

The shirts feature bold illustrations by BSA’s own Catrina Adams, with a list of each species by common & scientific name on the back.

BSA members (exp. 2026+) get 10% off—email aneely@botany.org for code.

www.bonfire.com/store/bsa-wi...
Promotional graphic on a red background featuring two black-and-white raglan shirts from the Botanical Society of America’s “Stranger Plants” collection. One shirt shows a large illustrated plant scene; the other displays a grid of illustrated unusual plants. White text reads “We love the Stranger Plants BSA SWAG!” Below, descriptive text explains that the shirts highlight strange plants, with common and scientific names listed on the back in a concert-style format. A QR code labeled “Scan to Shop” appears at the lower right, along with BSA logos and text promoting additional BSA apparel.
December 12, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Ben Gahagen
jxbotany.bsky.social
🌱⚖️ RESEARCH ⚖️🌱

In Marchantia, amyloplasts function as statoliths in parenchymatous storage cells and play an important role in gravitropism; but gravitropism is not entirely abolished in the absence of starch granules - Hashimoto-Sugimoto et al.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪
Graphical abstract - (shortened, full abstract in paper): Gravitropism is a plant response to gravity that directs organ growth and development, playing a key role in the adaptation of land plants. While its molecular basis has been extensively studied in flowering plants, much less is known about this process in other plant lineages. Here, we investigated the gravitropic response of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, a model for early land plant evolution. In darkness, the thallus tips extended upward, forming several straight, narrow structures whose growth direction was consistently opposite to gravity and disrupted by clinostat treatment. These structures contained amyloplasts in parenchymatous cells, and their sedimentation preceded gravitropic curvature, suggesting a role as statoliths. Amyloplast sedimentation started near the tip and slowed with distance, and in more distal regions, both the size and the number of amyloplasts decreased.
December 11, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Ben Gahagen
plantteaching.bsky.social
It's gift-giving season!
Why not give the gift of plant knowledge?
Here are some excellent, accessible books to engage & excite.
Fantastic offerings from @berondam.bsky.social (& a new one out in Jan)
@jondrori.co.uk (& a new kids book)
@razda5.bsky.social 💚
@ferrisjabr.bsky.social 👍
Novels too!
Plants need champions! People who can tell engaging stories about plants. People who understand plants and explain how plants function People who can explain that plants are critical for human survival. Books shown from David Attenborough, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Jonathan Drori, Richard Powers, Danny Chamovitz, Ferris Jabr, Malcolm Wilkins, Charlotte McConaghy, Andy Weir, Beronda Montgomery, and Amanda Rasmussen.
November 28, 2025 at 1:59 PM
bgahagen.bsky.social
The new display is complete - Ethnobotany students were tasked with writing a short report on the traditional medicinal usage of a chosen herb or spice and the modern scientific evidence that supports or refutes those claims. They did a great job! #ethnobotany #botany #plantscience #medicinal #plant
November 28, 2025 at 8:13 PM
bgahagen.bsky.social
On Saturday, November 8th, three biology majors from ABAC attended and presented at the Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (GURC 2025) hosted by Emory University at Oxford, GA. They all did a great job! #GURC2025
November 9, 2025 at 3:11 PM
bgahagen.bsky.social
Looks like SERNEC is back up!
August 13, 2025 at 12:11 PM