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botanybyyen.bsky.social
Yen
@botanybyyen.bsky.social
Conservation botany and plant microscopy 🌿🔬
Masters student studying genomics + reproduction in threatened plants 🌱
Based in Naarm, on Wurundjeri country.
She/they 🏳️‍🌈 cPTSD
NO AI.
Views my own
https://linktr.ee/BotanyByYen
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A bit about my macro photography: I use a dissecting microscope plus my phone camera! One photo can be made up of 5-15+ seperate shots at different focal lengths and focus-stacked in Affinity Photo to make them extra sharp. But yeah, all taken with a microscope and phone. 😄 🔬
This weeks features #Dimorphotheca ecklonis (Asteraceae)! This is a species of #daisy from South Africa that’s commonly grown in gardens here. Their ligules (what appear as petals) can be white to purple, while the centre disc florets are a deep blue/purple. They’re quite striking flowers up close!
November 24, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Excited to share that I'm one of the lucky photographers to get one of my photos published in Ecology Matters by @ecolsocaus.bsky.social! It's incredibly surreal seeing something you made printed in a book. You can spot Manuka buds on page 12! ❤️
November 19, 2025 at 12:55 AM
#Styphelia ericoides (Ericaceae), aka the pink beard heath! This is a widespread shrub to 2m high that has typical beard-heath flowers: tubular and densly hairy (bearded) on the inside. The flowers are very small (1-1.5mm long), creamy-white with pink tips.

#plants #photography
November 18, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Lets get back into it: weeks microscopy features #Actinobole uliginosum! This plant is so tiny, only a few cm high, that you’d need to be on your hands and knees in the dirt to really notice it exists. It’s an #Asteraceae with cottony leaves and white-creamy coloured flowers.
November 17, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Wrapped up my field work this past weekend by visiting Acacia daviesii (FFG listed critically endangered)!! Very bittersweet. I'm looking forward to the break but kind of sad I won't see my species for a bit.
October 22, 2025 at 4:20 AM
#Thrips! Thrips are thrips both singular and plural, and if you do any sort of floral morphology or pollen work you'll come across a million of them. This guy was hiding out in an Osterospermum floret.

#inverts #photography
October 12, 2025 at 11:54 PM
A blue ant (Diamma bicolor)! She's not actually an ant, she's a wasp (though they're both Hymenoptera). A species I've always wanted to see. 🥹
October 7, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Colour spectrum of Caladenia carnea (pink fingers). They range from hot pink, light pink, a faint blush of pink to totally white. Found out in western Vic. ❤️🩷🤍
October 2, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Last week I had the most amazing time demonstrating LTU BOT2PDE students out in Natimuk, far western Victoria. Got my hands dirty with inch flora and saw some good flowers. 🌸
September 29, 2025 at 12:27 AM
A few flowers from the weekend, celebrating wrapping up work at one of my field sites. Not my target species but so lovely to see. ❤️
September 16, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Had a brief trip to Sydney and saw some very Sydney things.
#binchicken
September 9, 2025 at 2:10 AM
A few snaps of what's growing at one of my field sites that aren't my target species (I did not take enough time to photograph non-study species 😞)
September 3, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Yesterday was national #wattle day! Here's my two Masters species, #Acacia daviesii (timbertop wattle, first two photos) and Acacia sporadica (pale hickory wattle, last row photos). Both critically endangered, I'm very lucky I get to work with them. ❤️❤️
September 2, 2025 at 2:45 AM
This weeks #microscopy- #Plagiochila fasciculata! Featuring intercalary androecium (male reproductive parts). They're very common in wet forests and give off a strong camphor/mothball smell. I love getting students to sniff them (they often don't know what the smell is and find it revolting).
August 28, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Swamp wallaby supervising my field work. 🥹
August 25, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Zoopsis leitgebiana, a leafy #liverwort in the family Lepidoziaceae found in wet rainforests here in Vic. This was my first time spotting the species, so what a treat to photo it! It's leaves are bi-lobed and made of just a few individual cells. Very tiny species.

#bryophytes
August 22, 2025 at 11:45 AM
A few #Drosera from today! Such amazing little plants. The ground was absolutely covered in them.
August 10, 2025 at 11:05 AM
#Zoopsis argentea! One of the smallest liverworts in Vic. This leafy liverwort's leaves are recuded to only two single cells (others in the genus don't have such reduced leaves). It's very common on logs and tree ferns in rainforests here.
#bryophytes #liverworts
August 8, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Fun little shot down the microscope of an Acacia polyad (pollen cluster) surrounded my bacteria after sitting in out in avsucrose solution for a few days. Trialing protocol for pollen tube germination. 😊
August 6, 2025 at 7:37 AM
I got to go trudge through the muddy rainforests of eastern Vic recently, searching for threatened bryophytes. My favourite place. ❤️
August 5, 2025 at 6:10 AM
I've been hard at work in the background setting up a new Redbubble account. 🎉🎉If you've ever wanted a print or sticker of my photography and art, this is the place! I'll be slowly adding more prints, let me know if there's one you want that I'm missing. 😊
BotanyByYen.redbubble.com
BotanyByYen Shop | Redbubble
BotanyByYen is an independent artist creating amazing designs for great products such as t-shirts, stickers, posters, and phone cases.
BotanyByYen.redbubble.com
July 22, 2025 at 9:32 AM
#Hardenbergia violacea! I've shared one of these photos before, but here's two new ones at different angles (including a look at the reproductive organs!). These will be blooming all over Melbourne soon.
July 20, 2025 at 3:10 AM
#Oxalis pes-caprae, a plant with a unique feature called #heterostyly. This is a floral polymorphism where individuals in a species have variation in the position of their reproductive organs (specifically stigma and stamen). Oxalis pes-caprae is #tristylous, meaning it has three floral morphs.
July 8, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Little Drosera.
July 4, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Went to go check how far off my target species is from flowering and I couldn't help but look for #liverworts. This is #Chaetophyllopsis whiteleggei, a leafy liverwort absolutely covered in cilia. One of my favourites but rare to see.
June 30, 2025 at 1:52 AM