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Chris Thorogood

@christhorogood.bsky.social

2.1K followers 4 following 280 posts

Associate Professor of Biology at Oxford University; plant chaser; artist; author. Find me on Insta @illustratingbotanist

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Dec 8

Hello world! I'm a botanist based at Oxford who's lucky enough to work with some of the most astonishing plants imaginable. Looking forward to connecting with you all here x

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · 9h

Eloise, my 9 year old toad, changes colour with the season. Today she's wearing her best autumn colours. Toads alter their skin colour using pigment-containing cells that expand or contract in response to temperature and light. Soon she'll turn dark brown as the nights get cold.

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · 9d

STUNNING new family book by @jondrori.bsky.social showing how plants' lives and ours are intertwined. Imaginative, beautiful, fun x

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · 9d

Thank you both 😊😊😊

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · 21d

Yes do visit Alex

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · 27d

I'm so envious - what a find. We almost got it to flower at OBG.

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Aug 30

A pencil portrait I've just completed featuring Rhizanthes deceptor - one of the world's strangest flowers - and its custodians, in the Sumatran rainforest.

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Aug 25

Not this one 🙂

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Aug 14

The world's smallest and largest flowers:

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Aug 7

🙏🏻

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Aug 7

😃

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Aug 6

A montage of nature I have painted over the years:

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Aug 1

Today we described a new species of 'desert hyacinth': Cistanche mimii, from the Middle East. Welcome to science you beautiful thing ✨

Published in #Phytokeys.

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 25

A pencil portrait I've just completed featuring a farmer I met in Inner Mongolia. Like many of my subjects, I suppose he'll never see his portrait - never know that the brief moment my orbit swung into his would be captured forever in graphite ✨

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 24

Little dancing little stars ✨

The seed-heads of a pincushion starflower (Lomelosia stellata).

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 15

It's hard for me to know tbh - I was very much a visitor!

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 15

It is indeed: Cistanche deserticola

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 14

🙏🏻

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 14

A pencil sketch I've just completed depicting Ma Xue Mei, a farmer I met on an expedition to Inner Mongolia who grows medicinal plants sustainably.

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 12

Or seeds!

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 12

Turning over a fern leaf reveals an astonishing stencilled constellation of spores:

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 12

It's already gone 😞

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 11

Look what my night-flowering cactus just did:

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Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 10

this was in Japan but it's widespread in Asia/North America and a similar species grows in Europe/west Asia

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 10

What a beautiful few days ✨

Chris Thorogood @christhorogood.bsky.social · Jul 6

Ghost flowers (Monotropa uniflora) rise from the forest floor like pale seahorses. They lack leaves, roots and chlorophyll because rather than manufacturing food from sunlight, they steal it from an underground fungus.

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