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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴

@scottzona.bsky.social

4.5K followers 380 following 1.7K posts

Personal account. Botanist. #TropicalBotany. 🌴 Author of "A Gardener's Guide to Botany.” 🐶 Henry's 2nd favorite dad. IG: Scott.Zona. Posting from North Carolina, USA. Trapped in Trumpistan. #IamaBotanist

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · May 18

It’s Fascination with Plants Day! I wrote an entire book about why plants are so amazing & endlessly intriguing! Pollination, defense, dispersal, CAM, epiphytism, succulence, carnivory, parasitism, etc. It's all here. Available from your favorite bookseller. #plantday #Botany #PlantScience 🌾🧪🌱

Image of the book cover of "A Gardener's Guide to Botany" by Scott Zona, Ph.D.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 1h

Another part of mammal dispersal may be ethanol. It’s repellent at high concentration but attractive at low concentration. Mammals may zero in on the aroma for efficient foraging. Genipa americana (📷: Cody Hinchliff CCBYNCSA2) ripe fruits have ca. 0.5% ethanol. #dispersal #Rubiaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a hand holding a fruit cut in half. The fruit is brown and has a thick husk. The seeds are embedded in a gelatinous matrix surrounded by firm flesh.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 7h

Mammals tend not to have color vision, so plants advertise with aromas. The fruits tend to be green, brown or white & require manual or buccal processing to remove a husk or large seeds. A good example: pawpaw, Asimina triloba (#Annonaceae). #dispersal #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of fruits on a cutting board with a paring knife. Fruits are ovoid and greenish-yellow. One is cut in transverse section to show a creamy yellow interior and large seeds.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 8h

I remember when the stretch of the Turnpike between Wildwood and Orlando was perfumed with orange blossom...

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 8h

Photos or it didn't happen. 😁

Sometimes, I'm lucky just to get a photo of the flower. Getting a pollinator in the shot would be serendipity. Bees, beetles & butterflies are easy to photograph in action, but hawkmoths, bats & (sometimes) hummingbirds are much harder. They're too fast.

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 1d

Stiles also hypothesized that a “preripening” fruit color is a signal that fruits will be ripe soon. Lots of fruits, like these Rubus sp., pass through a 2nd color as they ripen from green to their final color. The red color says, “Coming Soon.” #dispersal #Rubiaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of leafy shoots of blackberries. Some fruits are red and unripe. Others in the same cluster are black and ripe. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 1d

In the 1980s, E. Stiles hypothesized that plants advertise fruit with a contrasting foliar “flag.” I’ve seen this phenomenon in cultivated Berberis, like this B. aquifolium (📷: Alicia CCBYNC4). Some experiments support the hypothesis; some don’t. 🤷‍♂️ #dispersal #Berberidaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of leafy shoots bearing blue berries. A leaf subtending a cluster of berries has turned bright coppery red.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 1d

Fantastic! I gather that the I. alba "juice" was used to coagulate the rubber from the Castilla elastica. How cool.

And now the textile museum in Oaxaca is on my bucket list!

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 1d

Me too!

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 2d

Helping animals find fruits: Plants advertise to bird dispersers via colorful fruit. Red fruits stand out in the visible spectrum, like these Ilex vomitoria fruits, but they may also contrast with the foliage in the UV spectrum, which birds can also see. #dispersal #Aquifoliaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of leafy branches bearing small, vivid, red berries. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 2d

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 2d

Seed dispersal by animals swallowing the seeds is endozoochory. It’s fraught with difficulty. 1. Animals need to find the fruits. 2. Fruits should be taken only when ripe. 3. Taken only by the disperser (not by a seed predator). The results are worth the effort. #dispersal #Arecaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Sabal palmetto seeds in animal dung are ready to germinate. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 3d

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 4d

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) originated in South America but was widely grown throughout Polynesia well before European contact. Many anthropologists cite the sweet potato as evidence that ancient Polynesians had contact with S. America. 📷: Scamperdale CCBYNC2 #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a leafy, creeping vine bearing heart-shaped leaves and a single morning-glory flower.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 5d

Let’s not forget the nectar-feeding bats! 🦇 Ipomoea ampullacea is a night-blooming, bat-pollinated species from western Mexico. 🦇 📷: Efraín Octavio Aguilar Pérez CCBYNC4 #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Night photo of a single white, short-tubed, trumpet-shaped flower with exserted stamens.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 6d

Here’s yet another kind of pollination in Ipomoea: pollination by hawkmoths. This is I. alba, a fragrant, night-blooming species with a long, narrow corolla tube. #teammoth #Sphingidae #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Night photo of three, salverform, white flower with exserted stamens. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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Reposted by 🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴

Bruce Webber @drbrucewebber.bsky.social · 6d

"The greatest danger to our future is apathy. ... What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." - Vale Jane Goodall (1934-2025).

Jane Goodall in a tall rainforest looking up into the canopy with binoculars in her hands.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 7d

Ipomoea microdactyla is another hummingbird-pollinated species, but this one is from the Antilles, Bahamas & the southernmost tip of Florida, where it is listed as Endangered. It is supremely garden-worthy. #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a leafy climber with dark pink tubular flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 7d

Ipomoea bracteata has colorful bracts (in addition to the magenta flowers) that attract hummingbirds in the desert/thorn scrub habitat in which it grows in Mexico. #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a leafless tangle of vining stems and a pendulous inflorescence of red bracts. One bright pink tubular flower is visible. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 8d

It seems to evoke strong emotions in people.🙂

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 8d

Ipomoea quamoclit is native to Mexico & C. America. Which is more noteworthy: the pinnatifid leaves or the super-saturated, camera-defeating color of the flowers? It is a favorite of hummingbirds but can be weedy in a garden. It self-seeds a bit too enthusiastically. #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a tangle of climbing stems bearing deeply pinnatifid leaves and bright scarlet flowers. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 8d

Ipomoea spp. are mostly twining climbers (Ipomoea is one of the most common climbers worldwide), but a few species are trees! This is I. murucoides of the seasonally dry forests of Mexico. Habit 📷: Alejandra Zayas CCBYNC4. #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of a leafy branch bearing a white morning-glory flower. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

Photo of a medium-sized, roadside tree in front of a house. A few white flowers are visible on the tips of branches.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 9d

Morning-glories.

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 9d

Ipomoea (642 spp.) has a global distribution, especially in the tropics. Ipomoea pes-caprae is found on tropical beaches worldwide. Its seeds have air pockets under the thick, hard seed coat that allow them to float for months, possibly longer. #dispersal #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a vine creeping in long, straight paths across a sandy, sparsely vegetated habitat. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 9d

Pretty sure they do. (I’d have to look up the differences between those two genera, but I’m just leaving for work…)

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 9d

Ipomoea flowers have an interesting folding of the corolla: It is both involute (each lobe folded longitudinally onto itself) and twisted. The flowers have distinctive fold lines, as you can see in this Ipomoea cf. purpurea. #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of an unfurling bud. The twist is apparent in the bud. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

Photo of three open flowers. The fold lines are visible as 5 narrowly triangular folds forming a star pattern in every corolla. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

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