EcoHaiku

Vitellaria paradoxa (Raymond Erskine)

Beneath shea's broad leaves

Golden fruit ripens in shade

Soft balm of the land

Field work (Jeff Hamilton)

Dig deep, sever root

Resin, blistered skin, the itch

Ivy, poison, complete

Tank life (Crystal Bishop)

Red fish and blue fish

In a tank of black and green

Fish swimming, freely

Plantago lanceolata (Catherine Ravenscroft)

Cosmopolitan 

Rosette of various forms

Permits survival

Lonicera sp. (Mason Heberling)

What the hell is this?

Not in Gleason & Cronquist?

Must be a hybrid.

[competitive ruderal] (Andrew Siefert)

Tall forb with small seeds,

high SLA and fast growth.

Latin name? Who cares.

Juniperus communis (Jason Fridley)

Circumboreal

narrow rings, with fruit the toast

of my martini

Winter tree (Elise Hinman)

Sugar forbids frost

Snow lands on dormant branches

Skeletal sweater

Tricholoma matsutake (Insu Jo)

Hey pine, you lonely?

I'll be your friend on your side.

Always, Matsutake.

Solidago altissima (Josh Lynn)

Goldenrods are rude

Crowding up entire old fields

Manners are needed.

Symphyotrichum novi-belgii (Luka Negoita)

Dominant in fields,

Pappus land every island,

New York Aster—Maine?

Ursus arctos (Doug Frank)

Unable to see. 

Loud twig snaps. Heart pounds. Brown bear 

emerges from fog.

Laportea canadensis (Jason Fridley)

What's in a name? One

so pure, romantic, but like

love spurned, stings like hell.

Smilax rotundifolia (Eric Fridley)

A snake-like body,

heart-shaped and glossy with sharp

spines. My ruined pants.

Sarracenia purpurea (John Craddock)

Sarracenia.

Wife's thesis topic, now dead.

Bathroom shelf's no bog.

Pinus taeda (Erin Stepowany)

Branches reach skyward

Fixture of the Outer Banks

Ospreys' landing strip.

Juglans nigra (Eliza Lehner)

Allelopathic 

Spread your juglone and be free

What a good walnut 

Triantha occidentalis (Alex Ebert)

in boggy soils plants 

hunt with sticky hairs; a new 

carnivore is born

Fraxinus americana (Jason Fridley)

Like dying embers

the forest turns amber as

woodpeckers carve ash

For Alex (Eleanor Maine)

Invasive species,

helped by mycorrhizae,

kick native plants’ butts.

Go west young doctor [Alex] (Doug Frank)

Trade slicker for shorts

Gels for magnifying glass

Desk for desert

The space that was Alex (Doug Frank)

No more at his desk

Silent are the witty chats

Space that he filled

Subaru swamp monster: denied (Victoria Hull)

A flash of violet

Leads him into a swamp; please,

Find your own ride home

Are there any plants you [Alex] don't know? (Victoria Hull)

An unknown species,

Not in Newcombs? Best consult my

Human plant Google

For Alex (Neha Mohanbabu)

Native woody shrubs

with arbuscules in their roots.

Guaranteed success. 

For Alex (Neha Mohanbabu)

Sugar tea SCOBY

Microbial "doctor" brews

fizzy kombucha

For Alex (Neha Mohanbabu)

Exotic fungi?

Nature check, critical roll.

Real life druid!

For Alex (Jacob Penner)

Your finest work was

Not thesis, but haiku with

Perigynia

For Alex (Jacob Penner)

Californ-I-A

A new home team out west, but

We still root for you

Elaeagnus pungens (Jenna Martineau)

Even in the shade

Elaeagnus nodulates

Why you so lobey? 

Smokies fungi (Aaroha Malagi)

Of all shapes, sizes

On logs, snags, bark, stones and more

Bright, ephemeral

ODE to models (Neha Mohan Babu)

Models, O. D. E.

Simplify complexity 

dS by dt

A century of change (Jason Fridley)

Sometimes there is smoke

but no fire. Mist on ridges,

oaks yield to maples.

For Kelsey (Jannice Friedman)

Now the leaves throw shade

beneath they scorn the sun's loss.

Saved by plastic traits.

Solanaceae defense (Neha Mohan Babu)

Solanum species:

thorns, phenolics, alkaloids

herbivores: Nice try!

Quercus ihavenoidea (Alex Ebert)

The mystery oak

Traits so clear, yet no book holds

its intriguing truth

Quercus macrocarpa (Kelsey Martinez)

Ancient furrowed bark. 

Branches mourn savannas lost,

Now shepherds of corn.

Dr. Kelsey Martinez (Jason Fridley)

A rare breed ponders

specific leaf area

climbing Mt. Fuji.

Dr. Elise Hinman (Alex Ebert)

Plants with wicked thorns;

inspiring talk. Both cases,

successful defense.

[untitled] (Skye Austin)

Soft afternoon rains

Ferns under thick canopy

Laughter with lab friends

Formica neorufibarbis (Katie Becklin)

Hidden underfoot

A million tiny workers

Bitterness lingers 

For Jacob (Alex Ebert)

when life gives you grass

buy a big ol' herbivore

and make twice as much

Fire season (Katie Becklin)

Life above the trees

Hidden by a hazy sea

Change is in the air

For Victoria (Lab folk)

Finding answers to

belowground mysteries, all

in a mason jar

For Alex (Jason Fridley)

The holobiont:

forced by the fungus or a

radicle notion?

For Alex (Jason Fridley)

If a fat root were 

to become thin, would it lose

all its fungal friends?

For Alex (Jason Fridley)

I won't soon forget

the fat stubby roots of Viburnum

thanks Alex

For Alex (Jason Fridley)

rather than try to

run my lab after Alex

I will move away

For Neha (Jacob Penner)

This is overdue

but I was limited by

several resources.

Sambucus racemosa (Jason Fridley)

A cold November
and warm December fooled you
to bud for Christmas

Tetraneuris grandiflora (Katie Becklin)

Old man on mountain

Faithfully greeting the sun

Early beauty gone

Vaccinium corymbosum (Alex Ebert)

at least no one is 

Vaccinium-hesitant. 

twelfth dose just this week

Ranunculus adoneus (Katie Becklin)

Buttery petals

Gently turn with the sun on

Beds of melting snow 

[untitled] (Jordan Stark)

On a Smoky hike

Transpiration or wildfire

Climate controls both?

Asclepias tuberosa (Alex Ebert)

veins run free of your

brethren's blood, oh bright orange

friend of butterflies

Farewell to Luka (Kelsey Martinez)

Lab theme song... disperse!

Wait! I’ve one more R question!

Well, see ya later.

Treacherous conduits (Elise Hinman)

Leaf superhighway

Ice-related accident

Got infrastructure?

Carex grayi (Alex Ebert)

Like a morningstar,

beautiful and fierce are your

perigynia

Fur Elise (Jason Fridley)

What use are tradeoffs

in ecology if invaders

eschew them?

Ligustrum lucidum (Michele Dechoum)

In the shade or in the sun

Dominant it will be

Forests of the future?

Free advice (Patrick Martin)

Good replication

A graduate student’s friend

Fatal flaw, the end

Stubborn spicebush (Elise Hinman)

Water data job

But still enchanted by you

Lindera benzoin

Spring in Yellowstone (Jacob Penner)

Warm days, melting snow

Time to grow quickly before

Chomp! Goes the bison

Galium sp. (Alice Fox)

Carpet of cleavers,

You are so easy to pull,

Galium, my fave.​

Juniperus virginiana (Alice Fox)

Eastern red cedar,

the secret to succession

in tiny bonsai.

Raphanus raphanistrum (Alice Fox)

Spicy, pungent roots

Thinking of you in salad

Makes me Raphanus.

Tree talk (Elise Hinman) 

Cross-sectional soul

Arcane trees speak from the heart

Ring in the new year!

Pinus ponderosa (Mark Lesser)

Vanilla wafting

jigsaw puzzle solitaire

icon of the West

Picea rubens (Luka Negoita)

Towering in height,

Little wings take to the air,

Landing in water.

Sassafras albidum (Elise Hinman)

Raindrop, mitt, or paw?

Incense confesses the truth

Silky sassafras

Lindera benzoin (Jason Fridley)

The common spicebush.

So early to go yellow.

Afraid of the dark?

Toxicodendron radicans (Eric Fridley)

Tho not a true 

Ivy, your sap rests deep in my 

dermis. So itchy.

Rubus idaeus (Luka Negoita)

Many rasp-like spines,

Yet fruit delicious to bird,

Splotch in the ocean.

Pleradenophora longicuspis (Robi Bagchi)

White poisonwood sap

So innocent yet painful

Your sap in my eye

Euphorbia pulcherrima (Hana Jo)

Red-cheeked little girl

She only smiles in winter

To warm people's heart?

Lonicera japonica (Elise Hinman)

Fortress of taut vines

Can I have just one root, please?

Oh japonica!

The impossible assignment (Alaä Craddock)

Select only one?

No! All I can see is the

lovely tangled bank.

Untitled (Sadie Fridley)

Teen's view on plants:

tricky and complicated

A in Bio though

For Neha (Jamie Lamit)

Bears bears bears bears Grrrrr

My microclimate sensors

Are not toys or food!

For Neha (Jamie Lamit)

Poor old Phosphorus

Always left out, forgotten

Silent grassland king

for Neha (Alex Ebert)

green, siliceous crunch.

but what resource ratio

makes delicious lunch.

to Jordan (Jason Fridley)

Bears, COVID, fine-scale
heterogeneity
Jordan beat them all

Acacia tortilis (Mark Ritchie)

Arched o'er morning dust

Tannins, thorns greet woken boys

Goats in shade, doves sad

Desmodium sp. (Alex Ebert)

Even laundered clothes

are laced with your sticky pods!

The field tech's 'loment'

Themeda triandra (Mark Ritchie)

Seed waves ripple red

Pale leaves twist in windy dread

Await wildebeest

Artemisia tridentata, cana & frigida (Jacob Penner)

Three fragrant sages

Combined to describe the plains:

Big, silver prairie

Dynamax debacle (for Elise; Victoria Hull)

Read the manual

Still not sure how to remove

sap flow chipmunk nests