FLOWer Lab 🌸🍒 🐝 🪰🔬🧬
@flowerlab
FLOWer Lab of the Centre for Functional Ecology of the University of Coimbra - Plant #Ecology and #Evolution (in particular #Polyploidy), #Pollination Services and #Agroecology led by João Loureiro and Sílvia Castro
🐝 The pollinator nests installed by 35+ volunteers in Coimbra’s Vale das Flores Urban Forest are already showing signs of occupation! Several cavities have been sealed with leaves, mud or other materials, indicating nesting by wild bees. 🌿 #BeeConnectedSUDOE
Yesterday’s FLOWer Lab picnic at Parque do Choupalinho was also a farewell to Cleyton Tenório. Thank you, Cleyton, for your kindness, help and enthusiasm over the last six months. Wishing you all the best for your PhD! This is surely just a see you soon! 🌿
🌼 FLOWer Lab co-PI Sílvia Castro was an invited speaker at #FrontiersInE3 2026 organized by cE3c. Her plenary, “Invasion in motion”, explored the reproductive shifts accompanying the invasion of Bermuda buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae) and their role in its success across new territories.
🌿 FLOWer Lab picnic, yesterday, with farewell to Diana Frazão 💐 It has been a pleasure and an honour to have you at FLOWer Lab for the past two years. Thank you, Diana, for everything! 💛 Our yellow jersey. We wish you every success in this new stage at Ghent University!
BeeConnected SUDOE - end of the 2026 field season! 16 locations in the urban area of Coimbra, sampled in March, May and July, and where we evaluated the diversity and abundance of pollinators, and the availability of floral resources and nesting sites! Many thanks to this super team!
🐝🌿 “Biodiversity at our doorstep” organized within BeeConnected SUDOE project was a success! More than 35 volunteers joined us Coimbra for a morning of urban biodiversity activities, including building bee nests! Thank you to everyone who dedicated their morning to this cause, and to all partners.
Last Saturday afternoon, Sílvia Castro and @jloureiro13.bsky.social joined ORLA, Citizen Science Festival, in Figueira da Foz. With Taskmaster-style challenges, participants became pollinator detectives using FITCount and BioDiversity4All. Thanks to CFE and all participants! 🌼🐝
🌿 @jloureiro13.bsky.social, co-PI of the FLOWer Lab, presented the BeeConnected SUDOE project at the “Coimbra Abraça a Biodiversidade” event in Coimbra, celebrating the International Day for Biological Diversity. 🐝🌼
🐝🌸 Celebrating World Bee Day with this beautiful interaction recorded during last Saturday’s Scientific Expedition to the Berlengas. The bee Anthophora mucida visiting the endemic plant Echium rosulatum subsp. davaei 🌿 Without pollinators, there is no life. #WorldBeeDay #Pollinators #FLOWerLab
On the visit to Berlengas we also had the opportunity to see the endemism Podarcis carbonelli ssp. berlengensis, which almost landed for the camera!
🌿🐝 Yesterday, within the BeeConnected SUDOE project, we visited EB2,3 de Taveiro school with the activity “Searching for pollinators in the schoolyard”. Students explored the school’s green areas and discovered wild bees, wasps, butterflies and hoverflies living around them 🌼
On the International Fascination Plants Day, we are sharing some of the wonderful plants we saw yesterday during the butterfly observation walks organised by Luís Cardoso in collaboration with Milvoz at the Morena and Bispo bio-reserves!
Expedition to the Berlengas - May 16, 2026, by FLOWer Lab, with João Farminhão, Cleyton Tenório, and Paulo Crisóstomo! In the coming days, we will share photos of the moments from this day. Today, enjoy the botanical marvels, including photos of the 4 endemic species of the Berlengas!
Today was also butterfly day with our monitoring transect! Look at the proboscis of the Thymelicus…
BeeConnected SUDOE - day 3 of the May sampling in the city of Coimbra!
Panurgus taking a nap at Drosophyllum lusitanicum! Until someone wakes them up.... Buzz....
🌿🪰 Field days with Drosophyllum lusitanicum in northern and central Portugal. We surveyed population size and structure, and started the first flower collections and measurements for pollen-ovule ratio 🌼 A remarkable carnivorous plant, and an exciting system to study plant reproductive ecology.
BeeConnected SUDOE - início da amostragem de maio em jeito de homenagem do centenário do Sir David Attenborough! Muitos Parabéns Grande Mestre! BeeConnected SUDOE - start of the May sampling as a tribute to the centenary of Sir David Attenborough! Many Congratulations, Great Master!
🌿🔎 Searching for the lost Coincya - Coincya johnstonii Yesterday, the FLOWer Lab team sampled four populations of C. johnstonii along the northern coast of Portugal. This endangered dune endemic is part of Diana Frazão’s project, focused on cytogenetic diversity, taxonomy and conservation.
🐝🪰🦋 This week, ARCADE was represented at the final TETTRIs event in Brussels by Hugo Gaspar (FLOWer Lab) and Roberto Keller (MUHNAC). ARCADE was highlighted in a talk, poster and roundtable, showcasing work to strengthen bee, hoverfly and butterfly collections in Portugal.
New paper with FLOWer Lab participation 🌼 Led by Sara Martín-Hernanz and Abelardo Aparicio’s from University of Seville, this study explores genome size evolution in Helianthemum, showing dynamic genome evolution within a highly conserved chromosomal framework. doi.org/10.1016/j.ym...
FLOWer Lab is celebrating! 🌼 Sílvia Castro (Best Professor 🦉), Diana Frazão (Best Student 🦭), and Francisco Amado (Best Duo 🤝, with Bernardo Gonçalves) were honoured at the IX Genes d’Ouro Gala, organised by Biology students of @ucoimbra.bsky.social. Well-deserved recognition of their impact!
What if plants stopped reproducing? 🌱 Yesterday, Sara Lopes took this question to PubhD Coimbra, highlighting how pollinator declines threaten plant reproduction and biodiversity. A great night of science, communication, and impact 🌍🐝
Hey! There has been a robbery! Nectar robbing of Tropaeolum majus by the carpenter bee (Xylocopa violacea)
🔎🌿 Raiders of the “misterious” Coincya. Yesterday we were in central coastal Portugal looking for Coincya populations and collecting material for study. A challenging genus, with taxonomic uncertainty, cytogenetic diversity, possible polyploidy, and taxa with conservation status in Portugal.
👩🎓🌼 A warm welcome to Inês Tavares at the FLOWer Lab! Since Jan 2026, she has been contributing to BeeConnected SUDOE, working on floral resource surveys across 16 urban sites in Coimbra and exploring the world of pollinators through ID and specimen prep 🐝 Great to have you with us, Inês 💛
This is what happens when the flowerbeds at Pátio das Químicas, @ucoimbra.bsky.social, are cared for with native plants 🌼 Nothing but beautiful wild bees slowing us down, and filling our hearts and minds with joy 🐝
