Dr. Sara L Middleton

@saralilplants

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Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· 14d

An island of yarrow in a sea of beige. Botanising is usually joyful. Increasingly my plant walks are 💔seeing the impact of heatwaves + drought. I know plants are resilient (my PhD research was on droughts in grasslands), but I still spiral thinking about wider consequences for ecosystem + humanity.

A close up of a small clump of yarrow flowering in a sea of beige (my local green space).

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jul 14

This "AI companion" is following me as I read. Distracting & stalker behaviour. Semi-unstructured thoughts: these tools supposedly save time: What's the cost? Why does everything need to be fast? What about the potential human & knowledge connections lost? Impact on student critical reading skills?

Screenshot of journal article showing the introduction heading and an AI pop up which reads: have questions about this content? Try AI Companion.

AI Companion tool that accompanies the journal article. Text reads: Ask a question or select one of the suggested questions to initiate a conversation. Answers come only from this content. Try asking" summarize this article for me. What are the key points in this article and their implications? What methods were used in this study?" AI responses are for educational purposes only and may not always be accurate. This tool is in beta. The AI works only with the text of this article and cannot assess findings against broader research or evaluate scientific validity. Always verify within the article.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jul 12

Sea campion dancing in the breeze off the Pembrokeshire coast. #WildflowerHour

A dense bunch of sea campion by the coast in Pembrokeshire. You can see the cliffs in the distance..

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jul 12

A little bunch of thrift on the Pembrokeshire coast 💜 #WildflowerHour

Bunch of thrift in flower with a view of the beach off the Pembrokeshire coast at sunset.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jul 11

Question for marine biology peeps: I've seen so many jellies washed up on the beach on the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales! 🪼 Is this random? Is it marine heatwave related? Something else? 🧪

Close up side view of a beached jellyfish next to algae at sunset on the Pembrokeshire coast.

View from above of a beaches jellyfish the size of a dinner plate with my feet for scale.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jul 5

Bindweed clambering over nettles. #WildflowerHour #ClimbingPlants

Side view of a bindweed in flower clambering over nettles..

Close up view from above of a bindweed in flower in a woodland understory.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jul 2

Had a right gigull the other evening with @geologyjohnson.bsky.social 😂

A man wearing sunglasses and a red t-shirt showing a photo of a seagull on his phone while the same seagull is perched on the balcony railings.

A man wearing a red t-shirt and sunglasses seated on a balcony looking into the distance holding his phone and a pair of socks. There is a seagull perched on the balcony railings about a meter away.

A woman wearing a black top sitting on a balcony with a view of the sunset pulling a funny face next to a seagull perched on the balcony railings a meter away.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 28

Orchids with a view! Found a big bunch of orchids growing on the edge of the cliff around Whitby. Couldn't get close enough to ID. #WildflowerHour

Bunch of orchids growing on the edge of the cliff with a view of Whitby pier and long bite.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 28

Spiny restharrow spotted in abundance at the beach around Whitby 💜 #WildflowerHour

Spiny restharrow on a grassy verge at the beach.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 21

A lovely kidney vetch spotted on my walk today 💛 #WildflowerHour

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 17

My fellow educators please read and sit with this thread on student perspectives on AI use in education. In my training workshops, I start with setting out the ethos, including use of AI (citing @olivia.science et al.'s "Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI'..." paper.👇🏽 zenodo.org/records/2008...

Screenshot of a slide outlining the workshop ethos covering four points with their corresponding icons. Text reads: We share the responsibility of making this a welcoming workshop (next to an orange open hand and heart icon).“Open Science Buffet” by Bergmann, 2023 (next to a green food menu icon). Mindful use of generative AI by Guest et al. 2026 (a blue network icon). ‘Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.’ by Maya Angelou (next to a purple flower icon).

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 14

Plants always find a way... Garlic mustard growing out from a bus stop seat. #WildflowerHour

Garlic mustard growing out from behind a bus stop seat.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 14

Self-heal on a grassy verge 💜 #WildflowerHour

Close up of a short self-heal flowering on a grassy verge.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 14

Plant species of the week for me was lady's bedstraw which I found a few popping up in the cemetery and also in a nearby meadow near some inquisitive horses. #ChurchyardFlowers #WildflowerHour

Close up of lady's bedstraw flowering in a churchyard.

Close up on a patch of lady's bedstraw on the edge of a meadow with two horses behind a wooden fence in the background.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 7

Yorkshire fog coming into flower in the garden after #NoMowMay, with other grasses (perennial rye grass, cock's-foot) about to/or in bloom too 💚 #LawnFlowers #WildflowerHour

Two grasses flowering in a garden: perennial rye grass and Yorkshire fog.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 7

I know garden snails get a lot of hate, but they are actually kinda rad 🐌 They are part of a clean-up crew, munching their way through rotting plants with their scrapy "tongues" (radula) and recycling nutrients back into the soil ♻️ Also they have blue "blood" (hemolymph) 💧

A close up photo of a snail from a behind side view. The focal point of the photo is the whorl on the snail's shell.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 3

The opening section from the latest UN report on environmental impacts of AI is wild. What are we doing???!!! unu.edu/inweh/collec...

A screenshot from the UN report on AI with statistics on data centers. With highlighted text for electricity usage for the section: In 2025, global data centers were estimated to consume 448 TWh of electricity. If data centers’ electricity use were considered a country, it would have ranked 11th globally by electricity consumption.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· Jun 2

I can’t believe I got to chat with Kimberlé Crenshaw recently 🔥 Her work on critical race theory and intersectionality has been hugely influential to so many of us. For me personally, her work (and others) laid the foundation for the Academic Wheel of Privilege I co-created: osf.io/preprints/me...

Kimberlé Crenshaw and Sara standing next to each other posing for a photo.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 31

Ox-eye daisy 🤍💛💚 #WildflowerHour

A grassy verge covered in ox eye daisies.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 31

Bee orchid for #OrchidChallenge First time seeing one blooming in May in Oxfordshire! #WildflowerHour

A bee orchid flowering on the side of a grassy path.

Close up of a bee orchid showing flower anatomy.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 30

Cucumbers are ripening quick. I have about 10 more getting close to this size! Time to think about pickling 💚

A small cucumber about 15 centimetres long developing on the plant in the dappled morning sunshine.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 26

These temperatures are wild. Someone told me their elderly neighbour died yesterday in part due to heatwave. I've adjusted my working hours to cope (it's 27 deg C in my north-facing room). Many of my seedlings have been injured/died as their thermal safety margins were surpassed. #ClimateBreakdown

Met Office map of the UK showing new provisional May temperature records for Tuesday 26 May 2026 for Kew Gardens and Cardiff Bute Park which recorded 35.1 and 32.9 degrees C respectively.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 24

Germander speedwell putting on a little #WildflowerShow 💙 #WildflowerHour

Close up of germander speedwell plants in flower.

A patch of grass full of germander speedwell flowers.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 24

This plant has so many fun common names: cleaver, sticky willy, goosegrass, velcro plant, catch weed. #WildflowerHour

Close up of the flower head of a cleaver plant. There are about five small white flowers.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 21

Beautiful ❤️ reminds me of some pictures I took in and around the Whitby area a while back.

A large rock fragment covered in various intertidal creatures on a rocky bay (the focal point in the foreground) with a view of several headlands and cloudy sky in the background.

Seaweeds clinging onto rocks on the beach in Whitby at sunset. You can see headland in the distance.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 21

I've been closing a few tabs in my #ADHD brain and computer lately 😅

Screenshot of a web browser message about confirming whether to close 215 open tabs.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 18

Happy Fascination of Plants Day to my fellow plant peeps! plantday18may.org Here's a pic of me getting all excited about being in the company of monkey and lady x monkey hybrid orchids recently. Thanks @geologyjohnson.bsky.social for capturing my plant joy!

A picture of me wearing all black on a steep grassy bank full of orchids looking excited and with my hands in the air.

Close up side view of a lady monkey orchid hybrid.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 17

White clover looking lovely in the early evening glow 🤍 #WildflowerHour

A close up of a white clover against a sunset backdrop.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 17

My veggie babies are coming along nicely 🥹 First time growing aubergine and I'm excited to see what happens🤞🏽

Close up of a very teeny cucumber growing.

Dr. Sara L Middleton@saralilplants· May 10

Yellow rattle starting to emerge in the meadow in my local area 💛💚 #WildflowerHour