We have had a busy and successful spring with multiple people being on fieldtrips (e.g., César pulling off three months of buzz-pollination fieldwork in Brazil, Andrea, Imran and Isa finishing three months of data collection in Borneo!), processing of field samples in the lab (Fabian has been CT-scanning Melastomataceae stamens non stop! Manuela has mastered the perks of different programmes for measurements of the second moment of area of Melastomataceae stamens, Juliane has been counting stigmatic pollen loads faster than anyone else!), running statistical analyses (Johan ran the first morphospace analyses and ancestral state reconstructions for flower and fruit traits in Pyxidantheae), preparing manuscripts (Ben has been writing two manuscripts in parallel, while also running several buzz-pollination experiments and analyses for further manuscripts), publishing manuscripts (Constantin has published yet another paper in New Phytologist!), writing up theses (Viki has wrapped up her MSc thesis, Constantin submitted his PhD thesis) and defending (Fabian defended his MSc thesis!). To celebrate all these successes and enjoy the short time that the full lab is united (Johan and Ben headed off a couple of days later in June to present their work at the Evolution conference and perform more buzzing experiments at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens!), we all went on a lab hike to Mount Schneealpe in mid June! We had great weather and could fully enjoy our day outside! That said… the lab has been very active in yet another social-scientific endeavour: painting the Melastomataceae molecular phylogeny on the wall of our office, and adding beautiful drawings of flowers, domatia and fruits! Way to go to create a fun working environment, I am very proud of everyone in the lab!!
