Raise your glass. 2015 has come to a close, and Awkward Botany is turning three. Two great reasons to celebrate.

I started the year with the goal of posting at least once per week. Consider that goal accomplished, with a couple of bonus posts thrown in for good measure. I had also deemed 2015 the “Year of Pollination.” The underlying purpose was to teach myself more about pollinators and pollination while also sharing my interest in pollination biology with the wider world. That endeavor yielded 17 posts. There is still so much to learn, but we are making some headway. I started two new series of posts (Poisonous Plants and Botany in Popular Culture) and I continued with two others (Ethnobotany and Drought Tolerant Plants). I also went on a couple of field trips and wrote a few book reviews. All of that is reflected below in “Table of Contents” fashion.

Year of Pollination:

• Dung Moss
• Hellstrip Pollinator Garden
• The Anatomy of a Bee
• Pollination Syndromes and Beyond
• More than Honey, etc.
• An Argentinian Cactus and Its Unlikely Pollinator
• Stamen Movement in the Flowers of Prickly Pears
• Mosquitoes as Pollinators
• Pollinator Walk at Earthly Delights Farm
• Most Effective Pollinator Principle and Beyond, part one
• Most Effective Pollinator Principle and Beyond, part two
• Figs and Fig Wasps
• Bumblebees and Climate Change
• Hand Pollinating Cucurbits
• Scarlet Gilia and Its Pollinators
• Botanical Terms for Pollination, part one
• Botanical Terms for Pollination, part two

Botany in Popular Culture

• Black Orchid
• The Sunset Tree by the Mountain Goats
• Futurama’s Holiday Spectacular

Poisonous Plants

• Baneberry
• Castor Bean

Ethnobotany

• White Man’s Foot, part one
• White Man’s Foot, part two

Drought Tolerant Plants

• Prickly Pears
• Water Efficient Garden at Idaho State Capitol Building
• Desert Willow
• Rabbitbrush

Book Reviews

• Hellstrip Gardening, part one
• Hellstrip Gardening, part two
• Hellstrip Gardening, part three
• Rambunctious Garden
• Weeds: In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants

Field Trips

• Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, part one
• Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, part two
• Sawtooth Botanical Garden

Three posts that perhaps didn’t get the attention they deserve:

• How Pitcher Plants Eat Bugs (Frog Optional)
• How to Make Petrifed Wood
• Growing and Eating Lettuce in Space

Going forward, I will continue to post regularly – as there is no shortage of plant-related things to write about – but I will likely take a week off here and there. I have other projects in mind – some related to Awkward Botany, some not – that will certainly demand much of my attention and time. I have some big ideas for Awkward Botany and beyond, and I will share those with the wide world in due time. For now, I would just like to say thanks all for reading, for commenting, and for sharing Awkward Botany with your friends. Overall, it has been a great year here at Awkward Botany headquarters, and I have you to thank for that. I feel privileged to be part of a community that is infatuated with plants and is fascinated by the natural world.

Good riddance to 2015. It was good, but it gets better. Now we look ahead to 2016. May it be filled with peace, love, and botany.