After a forty-year hiatus, the Department of Plant Sciences is delighted to announce the official relaunch of the Tea Phytologist, our historic student-led satirical spoof journal.
Originally founded in 1908, the Tea Phytologist was a fun and subversive counterpoint to the more serious botanical publications of the time. The name is a parody of alumnus Sir Arthur Tansley's ‘New Phytologist’, established just 6 years earlier in 1902.
The publication – ‘edited on demand’ and ‘printed in a hurry’ – celebrates the people, stories, ideas and humour of the Cambridge plant sciences community.
Now, a new generation of students is bringing the Tea Phytologist back to life – digitising the archive of old issues and relaunching with new editions for the 21st century.
We met with the new Tea Phytologist team to find out more.
A bridge between eras
“The revival began with a suggestion from the then-Plant Sciences librarian, Syaivo Dmytryk,” Ed Harris, a PhD student in the Chromatin and Memory group, explains.
“Syaivo had found a collection of old Tea Phytologist issues sitting unused in the library archives and wondered if we could bring it back. It felt like a great way to bring the department together – a bit of fun to connect the department and create a community feel.”
For Ed, who has handled most of the archiving for the project, a large part of the appeal is in the personal history woven through the old material. "Currently we've focused on archiving the issues, but there are other materials like the submissions that people made," Ed explains. "We also have multiple copies of some issues and people have signed them or made notes in them. There's a deeply personal history that's captured in the Tea Phytologist. I think that's one of the things that we wanted to harness going forward".
The archive also offers a window into how scientific perception has changed over the last century. “One of the early issues includes an article about chromatin, which is one on the bases of epigenetic inheritance – how DNA is packaged,” says Ed. “There are even some early diagrams of what they thought it might look like.”
“At the time of the first issue the field of epigenetics would have been very controversial,” explains Jacob González Isa, a PhD student in the Henderson lab also on the Tea Phytologist editorial team. “At that time, the prominent view was Darwinian evolution. For the Tea Phytologists back then, they would have made some joke about this.”
“It really is a historical document,” says Tea Phytologist editor and illustrator Weina Jin, who is a Cambridge Herbarium volunteer and Research Assistant at the Department of Plant Sciences. “It’s made by people who really care about the subject, and a lot of it is what they themselves would have been working on. Just like herbarium specimens, each issue is a snapshot in time of what plant scientists were interested in.”
The human side of Botany
In an era dominated by high-throughput data and the increasing ubiquity of generative AI, the Tea Phytologist team sees the journal as a necessary antidote. The project emphasises the ‘human bit’ of scientific life - the errors, the opinions, and the shared frustrations that define the departmental experience.
Weina sees the publication as a vital outlet for the stories that traditional journals ignore. "It’s an outlet for all the bits that you don’t get to submit," she says. "There was an article - I think it was in 'Science' or 'Nature' - talking about the interesting acknowledgements in papers and that's where you really see the personality. It’s good to have a publication where you can share that human bit about you".
This human element is reflected in the physical nature of the original issues, which often included handcrafted details like specimen packets, errata slips, and interactive instructions. The team views this tactile, organic approach as a wellbeing benefit for students navigating the stresses of modern academia.
“There are a lot of things that can only be done in the physical media of bookmaking and the print,” says Weina. “In the old editions, there were label slips and little specimen packets like you see on Herbarium specimens on each issue. So, for the new issues, there's a lot of potential for it to be an interactive medium.”
Cultivating community
The relaunch is not merely an exercise in nostalgia; it is a deliberate attempt to rebuild departmental ties in a post-pandemic landscape. The original Tea Phytologist was firmly embedded in the culture of the tearoom - a place where, as the old editorials noted, there was ‘always tea and biscuits at the end of the day’, regardless of scientific progress or failure.
Ed believes this spirit of interaction is essential for modern research. "In some ways it captures the spirit of why you wanted to do plant sciences in the first place, in a way that’s not captured in traditional journals," he says. "The vision for the Tea Phytologist is to be that complementary force where we can bring together these more personal stories, and some of these other more fun things".
“The new iteration will feature a blend of old and new content.” says Ed. “We’re planning for future issues to be like a bridge where we have a section dedicated to a couple of older issues, alongside having an activity based around some of the ideas that were in the older issues.”
“So for the first one, we have a limerick competition, because there were poetry and limericks in the original issues. We’re bringing back the types of content that were in the old issues with online submissions to bring the community together.”
How to get involved
As the department looks forward, it does so by reaching back into its archives. The Tea Phytologist stands as a testament to the fact that while scientific techniques evolve, the community’s need for humour, connection, and a well-timed biscuit remains constant.
The first digital edition of the new Tea Phytologist is now available, with a physical compilation planned for the end of the year.
Members of the Cambridge plant sciences community, including alumni, are encouraged to contribute their stories, feedback and content ideas. Please email the team at tea@plantsci.cam.ac.uk or visit the Tea Phytologist website for more information.
If you have any copies of the 20th Century Tea Phytologist please get in touch as we would love to archive them and add to our open collection for everyone linked to the department to view.
Image: The Tea Phytologist logo reimagined and drawn by Weina Jin.