Restoring the American Chestnut

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation , Plant Diseases and Pests

Once an estimated 4 billion trees strong, the American chestnut was almost wiped out by chestnut blight. Efforts are underway to help partially restore the species, by interbreeding the American chestnut with its disease-resistant Chinese relative. The end result of a hybridization program yielded a "new" American chestnut that contains approximately 94% genetic similarity to the original American parent, but confers resistance to the blight. Tens of thousands of the trees have been planted, with (so far) an 80-90% survival rate.

• The mighty American chestnut tree, poised for a comeback via the Washington Post
• The American Chestnut Foundation
• Natural Range of the American chestnut via the ACF

Posted by dmosquin at 3:39 PM on October 18, 2010

Solving the Mystery of Honeybee "Colony Collapse"?

Category(-ies): Snippets

Scientists from the US Army and entomologists from across the United States have identified a possible cause of honeybee colony collapse: two pathogens working in concert, one a fungus of the genus Nosema and the other a virus, seem to cause the problem.

Abstract from the Public Library of Science article:

"In 2010 Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), again devastated honey bee colonies in the USA, indicating that the problem is neither diminishing nor has it been resolved. Many CCD investigations, using sensitive genome-based methods, have found small RNA bee viruses and the microsporidia, Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae in healthy and collapsing colonies alike with no single pathogen firmly linked to honey bee losses."

New York Times article: Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery

Public Library of Science article: Iridovirus and Microsporidian Linked to Honey Bee Colony Decline

Posted by dmosquin at 3:01 PM on October 12, 2010

Within One Cubic Foot

Category(-ies): Botanical Art , Plant Conservation

In this photo essay, renowned ecologist E.O. Wilson writes about the importance and magnificence of the smaller organisms on the planet. Photography by David Liittschwager highlights 5 different ecosystems, including a coral reef and deciduous forest, representing the many different creatures that inhabit 1 cubic foot of the earth.

Links:

• Within One Cubic Foot via National Geographic

And another thank you to Claire Thompson for again contributing a weblog entry.

Posted by dmosquin at 12:00 PM on March 19, 2010

Hands Off!

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

Researchers from Oklahoma State University recently published a study that reveals touching the soft furry leaves of the African violet can actually cause damage to the plant. The scientists found that plants had more damage, fewer leaf numbers and smaller size when brushed with bare hands that had been applied with lotion than those brushed with gloved hands. Their results may encourage African violet enthusiasts to keep their hands off the attractive plants.

Links and resources:

• For African violets, "hands off" means healthier via Science Daily
• Brotton, J.C. and J.C. Cole. 2009. Brushing using a hand coated with body lotion or in a latex glove decreases African violet plant quality and size. Horticultural Technology 19: 613-616.

Thank you (once again) to Claire Thompson, UBC Work Study student, for writing this entry.

Posted by dmosquin at 12:00 PM on March 17, 2010

Rising Carbon Dioxide and Plant Communities

Category(-ies): Climate Change

Scientists from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service are finding that rising carbon dioxide levels can have a wide range of impacts on plant communities. Their findings suggest that some weedy invasives may benefit from higher CO₂ levels. Forest species such as the longleaf pine may have increased drought tolerance and higher survival rates from rising CO₂ levels. The scientists also found that greater CO₂ levels cause chemical changes in pine needles that may translate to a lower nutritional content for smaller organisms. These findings suggest altered carbon and nutrient cycling in forests.

Links:

• Long-term effects of carbon dioxide on plants studied by ARS via the USDA
• Changing CO₂ promises surprising changes in plant communities via the USDA

Thanks again to Claire Thompson for researching and writing this entry.

Posted by dmosquin at 12:00 PM on March 16, 2010

The "New" Carnivores

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

Researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew have recently discovered that some varieties of tomato and potato plants are carnivorous predators that capture and kill insects for nutrients. Their discovery has added 325 new species to all known carnivorous plants, and revealed that the number of carnivorous plants may have been underestimated by up to 50%. Unlike the venus flytrap, these carnivourous plants do not directly ingest their prey, but trap and kill insects with sticky hairs on their stems, and later absorb the nutrients through their roots once insects decay and fall to ground. This ability is thought to be an adaption to living in wild areas with poor soil.

Links:

• Tomatoes can "eat" insects via the Telegraph
• Beware the killer veg: How tomatoes are carnivorous and can trap insects for food via The Daily Mail

Thank you again to Claire Thompson for providing this write-up.

Posted by dmosquin at 12:00 PM on March 15, 2010

Botanical Meets Digital

Category(-ies): Botanical Art

This pictorial features the work of Macoto Murayama, whose colorful computer generated illustrations reveal the geometric, almost mechanical features of some common flowers.

Links:

• Botanical Drawings for the Digital Age via Wired Magazine
• More of Murayama's work via PSFK: Macoto Murayama's Flower Illustrations

This weblog entry is also courtesy of work-study student, Claire Thompson.

Posted by dmosquin at 12:00 PM on March 12, 2010

Lose Biodiversity, Increase Diseases?

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation , Plants, Food and Medicine

Thank you again to Claire Thompson, UBC BG work-study student, for contributing to Etaerio.

For the first time ever, scientists have linked a rise in infectious diseases with biodiversity loss and extinction. A team of seven researchers reviewed studies on newly discovered diseases, and have shown that emergence or reemergence of many diseases is linked to biodiversity loss. From one study in Amazonian Peru, it was found that the loss of structural diversity among trees resulting from deforestation caused higher densities of mosquitoes that transmit malaria. EPA Researcher Montira Pongsiri suggests that these findings may mark the beginning of a movement to bring epidemiology and ecology together.

Links and resources:

• Biodiversity loss can increase infectious diseases in humans via ScienceDaily
• Montira et al. 2009. Biodiversity loss affects global disease ecology. BioScience 59: 945-954

Posted by dmosquin at 3:35 PM on March 11, 2010

Assisted Migration - the Answer to Climate Change?

Category(-ies): Climate Change , Other Botanical Gardens , Plant Conservation

Thank you to Claire Thompson, UBC BG work-study student, for writing this entry.

Scientists at the Chicago Botanic Garden are sending teams of people out across the Midwest and northern Great Plains of America to collect seeds from 1500 prairie species before 2010.

The collections are part of a project to preserve species and investigate assisted migration of plants as a response to climate change. Researchers are planning to test this idea with Pitcher's thistle, a native plant to sand dunes along several of the Great Lakes.

Assisted migration is a controversial issue among scientists, as it has risks associated with interfering with complex habitats and uncertainties surrounding climate change. Scientists at the botanic gardens in favor of assisted migration have recently finished a paper outlining a strategic framework for collecting and prioritizing seeds from species that are most likely to go extinct under climate change, and for predicting where species should be relocated.

Links:

• "A Hunt for Seeds to Save Species, Perhaps by Helping Them Move" via the New York Times
• The Dixon National Tallgrass Prairie Seed Bank and National Tallgrass Prairie Preparation Laboratory at Chicago Botanic Garden
• Vitt et al. 2009. Assisted migration of plants: Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes. Bio. Cons. Available online doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2009.08.015
• Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri)

Posted by dmosquin at 7:00 AM on November 23, 2009

Bio-Diversity

Category(-ies): Botanical Art

Christoph Niemann is an award-winning graphic artist, whose work has appeared on the covers of such magazines as The New Yorker and the Atlantic Monthly.

In a recent posting on his weblog with the New York Times, Christoph turned his attention to autumn leaves...

Links:

• Bio-Diversity (the weblog post)
• Abstract City, Christoph's weblog for the New York Times
• Christoph Niemann, his personal web site

Thank you to Dr. Andrew Riseman who first let me know about this.

Posted by dmosquin at 11:28 AM on November 19, 2009

Why is Rye as a Cover Crop an Effective Weed Killer?

Category(-ies): Plant Diseases and Pests

And another from Claire...

John Teasdale from the USDA's Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory has teamed up with Cliff Rice from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service to investigate the science behind why rye works as a cover crop against weeds. Rye is often used on organic farms as an alternative to herbicides, because of its ability to prevent soil erosion and block sunlight, thereby suppressing weed invasion. Teasdale and Rice have tested whether organic compounds found in rye, called benzoxazinoids, are also responsible for weed suppression. Their results suggest that benzoxazinoids do affect soil chemistry in ways that enhance the weed-suppressing abilities of rye and are worthy of further study.

Links:

• Why rye cover crops are great natural weed killers via the USDA's Agricultural Research Service


• Rye as a Cover Crop - Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (PDF)

Posted by dmosquin at 7:00 AM on November 2, 2009

Wild Banana Plant Marks Milestone for International Seed Bank

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

...and another entry by Claire, UBC BG work-study student:

A seed bank at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has collected 10% of the world's wild plants in its attempt to secure seeds from a quarter of the world's flowering plant species by 2020. The latest species addition is a wild banana, Musa itinerans, an important plant for wild elephants in Asia and currently under threat from agriculture. The seed bank is a partnership between more than 120 organizations in 54 countries. Stephen Hopper from the Royal Botanic Gardens describes the seed bank as an "insurance strategy" against future biodiversity losses.

Links:

• Banana marks seed bank milestone via BBC news


• Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partnership

Posted by dmosquin at 7:00 AM on October 29, 2009

Sweet Potato Protection is More Than Skin Deep

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries , Plant Diseases and Pests

Thank you again to Claire Thompson for providing another entry:

Researchers from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service have found beneficial compounds in sweet potatoes that provide protection against plant diseases. The research team found measurable amounts of protective compounds called caffeoylquinic acids, which act as antioxidants against several types of plant fungi.

Links:

• Sweet Potato Protection is More Than Skin Deep via the USDA Agricultural Research Service
• Harrison et al. 2008. Contents of Caffeoylquinic Acid Compounds in the Storage Roots of Sixteen Sweetpotato Genotypes and Their Potential Biological Activity. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 133:492-500.

Posted by dmosquin at 1:42 PM on October 26, 2009

Bananas Over Plastic

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

Thanks again to Claire Thompson for providing an entry. Claire writes:

The Polymer Processing Research Centre at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is contributing to the Badana project, an initiative with aims to convert mass wastes from banana plantations into usable forms of plastic. The plastic will be used to make items ranging from oil tanks to plastic dolls. Benefits from the project are said to include the reduction of polyethylene production, job creation in the Canary Islands, and financial benefits to the banana plantations. If successful, the Badana project may offset the 25,000 tonnes of banana waste that is dumped into ravines in the Canary Islands each year.

Links:

• Banana Plants May Be Used In Production Of Plastic Products via ScienceDaily
• Queen's researcher 'go bananas' via BBC News

Posted by dmosquin at 7:00 AM on October 22, 2009

"Extinct" flower found in Isle of Man garden

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

Claire Thompson, UBC BG work-study student, provides another write-up:

A cultivar of gladiolus thought to be extinct has been found in a garden on the Isle of Man. Gardener Edward Huyton has since donated individuals for propagation to the National Trust in England.

Links:

• 'Extinct' flower found in garden via the BBC
• What's in your garden? via BBC Isle of Man

Posted by dmosquin at 7:00 AM on October 19, 2009

Urban Plant Extinctions Pose Threat to Global Biodiversity

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

Another thank you to Claire Thompson for providing a write-up. Claire is a UBC Botanical Garden work-study student. Claire writes:

Botanists from 5 countries have compiled data on plant extinctions from 22 cities around the world. According to their study, both the pace of urban change and the proportion of native plants remaining in a city influence the variation in extinction rates. Modern cities were found to carry a large extinction debt. For example, Melbourne, Australia is expected to lose half of its native plants species over the next 100 years. These urban plant extinctions are a threat to worldwide biodiversity, highlighting the need for protection of native flora.

Links:

• How cities drive plants extinct via BBC Earth News
• Hahs et al 2009. A global synthesis of plant extinction rates in urban areas. Ecol. Letters 12:1-9 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2009.01372.x

Posted by dmosquin at 2:59 PM on October 14, 2009

The Japanese Art of Gourmet Apples

Category(-ies): Botanical Art , Plants, Food and Medicine

Thank you to Claire Thompson, a UBC Botanical Garden work-study student, for providing this write-up. Claire writes:

The $150 apple? This article highlights photographer Jane Stevens' exploration of the Japanese craft of gourmet apple farming. Developed in the 19th century, this labour-intensive technique involves the meticulous work of farmers to produce the biggest and most beautiful apples. Farmers will tend to apples up to 12 times before cultivation, hand turning and using specialized techniques to increase their sugar content and produce delicious and uniform fruits for sale in Japanese markets.

From the University of Cincinnati Magazine, continue reading: Perfect to the Core.

Posted by dmosquin at 3:47 PM on October 8, 2009

Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art opens at Kew Gardens

Category(-ies): Botanical Art , Other Botanical Gardens

Many works of botanical art never before seen by the public will be exhibited in the newly-opened Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Read more, or watch the video:

New botanical art museum to open via the BBC

New Gallery of Botanical Art, an RBG Kew press release

Posted by dmosquin at 3:52 PM on April 21, 2008

"A Guardian of Grasses"

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries , Plants, Food and Medicine

Researchers from Purdue University and the USDA's Agricultural Research Service have discovered that many of the world's grass food crops (e.g., corn, barley, rice, rye) depend on the Hm1 gene or one of its homologues (genes similar in structure and evolutionary origin) to prevent death from a leaf blight and mold disease caused by the fungus Cochliobolus carbonum race 1 (CCR1). As the abstract for the scientific article states, "Given the devastating ability of CCR1 to kill maize, these findings imply that the evolution and/or geographical distribution of grasses may have been constrained if Hm1 did not emerge."

Grasses' Guardian Gene Found via the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.

Sindhu et al. 2008. A guardian of grasses: Specific origin and conservation of a unique disease-resistance gene in the grass lineage. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA. 105(5): 1762-1767. 10.1073/pnas.0711406105

Posted by dmosquin at 3:37 PM on March 13, 2008

Rapid Evolution in Crepis

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

Researchers from the Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE) in Montpellier, France have observed rapid evolution in a population of Crepis sancta (Asteraceae) in response to the urban environment.

Crepis sancta produces two types of seeds (i.e., it has dimorphic seeds): a small seed with a pappus and a large seed without. The seed with the pappus favours high dispersal, while the seed without a pappus falls to the ground near the parent plant. In a comparison of urban and rural populations of Crepis sancta, the researchers discovered that the urban populations produced far fewer of the pappus-borne seeds. The hypothesis is that the populations have shifted away from producing pappus-borne seeds because of low germination rates in urban environments — in as few as five generations.

Plant seeds adapt to ‘city life’ via the BBC.

Thanks to Stannous F for sending along the story!

Posted by dmosquin at 2:03 PM on March 5, 2008

Cleaning Up Toxic Waste With Plants

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

Phytoremediation is a relatively new science aimed at cleaning up pollutants or solving other environmental problems using plants.

Recent research in Washington utilizing genetically-modified poplars showed a 30-fold increase in the removal of trichloroethylene (TCE) from a liquid solution. See: Plants tricked into cleaning up toxins – Reuters

Thanks to David Brownstein for sending along the link!

Posted by dmosquin at 1:23 PM on October 17, 2007

WWF: New Species Found in Vietnam

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

The World Wide Fund for Nature (aka World Wildlife Fund in Canada and USA) recently announced the discovery of eleven new species in the Thua Thien Hue province of central Vietnam (also known as the “Green Corridor”). Among the eleven new species are seven kinds of plants: five orchids, one member of the arum family and an Aspidistra species.

New Species Found in Vietnam's Green Corridor news release from WWF

National Geographic has details about some of the plants, including photographs: Gastrodia theana, Saccolabiopsis viridiflora, Anoectochilus annamenis and Aspidistra nicolai.

Thank you to Stannous F of San Francisco and Stephanie K of Vancouver for submitting this story within minutes of each other!

Posted by dmosquin at 4:40 PM on October 2, 2007

New Plant Family: The Simulcraceae

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

In a Scientific American article entitled “Floral Derangement”, Steve Mirsky highlights an article by Bletter et al. published in the April 1 issue of Ethnobotany Research and Applications: “Artificae Plantae: The Taxonomy, Ecology, and Ethnobotany of the Simulacraceae”. In the paper, seventeen genera of fake flora are described: Calciumcarbonatia, Celadonica, Conglomeratium, Dentumadhesivium, Ductusadhesivia, Granitus, Lignus, Metallicus, Papyroidia, Paraffinius, Photophyta, Plasticus, Polystyrin, Prophylactica, Silicus, Simulaca, and Textile.

Read more about the Simulcraceae in the original paper: Bletter N, Reynertson KA and JV Runk. 2007. Artificae Plantae: The taxonomy, ecology, and ethnobotany of the Simulacraceae. Ethnobotany Research and Applictions. 5: 159-177.

Thank you to Stannous F for suggesting this article for the garden's weblog!

Posted by dmosquin at 11:44 AM on August 30, 2007

Plants Recognize Siblings

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

Canadian scientists Sue Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University have discovered that plants of Cakile edentula (sea rocket) allocate more resources to root-growth (and are hence more competitive) when grown with non-sibling plants in the same containers. When grown with sibling plants, the plants do not show the same phenomenon. The question “How do plants recognize their siblings?” is as-yet unanswered.

Plants Recognize Their Siblings, Biologists Discover from the McMaster Daily News

Plants Can Tell Who's Who via news@nature.com

Thank you to Stannous F and Junglekeeper@UBC Botanical Garden Forums for sharing this story with me.

Posted by dmosquin at 1:32 PM on July 20, 2007

Three Gorges Botanical Garden Closes

Category(-ies): Other Botanical Gardens

Xiang Xiufa, a Chongqing businessman and plant conservationist, raced to rescue rare and endangered plants that were going to be exterminated by the Three Gorges Reservoir. His efforts initially met with some success: the formation of The Three Gorges Botanical Garden for Rare and Specious Plants. After startup funding of 53000 USD was received in 2002, government funding has run dry and the garden has been forced to close, placing the plants in jeopardy once again.

Garden’s Closure Leaves Nowhere to Go for Three Gorges’ Plants by Yunwu Cao for the Worldwatch Institute

Posted by dmosquin at 2:59 PM on July 17, 2007

Famed Rare Fruit Grower Passes Away

Category(-ies): Botanists and Horticulturists

Bill Whitman, horticulturist, inventor and surfer, died on Wednesday, May 30, 2007. Bill was famous for overturning conventional wisdom on what could and could not survive and produce fruit in Florida. Some of his accomplishments include having the first outdoor mangosteen to bear fruit in North America, popularizing miracle fruit, and cultivating rambutan and langsat.

In the past ten years, Bill had also donated five million dollars to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

• Surfer, horticulturist William Whitman dies from the Miami Herald
• Bill Whitman, 92, Is Dead; Scoured the Earth for Rare Fruit via the New York Times

Thanks to Sean Graham for suggesting this for the weblog.

Posted by dmosquin at 11:31 AM on June 4, 2007

Climate Change and Gardening

Category(-ies): Climate Change , Plant Conservation , Plants in the Landscape

What will be impact of climate change on gardening? A New York Times article addresses both the good and the bad. The good: different plant choices due to warmer weather & a longer growing season and raising awareness about environmental issues. The bad: increased pests and new weedy invaders, a changing native flora (and for some US states, the potential extirpation of state flowers and trees), and all of the associated cultural and biological consequences.

Feeling Warmth, Subtropical Plants Move North via the New York Times

Gardener's Guide to Global Warming (US-based) from the US National Wildlife Federation

Posted by dmosquin at 9:47 AM on May 8, 2007

Bamboo, Rats and Famine

Category(-ies): Plants, Food and Medicine

Flowering of a ubiquitous bamboo, Melocanna baccifera, in the Indian state of Mizoram occurs in roughly fifty year cycles. This mass flowering event results in the production of innumerable bamboo seeds and, subsequently, a boom in the population of rats. The mass population of rats eat more than the bamboo seeds, however — food crops are devastated causing famine and political unrest.

Bracing for a famine caused by rats via the BBC (April 2007)

Bamboo puts India on famine alert via the BBC (October, 2004)

Indian farmers braced for rat plague via the Telegraph (May, 2007)

Bamboo in Mizoram via the Bamboo Development Agency

Posted by dmosquin at 9:47 AM on May 8, 2007

Early Trees Discovery

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

A recent discovery of a complete fossil sample of the world's oldest known trees has solved a botanical mystery and now gives an idea of the structure of the world's first forests.

In the late 1800s, fossil tree trunks were discovered in upstate New York that were identified as being between 390 and 350 million years old, among the world's oldest known trees (more accurate methods in recent years have dated the fossils to 385 million years ago, the oldest known). A member of the extinct plant order Cladoxylopsida (closely related to ferns and sphenopsids), the trunks were assigned to the genus Eospermatopteris. However, no fossil foliage or fruiting bodies accompanied the trunks. Subsequent discoveries of other cladoxylopsid fossils continued to yield only incomplete specimens – either trunks or foliage. This group included the fossil genus Wattieza, previously known only from foliage.

Two years ago, a discovery on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation quarry in Schoharie County revealed a complete fossil that united the foliage of Wattieza with the trunk of Eospermatopteris, solving a botanical mystery.

The appearance of early forests is now easier to imagine, populated by (at least) 8m (26 ft.) tall tree-fern-like plants. They seem to have had naked trunks and bore a large crown of branches at the apex. The branches are thought to have abscised (dropped from the tree) as frond-like modules, allowing forest litter to accumulate and likely spurring the evolution of arthropod fauna.

• Stein, WE et al. 2007. Giant cladoxylopsid trees resolve the enigma of the Earth's earliest forest stumps at Gilboa. Nature. 446: 904-907. doi:10.1038/nature05705
• Full fossil found for the earliest trees by Heidi Ledford for news@nature.com
• Oldest tree fossil found, scientists say via CBC News
• Fossilised trees mystery solved via BBC News (note: the image accompanying the article bizarrely does not include the trunk)
• World's First Tree Reconstructed via LiveScience (note: this includes a pencil-drawn image of the entire plant)

Thanks to Peter Wharton and Aussiebob@UBC Botanical Garden Forums for submitting this item.

Posted by dmosquin at 1:29 PM on April 19, 2007

A Blooming Crisis

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

Over-exploitation and destruction of habitat are noted as two of the primary causes for the potential extinction of 131 of the 245 species of Magnolia.

Magnolias Face ‘Perilous Future’ – BBC

Magnolias - Bloom and Doom? from Global Trees Campaign

The Red List of Magnoliaceae report (PDF) – note the acknowledgment to Peter Wharton.

Posted by dmosquin at 4:14 PM on April 2, 2007

A New Understanding of the Early Evolution of Flowering Plants

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries , Plant Relationships

Text courtesy of Dr. Sean Graham:

A research team led by scientists at the UBC Botanical Garden & Centre for Plant Research announce a startling discovery in the March 15, 2007 issue of Nature concerning Hydatellaceae, an obscure family of dwarf, aquatic flowering plants. The researchers, led by garden researchers Associate Professor Sean Graham and his graduate students Jeffery Saarela (now at the Canadian Museum of Nature) and Hardeep Rai, discovered that these plants, once thought to be diminutive relatives of grasses and rushes, instead belong near the very root of the evolutionary tree of flowering plants. They have the water lilies as their closest living relatives. The flowering plants began to diversify at least 135 million years ago, in the age of the dinosaurs.

Graham and his students collaborated on this project with colleagues at the University of California, Davis, the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia, the University of Zurich, and Harvard University. The researcher team examined numerous genes from the two genera of Hydatellaceae, Hydatella and Trithuria. Their results are supported with a detailed consideration of Hydatellaceae plant anatomy and morphology.

The family Hydatellaceae has about ten species in two genera, Hydatella and Trithuria. The plants stand a few centimetres tall (or less) at maturity, and have multiple, minute, unisexual flowers (each lacking petals and sepals) that are collected into a compact flowering head. They grow and flower under water (up to a depth of a metre), or at the edges of drying pools. Hydatellaceae were previously thought to be monocots (a large and diverse group of the flowering plants that includes grasses, sedges, gingers, palms and onions) – largely on the basis of their narrow, pointed leaves. They are native to Australia, India and New Zealand.

The family is rather poorly known, and many details of its biology remain to be discovered. Today’s announcement overturns some previous ideas on the early evolution of flowering plants such as the water lilies – and is the first time that a family has been ejected from the monocots.

Posted by dmosquin at 11:00 AM on March 14, 2007

Svalbard International Seed Vault

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation , Plants, Food and Medicine

The design for the Svalbard International Seed Vault, a “Living Fort Knox”, has recently been shared. Three million seed samples of the world's agricultural crops will be stored in the Arctic vault, due to be completed in 2008. The vault will be The seed vault will be built inside a mountain on Spitsbergen, an island one thousand kilometres north of mainland Norway.

• Doomsday Vault Design Unveiled from the BBC
• Svalbard Global Seed Vault from Wikipedia
• Arctic Seed Vault from the Global Crop Diversity Trust

Thank you to Stannous F and Aussiebob@UBC Botanical Garden Forums for suggesting the link!

Posted by dmosquin at 5:06 PM on February 28, 2007

Battle for Protection of Giant Sequoias Continues

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

Although a dozen groves of giant sequoias were protected through the designation of the US Giant Sequoia National Monument in 2000, pre-2000 timber sales of non-sequoias have resulted in the logging of forests surrounding the protected groves. This article tells the story of Martin Litton, a conservationist attempting to change current practices in the area.

From the article: "If we don't save them, they'll disappear from the Earth," Litton said, adamant that logging near the sequoias endangers the shallow-rooted giants by exposing them to wind as well as drying out the forest floor.

A Matter of Grove Concern by Bettina Boxall of the Los Angeles Times

Sequoia ForestKeeper, an advocacy group on the issue.

Thank you to Tom Wheeler of UBC Botanical Garden for suggesting this article.

Posted by dmosquin at 4:46 PM on January 23, 2007

Climate Change and Migration

Category(-ies): Climate Change

Along with human climate refugees, global warming is expected to prompt the movement of many plant populations as they struggle to survive under the new climatic regime. The role people may play in trying to reduce the number of extinctions is discussed in “When Worlds Collide”, an article by Douglas Fox for Conservation Magazine.

Thanks to Peter Wharton for suggesting this article.

Posted by dmosquin at 1:24 PM on January 22, 2007

Discoveries from the Past

Category(-ies): Plants, Food and Medicine

The study of a 252 year old text on the plants of Ambon (an Indonesian island) has resulted in the discovery of a new potential antibiotic. The (increasingly rare) atun tree (Atuna racemosa) of Indonesia contains a compound that has been shown to kill certain types of methicillin-resistant bacteria.

17th-Century Remedy; 21st-Century Potency from The New York Times

Thanks to David Brownstein for sending along the link!

Posted by dmosquin at 11:06 AM on January 18, 2007

Ice Caps Not The Only Thing Heating Up

Category(-ies): Climate Change , Plant Discoveries

A recent study from UC Irvine suggests that plants with frequent generational turnover (such as annual weeds) may be more resilient to the effects of global warming than slower-growing plants. The ability to evolve rapidly to keep up with climate change is cited as the reason.

Rapid evolutionary change may help annual plants cope with global warming better than long-living species via the University of California, Irvine

Profile for Dr. Arthur Weis of the Center for Evolutionary Genetics at UC Irvine

Posted by dmosquin at 9:24 AM on January 16, 2007

Bioluminescent Mushrooms

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

“How and why did luminescence evolve in fungi?” is the question being asked by researchers from the University of São Paulo, San Francisco State University in California and Brazil's Institute of Botany

New Glowing Mushrooms Found in Brazil, a photo gallery and article on National Geographic News

Laboratório de Bioluminescência de Fungos, the lab of Cassius Stevani.

Photographs of Bioluminescent Fungi

Thanks to Stannous F for submitting the link to me!

Posted by dmosquin at 3:18 PM on November 14, 2006

Because They Can't Wear Toques

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

Bees seem to preferentially visit warm flowers to help maintain body temperature and conserve energy. Previously, they were believed to visit flowers based solely on pollen and nectar abundance.

Bees Get Buzz From Warm Flowers - via the BBC

Thanks to “Junglekeeper” on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums for pointing out this story.

Posted by dmosquin at 3:53 PM on October 4, 2006

Woolly Weed Whackers

Category(-ies): Plants, Food and Medicine

How does one suppress weeds, improve the soil and save money in a vineyard? The answer might be sheep.

Vintners' Solution to Weeds: an Attack by Mild Animals from the Los Angeles Times

Thanks to “Junglekeeper” on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums for pointing out this story.

Posted by dmosquin at 4:14 PM on September 27, 2006

National Tropical Botanical Garden

Category(-ies): Invasive Plants , Other Botanical Gardens , Plant Conservation

Though the article describes a tour of the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii, its emphasis is on the conservation of native Hawaiian plants and the efforts against invasives and plant extinction.

A Tour of Hawaii's Rare Paradise from The Christian Science Monitor

Posted by dmosquin at 3:03 PM on September 12, 2006

Climate Change and Plant Extinctions

Category(-ies): Climate Change , Plant Conservation

Plants in some areas of the world are at extreme risk of extinction due to climate change. Those confined to small areas, such as islands or the South African fynbos, have no hope of colonizing new areas, since environmental conditions in nearby areas (where the plants could theoretically find a refuge) are either unsuitable or are too distant.

Climate Change Seen Pushing Plants to the Brink

Posted by dmosquin at 2:41 PM on September 12, 2006

GM Plants Gone Wild

Category(-ies): Plant Legal News and Issues

Three incidents in the US involving genetically modified plants have caused concern about lack of regulations (or lack of enforcement). The incidents include an experimental rice being mixed in other rice for human consumption, an experimental bent-grass “escaping” and a failure to research the environmental impact of growing plants to produce pharmaceuticals in Hawaii.

When Genetically Modified Plants Go Wild from The Christian Science Monitor

Posted by dmosquin at 2:57 PM on September 6, 2006

Sudden Wetland Dieback

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

Saltwater marshes in New England are dying back, resulting in barren landscapes. The reason? Unknown. Possible candidates to explain the dieback include rising seas, mobile chunks of ice, flocks of geese, chemical pollution, sulfuric acid produced by bacteria and purple marsh crabs (Sesarma reticulatum).

Dying salt marshes puzzle New England scientists, threatening habitats from the Associated Press via CBC

Posted by dmosquin at 8:58 AM on August 24, 2006

Toxic Oceans

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

“The world's 6 billion inhabitants, he [Jeremey Jackson] says, have failed to follow a homeowner's rule of thumb: Be careful what you dump in the swimming pool, and make sure the filter is working. ‘We're pushing the oceans back to the dawn of evolution,’ Jackson said, ‘a half-billion years ago when the oceans were ruled by jellyfish and bacteria.’”

A Primeval Tide of Toxins from Kenneth Weiss of the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by dmosquin at 11:42 AM on August 9, 2006

Seaweed and Chips

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

French researchers have identified a possible new source of energy-storing supercapacitors: baked seaweed.

Baked Seaweed and Chips via news@nature.com's Philip Ball.

Posted by dmosquin at 11:27 AM on August 9, 2006

Venezuela Pushing Organic Agriculture

Category(-ies): Plants, Food and Medicine

How Green Is That Garden? – With Oil Revenue, Venezuela is Pushing Organic Agriculture. Via E/The Environmental Magazine.

Posted by dmosquin at 1:07 PM on August 4, 2006

Endangered Atlantic Forest in Brazil

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

Submitted by the garden's director, Dr. Quentin Cronk:

The Amazon forest is in well-known decline, but another of Brazil's biodiversity hotspots, the Atlantic forest, has been even more devastated. The Atlantic forest contains the highest tree diversity in the world but its area has been reduced to a fraction of its former extent.

Brazil's other disappearing rainforest via the Sci-Tech section of Aljazeera.net

Posted by dmosquin at 11:19 AM on August 1, 2006

Weeding Seaweed

Category(-ies): Invasive Plants

Scientists untangle seaweed’s effect on other species, a press release from the University of California's Integrated Pest Management program.

Posted by dmosquin at 11:11 AM on August 1, 2006

The Decline of the Amazon Rainforest

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

Amazon rainforest 'could become a desert' – UK's The Independent

Dying Forest: One year to save the Amazon, also from The Independent

Posted by dmosquin at 6:07 PM on July 24, 2006

Wildfires and Climate Change

Category(-ies): Climate Change

“A new study led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, implicates rising seasonal temperatures and the earlier arrival of spring conditions in connection with a dramatic increase of large wildfires in the western United States.”

Warming Climate Plays Large Role in Western U.S. Wildfires

Posted by dmosquin at 11:18 AM on July 24, 2006