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Author: zooplantman

  • Ancient Reed Boat Traditions Disappearing

    Centuries before the Spanish arrived and long before the Incas extended their empire from the mountaintops to the coast, fishermen here were building boats from the totora reed that grows along the shore. Today, a handful of fishermen keep up that tradition, growing and harvesting the reeds and forming them into the boats that are known as caballitos de totora, or little reed horses.

  • Tobacco “Plantibodies” Developed To Fight Ebola

    Drugmakers’ use of the tobacco plant as a fast and cheap way to produce novel biotechnology treatments is gaining global attention because of its role in an experimental Ebola therapy.

  • Recreating Extinct Megafauna For Seed Dispersal

    Remove a species from an ecosystem and other species tend to suffer. Take the giant Madagascar tortoise, for example. The two species of giant tortoises on Madagascar went extinct centuries ago, but their loss is still being felt today. According to new research, the extinction of these tortoises robbed one of the island’s iconic baobab tree species of its most important seed dispersers, a situation from which the trees still have not recovered.

  • New Really Messy Pollination Strategy Discovered

    This unique and highly complex pollination system is completely new to science and provides another example of the intricate relationships that have evolved between flowers and their pollinators

  • Do These African Plants Promise Treatment For Alzheimer’s?

    You can’t test everything, so the best way to approach plant research for drugs is to use the knowledge that’s been around for thousands of years to help you pick and choose what to study with modern techniques. That way you’re not just shooting in the dark.”

  • Meet The Most Useful Tree In The World

    Every part of the plant has bioactive compounds that can be used in medicine and agriculture. It is a fast growing tree that can provide fire wood, shelter, food, medicine, and crop protection.

  • Bitter Kola: A bitter Pill For Ebola Sufferers

    Stories suggesting that the plant holds the key to a cure have also been reported in some parts of the African media, raising hopes further still. So where did the idea come from, and how has it taken hold?

  • Farmers Use Licorice To Reclaim Salted Fields

    In the harsh climate of northwestern Uzbekistan, farmers are cultivating wild licorice on land that is salt-ridden near drainage canals.

  • Reforestation Success? The right tree in the right spot

    While scale is important for landscape restoration, we need to reconsider quality and not just quantity. When does the presence of a tree really make a difference, and when is it neither an environmental or economical solution to a host of complex issues? What are the implications for food security, biodiversity and landscape protection?

  • Strung Up! Botanical Beads Of The World

    From childhood I have been fascinated by nature’s infinite variety of forms, colors, textures, shapes and sizes. Seeds display this amazing diversity, and over the years I have accumulated a sizeable collection of botanical necklaces. These “beads” consist of seeds, fruits, stems, roots, arils (seed appendages) and rhizomes (underground stems). I admired them, I wore them and I wondered about them. Where had the seed come from and which plant produced it? When I tried to learn something about these “beads” I discovered there were no books that dealt with the subject.