Celebrating Plants and People
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Lotus Water Repelling Adaptation Spawns New Products
The ‘lotus effect’ and has inspired a range of hydrophobic and superhydrophobic materials.
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Weeds And What They Tell About Soil
Simply by observing the most prevalent weeds that are growing in a specific area, they can indicate if the soil is acidic or alkaline, whether the soil is a healthy, balanced soil, or if it’s depleted. Weeds can indicate a poorly draining soil, or a soil that is unable to retain moisture. Weeds can even indicate if the soil is unbalanced, being overly rich in one nutrient and deficient in others.
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Too Much Of A Good Thing. Pollution Is Over-Feeding Carnivorous Plants
Carnivorous plants in Sweden are so stuffed on nitrogen pollution that they’re able to eat fewer bugs—and that may not be a good thing for the plants, a new study says.
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Preserving Wild Landscape Directly Benefits Neighboring Farmers
If farmers maintain a natural [wooded] area next to their soy plantation, where these animals can live, they may not have to use as much pesticide
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Journey Inside Carnivorous Plants To See How They Form
Leaves come in many shapes and sizes, from simple flat blades to elaborate vessel or pitcher shapes found on some carnivorous plants. How do plants create this diversity of forms?
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Burning Lettuce? New Promise Of Rubber From Weed
I think there’s interest in developing a temperate-climate source of natural rubber
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Is This The Oldest Flower Ever Found?
This is our strongest evidence of Jurassic angiosperms that we have at this time, but it is tentative, If this was in the Cretaceous, no one would be arguing about it, but because it’s in the Jurassic, you need to have more evidence.
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It’s Tradition: Tasty Rice Snack Cooked In Carnivorous Pitcher Plants
we investigate the history and functionality of a traditional rice snack cooked in Nepenthes pitchers, one of the most iconic and recognizable plants in the rapidly growing economic environment of Southeast Asia.
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Trees Send Distress Call To Birds For Insect Control
When faced with a caterpillar attack, a defence mechanism is activated in the plant which involves releasing volatile compounds that predatory birds use to find their prey
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It Took A Microscope To Confirm Discovery Of Tiniest Orchid
The world’s smallest orchid flower has been identified by a botanist in Brazil, measuring just half a millimetre. The tiny bloom was initially mistaken for a fungus before being examined under a microscope