Celebrating Plants and People
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Science and Plants for Schools (SAPS)
Science and Plants for Schools (SAPS) creates opportunities for teachers and students to find out more about plants and to become more interested in plant science.
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What If The Lemur Gardeners Of Madagascar Disappear?
What got us interested is that frugivorous lemur populations are declining across the island, and we know very little about how these seed dispersers actually affect tree populations. Once we understand that better, maybe we’ll have a better idea of how the community might change if the lemurs disappear.
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Traveling To The Birthplace Of All Apples
Really though, considering that the Kazakh name for Almaty, Alma-ata, means “Father of Apples,” it is apples that must be the focus of this trip. So what is it that makes the apple the favourite snack of every Kazakh? What makes this land the fatherland of all apples?
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The Plant That Gets Its Own Holiday – Tulasi (Ocimum tenuiflorum) or Holy basil
On Tulasi Puja, which falls on Utthana Dwadashi day, people make Surnali (sweet dosa) in the morning, in addition to various other things including pattoli, a sweet dish steamed inside tamarind leaves.
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Plant Thieves Know No Limits: Ravaging Parkland For Profit
It’s a crime against wildlife but also a crime against everyone who enjoys nature in the wild.
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Preserves For Elephants Do Not Preserve Forests
While overall numbers of African elephant have declined dramatically in recent times, some populations are now confined to protected areas and are locally overabundant—an undesirable situation for both biodiversity conservation and elephants.
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Plant Science In Space!
Part of the impetus for plant biology experiments in space was the realization that plants could be important parts of bioregenerative life support on long missions, recycling water, air, and nutrients for the human crew. However, a large part of the impetus was that the Space Shuttle enabled fundamental plant science essentially in a microgravity environment. Experiments during the Space Shuttle era produced key science insights on biological adaptation to spaceflight and especially plant growth and tropisms.
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Nectaries Meet Their Own Photosynthetic Needs
Photosynthetic activity of green nectaries can explain a significant part, if not all, of the sugar secreted.
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The Amazon Rainforest Shall Be No More
The “vegetation-climate equilibrium is teetering on the brink of the abyss.” If it tips, the Amazon will start to become a much drier savanna, which calamitous consequences.
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Although You Plant It They Won’t Come: Green Does Not Mean Biodiversity
Planting a tree in the city is not sufficient to then have walnut flies and the wasps that attack those walnut flies. We think there’s something about the city that changes those dynamics, those interactions between plants and flies and the insects that eat those flies.