Celebrating Plants and People
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Plants May Locate Forgotten Land Mines
Wars may end, but land mines last for decades. These deadly explosives can be cleared, but the task is often dangerous and time-consuming. Someday, there may be an easier way: Plants could indicate where mines lay hidden underground, according to researchers
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Riparian Site Landscape Regeneration: Good News And Bad
This study shows some potential for natural regeneration of native trees, but also found a significant source of invasive plants in the soil seedbank that could reduce restoration success. Notably, the study recorded the presence of 16 bryophyte taxa, and the common ones were those typically associated with disturbances.
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Ancient Australian Cave Art Reveals New African Baobab Species
If the boabs arrived 70,000 years ago, and the rock art is 70,000 years old, it’s a hell of a coincidence.
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1,300 year old Dose of Willow Bark Aspirin discovered
Fragmented pottery unearthed in a rockshelter in east central Colorado has revealed traces of salicylic acid, a substance derived from willow bark that’s the natural precursor to modern-day aspirin.Dated to the 7th century, the pottery may be the earliest known physical evidence of the chemical’s use in North America, according to archaeologists.
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Where Are Botanic Gardens Going?
That brings us to what is arguably the most important species in any botanic garden: not the giants swaying in the afternoon breeze, but the weary visitors resting in the shade beneath them. If the work of botanic gardens is to mean anything, it is their visitors who must spread the word, increasing awareness about biodiversity, habitat loss and climate change.
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Plant Communication: Look Deep Into my RNA. You are under my spell
Through this exchange, the parasitic plants may be dictating what the host plant should do, such as lowering its defenses so that the parasitic plant can more easily attack it.
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Bees Shop For Pollen, Learning Which Flowers To Select
Bumblebees are able to connect differences in pollen quality with floral features like petal colour, and so land only on the flowers that offer the best rewards, according to a new study
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Is Amazon Deforestation Causing California’s Drought?
California regulators overseeing the state’s cap-and-trade program now have one more reason to recognize offsets generated by saving endangered rainforest in Latin America. On Monday, they learned that the destruction of trees in the Amazon rainforest will probably slash rainfall in the United States, depriving drought-choked California of even more drinking water.
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The Chemical Behind Catnip’s Effect on Cats
Everyone knows cats go crazy for catnip. It’s an effect that’s been noted in scientific literature as far back as the 18th Century, when scientists observed that cats seemed to be attracted to catnip when the plant was withered or bruised. Since then, research has managed to amass a little more detail on exactly why catnip affects cats in the way it does.
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Pepsi Bets On Cashew Juice To Be The Next Coconut Water
Cashew juice also shows up in various local products around the world like Cashewy in Thailand, which is promoted by its producer as “the beverage of gods.” Nutrition and health websites extol its high vitamin C content, and there are even claims that it helps burn fat and enhances sexual performance.