Celebrating Plants and People
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Giving up unhealthy sugar? Then feed it to your plants
if you want to brighten up some dull grassland by sowing wildflowers, adding sugar gives them a fighting chance; without it, they will probably fail.
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New Rain Forest Threat: Streetlights
By reducing foraging of fruit-eating bats in lit areas, light pollution is likely to reduce seed rain.
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Elephants Aren’t The Only Giants Being Poached: Redwoods In Crisis
Illegal redwood poaching impacts one of the most sensitive resources in Redwood National & State Parks, a designated World Heritage Biosphere Reserve, injuring trees than can live up to 2,000 years ol
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Planning For Change: Improving heat tolerance in trees
Biologists succeeding in making popular trees significantly more tolerant to high temperatures, drought, and the presence of weed-killers.
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Live fast, die young strategy spawned Amazon tree species boom
There are genera – or groups – that are very species rich; some of them have 100, 200 or 300 species in them but we have not had a good reason for why these species-rich genera exist.
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Can Mushrooms Cure Cancer?
But while polysaccharide-K – a protein extract from the trametes versicolor fungus, or turkey tail – is already being used to boost the immune system of cancer patients in some countries including Japan, research into all fungi is still in its infancy and more trials are needed.
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Study Reveals Complex Conditional Decision Making in Plants
Ecological evidence for complex decision making in plants thus includes a structural memory (the second seed), simple reasoning (integration of inner and outer conditions), conditional behavior (abortion), and anticipation of future risks (seed predation).
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A New Generation of American Chestnut Trees May Redefine America’s Forests
Before an exotic fungus nearly wiped them out in the late 1800s, abundant chestnut trees shaped the forest ecosystem, providing food and shelter for numerous other species. In coming decades Chestnut trees engineered to battle the fungus could restore these lost relationships
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Prehistoric Monster Bird Was Really Nutter
A preliminary study of dietary clues preserved in the bones of a German specimen of the bird suggested a menu of plants rather than flesh.
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African Sandlewood Shown To Be Medical Workhorse
Researchers looking at the constituents of Baphia nitida, the hard-wooded African tree from which camwood is extracted, found its inclusion in ointments for wound care could ensure good wound healing and treatment of abscesses in animal studies.