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Celebrating Plants and People

  • Plant Can Remove Heavy Metals From Water

    While still early, the researchers think that their findings add to solving the problem of water pollution by using cheap but effective and fully natural-derived adsorbents to remove heavy metal ions from water; an urgent problem for developing countries which struggle with drinking water shortages. (Click on title for full story.)

  • Microbiome Frontier: Bacteria Aid Tree Branches Collect Nitrogen From Air

    It’s well documented that nitrogen fixation happens in bacteria-rich nodules on the roots of legumes such as soybeans, clovers, alfalfa and lupines. Bacteria help the roots fix atmospheric nitrogen gas into a form which can be used by the plant. There is a strongly held belief that only plants with root nodules can benefit from this type of symbiosis. This research provides the first direct evidence that nitrogen fixation can occur in the branches of trees, with no root nodule required. (Click on title for full story.)

  • Plants That Sting And Bite May Have Something To Teach Us

    Additional research projects are directed towards investigating which other plants may use structural calcium phosphate to face challenges in their natural environment and which biomechanical advantages this material conveys to the plants. The discovery is also of potential relevance for bionic applications. “Surgical bone substitutes have to be highly tissue compatible, cellulose-composite are likely to meet that criterion” (Click on title for full story.)

  • Old School Plant Breeding Producing Better Results Than GMO Research

    His work stands out because he has taken an old-school approach. He is leading a renaissance in some conventional crop-breeding techniques that rely on laboriously examining plants’ physical characteristics and then selecting for desirable traits, such as growth or the length of fine roots. And surprisingly, this approach seems to be outpacing the high-tech route. (Click on title for full story.)

  • Darwin Proven Correct: Pollinators May Be Perfectly Matched To Flower Species

    We showed that Darwin’s prediction that each flower has a pollinator with a proboscis fitting into the flower, in Manduca not only resulted in a very long tongue, but also in a preference for the odor of the fitting flower. And that this co-evolution is beneficial for the moth, as the moth gets the best energy gain from fitting flowers, (Click on title for full story.)

  • What Do Trees Do While You Are Sleeping? They Sleep too

    The leaves and branches were shown to droop gradually, with the lowest position reached a couple of hours before sunrise. In the morning, the trees returned to their original position within a few hours. It is not yet clear whether they were “woken up” by the sun or by their own internal rhythm. (Click on title for full story.)

  • Spices Come And Spices Go. This Is Not Your Parents’ Caraway

    According to the data, per capita spice consumption nearly tripled over the past half-century, from 1.2 pounds per year in 1966 to 3.4 in 2012. A look at the individual spices, however, shows different stories, with the use of some of the most well-known flavor contributors varying dramatically over the years. (Click on title for full story.)

  • Nursery Pots May Doom Reforestation Efforts To Failure

    The experimental protocols revealed that traditional plastic containers led to an abundance of root growth in the bottom of containers, which led to a paucity of lateral roots following transplanting. Lateral roots are critically important for stabilizing plants in tropical cyclone force winds (hurricanes and typhoons). (Click on title for full story.)

  • Higher Deer Populations Increase Invasive Plant Populations

    After having observed firsthand how the presence of deer enables invasive exotic plants to spread in their Virginia study plots, the authors conclude too many deer may be boosting the invasion of exotic plants in similar forests across the Mid-Atlantic region. (Click on title for full story.)

  • A Rose Is A… Whatever The Programmer Wants It To Be. The First Cyber-Plant.

    Now we can really start talking about ‘power plants’ – we can place sensors in plants and use the energy formed in the chlorophyll, produce green antennas or produce new materials. Everything occurs naturally, and we use the plants’ own very advanced, unique systems. As far as we know, there are no previously published research results regarding electronics produced in plants. No one’s done this before, (Click on title for full story.)