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Celebrating Plants and People

  • The Russian Cactus Rustler Caper: Tales From The Conservation Front Lines

    The trial was quick. Safronov plead guilty. The multi-state surveillance investigation that pooled the investigative powers of four federal agencies and at least a dozen agents in five states would end in a fine. Safronov admitted to attempting to smuggle an object contrary to law, a misdemeanor, as well as to a civil import/export penalty. The judge ordered him to pay $525. Safronov flew home to Russia. And this time, the cacti remained. (Click on title or image for full story.)

  • Plants Can Remember Stressful Events. But Usually They Forget.

    The team argues that plants are making a trade-off. While being epigenetically primed against previously experienced stress can be beneficial, it also comes with costs. You could have an organism that’s spending way too much energy transcribing genes that really aren’t necessary at a specific time, (Click on title or image for full story.)

  • Documenting The Disappearance Of Unique Plant Communities

    They learned that between the second and third surveys, the disappearance of species tripled while the appearance of new species not indigenous to prairies had doubled when compared to the years between the first and second survey. Some sites, the research team found, had fewer than 18 percent of the species documented in the 1950s survey, and some were now made up of more than 60 percent non-native species. (Click on title or image for full story.)

  • Eating Leafy Greens Protects Our Intestinal Flora

    A critical discovery about how bacteria feed on an unusual sugar molecule found in leafy green vegetables could hold the key to explaining how ‘good’ bacteria protect our gut and promote health. (Click on title or image for full story.)

  • The Wind Speed At Which Trees Snap. (It’s The Same For All Trees!)

    Trees, regardless of their diameter, height, or elastic properties, don’t tend to break until wind speeds reach about 42 m/s (94 mph). This seemingly odd convergence has actually been observed by several historical scientists, including Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci, both of whom suggested that a mathematical law could explain the resistance of wooden beams under stress. Now, using data from a new experiment, scientists say they have found that law. (Click on title or image for full story.)

  • Do Orchids Change Their Fragrance With Location? Does It Matter?

    Orchids, like many flowers, have something of a symbiotic relationship with their pollinators: the animals provide a vital service in transporting pollen between individual plants, facilitating reproduction, and in return, the flowers provide a nutritional reward. Previous research has shown that flowers growing in distinct geographic regions will evolve different traits, related to pollinator preference. This latest study is one of the few to focus on scent. (Click on title or image for full story.)

  • The Attack Of The Hairy Panic Grass

    The important thing is it’s not going to kill people’s dogs and cats, it just makes a hell of a mess, (Click on title or image for full story.)

  • Did Flowers Look Much Different 15million Years Ago? No, Not Much.

    Prof Poinar is a renowned entomologist and most of these specimens were insects. But after nearly 30 years working on the bugs, his eye settled on the flowers. They were remarkably complete – unlike most plant fossils found in amber, which are usually just fragments. (Click on title or image for full story.)

  • Do Red Leaves Deter Predators? Are The Benefits Worth The Cost?

    These results indicate that the benefits of deterring insect herbivores by signalling may be balanced by the higher photosynthetic rate of non-signalling plants. A balance between signalling and photosynthesis is a novel mechanism for the maintenance of leaf colour polymorphisms in nature. (Click on title or image for full report.)

  • Newly Discovered Coffee Relative Plant Has Heart-Shaped Fruit

    The discovery, announced just before Valentine’s Day, adds to the growing number of known plants within the coffee family (Rubiaceae). The new plant, has been romantically named Coprosma cordicarpa, meaning the Coprosma (a type of flowering plant) with hearts. (Click on title or image for full story.)