Category: Endangered Plants
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Battle Between Native vs. Introduced Species Has Unexpected Casualties
It's a battle between an invasive plant and a native plant, but with a new twist… European beachgrass provides cover that allows a timid deer mouse to get close enough to the lupine to snip off stalks of lupine fruits without being nabbed by overflying birds.
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De-Icing Roads Devastates Plant Communities
The salt used to de-ice roads in winter has had a severe impact on habitat, driving out such common wayside plants as daisies and dandelions, and enabling salt-tolerant plants to take root.
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Robinson Crusoe’s Endangered Island
Daniel Defoe may have made this part of the world famous (although he never acknowledged in print that his fictional epic was inspired by Selkirk's adventures), but the real story of these dramatically beautiful islands is one of invasive alien species.
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The Wild Maize Problem Persists
Genes from genetically engineered corn have been found in traditional crop strains in Mexico, said a new study that is likely to reignite a bitter controversy over biotech maize.
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Redeeming Prisoners, Redeeming Forests
The inmates saw themselves as active and valued participants in an ongoing exploration of how to solve a critical environmental problem…They seemed to be keen to make a difference to society, and the project appeared to serve as a subtle-but-real form of redemption.
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The Trees Sing To Us And We Sing To The Trees
The ultrasonic din of dying trees inspires a new kind of research to save forests from beetle attacks — and battle climate change.
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Popularity of Natural Products Destroys Natural Places
The lucrative rooibos tea industry, thought to be environmentally-friendly because it is based on an indigenous species, is devastating South Africa's globally-important plant life.
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Bushmeat Crisis Threatens Trees
Recent research shows that in those regions of the South American rain forests where monkey species have been exterminated, certain tree species have little chance of survival.
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Benefits of Invasive Plants
According to the research, the existence of invasive plants in invaded sites can increase visits from insects to the majority of native plants. In this way the ‘floral market’ hypothesis in which only the invasive flowers are seen to benefit and the native flowers are no longer visited by insects is contradicted.
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When A Rose Does Not Smell As Sweet
Air pollution from power plants and automobiles is destroying the fragrance of flowers and thereby inhibiting the ability of pollinating insects to follow scent trails to their source.