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Etaerio - A Plant News Weblog

Etaerio: an aggregate fruit. Etaerio: an aggregation of news stories about plants.

Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art opens at Kew Gardens

Category(-ies): Botanical Art , Other Botanical Gardens

Many works of botanical art never before seen by the public will be exhibited in the newly-opened Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

"A Guardian of Grasses"

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries , Plants, Food and Medicine

Researchers from Purdue University and the USDA's Agricultural Research Service have discovered that many of the world's grass food crops (e.g., corn, barley, rice, rye) depend on the Hm1 gene or one of its homologues (genes similar in structure and evolutionary origin) to prevent death from a leaf blight and mold disease caused by the fungus Cochliobolus carbonum race 1 (CCR1). As the abstract for the scientific article states, "Given the devastating ability of CCR1 to kill maize, these findings imply that the evolution and/or geographical distribution of grasses may have been constrained if Hm1 did not emerge."

Grasses' Guardian Gene Found via the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.

Sindhu et al. 2008. A guardian of grasses: Specific origin and conservation of a unique disease-resistance gene in the grass lineage. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA. 105(5): 1762-1767. 10.1073/pnas.0711406105

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:37 PM on March 13, 2008 | Comments (0)

Rapid Evolution in Crepis

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

Researchers from the Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE) in Montpellier, France have observed rapid evolution in a population of Crepis sancta (Asteraceae) in response to the urban environment.

Crepis sancta produces two types of seeds (i.e., it has dimorphic seeds): a small seed with a pappus and a large seed without. The seed with the pappus favours high dispersal, while the seed without a pappus falls to the ground near the parent plant. In a comparison of urban and rural populations of Crepis sancta, the researchers discovered that the urban populations produced far fewer of the pappus-borne seeds. The hypothesis is that the populations have shifted away from producing pappus-borne seeds because of low germination rates in urban environments — in as few as five generations.

Plant seeds adapt to ‘city life’ via the BBC.

Thanks to Stannous F for sending along the story!

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:03 PM on March 5, 2008

Cleaning Up Toxic Waste With Plants

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

Phytoremediation is a relatively new science aimed at cleaning up pollutants or solving other environmental problems using plants.

Recent research in Washington utilizing genetically-modified poplars showed a 30-fold increase in the removal of trichloroethylene (TCE) from a liquid solution. See: Plants tricked into cleaning up toxins – Reuters

Thanks to David Brownstein for sending along the link!

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:23 PM on October 17, 2007

WWF: New Species Found in Vietnam

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

The World Wide Fund for Nature (aka World Wildlife Fund in Canada and USA) recently announced the discovery of eleven new species in the Thua Thien Hue province of central Vietnam (also known as the “Green Corridor”). Among the eleven new species are seven kinds of plants: five orchids, one member of the arum family and an Aspidistra species.

New Species Found in Vietnam's Green Corridor news release from WWF

National Geographic has details about some of the plants, including photographs: Gastrodia theana, Saccolabiopsis viridiflora, Anoectochilus annamenis and Aspidistra nicolai.

Thank you to Stannous F of San Francisco and Stephanie K of Vancouver for submitting this story within minutes of each other!

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:40 PM on October 2, 2007

New Plant Family: The Simulcraceae

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

In a Scientific American article entitled “Floral Derangement”, Steve Mirsky highlights an article by Bletter et al. published in the April 1 issue of Ethnobotany Research and Applications: “Artificae Plantae: The Taxonomy, Ecology, and Ethnobotany of the Simulacraceae”. In the paper, seventeen genera of fake flora are described: Calciumcarbonatia, Celadonica, Conglomeratium, Dentumadhesivium, Ductusadhesivia, Granitus, Lignus, Metallicus, Papyroidia, Paraffinius, Photophyta, Plasticus, Polystyrin, Prophylactica, Silicus, Simulaca, and Textile.

Read more about the Simulcraceae on the web site dedicated to the family, Simulcraceae.org, or read the original paper: Bletter N, Reynertson KA and JV Runk. 2007. Artificae Plantae: The taxonomy, ecology, and ethnobotany of the Simulacraceae. Ethnobotany Research and Applictions. 5: 159-177.

Thank you to Stannous F for suggesting this article for the garden's weblog!

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:44 AM on August 30, 2007

Plants Recognize Siblings

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

Canadian scientists Sue Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University have discovered that plants of Cakile edentula (sea rocket) allocate more resources to root-growth (and are hence more competitive) when grown with non-sibling plants in the same containers. When grown with sibling plants, the plants do not show the same phenomenon. The question “How do plants recognize their siblings?” is as-yet unanswered.

Plants Recognize Their Siblings, Biologists Discover from the McMaster Daily News

Plants Can Tell Who's Who via news@nature.com

Thank you to Stannous F and Junglekeeper@UBC Botanical Garden Forums for sharing this story with me.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:32 PM on July 20, 2007