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Etaerio - A Plant News Weblog

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


Assisted Migration - the Answer to Climate Change?

Category(-ies): Climate Change , Other Botanical Gardens , Plant Conservation

Thank you to Claire Thompson, UBC BG work-study student, for writing this entry.

Scientists at the Chicago Botanic Garden are sending teams of people out across the Midwest and northern Great Plains of America to collect seeds from 1500 prairie species before 2010.

The collections are part of a project to preserve species and investigate assisted migration of plants as a response to climate change. Researchers are planning to test this idea with Pitcher's thistle, a native plant to sand dunes along several of the Great Lakes.

Assisted migration is a controversial issue among scientists, as it has risks associated with interfering with complex habitats and uncertainties surrounding climate change. Scientists at the botanic gardens in favor of assisted migration have recently finished a paper outlining a strategic framework for collecting and prioritizing seeds from species that are most likely to go extinct under climate change, and for predicting where species should be relocated.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 7:00 AM on November 23, 2009 | Comments (0)



Bio-Diversity

Category(-ies): Botanical Art

Christoph Niemann is an award-winning graphic artist, whose work has appeared on the covers of such magazines as The New Yorker and the Atlantic Monthly.

In a recent posting on his weblog with the New York Times, Christoph turned his attention to autumn leaves...

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Thank you to Dr. Andrew Riseman who first let me know about this.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:28 AM on November 19, 2009 | Comments (0)



Why is Rye as a Cover Crop an Effective Weed Killer?

Category(-ies): Plant Diseases and Pests

And another from Claire...

John Teasdale from the USDA's Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory has teamed up with Cliff Rice from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service to investigate the science behind why rye works as a cover crop against weeds. Rye is often used on organic farms as an alternative to herbicides, because of its ability to prevent soil erosion and block sunlight, thereby suppressing weed invasion. Teasdale and Rice have tested whether organic compounds found in rye, called benzoxazinoids, are also responsible for weed suppression. Their results suggest that benzoxazinoids do affect soil chemistry in ways that enhance the weed-suppressing abilities of rye and are worthy of further study.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 7:00 AM on November 2, 2009 | Comments (0)



Wild Banana Plant Marks Milestone for International Seed Bank

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

...and another entry by Claire, UBC BG work-study student:

A seed bank at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has collected 10% of the world's wild plants in its attempt to secure seeds from a quarter of the world's flowering plant species by 2020. The latest species addition is a wild banana, Musa itinerans, an important plant for wild elephants in Asia and currently under threat from agriculture. The seed bank is a partnership between more than 120 organizations in 54 countries. Stephen Hopper from the Royal Botanic Gardens describes the seed bank as an "insurance strategy" against future biodiversity losses.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 7:00 AM on October 29, 2009 | Comments (0)



Sweet Potato Protection is More Than Skin Deep

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries , Plant Diseases and Pests

Thank you again to Claire Thompson for providing another entry:

Researchers from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service have found beneficial compounds in sweet potatoes that provide protection against plant diseases. The research team found measurable amounts of protective compounds called caffeoylquinic acids, which act as antioxidants against several types of plant fungi.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:42 PM on October 26, 2009 | Comments (0)



Bananas Over Plastic

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

Thanks again to Claire Thompson for providing an entry. Claire writes:

The Polymer Processing Research Centre at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is contributing to the Badana project, an initiative with aims to convert mass wastes from banana plantations into usable forms of plastic. The plastic will be used to make items ranging from oil tanks to plastic dolls. Benefits from the project are said to include the reduction of polyethylene production, job creation in the Canary Islands, and financial benefits to the banana plantations. If successful, the Badana project may offset the 25,000 tonnes of banana waste that is dumped into ravines in the Canary Islands each year.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 7:00 AM on October 22, 2009 | Comments (0)



"Extinct" flower found in Isle of Man garden

Category(-ies): Plant Discoveries

Claire Thompson, UBC BG work-study student, provides another write-up:

A cultivar of gladiolus thought to be extinct has been found in a garden on the Isle of Man. Gardener Edward Huyton has since donated individuals for propagation to the National Trust in England.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 7:00 AM on October 19, 2009 | Comments (0)