Tidepool.org

Category(-ies): Sources of Botanical News

Tidepool.org filters over three dozen online news sources, selecting environmental and sustainable community news items with an emphasis on the Pacific “rainforest” coast of North America. The site is updated every weekday. In addition to the news items, it also features original news stories and commentary.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 3:18 PM

The Global Extinction Crisis

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

The latest issue of Science features a study from Thomas et al. entitled “Comparative Losses of British Butterflies, Birds, and Plants and the Global Extinction Crisis”. The results of their research suggest that rates of insect decline parallel or exceed rates of decline in plants and vertebrates. This finding is contrary to popular thought on the subject, which asserted that rates of decline would be higher in groups traditionally known as “higher organisms” (plants and vertebrates).

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:45 PM

A new plant invasive for British Columbia

Category(-ies): Invasive Plants

Gary Williams of Coquitlam, British Columbia, reported the discovery of Spartina anglica (English cordgrass) in BC in the latest issue of Botanical Electronic News.

Spartina anglica is an aggressive, invasive species that spreads over mudflats. It is anecdotally known to displace native flora. The rich diversity of shorebirds, waterfowl, invertebrates and fish that are supported by the native flora are likely not as well supported by the monotypic stands of cordgrass.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:11 PM

Climate Change Poses Threat to UK Orchards?

Category(-ies): Climate Change

From the BBC News Online.: In a presentation to the RHS Science Exchange, Dr. Simon Thornton-Wood, head of science at the Royal Horticultural Society, predicted that apples and other fruit that require winter chill may not thrive in the UK as the climate warms, and may be replaced by warmer climate crops such as peaches.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 2:12 PM

Fungus causing sudden oak death distributed across US?

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

The San Francisco Chronicle has reported that spores of Phytophthora ramorum, the fungus that causes sudden oak death, have been discovered at Monrovia Nursery, the largest nursery in California. Monrovia was investigated after being traced as the source of infected camellias distributed to a small Washington state nursery.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 3:13 PM

Anecdotal Evidence of Climate Change

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

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has been operating a phenology project in some form for one hundred and fifty years. Trends from the study suggest that plants are flowering earlier than average in recent years.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:49 AM

Thinking of Topping Trees?

Category(-ies): Plants in the Landscape

PlantAmnesty is a non-profit organization based out of Seattle whose mission is “to end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs.” They attribute the success of getting out their message to “outspoken style, combining humor and controversy around a subject as dull as landscape maintenance.”

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:00 AM

Ancient medicinal use of saffron

Category(-ies): Plants, Food and Medicine

Dr. Gordon Bendersky at the University of Pennsylvania, and Susan C. Ferrence, a doctoral candidate in art history at Temple University, are publishing a paper in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine that suggests saffron was used medicinally 3500 years ago, based off of interpretations of frescoes from Thera, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:47 PM

Botanical Books Pillaged for Prints

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

Nicholas A. Basbanes, an author and obvious bibliophile, wrote a piece in The Boston Globe detailing the story of a book that was auctioned in New York and later discovered to have been destroyed for its illustrations.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:22 AM

University of Iowa Herbarium

Category(-ies): Herbaria , Plant Legal News and Issues

The likely closing of the University of Iowa Herbarium has been known in botanical circles for some time, but this past week things have heated up: 'cease and desist' letters have been sent and the courts have imposed a temporary restraining order on the removal of the collection.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:28 PM