Etaerio - A Plant News Weblog: Novel Uses of Plants

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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

Seaweed and Chips

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

French researchers have identified a possible new source of energy-storing supercapacitors: baked seaweed.

Baked Seaweed and Chips via news@nature.com's Philip Ball.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:27 AM

Taking "Green Construction" to a New Level

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

People have turned to trees for home building materials since prehistory. Usually the trees are cut to harvest the timber used for construction. Architect, Mitchell Joachim is designing a home that will use living trees as its framework - a home that will grow into its environment and can be adapted to its dwellers' needs. This is not to be a house built in a tree like a typical children's treehouse. Joachim's design will train the branches of living trees and woody vines to form the structure of the house. Directing plant growth into structural forms is not a new idea, pleaching has long been used to create garden arches and fences. This project will take that horticultural art to a new level.

Continue reading "Taking "Green Construction" to a New Level"

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 11:19 AM

Winterizing the Green Roof

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants , Plants in the Landscape

Green roofs are becoming more popular in North America. They bring nature into the urban environment, soften the view for people and provide habitat for insects and wild birds. They also have been shown to absorb noise pollution, alleviate stormwater runoff and help keep buildings cooler in summer. Canadian researchers, working in Ottawa and Toronto, have been testing designs for northern green roofs. A few simple changes to the typical green roof design resulted in dramatic reductions of heat loss from the buildings.

Typical green roofs use grasses, wildflowers and other low-growing plants in shallow soil beds - as little as 6 centimetres. The Canadian research team chose a plant that was well suited to the north. Juniper shrubs were planted to help reduce the effect of windspeed, which draws heat from the building. Deeper beds were constructed to form insulation against heat loss. Even in an experiment on a carefully designed energy-efficient house, the addition of a green roof resulted in a reduction of heat-loss around 8½ percent.

Link:
Green Roof Technology Adapted to Cold Climates from EnviroZine, online publication of Environment Canada

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 1:41 PM

More Efficient Rain Gardens

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants , Plants in the Landscape

Rain gardens have become popular landscape features in recent decades. The gardens are small depressed areas used to catch stormwater run-off from roofs, driveways and other impervious surfaces. Stormwater run-off is a major source of the pollution found in our rivers, streams and lakes. Studies have confirmed the ability of rain gardens to trap contaminants and in some cases convert them to less harmful compounds. A recent study shows how a small design change can help the gardens' ability to reduce nitrates.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 1:04 PM | Comments (0)

A Substitute for Peat?

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

Peat has been used by gardeners as one of the finest soil amendments for ericaceous plants, but peat is collected from wetlands, which harbour many rare and endangered species. Peat bogs can take centuries to regenerate. "In the past half century, 94 per cent of Britain's lowland peat bogs have been lost," (Don). Garden writer and BBC personality, Monty Don, has found an alternative to peat, growing wild on his farm. Bracken fern, Pteridium aquilinum, seems to be an excellent addition to compost for acid-loving plants. Trimming off the top of the plant for mulch and compost can also help bring the competitive weed under control without using chemical herbicides.

Links:

The Poor Sod from the Observer Magazine of the Guardian Unlimited

Peat from Wikipedia

Pteridium aquilinum - Bracken Fern by Earl J. S. Rook

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 11:43 AM

Cancer Therapy Uses Chlorophyll Based Drug

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants , Plants, Food and Medicine

The illness of a family member prompted Avigdor Scherz, a plant biochemist based at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, to develop a new treatment for prostate cancer. He knew that when chlorophyll is hit by light it releases “highly reactive molecules capable of destroying nearby cells” (from the article). He theorized that a drug made from the plant pigment could be activated by light focused on a specific area of the body.

Continue reading "Cancer Therapy Uses Chlorophyll Based Drug"

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 5:01 PM | Comments (2)

Scientists Modify Plants to Produce Anticancer Antibodies

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants , Plants, Food and Medicine

Scientists at Jefferson Medical College have inserted DNA coding into tobacco plants that causes the plants to produce monoclonal antibodies against colorectal cancer. After demonstrating that modified tobacco could generate antibodies that were shown to be effective against rabies in mice, the researchers turned their attention to developing a cancer treatment.

Continue reading "Scientists Modify Plants to Produce Anticancer Antibodies"

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:00 PM

Future Farmers on Mars?

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

Future exploration of Mars would be greatly aided if some of our human needs could be produced on the planet. Conditions on Mars are too harsh to support any life forms presently known on Earth. NASA is funding research to look at the possibility of developing plants that might survive in greenhouses on the alien planet.

Continue reading "Future Farmers on Mars?"

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 2:39 PM

Daylilies - Beautiful and Delicious

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants , Plants in the Landscape , Plants, Food and Medicine

Easy to grow with few pest problems, daylilies have become quite popular; so popular that some gardeners eschew them. If too common for the flowerbed, gardeners may want to plant some in the vegetable garden. All parts of Hemerocallis are edible. The Chinese have used the plant for food and medicine for centuries.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:56 PM

Scientists Create Petrified Wood

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants , Plant Discoveries

Petrified wood normally forms when the soft parts of wood leach away and are replaced by minerals. Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have produced a man-made petrified wood in the lab. Wood was soaked with acid and a silica solution before being treated with high temperatures. The process took only a few days.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 3:19 PM

Transgenic Mustard Cleans Soil

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

Researchers have completed the first field trials of a transgenic Indian mustard designed to pull selenium contamination from soil. Extra genes were added to produce plants rich in enzymes that cause the roots to take up selenium. Three strains of mustard, each producing a different enzyme, and a wild strain were compared in the field test. The altered strains took up more than four times the amount of the contaminant from the soil.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:33 PM

Plastic from Oranges

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants , Plant Discoveries

Researchers at Cornell University have created a plastic from carbon dioxide and a compound extracted from orange peel. Most plastics use petroleum as the source for chemical building blocks. This new plastic could be made from renewable resources and bind the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, in the process.

Continue reading "Plastic from Oranges"

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 11:35 AM

Plant Pulls Cadmium from Soil

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

Alpine pennycress (Thlaspi caerulescens) has a remarkable ability to pull cadmium from the soil and concentrate it in its shoots. Researchers hope to develop this plant as a tool to help clean contaminated soils. Cadmium contamination is a worldwide problem with crops in some areas surpassing recommended safety levels.

Continue reading "Plant Pulls Cadmium from Soil"

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:46 PM

Using Plant DNA to Thwart Counterfeiters

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

From The Christian Science Monitor: Biotechnology firms are developing methods to use plant DNA for thwarting the trade of counterfeit goods. It is claimed that the complex genetic sequences are ideal candidates for use as unique markers.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 12:13 PM

Pollen and shipwrecks

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

French ecologist Serge Muller of the University of Montpellier II has published a paper in the Journal of Archeological Science entitled, "Palynological study of antique shipwrecks from the western Mediterranean Sea, France." Pollen grains embedded in the resin used to seal the joints between wood on ships can be recovered from shipwrecks and "matched" with local floras to suggest a place of origin of the ship.

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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 9:13 PM

Detecting landmines with plants

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

Aresa, a Danish company, has genetically engineered plants of Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) that generate anthocyanins in the presence of nitrous dioxide. As nitrous dioxide is released by landmines, the plants turn from green to red.

Continue reading "Detecting landmines with plants"

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:56 PM