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Developing Plants to Cope with the Stress of Life on Mars
Category(-ies): Plant Explorers
Plants grown outside of their normal environments can experience stress. Drought, temperatures out of their normal range and exposure to toxins cause plants to react, producing chemical responses that ready the plant to cope with the harmful conditions. But too much stress can kill plants. If humans are to explore other planets in the solar system, we will need to develop plants capable of handling extreme conditions.
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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)
New Seed Project is “Out of This World”
Category(-ies): Plant Explorers
China has announced plans for an experimental plant breeding station in space. The satellite lab will be stationed 200 to 400 km away from the earth, where seeds will be exposed to cosmic radiation, micro-gravity, high vacuum, alternating magnetic field and other factors that could cause mutations, which might result in new useful plants.
Link: China to launch 1st “seed satellite” a very brief article from China View. Hopefully we will hear more about this project in the future.
Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 2:24 PM | Comments (1)
California Rare Fruit Growers
Category(-ies): Plant Explorers , Plants, Food and Medicine
California is home to some of the most productive fruit growing land in the US and the world, so it is natural that an organization dedicated to the promotion of rare fruit cultivation would start up there. Since 1968 the California Rare Fruit Growers, Inc. has encouraged public interest in fruits and edible plants that are not common in commercial production and now has members in over 35 countries worldwide.
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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 5:24 PM | Comments (0)
Nepenthes University
Category(-ies): Botanists and Horticulturists , Plant Explorers
Michael Catalani began growing carnivorous plants at an early age. Intrigued by a photo that he saw in an old set of encyclopedias on a visit to his grandmother in 1975, his fascination with the genus Nepenthes began. The plants were very rare in cultivation at the time, but eventually he found a source and ordered his first specimen. Since that time he has grown more than 80 of the recognized species of genus.
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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 3:24 PM
Plant Hunters in Australia
Category(-ies): Herbaria , Plant Explorers
Since the first collections by naturalists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander on captain Cook's voyage, Australia has been a fascinating destination for botanists. A new book, Herbarium by Robyn Stacey & Ashley Hay (Cambridge University Press) chronicles the history of the National Herbarium of New South Wales and the plant hunters who collected the specimens housed there.
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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:14 PM
The People Behind the FNA
Category(-ies): Botanical Resources , Herbaria , Plant Explorers
Botanists from around the world are working on a massive project to record the vegetative history of North America (north of Mexico) and Greenland. They are examining two centuries of floristic literature and herbarium specimens, and supplementing the results with modern-day field work. The conclusion will be thirty volumes of descriptive and biological information on the over twenty thousand native and naturalized plants of the continental region.
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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:44 PM
Exploring A British Columbian Wild Island
Category(-ies): Plant Explorers
While teaching a course on Cortes Island, ecologist and writer, Don Gayton became intrigued by the small uninhabited islet of Mitlenatch. Climate and habitat of islands in the Georgia Strait can be quite different from the nearby coastal mainland. To satisfy his curiosity about the ecology of the islet he only needed to pay a small price.
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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:45 PM
Sydney Parkinson and the Endeavour Expedition
Category(-ies): Botanical Art , Botanical Resources , Plant Explorers
The Natural History Museum of London, England has produced an excellent website devoted to the artwork of Sydney Parkinson. On a voyage of the HMS Endeavour (1768-1771) captained by James Cook and accompanied by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, Sydney Parkinson illustrated 674 outline drawings and completed 269 paintings. Unfortunately, Parkinson died at sea during the voyage home, and his unpainted outline drawings were later completed by others.
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Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 7:13 PM
