It is a form of berry that grows on woody vines much like grapes and belongs to the order of Ericales where blueberries tea bushes
and Brazil nuts are classified also. One of the most remarkable findings of the study was uncovered when scientists observed a high percentage of similarities within the kiwifruit DNA.
They then compared kiwifruit to the genomes of other representative plant species including tomato rice grape and the mustard weed Arabidopsis.
The kiwifruit genome sequence represents the first of a member in the Order ericales thus providing a valuable resource for comparative genomics and evolutionary studies Fei says.
Miombo is the Swahili word for the Brachystegia genus of trees which are an important tree species within miombo woodlands.
and distribution of the bee species Braunsapis puangensis in the Suva area of Fiji and examine its association with the invasive creeping daisy Sphagneticola trilobata.
The paper suggests that the invasive creeping daisy could in fact have a positive influence on a wild bee pollinator species
The situations described above give the impression that the presence of some exotic flowering plants may be of benefit by encouraging higher numbers of pollinating species to occur at a site.
Outside of agro-ecological systems many studies have indicated that even flowering plants considered as invasive may have positive effects on insects especially on nectar
although S. trilobata is considered an invasive'nuisance weed'in one context it may be of value to crop growers
when dinosaurs didfor the first time ever scientists have documented a widespread extinction of bees that occurred 65 million years ago concurrent with the massive event that wiped out land dinosaurs and many flowering plants.
Previous studies have suggested a widespread extinction among flowering plants at the K-T boundary and it's long been assumed that the bees who depended upon those plants would have met the same fate.
and depositing it their leaves and branches. Scientists from CSIRO made the discovery and have published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.
The eucalypt acts as a hydraulic pump--its roots extend tens of metres into the ground
and branches where it can be released or shed to the ground CSIRO geochemist Dr Mel Lintern said.
By sampling and analysing vegetation for traces of minerals we may get an idea of
or even the leaf litter you need to know that these are tiny nuggets which are about one-fifth the diameter of a human hair and generally invisible by other techniques and equipment.
but also increases the risk of damage from grazing animals and seed-eating insects. To investigate how pollinators
and grazing animals affect the characteristics of natural plant populations these researchers studied bird's eye primrose populations in alvar grasslands on the Baltic island of Ãand.
Two distinct morphs of primrose occur there: a short morph that produces its flowers close to the ground
and a tall morph that displays its flowers well above the ground. The tall morph is better at attracting pollinators
but on the other hand it is damaged more frequently by grazing animals and seed predators. In field experiments the scientists have shown that grazing pressure
and pollination intensity determine whether the short or the tall primrose morph reproduces more successfully.
The difference in plant height has a genetic basis and over time differences in reproductive success affect the genetic composition of plant populations.
The results show that altered grazing pressure leads to rapid changes in the genetic composition of the primrose populations specifically in the proportion of short plants.
#New native shrubs show promise for landscape, nursery industriesas consumer interest in native plants increases nursery growers are challenged to expand their product range by adding new native species to their collections.
In the August 2013 issue of Hortscience researchers Julia Cartabiano and Jessica Lubell from the Department of Plant science and Landscape architecture at the University of Connecticut report on their study of four native shrubs that are relatively unknown
Ceanothus americanus Corylus cornuta Lonicera canadensis and Viburnum acerifolium. They said that these shrubs have the potential to become revenue generators for the nursery industry
if successful propagation protocols are developed. Cartabiano and Lubell evaluated the impact of cutting timing on propagation success of the four native shrubs.
They found that timing had no significant effect on rooting percentage root count or root length of Corylus cornuta or Viburnum acerifolium.
Some growers have reported difficulty propagating Viburnim acerifolium noted corresponding author Jessica Lubell. However we found it to be the easiest shrub to propagate of the four natives evaluated
and therefore it has the most obvious potential to be a mainstream nursery crop. Nearly 100%rooting can be achieved with V. acerifolium cuttings containing two nodes taken Mid-june through Mid-august.
in addition to Viburnum acerifolium has the potential to be a new nursery crop Lubell said. The study recommends that rooted cuttings of both Corylus cornuta
and Viburnum acerifolium should be left in rooting containers for a period of cold dormancy before transplanting
although Corylus cornuta and Viburnum acerifolium showed the most promise as commercially viable nursery crops further propagation research could validate all four of the native species in the study as recommended crops for general wholesale
A variety of dependable cover crops are used to subdue weeds build productive soil control pests and diseases and enhance overall sustainability of organic systems.
The thick mulch hinders the development of weeds during the critical growing period contributes to reduced soil erosion
#Turfgrass tested in shallow green roof substratesgreen roofs rooftops covered with vegetation provide multiple environmental and aesthetic benefits.
The results showed that during moisture deficit periods green turf cover (GTC) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)
and leaf relative water content (RWC) were affected most by substrate depth moderately affected by irrigation regime
and the introduction of new cultivars has increased strawberry yields in the region by 140%during the past 50 years.
of California Cooperative Extension in Salinas studied nitrogen (N) fertilization and irrigation management practices in fall-planted annual strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.
From 1950 to 2000 there was a noticeable rise in the cultivation of winter wheat rye and winter barley in Germany
In 2009 cucumber became the seventh plant to have published its genome sequence following the well-studied model plant Arabidopsis thaliana the poplar tree grapevine papaya and the crops rice and sorghum.
The most obvious trait is the orange endocarp which distinguishes the Xishuangbanna group from the other groups.
#Key genes for increasing oil content in plant leaves identifiedscientists at the U s. Department of energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified the key genes required for oil production and accumulation in plant leaves and other vegetative plant tissues.
which make up the bulk of leaves stems and other vegetative plant matter. If you want to cut calories from your diet you cut fat and oils.
In nature oil storage is the job of seeds where the energy-dense compounds provide nourishment for developing plant embryos.
The first step was to identify the genes responsible for oil production in vegetative plant tissues. Though oil isn't stored in these tissues almost all plant cells have the capacity to make oil.
what happens in seeds but we tried to look also at different genes and enzymes said Xu.
Pumping up the factors that normally increase oil production in seeds had no effect on oil production in leaves
however had dramatic effects on leaf oil production. If you knock out (disable) the gene for an enzyme known as PDAT it doesn't affect oil synthesis in seeds
In contrast overexpressing the gene for PDAT-that is getting cells to make more of this enzyme-resulted in a 60-fold increase in leaf oil production.
but was found in oil droplets within the leaf cells. These droplets were somewhat similar to those found in seeds only much much larger.
It was as if many small oil droplets like those found in seeds had fused together to form huge globules Xu said.
Bigger droplets may seem better but they're not explained Xu. Oil in these oversized droplets is broken easily down by other enzymes in the cells.
In seeds he said oil droplets are coated with a protein called oleosin which prevents the droplets from fusing together keeping them smaller
Overexpression of the two genes together resulted in a 130-fold increase in production of leaf oil compared with control plants.
and accumulation-170-fold compared with control plants-to the point where oil accounted for nearly 10 percent of the leaf's dry weight.
Xu is now collaborating with Brookhaven biochemist John Shanklin to explore the potential effect of overexpressing these key genes on oil production in dedicated biomass crops such as sugarcane.
and fruit-Incorporate more vegetarian sources of iron such as legumes tofu nuts seeds and whole grains-Consume high-fat dairy instead of low-fat dairy-Take a regular women's multivitaminapproximately 40 percent of infertility issues are attributed to men according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
A new study has traced back the evolutionary paths of all the plants that use advanced photosynthesis including maize sugar cane
#A stunning new species of dragon tree discovered in Thailandthe newly discovered dragon tree species Dracaena kaweesakii from Thailand is characterized by its extensive branching.
and crown diameter and has beautiful soft sword-shaped leaves with white edges and cream flowers with bright orange filaments all highly distinctive features.
Dracaena kaweesakii is a relative of the beautiful Canary Island dragon tree Dracaena draco. It is an ecologically important species found only on limestone hills
Dracaena kaweesakii is extracted from the wild for use in horticulture in Thailand and is one of the more popular species due to its extensive branching.
Dracaena species in general are thought by Thai people to bring luck to households that have them hence their popularity.
but sustainability studies are needed at population level to insure the protection of this beautiful species. Dracaena kaweesakii is thought to be endangered through having a limited distribution destruction of limestone for concrete and extraction of trees for gardens comments Dr Wilkin
about the conservation status of the new dragon tree species. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Pensoft Publishers.
of which is called leaf blotch and is caused by a fungal pathogen. This disease affects the leaves ears and stems of the barley--decreasing grain quality and reducing crop yields by up to forty per cent.
Bruce Fitt professor of plant pathology at the University of Hertfordshire said: Crops that appear to be clear of disease can suddenly develop leaf blotch symptoms unexpectedly.
The source of the disease is unclear and this has puzzled farmers and researchers alike. However our research shows that the fungal pathogen that causes barley leaf blotch can be found on wild ryegrasses which are common both as weeds within cereal crop fields and in the surrounding field margins.
In the study both DNA and plant testing showed that the leaf blotch pathogen that affects barley can be found on the wild grasses
and was virulent on commonly grown varieties of barley. Professor Fitt continued: Field margins play an important role in creating areas of habitat to support wildlife
#Flower research shows gardens can be a feast for the eyes #and the beesare our favourite garden flowers attractive to hungry visitors such as bees and butterflies to feed on?
Researchers at the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI) at the University of Sussex have completed one of the first scientific studies to put the business of recommending pollinator-friendly garden flowers on a firmer scientific footing.
The study s findings are published today (17 october 2013) in the journalfunctional Ecology. Gardens are more important than ever as a source of food for a wide variety of insects who feed on the nectar
and pollen found in many flowers: pollinators such as bees and butterflies are in decline globally with one of the main causes being the loss of flowers especially in the countryside.
As popular support for wildlife continues to grow gardeners are increasingly looking for ways to help bees
and other insects by providing attractive flowers in their gardens for insects to feed on. To do this they often rely on#oepollinator-friendly#plant lists.
The study funded by the Body shop Foundation involved repeatedly counting flower-visiting insects over two summers as they foraged on 32 popular summer-flowering garden plant varieties in a specially planted experimental garden on the University s
and hybrids both native and exotic to Britain with particular focus on 13 varieties of lavender (Lavandula spp.)
as it is known to be attractive to bees and also four dahlias. All the plants studied had to be popular garden plants be widely
and had to flower mainly or exclusively in July/August. 2one key result found by researchers Professor Francis Ratnieks
and his Phd student Mihail Gaburzov was that garden flowers attractive to the human eye vary enormously (approx 100-fold) in their attractiveness to insects meaning that the best plants for bees
But our study clearly shows that planting pollinator-friendly flowers is a no-cost win-win solution to help the bees.
whether it is from a native garden plant or one from another part of the world. Lavender is from the Mediterranean
and dahlias are from Mexico.##oehelping bees in your garden is a no-brainer. Flowers that attract bees are
just as easy to grow and just as pretty and cost no more. Plant the right flowers and the bees will come.#
#Mihail Garbuzov says:##oewe basically counted bees and other insects visiting flowers in bloom to determine the most attractive.
Anyone can do this in their own garden or park or even when shopping for plants in a garden centre.#
#1#Quantifying variation among garden plants in attractiveness to bees and other flower-visiting insects Functional Ecology (October 2013.
Functional Ecology is a journal of The british Ecological Societ2 Other research at LASI in which the researchers decoded the honey bee communication dances had shown that summer is the most challenging season for bees to find flowers
because the distances flown to flowers were longer than in spring or autumn. Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by British Ecological Society (BES. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
but overlooked the importance of increased vegetation uptake in the past she said. People always say we know carbon sinks are important for the climate Shevliakova said.
Scott Saleska an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona who studies interactions between vegetation
and preservation by specifying the climate impact of vegetation. Saleska is familiar with the research but had no role in it.
If carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue rising more vegetation would be needed to maintain the size of the carbon sink Shevliakova and her colleagues reported.
and climate interacted with vegetation soil and marine ecosystems between 1861 and 2005. The GFDL model predicted changes in climate and in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide based on fossil fuel emissions of carbon.
A decrease in global deforestation combined with enhanced vegetation growth caused by the rapid increase in carbon dioxide changed the land from a carbon source into a carbon sink.
and vegetation growth have only been around for a little more than 10 years Saleska said. There is work to be done to refine climate models
and will soon test their design in plants embedding their lab on a chip in the stems of grape vines for example.
For example sophisticated vintners use precise irrigation to put regulated water stress on grapevines to create just the right grape composition for a premium cabernet or a chardonnay wine.
and then the chip may be inserted in a plant stem or in the soil where it through a nanoporous membrane exchanges moisture with its environment and maintains an equilibrium pressure that the chip measures.
Intake of fruit vegetables nuts seeds pasta poultry and vegetable oil was related to a lower mortality risk
It appears that the intake of some food groups is more beneficial (fruits legumes nuts seeds pasta poultry vegetable oil) or more detrimental (soft drinks butter margarine cake cookies) with respect to mortality risk
In the forests of Mount rainier national park it's the lichens that suffer first; their critical load is between 2. 5 and 7. 1 kg/ha/yr
and the deposition rate there is at a troubling 6. 7 kg/ha/yr. The lichens might not be noticed
which attack the inner layers of bark feeding and breeding in the phloem a soft inner bark tissue
which impedes tree growth and eventually kills vast swaths of forest. Spruce beetles like their close relatives mountain pine beetles are attacking large areas of coniferous forests across the West.
and tree defenses like pitching beetles out of tree interiors with resin were likely high.
Although a connection hasn't been made definitively heavy flows of nutrient-rich freshwater into the estuaries are suspected in die offs of eelgrass manatees and pelicans;
huge blooms of algae; and zones of oxygen-starved water Bohlen says. The situation reached a crisis this summer
How do you design a microstructure to self-heal? This is very new. The technique might also apply to other kinds of failure mechanisms that affect metals such as plastic flow instability--akin to stretching a piece of taffy until it breaks.
and sea buckthorn according to a new study published today in the Canadian Journal of Plant science.
Thus our work supports the commercial development of buffaloberry chokecherry and sea buckthorn berries. According to the study:
and suggests that it is treated best as a lineage close to the root of the ant-apoid tree perhaps not assignable with certainty to either branch.
The parasites'natural hosts are African thicket rats that use shrubs and trees as habitat.
Since the invention of the earliest light microscopes the classification and identification of pollen and spores has been a highly subjective venture for those who use these tiny particles to study vegetation in their field palynology.
and spores beyond a general level. Grass pollen classification is a longstanding problem in palynology Mander said.
#White graphene halts rust in high temps: Nano-thin films of hexagonal boron nitride protect materials from oxidizingatomically thin sheets of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) have the handy benefit of protecting
#The root of the matter: The role of nitric oxide in root branchingthe structure and plasticity of root systems play an important role in determining the growth
Lateral roots as the name implies are secondary roots that grow laterally out of a plant's main root much like branches grow out of the trunk of a tree.
The arrangement of roots is determined by a complicated combination of environmental signals based on the availability of nutrients and water in the surrounding environment hormonal signals and external stimuli.
when and where to form a lateral root. Nitric oxide is known to be an important regulatory
Numerous studies have found this molecule to be required for lateral root development in plants such as tomatoes rice corn lupine and Arabidopsis.
and the Universidad Autã noma del Estado de Morelos in Cuernavaca Mexico has reevaluated the effect of nitric oxide on lateral root formation focusing on the process of lateral root initiation
and examining the resulting root system formation Dr. Dubrovsky and colleagues have determined that this molecule can in fact have the opposite effect as previously found
A key finding of this study is that nitric oxide has a dual action on root branching states Dubrovsky.
Within the same root system when evaluated on a cellular basis it may both promote
and how the lateral root density is measured are important. By taking these nuanced factors into account Dubrovsky
and collaborators have found that in primary root portions formed before treatment nitric oxide promotes lateral root formation
whereas strong inhibition of de novo formed laterals was observed in primary root portions that began forming during the treatment.
The lateral root is a basic unit of the root system explains Dubrovsky. To understand how lateral root initiation is controlled in different groups of plants including crops under different environmental conditions we need a simple and reliable method for analysis and comparison.
A previous study led by Dubrovsky proposed a method termed the lateral root initiation index for quantifying the initiation of lateral roots in plants.
By normalizing root growth for differences in cell size a more precise estimate can be obtained.
This new parameter the lateral root initiation index provides researchers with the ability to uncover hidden
In wild strawberries it also serves to lure the animals which the plant exploits to spread its seeds.
When birds and small mammals feed on the fruit they subsequently excrete the indigestible seeds elsewhere
The fleshy part of the fruit we eat is actually a modification of the shoot tip from which the flowers developed.
The yellow achenes embedded in its surface are the true fruits each consisting of a single seed and a hard outer coat.
When the seeds are ripe the Anr gene is turned off. This makes precursors of proanthocyanidins available for use in the production of anthocyanins the red pigments that give the mature fruit its alluring Color in their new study Thilo Fischer
This intervention led to the appearance of red stigmas in the flowers and the production of anthocyanins in immature fruits.
and the synthesis of protective compounds are also important in the stigmas of the flower says Thilo Fischer.
#Salt-tolerant bacteria improve crop yieldsuzbek microbiologist Dilfuza Egamberdieva hopes to apply her new agricultural technique soon in Uzbekistan to boost the yield of economically important crops such as wheat cotton tomato and cucumber.
After the selection of potentially root-colonizing bacteria she has tested them in experimental settings on plants'roots obtaining 10-15%yields increase.
These bacteria are found around the roots of plants. We found that bacteria from the Pseudomonas family in particular Pseudomonas extremorientalis are salt-resistant
and grow close to the roots where they compete with other bacteria for colonization. On the contrary pathogenic bacteria cannot actively colonize the plants'roots.
Here Pseudomonas produce antibiotics that plants use to defend themselves against fungi trigger the rooting process
and produce nodulation-promoting factors thus giving the vegetation better chances to fix nitrogen and grow bigger.
As an exchange for these favours plants secrete exudates useful for the bacteria. To better exploit these useful bacterial strains the Uzbek microbiologist has come up with a technique that allows the selective enrichment of Pseudomonas strains.
which has already been patented Egamberdieva is able to isolate from the soil only beneficial root-stimulating bacteria.
This insects alongside some fungi bacteria and viruses cause annual loses of between four and ten percent of all the stored grains worldwide mainly corn wheat sorghum rice and beans.
It can be absorbed by roots used by the plants to grow and released back to the atmosphere.
Most climate models that incorporate vegetation are built on short-term observations for example of photosynthesis but they are used to predict long-term events said Bond-Lamberty who works at the Joint Global Change Research Institute a collaboration between PNNL and the University of Maryland in College Park Md.
Meanwhile leaf cover stayed the same. Bond-Lamberty said this isn't surprising to see in a forest that hasn't seen a wildfire in a long time.
#Fear of predators drives honey bees away from good food sourcesmost of us think of honey bees as having a bucolic pastoral existence--flying from flower to flower to collect the nectar they then turn into honey.
and wait to ambush them on flowers. Such fear drives bees to avoid food sources closely associated with predators
Although North america isn't known as a hotspot for crop plant diversity the inventory uncovered nearly 4600 CWR in the United states including close relatives of globally important food crops such as sunflower bean sweet potato and strawberry.
or Okeechobee gourd an endangered wild relative of squash that grows only on the shores of Lake Okeechobee;
#New fossils push the origin of flowering plants back by 100 million years to the early Triassicdrilling cores from Switzerland have revealed the oldest known fossils of the direct ancestors of flowering plants.
These beautifully preserved 240-million-year-old pollen grains are evidence that flowering plants evolved 100 million years earlier than previously thought according to a new study in the open-access journal Frontiers in Plant science.
Flowering plants evolved from extinct plants related to conifers ginkgos cycads and seed ferns. The oldest known fossils from flowering plants are pollen grains.
These are small robust and numerous and therefore fossilize more easily than leaves and flowers.
An uninterrupted sequence of fossilized pollen from flowers begins in the Early Cretaceous approximately 140 million years ago
and it is assumed generally that flowering plants first evolved around that time. But the present study documents flowering plant-like pollen that is 100 million years older implying that flowering plants may have originated in the Early Triassic (between 252 to 247 million years ago) or even earlier.
Many studies have tried to estimate the age of flowering plants from molecular data but so far no consensus has been reached.
Depending on dataset and method these estimates range from the Triassic to the Cretaceous. Molecular estimates typically need to be anchored in fossil evidence
but extremely old fossils were not available for flowering plants. That is why the present finding of flower-like pollen from the Triassic is significant says Prof.
Peter Hochuli University of Zurich. Peter Hochuli and Susanne Feist-Burkhardt from Paleontological Institute and Museum University of ZÃ rich studied two drilling cores from Weiach and Leuggern northern Switzerland and found
pollen grains that resemble fossil pollen from the earliest known flowering plants. With Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy they obtained high-resolution images across three dimensions of six different types of pollen.
In a previous study from 2004 Hochuli and Feist-Burkhardt documented different but clearly related flowering-plant-like pollen from the Middle Triassic in cores from the Barents sea south of Spitsbergen.
The samples from the present study were found 3000 km south of the previous site.
We believe that even highly cautious scientists will now be convinced that flowering plants evolved long before the Cretaceous say Hochuli.
What might these primitive flowering plants have looked like? In the middle Triassic both the Barents sea and Switzerland lay in the subtropics
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