exploring the inner workings of plants
Posted in Plant Stress on Jan 7th, 2010
Plants Can’t Come In From The Cold Imagine for a moment that you had to stand outside your house or apartment, without moving, all winter long…and that you were naked. How long do you think you could last? Not long, especially if the temperature went below freezing. And certainly not if the temperature went below [...]
Posted in Seeds & Germination on Dec 28th, 2009
A Truly Ancient Grain? The wheat variety called Kamut® has a fascinating history. According to “Kamut®: Ancient Grain, New Cereal”, one of the original growers, and one of the trademark holders, of Kamut®, Robert M. Quinn recounts the story of this unusual wheat variety. “Following WWII, a US airman claimed to have taken a handful [...]
Posted in Plant Biological Clock, Plant Development on Jul 25th, 2009
The Biology of Moonlight? The moon may have effects on animal behavior (see here for example), but does it affect plants? Last time I introduced the scientific literature on the subject by referring to a 1946 paper by Beeson (see ref. 1 below) published in the journal Nature. In this paper Dr. Beeson divided the [...]
Posted in Plant Development on Jul 20th, 2009
Walking on the Moon On July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 crew members Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to walk on the moon. With the 40th anniversary of this first moon landing currently in news, I thought it would be interesting to investigate what’s known about the effects, if any, of the [...]
Posted in Secondary Compounds on Jul 4th, 2009
Toxic? Yes!….. But wicked? Wicked (wik’id) adj. [Middle English wikke, evil, akin to Old English wicce, witch] “1. morally bad or wrong; acting or done with evil intent; depraved; iniquitous.” – Webster’s New World Dictionary A wonderful new book Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart, which [...]
Posted in Asexual Reproduction on Jun 8th, 2009
Send In The Clones Few plants generate such annoyance among suburban homeowners with immaculate lawnscapes as the common dandelion (in North America, most likely Taraxacum officinale). Despite efforts to eradicate them using chemical warfare (see here for info on such herbicides), the dandelions exhibit a remarkable ability to proliferate. And they do so likely because [...]
Posted in Secondary Compounds on May 23rd, 2009
Alien Invader Uses Chemical Warfare Spotted knapweed (photo left) is an invasive plant in North America. It is native to Central Europe, east to central Russia, Caucasia, and western Siberia, but was accidentally introduced to North America through contaminated seed or ballast beginning in the late 1800′s. Since then, spotted knapweed has spread throughout most [...]
Posted in Plant Metabolism on May 9th, 2009
The Last Roundup? The herbicide that most Americans are likely familiar with is Roundup®. Unlike the auxin-based herbicides I discussed in the previous post, Roundup® is not a selective herbicide. That is, it usually kills all green plants (except if the plant is Roundup Ready® or if the plant is a naturally Roundup®-resistant “superweed” – [...]
Posted in Plant Hormones on May 1st, 2009
What Do Suburban Lawns and the Vietnam War Have in Common? Answer: The herbicide 2,4-D. You may be familiar with this herbicide as an active ingredient in “Weed ‘n Feed®”, “Weed B Gon MAX®”, Turf Builder® With Weed Control”, etc.. During the Vietnam War, it was an active ingredient in Agent Orange. On lawns it’s [...]
HowPlantsWork Weblog
exploring the inner workings of plants
There are 65 Posts and 15 Comments so far.