Thursday, October 31, 2013
Botany Journals. Acta Botánica Cubana
Botany Journals
Acta Botánica Cubana. Publicación científica cubana certificada por el Ministerio de Ciencia Tecnología y Medio Ambiente (CITMA). Editada por el Instituto de Ecología y Sistemática desde 1980, publica artículos científicos originales en temas de Botánica cubana y divulga los resultados de investigación de diversas instituciones.
Botany Journals. Acta botanica Croatica
Botany Journals
Acta Botanica Croatica is an international publishing medium mostly focusing upon the lowland and karstic areas of southern Europe and other dry circum-Mediterranean environment.
Acta Botanica Croatica covers field (terrestrial and aquatic) and experimental research on plants and algae; including plant viruses and bacteria; from the subcellular level to ecosystems.
Botany Journals. Acta Biológica Colombiana
Botany Journals
Acta Biológica Colombiana
Acta Biológica Colombiana
Acta Biológica Colombiana, es una publicación del Departamento de Biología, de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. La revista tiene por objeto la divulgación de resultados originales inéditos de investigación básica y aplicada sobre temas biológicos.
Acta Biológica Colombiana is a publication of the Departamento de Biología, of the Facultad de Ciencias of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. This jounal divulges original and unpublished results of basic and applied research about biological subjects.
Acta Biológica Colombiana, é uma publicação do Departamento de Biología, Faculdad de Ciências, da Universidad Nacional de Colômbia. A revista tem como objetivo divulgar resultados originais inéditos de pesquisa básica e aplicada sobre temas biológicos.
Acta Biológica Colombiana
Botany Journals. Acta Agrobotanica
Botany Journals
Acta Agrobotanica
Acta Agrobotanica
The international journal Acta Agrobotanica is published by the Polish Botanical Society, with financial assistance of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The journal promotes all aspects of the biology of cultivable or wild plants accompanying crops since 1953.
Botany Journals. Acta agriculturae Slovenica; Acta Biologica Cracoviensia. Series Botanica
Botany Journals
Acta agriculturae Slovenica is a scientific journal published quarterly by the Agronomy, and the Department of Animal Science of the Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
ACTA BIOLOGICA CRACOVIENSIA Series Botanica is an English-language journal founded in 1958.
Acta Biologica Cracoviensia. Series Botanica
Botany Journals. American Journal of Botany
Botany Journals
The American Journal of Botany (AJB), the flagship journal of the Botanical Society of America (BSA), publishes peer-reviewed, innovative, significant research of interest to a wide audience of plant scientists in all areas of plant biology (structure, function, development, diversity, genetics, evolution, systematics), all levels of organization (molecular to ecosystem), and all plant groups and allied organisms (cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, and lichens).
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Plants Communicate with Help of Fungi
Symbiotic fungi on the roots of bean plants can act as an underground signaling network, transmitting early warnings of impending aphid attacks.
| May 14, 2013
Plants can warn each other of insect attacks by communicating via the symbiotic fungi wrapped around their root systems, according to a study out this week (May 9) in Ecology Letters.
When aphids attack, bean plants (Vicia faba) release chemicals that repel the herbivorous insects and attract parasitoids that hunt the aphids. British researchers have now demonstrated that the same chemical responses are induced in bean plants that are not under direct aphid attack, but only if they connected to aphid-infested bean plants by a network of thread-like mycorrhizal mycelia—symbiotic fungal structures known to help gather more nutrients for the plants.
The mechanism of communication is not clear, but the researchers suspect it is likely to be a chemical signal passed through this underground fungal network. The plants were covered with bags during the experiment to prevent airborne communication.
“In the past, we thought of [symbiotic fungi] making nutrients available from the [roots and soil], but now we see another evolutionary role for them in which they pay the plant back by transmitting the signal efficiently,” coauthor John Pickett of agricultural research institute Rothamsted Research in the U.K. told BBC News.
The findings could help researchers protect crops that suffer from aphid damage by introducing a plant that is particularly susceptible to aphid infestation into the field. When aphids attack, that plant would send an early warning signal to other plants through this underground fungal connection.
A broad bean plant (Vicia faba)WIKIMEDIA, KARUOJISAN FROM JAPANSource: Plants Communicate with Help of Fungi
Aphid attacks should be reported through the fungusphone
We like to think of ourselves as the better results of evolution. We humans are particularly proud of our ability to communicate, having invented cell phones, the Internet, and extended forelimb digits as sophisticated means of communication not found anywhere else in nature.
Not true. Where there is life, there is communication. Vocal, visual, chemical. Some fish even communicate electrically. Take, that, Alex G. Bell! From bacteria to Blue Whales, from yeast to yak, everyone communicates. Including plants.
When some plants are attacked by sap-sucking aphids, they emit volatile compounds into the air. These volatiles serve as a defense mechanism, and in more ways than one. First, they serve to repel the aphids attacking the plant. Second, they attract the aphids natural enemies, wasps. But there’s more to that: a team from the University of Aberdeen and the James Hutton Institute show that some plants use fungi to communicate the presence of aphids, allowing those plants to emit wasp-attracting and and aphid-repelling volatiles even before they have been physically attacked.
Pea Aphids. Source: PLoS Biology, 2/2010. Credit: Shipher Wu (photograph) and Gee-way Lin. National Taiwan University.
Introducing the arbuscular mycorrhyza (AM) fungus, which has been living symbiotically with plants for at least 460 million years. The AM fungi and their symbiotic plants create mycorrhiza, structures in which the fungus penetrates the plant’s root cells forming arbuscules, branched structures interfacing within the plant cells. The arbuscules allow the exchange of nutrients between plant and fungus. The result allows plants to capture nutrients such as phosphate, zinc and nitrogen. AM fungi are found in 80% of vascular plant families (plants which transport nutrients and water via a vascular system), which makes them an essential part of plant life. While we think of fungi mostly as mushrooms, those are only the fruiting bodies of the fungi. Like all fungi, the major biomass of AM lies in the mycelium: a network long, thin filamentous structures that branch within the soil where they grow. The hypothesis that the researchers tested was: are the AM fungus mycelia used to communicate information between plants, in a sort of symbiotic nervous system?
Flax root cortical cells containing paired arbuscules. Credit: MS Turmel, University of Manitoba. Source: wikipedia
To answer this question, they planted bean seedlings in a pot whose soil contains an AM fungus. They isolated some seedlings from the AM fungus using a fine mesh, while others had only their roots isolated, or were not isolated at all. All plants were covered individually with bags to ensure they do not communicate via the air using volatiles. Then the researchers infested one plant with aphids, and collected the volatiles from the other plants. They discovered that the plants connected by the fungal network produced volatiles that repelled aphids and attracted wasps. Those plants which had no hyphal contact produced much less of these volatiles. In the control, the plants in the fine mesh that had hyphal contact only, but no root contact, also produced anti-aphid volatiles.
Bottom line: plants can communicate via fungal networks, although we don’t quite know how yet. Also, probably this is not an exclusive mode of communication. Apparently, symbiosis is not just about food or protection from predators or the elements. It’s also about conveying information. Very cool.
Zdenka Babikova, Lucy Gilbert, Toby J. A. Bruce, Michael Birkett, John C. Caulfield, Christine Woodcock, John A. Pickett, & David Johnson (2013). Underground signals carried through common mycelial networks warn neighbouring plants of aphid attack Ecology Letters, 16 (7), 835-843 DOI: 10.1111/ele.12115
Source: bytesizebio.net
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Moss will grow anywhere it can
Moss will grow anywhere it can
SeacoastOnline.com
The red arrow on the compass points north as moss is spotted growing on the north side of the tree. Despite common perception, this isn't always necessarily true.Sue Pike photo
SeacoastOnline.com
The red arrow on the compass points north as moss is spotted growing on the north side of the tree. Despite common perception, this isn't always necessarily true.Sue Pike photo
I just got back from a hike during which we spent a good deal of time discussing where moss grows on trees. The obvious answer is that moss is a shade-loving plant and so it grows on the shady side. But the myth that moss grows only on the north side of trees and can be used to navigate in the backwoods persists.
Since we had compasses with us we decided to test this idea and checked the compass bearings on all moss we could find growing on trees. Of the 36 trees we checked, 22 had moss growing on the north side (anywhere from northeast to northwest), 12 had moss growing on the south side and two trees had moss growing on all sides. These numbers are, of course, statistically meaningless since we checked so few trees and our approach lacked any sense of scientific rigor. However our haphazard sampling did confirm that moss can grow on any side of a tree.
Moss is going to choose any surface that is shady enough for it to thrive. Too much sun can actually inhibit growth in a moss, which is weird to think about since it is a plant that relies on the sun for photosynthesis.
There are two major reasons that most mosses need to grow in the shade, both have to do with water. Moss is in a group of primitive plants called bryophytes; this is a transitional group, somewhere between aquatic plants like algae and terrestrial (land) plants like flowers and trees. They lack a vascular system, so they cannot pull water out of the ground through roots or transfer it long distances in their bodies. This limits their size. They do not flower and therefore do not produce seeds; instead they rely upon water to carry their sperm (which can swim just like ours) to the eggs. So, moss will tend to grow in the shade, which reduces evaporation of water, and also low spots or depressions where water collects.
Many moss species have further adaptations that help them hold onto extra water: they usually grow in dense colonies that limit evaporation and encourage water retention. Some are very fuzzy, increasing the surface area of the leaf for additional contact with the surrounding water. Some species, like sphagnum moss, have both living and dead cells (called hyalocytes) that can absorb enormous amounts of water. Hyalocytes have cell walls that are strengthened with fibers that help keep the cell from either collapsing or ripping apart when filled with water. As a result, sphagnum can hold up to 20 times its dry weight!
Our study above, in addition to real scientific studies, indicates that moss does usually grow on the north side of trees. Due to the tilt of the Earth, the sun is always slightly to our south (in the Northern Hemisphere) and so the shady side is often the north side.
Which brings up the obvious question, does moss tend to grow on the south sides of trees in the Southern Hemisphere? Yes it does! However, I would not call this generality about moss growth habits a reliable navigation aid; I'd rather stick to a compass.
Sue Pike, a researcher and an environmental sciences and biology teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, welcomes your ideas for future column topics. She may be reached at spike3116@gmail.com.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Mushrooms are magic at London's Kew Gardens
Mushrooms are magic at London's Kew Gardens
- 18:34 11 October 2013 by Shaoni Bhattacharya
- For similar stories, visit the Food and Drink Topic Guide
Where can you find a panoply of poisonous, hallucinogenic, medicinal, pathogenic, or run-of-the-mill organisms from seven continents in one place?
Welcome to the "Fungarium", more formally known as the mycology department of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, which houses the world's largest collection of dried fungi – an incredible 1.25 million specimens. It is also one of the world's oldest collections, founded in 1879.
If you've ever wanted to get close to something that Charles Darwin collected during his voyage on HMS Beagle, this is your chance. Kew's collection includes a "golfball" fungus that Darwin picked up in a market on the island of Tierra del Fuego, off the southernmost coast of South America, and preserved in what he had to hand – port. And you can take a look on Sunday 13 October .
The event is in honour of UK Fungus Day, a celebration of the humble, much overlooked, fungi. There are millions of species, but just 100,000 have been identified. Lucky visitors will have their very own mycologist to take them on a half-hour guided journey through this fungal fest.
The fly agaric toadstool, on which fairies like to sit
Enter the Fungarium
Other iconic specimens housed in the two large underground rooms which make up the bulk of the Fungarium include a sample of the original strain of penicillin isolated by Alexander Fleming. And there's a black, rather shrivelled mushroom picked up from a market in Japan during a late-19th century voyage by research ship HMS Challenger. This is the first shitake mushroom to be classified using formal taxonomy.
These "type specimens" are fundamentally important to taxonomy, and the Fungarium houses 50,000 of them. Not surprisingly, Kew's mycologists are hot on the naming, classification and conservation of fungal diversity.
The two climate-controlled rooms – divided into "the world" and "Britain" – house many shelves stacked with 1250 light, green boxes. Open the boxes, and layered in folders, fixed onto herbarium paper or sometimes in envelopes, are the specimens. On average, each box holds 100 specimens, but some contain a single, whole fungus.
The mycology department also offers free advice to hospitals on poisonings, and to members of the public who are worried about dangerous fungi they have spotted or accidentally eaten or touched.
Hundreds of hallucinogens
Kew holds several hundred specimens of hallucinogenic fungi such as the red and white fly agaric toadstool – which make the popular seats for fairies in children's books. These are kept off-site under lock and key, and even the department's staff can't access them without police authorisation.
"Fungi may be the most diverse group of eukaryotes in the world," says Bryn Dentinger, head of mycology at Kew. But they are so woefully overlooked that it's not unusual for unknown species to appear on our dining tables.
Every day in Britain, says Dentinger, people eat one or two species of porcini mushrooms unknown to science. These are usually imported from China's Yunnan province.
The fungal kingdom includes yeasts, plant rusts, smuts, lichen and moulds as well as mushrooms. And there are fungal diseases. Take white nose syndrome
, which is killing North America's bats, or the chytrid fungus that is devastating amphibians.
, which is killing North America's bats, or the chytrid fungus that is devastating amphibians.
For those who cannot make the tour, there is still plenty to enjoy with a fungi foray in the gardens on Sunday and some enchanting and gigantic willow sculptures of common UK mushrooms by Tom Hare, which line Kew's Broad Walk. There are also pumpkin patches as part of the autumn phase of the IncrEdibles festival
. And part of this celebration of plants we consume is the stunning new "pumpkin pyramid" in the Waterlily House.
. And part of this celebration of plants we consume is the stunning new "pumpkin pyramid" in the Waterlily House.
With its towering mushroom fairy rings, and warmly colourful displays of many pumpkin species, Kew has evoked a fantastic autumnal twist to its popular festival.
Friday, October 11, 2013
The Huntington (TheHuntington) on Twitter
The Huntington
@TheHuntington
A research and cultural center with 120 acres of botanical gardens, two art galleries, a library of rare books & manuscripts, and much more.
San Marino, CA · huntington.org
Bonsai, Huntington Library Japanese Garden
Huntington Library Japanese Garden - Zen rock Garden ante room bonsai tree garden collection
All Photos by Pamla J. Eisenberg
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens
The Huntington Library Wikis on The Full Wiki
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Library and art collection
Botanical gardens
The Japanese Garden in Spring
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (or The Huntington[1]) is an educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington in San Marino, California,USA. In addition to the library, the site houses an art collection strong in English portraits and French eighteenth-century furniture and botanical gardens that feature North America's strongest collection of cycads.
Huntington Library, in a landscape setting by Beatrix Farrand
Formerly the residence of Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and his wife, Arabella Huntington (1850–1924), the Huntington Art Gallery opened in 1928 as the first public art gallery in Southern California
Library and art collection
The library contains an extensive collection of rare books and manuscripts, including a Gutenberg Bible, the Ellesmere manuscript ofChaucer, and thousands of historical documents about Abraham Lincoln, including the papers of his bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon. The rare books and manuscripts in the library are among the most heavily used in the United States. The library holds some 6.5 million manuscripts and more than a million rare books. It is the only library in the world with the first two quartos of Hamlet; it holds the manuscript of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, the first seven drafts of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, John James Audubon's Birds of America, a collection of manuscripts and first editions of the works of Charles Bukowskiand many other great treasures.
The library often places these and similar items on view for the general public. Actual use of the collection is extremely restricted, generally requiring a doctoral degree or at least candidacy for the Ph.D. and two letters of recommendation from known scholars, due to the delicate and rare nature of the materials. The research division of the Huntington grants a number of short and long term fellowships each year to scholars wishing to work with the collections.
The art collection consists of the works of 18th and 19th century British and French artists and 18th, 19th and early 20th century American artists, as well as changing exhibitions. The best known works of British art are The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough and Sarah Barrett Moulton: "Pinkie" by Thomas Lawrence. In American art, the collection includes masterworks such as Frederic Church's Chimborazo (1864) and Harriet Hosmer's monumental sculpture Zenobia in Chains (1859).
William Morris collection
In 1999, the Huntington acquired the collection of materials relating to Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer William Morris amassed by Sanford and Helen Berger, comprising stained glass, wallpaper, textiles, embroidery, drawings, ceramics, more than 2,000 books, original woodblock prints, and the complete archives of Morris's decorative arts firm Morris & Co. and its predecessor Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.[2] These materials formed the foundation for the 2002 exhibit William Morris: Creating the Useful and the Beautiful.[3][4]
Main article: Huntington Desert Garden
The Huntington's superb botanical gardens cover 120 acres (485,624 m²) and the theme gardens contain rare plants from around the world. The gardens are divided into more than a dozen themes, including the Australian Garden, Camellia Collection, Children's Garden, Desert Garden Conservatory, Conservatory for Botanical Science, Desert Garden, Herb Garden, Japanese Garden and Zen Garden, Lily Pond, North Vista, Palm Garden, Rose garden, Shakespeare garden, Subtropical and Jungle Garden, and the Chinese Garden (Liu Fang Yuan 流芳園 or the Garden of Flowing Fragrance) now open in the northern area of the property.
The Conservatory for Botanical Science has a large tropical collection, as well as a carnivorous plants wing. In addition, a large open field planted with Eucalyptus trees serves as a re-created "Australian Outback." The Huntington has a program to protect and propagate endangered plant species. In 1999, 2002, and 2009, a specimen of Amorphophallus titanum, or the odiferous "corpse flower", bloomed at the facility.
The Huntington Desert Garden, one of the world's largest and oldest collections of cacti and other succulents, contains plants from extreme environments, many of which were acquired by Mr. Huntington and Mr. William Hertrich (the garden curator) in trips taken to several countries in North, Central and South America. One of the Huntington’s most botanically important gardens, the Desert Garden, idealized by Mr. Hertrich, brings together a plant group largely unknown and unappreciated in the beginning of the 1900s. Containing a broad category of xerophytes (aridity-adapted plants), the Desert Garden grew to preeminence and remains today among the world’s finest, with more than 5,000 species, including cacti and succulent plants, or plants that store water in leaf, stem or root.
Desert Garden
The bridge in the Japanese Garden
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