There is an ancient and time-honoured association – maybe co-evolution even – between birds and flowering plants, e.g. in respect of pollination and dispersal of the fruits/seeds of the latter by the former. Now, at the...
Tag - PNAS
Nigel Chaffey
Everything benefits from a little lift
Roots generally absorb water from the soil and transport it above ground to the stem, branches, etc. Where the soil is too dry for water to be absorbed by the roots, the roots might actually lose water to the soil and...
Money doesn’t grow on trees… (2) [Or, From cuddly koalas to bird poo…]
Could the koala's diet of eucalyptus result in gold?
Say it with flowers?
Dani Nadel et al., have unearthed possibly the oldest example of the decoration of graves with plants.
Chloroplasts are how old???
It is widely acknowledged that eukaryotic cells (you know, the ones with a membrane-bound nucleus and a variety of other membrane-bound organelles (cf. prokaryotes)) came to be so complex by a series of ‘mergers and...
Because they’re not red(!)
Although red algae contain green chlorophyll, their red coloration is a result of large amounts of non-green pigments such as phycoerythrin.
Fire
Picking up on my elemental theme, fire has long been considered a major influence on evolution of the angiosperms, whether natural or anthropogenic conflagrations. This incendiary interaction has not been helped by...
Phytonumeracy
Echoing a plea from Ron Milo and Robert Last that computational methods [which is sort of ‘math(s)’…] should be used to gain deeper understanding of the fundamental principles that govern regulation of metabolic...
Nanoparticles may compromise crops
Advances (ever an optimistic notion!) in technology take many forms and may have unanticipated consequences. Take, for example, the emerging discipline of nanotechnology, which works with structures that are...
Pollia pigmentation pooh-poohed
Despite appearances – and often therefore assumptions – to the contrary, the intense blue-colour of the fruit of Pollia condensata is not due to pigment(s). Instead, it is another example of so-called ‘structural...
Bryophyte ‘sperminator’…
Co-opting animals to help with pollination is a major event in flower (angiosperm) biology – and is very much a do-or-die act. But have you ever considered that a similar role might be performed by animals in the case...
Vital amines
Notwithstanding plants’ rightly applauded self-sufficiency, and remarkable life-sustaining synthetic abilities using basic inorganic ingredients, some plant-like organisms need a little extra help in the form of organic...
Lignin and/or suberin? Lignin!
For as long as the Casparian strip (CS) – an impervious component of the endodermal cell wall that blocks the passive flow of water and solutes into the vascular tissues of a plant – has been known (discovery credited...
Pharmacopoeia Shakespeariensis
Continuing the ethnobotanical theme of previous posts, another great source of information regarding folk uses of plants is the writings of the Bard of Avon, England’s very own quillmeister, William Shakespeare. Take...
