September 28, 2006, 4:57 AM CT
Lachenalia Mutabilis
Pretty as it is, this particular lachenalia has the potential to escape from cultivation and become weedy, as has occurred in Western Australia. The fact that it is common and widespread in its native Cape region of South Africa serves as a hint that it is adaptable, and thus likely to pose problems in non-native environments with conditions similar to the Cape.
The epithet "mutabilis" means "changeable", in this case referring to the inflorescence - the immature stalk and flowers start blue and turn yellowish-green or pinkish as they age. For photographs of the entire inflorescence with the range of colours, see this page from the International Bulb Society and the Lachenalia page from the Pacific Bulb Society's Wiki.
Photography resource link: Nature's Best Photography Magazine's International Awards - scroll down in the middle frame of the page for links to the 2004-2006 award winners. Also, there's a Picture of the Week feature on the site that might interest you.........
Posted by: Erica Permalink Source
September 27, 2006, 8:44 PM CT
More Efficiency In Harvest And Handling
Kevin Shinners wants farmers to put less energy into harvesting and handling biofuel crops - less fuel, less time and less labor.
As a field machinery specialist, Shinners has worked to improve the efficiency of harvesting forage for animals. Harvesting biomass crops poses similar challenges, he says.
"The biggest problem is there are way too many operations in the field," says Shinners, a professor of biological systems engineering and mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Every time we handle this material, it costs real money".
Much of Shinners' research to date has focused on corn stover, the stalks and leaves left behind when grain is harvested. He has also embarked on a similar line of research on cost-effective harvesting of forage grasses, such as switchgrass, for both feed and fuel production.
Corn stover is usually left in the field or used as animal fodder, but it has tremendous potential as a cellulosic source of ethanol - if the shredding, drying, raking, bailing and transporting can be made less costly and less labor-intensive.
The U.S. Department of Energy predicts that this type of biomass will sell for $30-$40 per ton. Although this price is low compared to high-quality alfalfa, which can sell for $100-$120 per ton, the high-value corn grain provides stover with a valuable co-product, he notes.........
Posted by: Erica Permalink Source
September 25, 2006, 6:30 PM CT
Nestled, Sharply
This bud or arm is growing about 16' above where the three previous plant structures (in the other photos) are growing.
I wonder if this is how a cactus "arm" grows. No doubt about it, the saguaro cactus is one amazing plant.........
Posted by: Erica Permalink Source
September 25, 2006, 6:07 PM CT
Bugs In Fruits And Vegetables
A new method for ridding harvested fruits and vegetables of insect pests and microorganisms, without the use of ozone-depleting chemicals such as methyl bromide, has been developed by scientists at UC Davis.
The technique, called metabolic stress disinfection and disinfestation, effectively suffocates insects found in harvested produce. Inside sealed chambers, alternating vacuum forces and pressurized carbon dioxide applications cause irreversible changes in the animals' cell chemistry and respiratory structures. Ethanol gas also is applied briefly to accelerate killing of fungi and bacteria and to damage insect eggs.
In practice, the process would be applied to pallets of fruits and vegetables to prevent insect damage during storage and shipping, and to avoid transporting potentially invasive insects from one country to another. A patent is pending on the technology, which was published in the recent issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.
"All major fruits, including table grapes, citrus, apples, pears, bananas and kiwifruits, as well as vegetables and ornamental flowers, retain their quality when treated with this technology," said the developer, Manuel Lagunas-Solar, a research chemist at UC Davis' Crocker Nuclear Laboratory.........
Posted by: Kelly Permalink Source
September 15, 2006, 1:45 PM CT
Watching Seeds In 3D
Embryonic photosynthesis leads to the production of seed-internal oxygen that is important for seed development and quality. In order to visualise seed-internal structures that could serve for oxygen storage conventional microscopic methods could not be used because they require the seed to be cut thus leading to air escape. By using holotomography at the ESRF, researchers could get the full picture of an arabidopsis seed without any structural modification.
Scientists have identified individual cells within the seed and rendered them to show their three-dimensional organisation. They have also distinguished an intercellular air network, which should represent an important circulation system for air and perhaps water during germination. However, researchers can't yet assure that this is the path the oxygen follows to "feed" the seed: "Solving this question needs a nano-method to determine the exact composition of air in the network during seed formation, but unfortunately this method is not available yet", explains Silva Lerbs-Mache, the corresponding author of the paper.
The researchers used hard X-ray-based quantitative phase tomography at ESRF beamline ID19 to obtain three-dimensional images of an arabidopsis seed. This seed is a model plant for biologists and the first one for which the genome was sequenced. "This approach is to our knowledge the only imaging technique with the penetration capacity and imaged field size suited for an investigation at sub-micrometre resolution of an optically opaque object the size of a seed" explains Peter Cloetens, first author of the paper and scientist at the ESRF. It is applied for the first time to an autonomous living system, observed without object destruction, without staining, in air, and at room temperature.........
Posted by: Erica Permalink Source
September 14, 2006, 8:44 PM CT
MIT Team Describes Unique Cloud Forest
Trees that live in an odd desert forest in Oman have found an unusual way to water themselves by extracting moisture from low-lying clouds, MIT scientists report.
In an area that is characterized mostly by desert, the trees have preserved an ecological niche because they exploit a wispy-thin source of water that only occurs seasonally, said Elfatih A.B. Eltahir, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and former MIT graduate student Anke Hildebrandt.
After studying the Oman site, they also expressed concern that the unusual forest could be driven into extinction if hungry camels continue eating too much of the foliage. As the greenery disappears it's possible the trees will lose the ability to pull water from the mist and recharge underground reservoirs.
A report on their research was published in a recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters. They are also advising the Omani government on handling the problem.
The forest is especially unique, said Eltahir and Hildebrandt, because it "is a water-limited seasonal cloud forest" that is kept alive by water droplets gathered from passing clouds -- ground fog. The water dribbles into the ground and sustains the trees later when the weather is dry. The MIT work suggests the trees actually get more of their water through contact with clouds than via rainfall.........
Posted by: Erica Permalink Source
September 14, 2006, 7:09 PM CT
Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple'
'Royal Purple' smokebush is a popular landscape shrub with much to recommend it: autumn foliage colour, drought-tolerant when established and a smoky-appearing inflorescence, to name a few. Part of my reason for enjoying it is that it is in one of my favourite plant families, the Anacardiaceae, and is therefore correlation to mango, cashew and poison ivy (a plant I admire, but from a distance).
In local news, there is a lecture tonight (link includes event details) with Peter Valder. I met Peter when I was in Sydney a few years ago, and he's warm and funny - I expect his lecture will be very entertaining. If you get a chance to go, I do recommend it. Please also note that he is giving a different lecture on Thursday evening in Seattle (click on the link with his name).........
Posted by: Erica Permalink Source
September 14, 2006, 7:06 PM CT
Senecio Rowleyanus
The longest running plant sale at the garden occurs today and tomorrow: the 29th Annual Indoor Plant Sale. I had a grand time yesterday trying to photograph a few of the plants available, since I don't often get the opportunity to work with indoor plants.
A native of southwestern Africa, "string of beads" grows in arid habitats. The succulent beads are actually the leaves, modified for living through extended periods of drought. Dr. T. Ombrello of Union County College has written an intriguing article on the adaptations of this Senecio and the closely related Senecio herreianus, entitled Senecios, With Windows in Their Leaves. The narrow bands you can see on some of the beads consist of transparent tissue to allow light to penetrate the interior of the bead and increase photosynthesis without increasing water loss.
It might be worth revisiting my comments on diversity within the Asteraceae in the BPotD entry on Raoulia australis. There is simply an amazing amount of diversity of form and structure in this plant family.........
Posted by: Erica Permalink Source
September 14, 2006, 6:15 PM CT
Mechanisms of Sudden Oak Death
California Bay Laurel leaves infected with Phytophthora ramorum
By comparing the complete genome sequences of two plant-killing pathogens and related organisms, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), in collaboration with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) and others, have uncovered crucial aspects of the disease-causing mechanisms of "Sudden Oak Death" (SOD) and soybean root rot disease. The research, the result of a four-year, $4 million multi-agency project supported by DOE, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), appears in the Sept. 1, 2006, edition of Science (vol. 313, No. 5791).
"This project best exemplifies how the capabilities that were established at the DOE JGI for sequencing the human genome are now proving to be essential for addressing important environmental challenges," said Eddy Rubin, DOE JGI Director. "We are now capable of rapidly responding to the urgent needs of the nation's largest industry, agriculture, where genome sequence information can be brought to bear on characterizing such economically important microorganisms as those that cause sudden oak death and soybean root rot. For these pathogens, the genome sequence is the wiring diagram of the cellular processes that can be targeted for novel detection systems and for safe and effective means of control".........
Posted by: Erica Permalink Source
September 13, 2006, 5:14 AM CT
Greener Path To Iron Production
MIT engineers have demonstrated an eco-friendly way to make iron that eliminates the greenhouse gases commonly linked to its production.
The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) announced recently that the team, led by Donald R. Sadoway of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has shown the technical viability of producing iron by molten oxide electrolysis (MOE).
"What sets molten oxide electrolysis apart from other metal-producing technologies is that it is totally carbon-free and hence generates no carbon dioxide gases -- only oxygen," said Lawrence W. Kavanagh, AISI vice president of manufacturing and technology.
The work was funded by the AISI/Department of Energy Technology Roadmap Program (TRP). The TRP goal is to increase the competitiveness of the U.S. steel industry while saving energy and enhancing the environment. As per the AISI, the MIT work "marks one of TRP's breakthrough projects toward meeting that goal".
Unlike other iron-making processes, MOE works by passing an electric current through a liquid solution of iron oxide. The iron oxide then breaks down into liquid iron and oxygen gas, allowing oxygen to be the main byproduct of the process.
Electrolysis itself is nothing new -- all of the world's aluminum is produced this way. And that is one advantage of the new process: It is based on a technology that metallurgists are already familiar with. Unlike aluminum smelting, however, MOE is carbon-free.........
Posted by: Erica Permalink Source
