May 7, 2008, 7:46 PM CT

Gardeners get advice from neighbors, friends

Where do gardeners turn when they need information about annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees" Staff at University of Minnesota Extension have published results of a survey that concludes that the majority of backyard gardeners get their planting and plant information informallymost often from friends, neighbors and local garden centers.

The survey of 1,000 Minnesota gardeners reported in the JanuaryMarch, 2008 issue of HortTechnology showed that eventhough respondents viewed the The University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum as more credible than garden centers, 78% of respondents indicated that they were most likely to turn to neighbors and friends for gardening advice.

Dr. Mary Hockenberry Meyer, Professor of Horticultural Science and Extension Horticulturist at UM Extension, explained, "We wanted to determine where gardeners got their information and if they think university information is of higher quality than information from garden centers or home centers. We observed that university information is viewed as higher quality; however, a large number of people indicated they "did not know" the quality of university information, which surprised us".

The survey also indicated that gardeners' age determined the most likely sources for information seeking. Older gardeners were less likely to use the Internet than younger gardeners. When asked "How do you learn best"", most respondents said that they had not attended a gardening class in the past year and indicated they learn best from talking with friends. Access to publications containing color photos and illustrations was also highly valued by gardeners who responded to the survey......... Posted by: Erica      Read more         Source

May 7, 2008, 7:44 PM CT

Silicon's effect on sunflowers

Vibrant, showy sunflowers are revered worldwide for their beauty and versatility. While a number of varieties of sunflower are grown specifically for their nutritional benefits, ornamental sunflowers have become standards for commercial growers and everyday gardeners. As sunflowers' popularity grows, researchers are looking for new supplements and growing methods to enhance production and quality of this celebrated annual.

Horticulturists have found ample evidence that plants depend on "essential nutrients"; naturally occurring elements that are found in normal plant tissue that are essential for the completion of the life cycle of the plant. Eventhough silicon, a predominant element in mineral soil, is not considered to be an essential nutrient for most plants, there has been limited evidence that silicon supplements affect the aesthetic qualities of ornamental flowers and crops.

Drs. Sophia Kamenidou and Todd J. Cavins, formerly of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Oklahoma State University, published a research study in the February, 2008 issue of HortScience in which they examine the effects of silicon supplements on sunflowers grown in greenhouse environments.

"In greenhouse production, most floricultural crops are cultivated in soilless substrates, which often supply limited amounts of plant-available silicon. The goal of this study was to determine the effects of silicon supplementation on greenhouse-produced ornamental sunflower (Helianthus annuus L. Ring of Fire).", explained Cavins. "This is one of the first studies to highlight supplemental silicon impact on horticultural traits. Most prior research on silicon has focused on disease suppression in hydroponic vegetable production. This is also one of the few examples of detrimental effects seen from high silicon concentrations"......... Posted by: Erica      Read more         Source

May 5, 2008, 9:09 PM CT

Ecologists tease out private lives of plants and their pollinators

The quality of pollen a plant produces is closely tied to its sexual habits, ecologists have discovered. As well as helping explain the evolution of such intimate relationships between plants and pollinators, the study one of the first of its kind and published online in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology also helps explain the recent dramatic decline in certain bumblebee species found in the shrinking areas of species-rich chalk grasslands and hay meadows across Northern Europe.

Relationships between plants and pollinators have fascinated ecologists since Darwin's day. While ecologists have long known that pollinators such as honeybees and bumblebees are often faithful to certain flowers, and have done much work on the role of nectar as a food source, very little is known about how pollen quality affects these relationships.

Working on Salisbury Plain, the largest area of unimproved chalk grassland in north west Europe, ecologists from the universities of Plymouth, Stirling and Poitiers in France collected pollen from 23 different flowering plant species, 13 of which are only pollinated by insects while the other 10 species can either pollinate themselves or be insect pollinated. They analysed the pollen for protein content and, in the second part of the study, recorded bumblebee foraging behaviour......... Posted by: Erica      Read more         Source

April 30, 2008, 5:24 PM CT

Patent Office rejects company's claim for bean

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today rejected all of the patent claims for a common yellow bean that has been a familiar staple in Latin American diets for more than a century.

The bean was erroneously granted patent protection in 1999, as US Patent Number 5,894,079, in a move that raised profound concerns about biopiracy and the potential abuse of intellectual property (IP) claims on plant materials that originate in the developing world and remain as important dietary staples, especially among the poor.

A research center, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (known by its Spanish acronym, CIAT), which is supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), led the legal challenge to the patent through the USPTOs reexamination process.

We are happy that the patent office has reached a final decision in this case but remain concerned that the ex partes patent reexamination procedure meant that these patent claims remained in force for such a long time, said Geoffrey Hawtin, Director General of CIAT, which has been fighting the patent since 2001. For several years now, farmers in Mexico, the USA and elsewhere have unnecessarily endured legal threats and intimidation for simply planting, selling or exporting a bean that they have been growing for generations......... Posted by: Erica      Read more         Source

April 21, 2008, 7:38 PM CT

RNA Role In Spreading Disease

Recent research that links specific pieces of RNA to an infectious organism's duplication and spread could lead the way to the prevention of viroids, pathogens that can kill or damage food crops and other plants.

The findings and the research approach used by Ohio State University researchers also could have applications in the study of how certain viruses spread in humans because the pathogens have some similar characteristics.

The scientists have developed an experimental system to identify specific structural parts of a viroid that are responsible for its multiplication and spread of the disease.

Because no chemical therapys exist that can specifically inhibit viroid infection, an effective way to prevent viroid multiplication and spread is through genetic alterations of susceptible plants. The best approach to such bioengineering is learning exactly how the pathogens function in the first place, said Biao Ding, senior author of the study and professor of plant cellular and molecular biology at Ohio State.

"We're trying to understand how the infection occurs, and how the RNA propagates itself in the cell. But more importantly, even for human diseases, is discovering how a disease spreads. That's where the problem comes in the plant," Ding said......... Posted by: Erica      Read more         Source

April 17, 2008, 4:03 AM CT

Sudden Oak Death pathogen is evolving

The pathogen responsible for Sudden Oak Death first got its grip in California's forests outside a nursery in Santa Cruz and at Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County before spreading out to eventually kill millions of oaks and tanoaks along the Pacific Coast, as per a new study led by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. It provides, for the first time, evidence of how the epidemic unfolded in this state.

"In this paper, we actually reconstruct the Sudden Oak Death epidemic," said Matteo Garbelotto, UC Berkeley associate extension specialist and adjunct professor, and principal investigator of the study. "We point to where the disease was introduced in the wild and where it spread from those introduction points".

The study, scheduled to appear later this month in the online early edition of the journal Molecular Ecology, also shows that the pathogen is currently evolving in California, with mutant genotypes appearing as new areas are infested. These findings suggest that movement of infected plants between different regions where Sudden Oak Death is established should be minimized, said Garbelotto.

Garbelotto will present these findings today (Wednesday, April 16) at the annual meeting of the California Oak Mortality Task Force, a coalition of research institutions, public agencies, non-profit organizations and private industry formed to coordinate management, research, outreach and policy efforts surrounding Sudden Oak Death disease in California. Garbelotto is a member of the task force......... Posted by: Erica      Read more         Source

April 10, 2008, 9:16 PM CT

Flowers' fragrance diminished by air pollution

Air pollution from power plants and automobiles is destroying the fragrance of flowers and thereby inhibiting the ability of pollinating insects to follow scent trails to their source, a new University of Virginia study indicates. This could partially explain why wild populations of some pollinators, especially bees which need nectar for food are declining in several areas of the world, including California and the Netherlands.

The study appears online in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

"The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters; but in today's polluted environment downwind of major cites, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters," said Jose D. Fuentes, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a co-author of the study. "This makes it increasingly difficult for pollinators to locate the flowers".

The result, potentially, is a vicious cycle where pollinators struggle to find enough food to sustain their populations, and populations of flowering plants, in turn, do not get pollinated sufficiently to proliferate and diversify.

Other studies, as well as the actual experience of farmers, have shown that populations of bees, especially bumblebees, and butterflies have declined greatly in recent years. Fuentes and his team of U.Va. researchers, including Quinn McFrederick and James Kathilankal, think that air pollution, particularly during the peak period of summer, may be a factor......... Posted by: Erica      Read more         Source

April 9, 2008, 8:47 PM CT

Novel 'gene toggles' in world's top food crop

University of Delaware researchers, in collaboration with U.S. and international colleagues, have found a new type of molecule--a kind of "micro-switch"--that can turn off genes in rice, which is the primary source of food for more than half the world's population. The discovery is published in the March 25 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Composed of short lengths of ribonucleic acids (RNAs), on the order of about 20 nucleotides long, these novel molecules, called natural antisense microRNAs (nat-miRNAs), target the genes sitting directly across from them on the opposite strand of DNA in a rice cell.

In addition to uncovering a new genetic switch and gaining insight about its pathways and evolution, which are important to the health of a grain that feeds most of the world, the research also may help researchers locate this type of novel gene regulator in other organisms, including humans. MicroRNAs regulate 30 percent of human genes and thus are critical to human health and development.

The research was led by Pamela Green, the Crawford Greenewalt Chair of Plant Sciences at UD, and Blake Meyers, associate professor of plant and soil sciences, and their laboratory groups at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute, including associate scientist Cheng Lu, postdoctoral scientists Dong-Hoon Jeong and Kan Nobuta, graduate students Karthik Kulkarni, Manoj Pillay, and Shawn Thatcher and research associate Rana German......... Posted by: Erica      Read more         Source

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:22:56 GMT

Variegated leaf porn

Whenever I put the word “porn” on my blog I get lots of hits. I need all the help I can get, so as a sort of follow-up to my post on the science behind variegated leaves, here’s some variegated leaf porn from Roger Williams Park Botanical Conservancy in Providence.

I have no idea what any of these plants are. Any ideas anyone? Jo-Ann B., if you’re out there chime in because I know you know the answer! I think it’s the coolest thing ever that the leaves are variegated green/cream on the top side, but all purple on the bottom side. Very wacky things going on with pigments and genes here.

Below is an example of a plant that lacks chlorophyll (green pigment). It has instead an excess of the anthocyanin, the pigment that produces reds, pinks, and purples. Posted by: Caroline Brown      Read more     Source

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:59:50 GMT

Trachystemon orientalis

Thank you to UBC Botanical Garden horticulturist Jackie Chambers for today''s photographs and write-up, much appreciated!

A fine example of Trachystemon orientalis can be found in the David C. Lam Asian Garden here at UBC. The coarse-textured, heart-shaped leaves are bright green and reach 25-30cm long. However, it is the dainty blue flowers, currently in bloom, that are the most striking feature of this perennial groundcover.

The flowers are held on hairy, purple flower stalks of 15-30cm in height. Flower stalks emerge in early spring (March-April) before the leaves have reached full size. Individual flowers are about 1cm in diameter, and are hermaphroditic - meaning they have both staminate (pollen producing) and carpellate (ovule producing) structures (additional photographs). Stiff hairs and blue flowers are typical features of members of Boraginaceae.

Trachystemon is derived from the Greek trachys, meaning rough, and stemon, a stamen. The species name orientalis means eastern or from the orient, and is a reference to the native distribution of this species. Trachystemon orientalis is endemic to southeastern Europe and western Asia.

In Turkey, the plant is eaten as a vegetable, and has the common name aci hodan. The flowers, stems, young leaves and rhizome may all be cooked and eaten (see the entry on Trachystemon orientalis on Plants for a Future database).

English common names include Abraham-Isaac-Jacob, and Eastern or Oriental borage. Despite being native to Bulgaria, Turkey, and Georgia, Trachystemon orientalis has naturalized throughout the UK. It was first introduced as an ornamental, but records indicate established escapee populations in some areas of England date back to 1868. Here''s a more recent distribution map of Trachystemon orientalis populations in the UK.

From a horticulturist perspective, this plant is an extremely useful groundcover; while it prefers partly shaded woodland locations, it can tolerate full sun to shade, and a range of soil conditions. It even performs well in dry shade which is always a challenge for gardeners. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source