Author: plantguy
Author Archives: plantguy
How Plants Grow

Plant Growth = Plant Cell Enlargement. The tallest trees in the world are the California coast redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens), which can grow to over 100 meters (328 feet) tall. That’s higher than a 30-story building. These huge trees can grow so big mainly because their growing cells can enlarge…
How Plants Work – “Greatest Hits” of 2017 – December
How Plants Work – “Greatest Hits” of 2017 – November

From Mysterious Flowers to GM Bananas. The favorite plant news stories of November 2017 ranged from the seemingly esoteric to seriously familiar. “The mysterious flowers of Aspidistra elatior are found on the southern Japanese island of Kuroshima. Until recently, scientists thought that A. elatior has the most unusual pollination ecology…
How Plants Work – “Greatest Hits” of 2017 – October
How Plants Work – “Greatest Hits” of 2017 – September

From Fat Leaves to Tree Blindness. On my HPW Twitter feed I typically feature one news story per day, covering a wide range of plant-related topics. The most favorited stories of September 2017 certainly reflects this diversity of subjects. “Eat too much without exercising and you’ll probably put on a…
How Plants Work – “Greatest Hits” of 2017 – August
How Plants Work – “Greatest Hits” of 2017 – July

From Human Brains to Subway Systems. Several of the most popular plant-related news stories on my HPW Twitter feed in July 2017 couldn’t be much more diverse. Interestingly, these three stories are bracketed by reports regarding the nature of plant development, both from The Salk Institute. “Plants and brains are…
How Plants Work – “Greatest Hits” of 2017 – June

From Strangling Trees to Stressing Plants. The plant news items presented in June 2017 were quite varied, as exemplified in the list below of the most popular posts from my HPW Twitter feed. “Meet the strangler fig: a parasitic nightmare that lives on other tropical trees, stealing their soil nutrients,…