From The Current State of The World’s Plants To How Plants Conquered The Land May 2016 was an especially rich month for fascinating reports about plant research. So, let’s get on with it…. What is the current state of plants…on a global scale? A major report regarding this question was…
Feelin’ No Pain? An amazing short story, entitled “The Sound Machine”, by the British writer Roald Dahl was first published in the September 17, 1949 issue of the New Yorker. In this story, “A man named Klausner invents a machine that can hear sound the human ear cannot hear. It…
A Flowering Uber? Batman has the Batmobile. Dr. Who has the Tardis. Is it possible that the protein that triggers flowering in plants also has its own special transport vehicle? A paper from Prof. Hao Yu’s lab at National University of Singapore published in the 6 June 2016 issue of…
Size Does Matter (If You’re Growing Giant Pumpkins) Since it’s that time of year, again, here’s an encore post originally published in 2015. Enjoy! Question: What does a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle and the current World Record Giant Pumpkin have in common? Answer: They each weigh about 1 ton (US) or…
Slurping Sugars The main reason for pruning plants is to stimulate the growth of axillary buds, a.k.a., lateral buds. (Please see previous post.) But why is the growth of axillary buds stimulated by cutting off the terminal (or apical) bud? The most common explanation of this is the long-known, and…
Where Does The Daffodil Flower’s “Trumpet” Come From? An answer to this question can be found in a 2013 report published in The Plant Journal (please see Ref. 1 below). The full text of this article is now available online (thanks to the Wiley Online Library), and I’ve read it…
The disclaimer: This is not meant to be an exhaustive review of the recent literature regarding abscission in plants. Instead, think of this as a selection of “recent highlights” (my opinion) in the study of abscission. Let’s focus on three steps of abscission: (1) the development of the abscission zone…
Since the daffodils are out in full force here in the upper left-hand corner of the U.S., I decided to revisit this post from 2013 and revise it a bit. Hope you enjoy it (again?)…. Doesn’t the Scientific Study of Flower Development Ruin the Aesthetic Beauty of Flowers? Here’s the…
Plants on Stilts Because plants are “rooted” to the place where they germinate, they don’t move. Indeed, it’s become almost a cliche to describe plants as displaying a “sessile life-style”, especially when contrasting them to animals. But are all plants necessarily sessile organisms, never moving from the spot where they…
Seeking The Light Being light-powered lifeforms, most green plants seek out the sunlight and avoid the shade. But being sessile organisms, plants can not uproot themselves and mosey from the shade into the sun. Because they are stuck in the same spot all of their lives, plants have apparently evolved…