Forever Young? In a previous post, we saw how some Spanish scientists genetically modified (GM) plants in the genus Pelargonium (more commonly known as geraniums) so that they don’t produce pollen. (You can view the abstract of this paper here or read a provisional copy of the complete paper via…
“Back To The Future.” A while back on this blog, I spent a bit of time exploring how some herbicides kill plants. The focus was primarily on auxin-based herbicides such as 2,4-D (one of the herbicides in the notorious Agent Orange) and glyphosate, commonly known as Roundup®. The former kills…
To make complex organisms takes specialized cells. Animals and flowering plants require specialized cells with distinct abilities in order to accomplish higher order functions – such as vision or flowering. It’s somewhat like a symphony orchestra. The orchestra integrates different musicians playing different instruments. The characteristic sounds of the instruments…
What if the roots of flowering plants produced chemical signals that regulated the branching and thickening of their shoots, i.e., secondary growth? Chemical signals used by plants to regulate their development and physiology are called plant hormones. Very small amounts of these compounds, acting alone or in tandem, often elicit…
Smells Like Trouble If you’re crunching on a Wintergreen Lifesaver®, while drinking a cup of jasmine tea, you may be totally “freaking out” your nearby house plants. Why? Because you’re disseminating two volatile organic compounds known to have significant effects on plants, you may be inadvertently turning on hundreds of…
How To Screw Organic Farmers In a recent issue of our local paper, there was a tragic story about how several organic farmers in the region had unknowingly purchased manure which turned out to be contaminated with a powerful herbicide. Consequently, they lost most of their crops. And they certainly…
Can Chemically Inducing Dormancy Help Plants Cope With Stress? This was a very bad year for wheat in Russia because of an extraordinarily hot and dry summer. And many climatologists believe this may be only a glimpse of the not-too-distant future in many parts of the world. If so, then…
Plant Cut-Backs “Pruning is one of the most important cultural practices for maintaining woody plants, including ornamental trees and shrubs, fruits and nuts. It involves both art and science: art in making the pruning cuts properly, and science in knowing how and when to prune for maximum benefits.” (from ref.…
Sniffing Out Ethylene In the previous post I summarized the latest information on how the plant hormone ethylene is made (at least in the model plant Arabidopsis). Though most people are familiar with the plant hormone ethylene mainly because of its effects on fruit ripening, the list of plant responses…
C’est un gaz. Es un gas. Es ist ein gas. It’s a Gas! If you are familiar with the gaseous plant hormone ethylene, it’s most likely because of its ability to promote fruit ripening in apples, bananas, tomatoes, etc.. Ethylene also affects many other aspects of a plant’s life cycle,…