Plants
- Agriculture
Candy cane strategy sweetens life for goldenrods
Goldenrods temporarily duck their heads during pest season
- Life
Buzzing bees protect plant leaves
Honeybee air traffic can interrupt caterpillars' relentless munching.
- Plants
Don’t Touch That: The Book of Gross, Poisonous, and Downright Icky Plants and Critters by Jeff Day
Chicago Review Press, 2008, 108 p., $9.95.
- Earth
An electronic nose that smells plants’ pain
Device can detect distress signals from plants that are harmed, under attack.
- Climate
Heat waves stunt grassland growth
An abnormally hot year can significantly suppress growth in grasslands, a stifling effect that lingers well into the next year even if temperatures return to normal. It can also hinder how well the grasslands absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- Plants
Bittersweet fruits
A new study provides strong evidence that fruits harm predators with the same chemicals that, for example, give chili peppers their spice.
- Plants
Fugitives spread bumblebee diseases
Pathogens hitchhike on commercial bees that escape from greenhouses. These escapees bring disease to wild bumblebees.
- Plants
Parasitic plant gets more than a meal
The parasitic vine known as dodder really sucks. It pierces the tissue of other plants — some of which are important crops — extracting water and nutrients needed for its own growth. But it also consumes molecules that scientists could manipulate to bring on the parasite’s demise.
- Plants
Parasite Godzilla
Parasites are small but have a big impact. An estuary study reveals that these little annoyances add up to a lot of biomass.
- Ecosystems
Tracing Tahitian vanilla
The discovery of Tahitian vanilla’s heritage could set off a custody battle between nations.
- Ecosystems
Ecosystem engineers
Nonnative earthworms are deliberately burying ragweed seeds, enhancing the weed’s growth, researchers report.
- Agriculture
Bee-Loved Plantings
Zipcode-organized guidelines tell gardeners, farmers and others how to design a landscape that will not only entice pollinators but also keep these horticultural helpers happy.
