Plants
- Plants
Stout Potatoes: Armed with a new gene, spuds fend off blight
Splicing a gene from a blight-resistant wild potato into varieties used for consumption could lead to blight immunity for all spuds.
- Plants
Crop genes diffuse in seedy ways
A study of sugar beets in France suggests that genes may escape to wild relatives through seeds accidentally transported by humans rather than through drifting pollen.
- Plants
Sun-tracking dads make better pollen
In one of the first tests of paternal behavior in plants, snow buttercups that were allowed to follow their natural tendency to track sun movement made more-viable pollen than did tethered blooms.
- Plants
Any Hope for Old Chestnuts?
Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the discovery of chestnut blight in the United States, but enthusiasts still haven't given up hope of restoring American chestnut forests.
- Plants
Team corners culprit in sudden oak death
After 5 years of mystery, California pathologists announced they may have identified the cause of a new tree disease called sudden oak death.
- Plants
X-rayed Flowers
For new insights into the delicate architecture of flowers, take an X-ray view. Albert G. Richards, who taught dental radiography at the University of Michigan, presents a gallery of unfamiliar views of familiar flowers, from the hidden archways of an iris to the complex plumbing of columbine spurs. Go to: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~agrxray/gallery.html
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- Plants
New gene-altering strategy tested on corn
Scientists have created herbicide-resistant corn with a new kind of genetic engineering that involves subtly altering one of the plant's own genes rather than adding a new gene.
- Plants
Drought-tolerant plant mined for survival genes
A drought-resistant South African plant is revealing its genetic secrets.
- Plants
Underground Hijinks: Thieving plants hack into biggest fungal network
For the first time, plants have been caught tapping into the most widespread of soil fungi networks and using it to steal food from green plants.
- Plants
Fungus of the Month
Wisconsin botanist Tom Volk’s smorgasbord of a mycology Web site offers a variety of enticing distractions. You can find morel mushrooms dressed in their holiday best, fungi that ought to be avoided at a Thanksgiving feast, and much more. Be sure to check out the fungus of the month, then browse the archive of fungal […]
- Plants
The Wood Detective
Alex Wiedenhoeft belongs to the elite profession of wood identifier, the person to call when a crime investigator, museum curator, archaeologist, or patent attorney with an unusual client really needs to know what that splinter really is.
