Botany Wall Of Shame

Well, I am starting a Wall of Shame for people who show that they have no clue about plants in general. I will be totally fair and I'm not going to expect that the general public will know what is a rostellum, however, I will expect a certain level of knowledge from people. My disclaimer being said, I will point to a certain article that I read in a newspaper yesterday.

OK have you read it?
Now, lets play the Sesame Street Game. What is not like the others?
Did you guess?

If you had said "what the ****? Squash isn't a root vegetable!" you win 10 points! Now, if you don't eat squash, you wouldn't know that, but if you scroll down to the very bottom, you see...
SHE IS A DIETITIAN! (Don't they have to know what the hell they are eating?!)
I mean, if you had perused the vegetable area of supermarkets and seen squash you would know that they are not root vegetables!
Oh Well... here is another letter to the editor coming up!

The Post in which I talk about Botany Porn

Aha! I knew that would get your attention.
I don't have much time (class starts in 10 minutes), but I just recieved my new edition of National Geographic....
and well...
mmmm..... how can I say this?

They have a centerfold in there that is beautiful. The limbs on it. The shape. Wow! I mean, it wasn't just a 2 fold centerfold. I think I had to flip that paper out 5 times! Anyways, its not the same as on the paper, but here is the internet link that you can read. They have a video on how they assembled that amazing picture. But, get a hold of the National Geographic and see what I'm talking about!

Friday TED Talks XII

Cary Fowler talks about saving genetic diversity through cold storage of seeds.

He is the Executive Director of Global Crop Diversity Trust where their mission is to store their seeds in a safe remote place.

However good the message is (and I agree with keeping a seed bank to preserve genetic diversity for other reasons), I question the seeds' value if the temperature rises as "in many countries the coldest growing seasons are going to be hotter than anything those crops have seen in the past." If these crops have not seen these temperatures in the past, what good will they do if kept for the future because of systematic crop failure? They couldn't have evolved different mechanisms to live in the hotter climate.

Ramming My Head Against A Brick Wall. Again.

Now I know that where I live is relatively cut off from the rest of the world (for various reasons), but frankly a lot people here have their heads stuck up their asses.

What is right with this picture? They are not watering mid-day.

There is a reason why Albertans are called the Texans of the North. A large number are uber-conservative &/or wackaloony religious (we have our own ‘creation’ museum by Big Valley), and are intolerant of ‘others’. Lots of Albertans also believe that both water & gas will continue to flow forever and that any claims to the contrary are conspiracies by the government to drive up prices. Many people were surprised when one of the refineries nearby was damaged in the huge storm in the middle of July and many PetroCan stations were without gas for weeks (Quel horror!).

However, there is one thing about them that I am absolutely pissed off about. I’m talking about watering their lawn in the middle of a 30 C day. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Just thinking about this makes my blood pressure rise to dangerous levels. First of all, I hate the thought of watering the lawn on the best of days. Xeriscaping is a great gardening method where planting drought resistant plants will decrease the amount of time you have to spend in the garden working and reduce water bills. Also, collecting rain water is another method of reducing water usage. (And here I feel as if I’m talking to a brick wall ‘cause I’m sure that most people have heard this ad nauseum.) But, I have seen over and over and over and over and over homeowners with their sprinklers going at 1:00 pm with over half the water being evaporated without even hitting the ground.

I’m at a loss at how to stop this (Other than posting a sign on their lawn in the middle of the night saying “Spank me. I’ve been very naughty. I water my lawn at noon”. Which probably won’t make them stop, but it sure will make me laugh as I bike/drive by.

Another way to stop this would be to use drought resistant grasses. Available now at Rona’s/Home Depots around Alberta are eco-grasses that are mixtures of drought resistant grasses that would be great alternatives to Kentucky Blue grass. Researchers have also been working on blue grass hybrids that will be drought tolerant, but retain the desirable texture of Kentucky blue grass. But whether these hybrids will be cold tolerant enough for Albertan users is another question altogether.
So please, please, please STOP watering your lawn during the day, and try not to at any other time. No more excuses or you could end up with that sign on your lawn.

USDA/Agricultural Research Service (2009, August 30). Creating The Ultimate Drought-Resistant Lawn/Pasture Grass. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 31, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/08/090830100514.htm

Wildlife in My Backyard

In my yard, we have a new visitor which is quite interesting to watch. The Goldenrod Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) was found preying upon innocent bumblebee's (not sure the exact sp. sorry...I try not to touch other things' lunch, lol) Try and see if you can see it in the picture on the left (click on pics for a closer view). Its in between the two petals in the front. That fuzzy black blob in the yellow centre is its lunch. A poor fuzzy little bee. (I know bee colonies are currently in trouble because of Colony Collapse Disorder, but I can't help it. Watching these spiders attack their prey is fascinating!) These spiders are found throughout Alberta, and due to its size (~7mm), I think that this was a female Goldenrod Crab Spider. (I say "was" because while researching on the type of spider, etc. I haven't seen it since taking the pictures). During my research, I found that these spiders can range in colour from yellow to white, but always has the darker red stripes down its abdomen which is visible in the fuzzy picture to the left. It is very good at blending into this Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum var. Alaska), but can be found anywhere waiting for its next snack. After I finished taking its picture, I sat with my little seedling and watched as it dragged the bee across the flower to nestle it between two rows of petals. The next day, it was gone!

Acorn, John and Sheldon, Ian. 2000. Bugs of Alberta. Pg.150. Lone Pine Publishing. Edmonton, AB.

'Killer Spices' Provide Eco-friendly Pesticides For Organic Fruits And Veggies

Original Article at ScienceDaily
A new study from UBC about botanical pesticides. Great idea, but I'm not sure if these will be effective (enough) pesticides. The author notes that most of the essential oils are very volatile, and some cannot last longer than a couple hours.

This can create some problems:

- If researchers modify the oil structure or add other compounds to last longer, then "organic" farmers can't use them any longer.
- As well, will they be testing for food safety both before and after the modification? (Herbal remedies are not tested or regulated, and some can be extremely dangerous to your health)

- Will the oils alter the growth of the target plants at all? Some plants create the oils to inhibit growth of neighbouring plants as well as repelling insects.

I feel that this area would need a large amount of research before using, but also look at who is funding research (a botanical pesticide company)... I would be looking for similar research as well to be sure that they are not only publishing data that they like.

I do agree, however, with the concept. This is following the trend of looking to nature for ideas and concepts before starting from scratch (This is going to be this Friday's TED Talk), and using already-tested ideas.

Remember that everything that comes from nature is not necessarily better for you.

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All Botanists.... on your mark.... get set....

Go! Find the journal article that describes the new plant ...

** Hattip to Mr. Flynn for letting me know about this. I haven't looked at my RSS feeds in 3 weeks (because of my French class... which is done tomorrow... yay!) so I have missed all the up-and-coming news to share with everyone!

This story is one of the reasons why I wanted to become a botanist. It always seems that there is nowhere left to explore, and then surprisingly, people discover new plants in remote regions. I'm hoping that there will still be some left for me to find... (I'm still looking for someone to fund my trips around the world *hint, hint*)

Algae’s Strange Bedfellows

Currently, there is (a minor) debate as to whether algae is a plant or not. Most do not include them as plants because they lack complexity in the cell, and do not share a few (but key) characteristics with plants. (However, that does not stop my old Bot Prof from asking what the oldest plant is and the “correct” answer is a type of green algae…grrrr)
Anyways, I digress… a new exciting branch of research is experimenting with producing oils from algae to be used instead of traditional fossil fuels (which ironically enough is probably fossilized algae too!) Craig Venter (of the Human Genome Project fame) is one of the leading scientists engineering algae to create the biosynthetic oils. However, he is catching some bad PR because of his strange bedfellow, ExxonMobil. This company, alike most of the prominent gas & oil companies around, are not too concerned with their energy gathering and environmental use. So, let’s critically think about what they are trying to do and see if this is a good idea or not:

(Photo on Left is of the Kelp Forest at Monetery Bay, Calif)

Using Algae as a Biosynthetic Oil Producer

Pros
Renewable resource – Algae takes little to grow and will produce lots considering size
Use excess fertilizer – Can create a market for using excess fertilizer and maybe even creating fertilizer as a byproduct (making less ammonia using Haber-Boscht?)
Defer energy crisis – could also be considered a con because this will prevent people from reducing the amount of energy they are using with their lifestyles. Because most North Americans, Australians, and Europeans have a resource-rich lifestyle, and refuse to reduce the amount of resources they are using, this also creates a large inequality with other countries around the world. Most developing countries will expect to have the same benefits as the post-industrial countries.

Cons
Continuation of Bad Energy Sources – Using algae will make other renewable resource energy sources such as photovoltaics and wind less attractive because of fluctuation. If people are lazy and choose the easiest type of energy source, they will not change their habits and therefore, problems will still exist.
Bioengineering – Plants have a nasty history of becoming less efficient as they become more bioengineered. Also, it creates a possible bottle-neck of genetics which becomes a possible endangerment of the whole industry if a disease outbreak occurred. Remember the one great maxim that everyone learns in Intro Bio: Genetic Diversity is Important. (For numerous reasons, but that’s another post for the future)
No Net Carbon Sink – It cannot be considered a carbon sink because if creating oil & gas as an energy source, it will be released in the near future. However, if used for creating other petroleum products that will be a sink for a long time to come (plastics, etc), it may be considered a sink, but as a fuel its not. That is the problem we have now is too much carbon (and frankly a lot of other greenhouse gasses that everyone ignores like methane and NOx’s and SOx’s).

Also, another con would have to do with the prominent Oil & Gas company. Would they be willing to clean up after themselves? What happens when this bioengineered algae escapes (ooooh good plot line for a novel), and oil slicks cover the water and suffocate many organisms (less air-water interactions mean less O2 dissolved in the water), or create a huge algae bloom and creates more dead zones in the oceans. Mmmmm. I have great respect for Craig Venter, lets see what he'll do.

Borrell, Brendan. 60-Second Science Blog. “Clean dreams or pond scum? ExxonMobil and Craig Venter team up in quest for algae-based biofuels”. http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=clean-dreams-or-pond-scum-exxonmobi-2009-07-14

Friday TED Talk III

Some more Great TED Talks for this Friday

Michael Pollan on Plants Ruling the World :)
Plants’ point of view

Robert Ballard on Exploring the Oceans
Exploring the oceans

Friday Ted Talk May 29th

This week, I have found an inspirational TED Talk for us botanists.
Why we are saving billions of seeds by Jonathan Drori.

It is regarding the Millennium Seed Bank run by Kew Gardens.

Wonderful talk....

Flower Focus I: Crocus

Now that spring has sprung in our horribly cold climate, I do enjoy my little croci that pop up wherever they can & give a little colour to the beds in the spring.
The crocus is genus of flowers that were originally found in southern Europe and the Middle East. A few species are hardy to Canadian Zone 2, and most will naturalize (aka multiply year after year) so that they turn out to be a very good investment in your garden. A spring flower (although in Alberta we use the word “spring” lightly), it comes in a multitude of colours (blue, purple, pink, white) and sizes. In my garden I have 2 species of true croci.
The crocus belongs to the iris family. Included in the iris family are (obviously) irises, gladioli, and freesia.

Saffron (the bits you use in cooking to give taste and colour) comes from a section of the girly reproductive bits (stigmas) of a specific species of croci that is commercially grown in Iran, Spain, Kashmir, Greece, Azerbaijan, Morocco, and Italy. It is used in cooking all over the world (but well known in Middle Eastern and Indian cooking).

Saffron (Crocus sativus)

So the next time you are eating any meal with saffron, you now know what you are eating. BTW, saffron is one of the most expensive herbs/spices that are available on the market because each stigma is hand picked. There are millions that need to be picked to make a little bit of seasoning.

I will try and regularly spotlight different plants/flowers that I am growing currently (or would like to grow when more space is made available. People regularly believe that choices are limited waaaayyyy up here & growing plants is hard. It's not. I don't water ever & I only pick weeds when I remember :)

Phytoremediation as an alternative method in Reclamation Strategies

Phytoremediation is the use of plants to clean up toxic levels of heavy metals, organic contaminants or pesticides by the absorption within the plant body and either converting the compound or storing it in the plant material, or immobilizing the contaminant within the soil area. Phytoremediation processes include 1) Phytostabilization, 2) Phytodecontamination 3) Rhizosphere Degredation 4) Phytoaccumulation and 5) Phytoextraction. These processes can safely clean contaminated water, wetlands, soil and air pollutants. As shown above, plants can be used as a natural way to clean up polluted waterways, and can even safetly clean up effluent from sewage contamination.

In all of the processes, except for phytostabilization, plants actively take up the contaminant and process it in a variety of ways which depend on the nature of the contaminant and the plant species itself. Sunflowers have been used to remove arsenic compounds and brassicas to remove lead compounds. Each species has its own growth rate and bioaccumulation rate which are important factors for deciding how to remove contaminants. Seasonal removal of plant material thereby removes the contaminants from the area to be safely disposed or stored in an alternate location. This method requires several seasons for the complete removal, and in fact complete removal of the contaminant may not be possible.

Phytoremediation can even occur inside the home. Air pollution that occurs inside newly built homes, known as off-gassing of new products can affect the health of the residents. NASA had conducted a study in the 80's showing that plants are effective at removing formaldehyde and benzene and other off-gasses from the environment just by growing popular houseplants.

Phytoremediation is not the whole story of course; important microorganisms such as Bacteria and Archaea are invaluable for providing in-house cleaning for a fraction of the work plants require. Already used in all tailings ponds (in the Tar-Sands of Northern Alberta), multiple fermentation Bacterias and methanogenic Archaeas provide the cheap & easy way of converting organic contaminants into methane and carbon dioxide. Of course this takes years as well, but they do not need seasonal removal of organic material like plants do. However, when plants and bacteria/archaea work in concert with each other, it is the fastest method of reclamation and probably safer than most other methods.

Gratao, P.L, et al. (2005). Phytoremediation: green technology for the clean up of toxic metals in the environment. Braz. J. Plant Physiol. 17(1) 53-64.

Meagher, R.B. (2000). Phytoremediation of toxic elemental and organic pollutants. Current Opinion in Plant Biology. 3: 153-162

Meers, E., Hopgood, M., Lesage, E., Verv.aeke, P., Tack, F. M. G. and Verloo, M. G. (2004). Enhanced Phytoextraction: In Search of EDTA Alternatives',International Journal of Phytoremediation. 6(2): 95 — 109.

Van Aken, B. (2008). Transgenic plants for phytoremediation: helping nature to clean up environmental pollution. Trends in Biotechnology. 26(5) 225-227.

Wolverton, B.C., Johnson, A., and Bounds, K. (1989). Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement Final Report. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Stennis Space Center, MS.

Countdown until tommorrow.... I'm so excited!

Well, the big day is tommorrow. The big 2-0-0. Darwin's birth was 200 years ago tommorrow, and his most famous book "On the Origin of Species" was published 150 years ago. So pop open that merlot, cozy up to the fire ('cause its damn cold here again!) & crack open the book that is the foundation of biology.
Botanists have always been big supporters of Darwin, probably because they see natural selection occuring over and over and over within their generation. Evolution is as near a fact as gravity, so people may as well join the Darwin side!
For a great synopsis of "On the Origin of Species", go to Blogging the Origin at Scienceblogs.com.

Personally I can't wait for the birthday cake!

Guerrilla Gardening

For those who dream about covert operations, illicit deals and subverting authority, I have found a place for you!
Guerrilla gardening was initially started in the UK, and it has grown from there. Even Deadmonon has its own platoon of guerrillas, but the effort is still small (outdated website that was last updated last year... I know, its not like I post all the time too!)
It is quite simply gardening where you can. So even if you don't want to join a local group, free crowded plants from their prison in your yard & start planting those patches of dirt. Take a packet of seeds & liberate them. Well... you get the idea, I won't start yelling "FREEDOM!! ala Braveheart now, so you needn't worry. Just get out there & get your city greener! (well, when it gets warmer I suppose)

Rhynia from Rhynia, Scotland

Well, considering this weekend is Robbie Burns' 250th Birthday anniversary, I thought it would be apropos to write about an important little plant that was found in Rhynia, Scotland.

Rhynia is north of Edinburgh and west of Aberdeen, and it is here that Rhynie Chert is found. This rock was formed when silica rich water from geysers evaporated and hardened. Within this rock, plants were fossilized with amazing detail and it is the first described vascular plant. It comes from the Devonian era, but it was not the first discovered vascular plant, as some poor guy named Dawson found an earlier vascular plant before these guys, but no one believed him.

In Canada Dawson found a fossilized plant from the Silurian era which is evidence for early vascularization of plants. Everyone thought at the time that the plant was too old to have vascular tissue (not believing that it could be evolved from that time), but he was eventually vindicated after Kidston and Lang found Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii in 1917. The plant Dawson found is currently the earliest known vascular plant from 430 MYA (million years ago) called Cooksonia sp.


In the chert are compressions of these Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii plants, the darker areas that clearly show the stems and sporangia at the terminal positions (tops) of the stems. In some compressions, annular thickenings of the secondary cell wall in xylem can be seen, elevating the status of this plant to "vascular". The cross section shows that this plant had stomata, basal patterning, but the stele (vasculature arrangement) is quite noticeable in the middle. The plant seen in the chert is the sporophyte, with recently found smaller gametophytes that are not dependent on the sporophyte like some derived plants (A pattern found is the more derived; the smaller the gametophyte). Also, more basal plants have sporophytes dependent on the gametophyte indicating that this plant may be a transition plant. This plant is known to be a sporophyte because of the sporangia on top of stems. Inside the sporangia, tetrads of spores have been found, indicating that meiosis has occurred (meiosis only in diploid; and therefore sporophyte).


Paleobotany is an interesting field filled with excitement, as new discoveries are being made and interpreted all of the time. Fieldwork and lab work combine to shed new light on plant beginnings. Most of all, it makes it difficult to decide which field I want to be in! I want to thank my prof R. Stockey (great lecture!) ; and the following ref's on the net:



http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/plants/trimerophytophyta/psilophyton.gif


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhynia
http://maps.google.ca/maps

I'm back!!!

Bonjour!


I have gone on my trip and have survived my first two weeks of school this year! Yaay!!!



Anyways I went on that field trip to Dinosaur Provincial Park and had fun (well, what fun I could have without drinking I suppose)... and got a sunburn. LOL! I guess people who know me wouldn't be surprised. Anyways, here are a few pics to keep you entertained.

The "Broomweed" we were studying

The wonderful view.... everywhere you looked there was a great pic opportunity!