Amazing Plants
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Pando the trembling giant is struggling to stay alive
This colony of quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides, located on the Western edge of the Colorado Plateau in Utah is actually one humongous male individual connected by a intricate underground network of roots. Pando covers 43 hectares and is estimated to weigh 6,000,000 kilograms and be over 80,000 years old. This makes it the most massive and also the oldest living organism. Charles Darwin the botanist!
If Darwin had never discovered natural selection, he would still be well known as an accomplished botanist! Among the many books on plants published by Darwin is the favourite in my lab: The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species (1877). Studying the floral polymorphisms, the reciprocal arrangement of anther and stigma in flowers of Primula species, Darwin writes in his autobiography: "I do not think anything in my scientific life has given me so much satisfaction as making out the meaning of the structure of these plants". Almost a 150 years later, Shatarupa is wrapping up her thesis on trying to understand the "meaning of the structure of these plants"! Article in Smithsonian: How a love for flowers helped Darwin validate the theory of natural selection Plants represents 82% of biomass of all living matter! A study from Ron Milo's group gives us the first reliable quantitative estimates of the biomass composition of all living matter on earth. Plants dominate the overall biomass, accounting for more than 80% of the 550 gigatons of carbon found in the biosphere. The results show that while humans represent an insignificant 0.01% of the total biomass, they have a disproportionately large impact on the biosphere, and have caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and 50% of all plants. Link to paper: Bar-On, Yinon M., Rob Phillips, and Ron Milo. "The biomass distribution on Earth." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2018): 201711842. Link to article on the study: Guardian article with wonderful graphical representation of the results The wood-wide-web A beautiful animation from BBC about the interconnectedness of trees. Using this network called the wood-wide-web trees talk and share resources; support their offspring; while some also hijack it to sabotage their rivals. If you found this interesting, you may enjoy listening to the podcast (30 minutes) on 'Can plants talk?' from CrowdScience BBC.
Botanical life in close up Some stunning images in the Guardian from Colin Salter’s new book. This is a selection of extraordinary electron microscopic images of plants material including seeds, pollen, fruiting bodies, leaves, flowers, vegetables and fruits. Africa's ancient baobab trees are dying
These beautiful trees with their unique pot-bellied trunks are known to be very long-lived. Indeed, a recent study estimated the age of one of these trees to be almost 2500 years old! This same study also documented unprecedented deaths in these ancient trees from across Africa in the last 12 years. There was no signs of disease and the researchers speculate that climate change induced stress may be the cause of the mortality. Patrut, A., et al. "The demise of the largest and oldest African baobabs." Nature plants (2018). Mimicry in plants! A phenomenon where an organism, the 'mimic', has evolved to resemble another organism, the 'model'. This results in the modification of the behaviour of a third organism, a shared signal receiver, who is now unable to distinguish between the model and mimic. While better known examples of mimicry come from the animal kingdom, there are spectacular examples of mimicry in plants - like the flowers of the orchid genus Ophrys, which mimic female bees and lure males to attempt copulation with them resulting in pollination for the flowers. In a recent study, it was reported that leaves of a Patagonian woody climber, Boquila trifoliolata, mimic the leaves of its hosts to avoid herbivory. The leaves of the climber match the size, shape, color, orientation, petiole length, and/or tip spininess of the host leaves. What's more, when the same individual was associated with different hosts, it changed leaf traits accordingly! This report of leaf mimicry raises important questions about signalling between plants and how this influences leaf development. Ernesto & Carrasco-Urra. "Leaf mimicry in a climbing plant protects against herbivory." Current Biology24.9 (2014): 984-987. Do plants talk about sex? Finding mates is challenging for plants - in this episode, crowdscience explores communication between flowers and their pollinators. In addition to colours and fragrance, flowers and bees use electricity to communicate with each other! Features work from Heather Whitney's and Daniel Robert's labs on bees and electricity. Clarke, Dominic, et al. "Detection and learning of floral electric fields by bumblebees." Science 340.6128 (2013): 66-69.
Timber! Michael Kenna's magical trees Featured in the Guardian - From the lakes of Hokkaido to the forests of Abruzzo, British photographer, Michael Kenna's images of trees. More on Michael Kenna from the Blue Lotus Gallery, Hong Kong:
The largest Banyan tree Thimmamma Marrimanu - this tree in Anantpur, Andhra Pradesh is believed to be over 500 years old. The canopy of this Ficus benghalensis covers more than 5 acres. That is roughly equal to 4 soccer fields! It can fit 20,000 people under its canopy. A podcast about this huge tree A list of other big Banyans in India Crazy tree grows 40 kinds of fruits! Tree of 40 Fruit - This art project by Sam Van Aken, from Syracuse University's School of Art will grow 40 different flowers and fruits. These include different varieties of peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, apricots, and almonds! Sam Van Aken has constructed this 'Frankenstein' tree by the process of grafting. Link to National geographic video describing the project The amazing living bridges of Meghalaya A two hour journey from Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya will bring you to the wettest part of the world with average annual rainfall greater than 10,000 mm. Near here is the village of Mawlynnong which has recently been in the news for being recognized as the 'Cleanest Village' in India and Asia (check out podcast from NPR). A 20 minute walk from the village is one of these amazing living bridges. These bridges are made from Ficus elastica trees by guiding the pliable roots over streams and rivers and allowing them to strengthen over time. Similar living bridges have also been made in Nagaland, Sumatra and Java. Bananas, papayas, squashes, tomatoes and more More than a hundred different types of plants, all in a city rooftop garden in Pune. This video about home composting, and terrace gardens in the city was produced by the IISER-Pune Science Media Centre. Check out more videos from the Science Media Centre at IISER Pune.
Forest Man The story of Jadav Payeng who has since 1979 single-handedly planted trees on 1400 acres of land on the island of Majuli - the largest river island in the world. This short film directed by William Douglas McMaster was awarded the Best Documentary at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. Plant regenerated from 30,000 year old seed! Scientists in Russia have regenerated Silene stenophylla plants from 32,000 year old seeds found in hibernation burrows of the arctic ground squirrel. The seeds recovered from the permafrost in the banks of the Kolmya river were encased in ice, indicating that they were probably never thawed. This species is still currently found in the Siberian tundra, and when the researchers compared the resurrected plant to present day individuals they found differences in the size and shapes of the flowers. S. Yashina et al. (2012). Regeneration of whole fertile plants from 30,000-y-old fruit tissue buried in Siberian permafrost. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118386109; 2012). |
Boquila trifoliolata, mimic the leaves of its hosts to avoid herbivory (Gianoli, Ernesto, and Fernando Carrasco-Urra. "Leaf mimicry in a climbing plant protects against herbivory." Current Biology24.9 (2014): 984-987.
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