News tagged with botany
Carnivorous plant traps worms with sticky leaves
Plants eat the darndest things. Scientists have discovered a small flowering plant living in the sandy soils of Brazil that traps nematodes, or roundworms, with sticky underground leaves -- and gobbles them ...
Jan 09, 2012 |
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For certain orchids, relatives more important than pollinators in shaping floral attractants
Bees, bats, and moths all follow their noses in search of food from flowers. Plants that rely on such animals for pollination often produce particular chemical scents that attract specific pollinators. However, ...
Oct 26, 2011 |
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Genetic evidence clears Ben Franklin (w/ Video)
The DNA evidence is in, and Ben Franklin didn't do it. Genetic tests on more than 1,000 Chinese tallow trees from the United States and China show the famed U.S. statesman did not import the tallow trees ...
Jul 29, 2011 |
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Orchids and fungi: An unexpected case of symbiosis
The majority of orchids are found in habitats where light may be a limiting factor. In such habitats it is not surprising that many achlorophyllous (lacking chlorophyll), as well as green, orchids depend on ...
Jul 12, 2011 |
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Salivating over wheat plants may net Hessian flies big meal or death
The interaction between a Hessian fly's saliva and the wheat plant it is attacking may be the key to whether the pest eats like a king or dies like a starving pauper, according to a study done at Purdue University.
Jun 14, 2011 |
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Like products, plants wait for optimal configuration before market success
Just as a company creates new, better versions of a product to increase market share and pad its bottom line, an international team of researchers led by Brown University has found that plants tinker with ...
Mar 29, 2011 |
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Islands in the sky: How isolated are mountain top plant populations?
Do mountain tops act as sky islands for species that live at high elevations? Are plant populations on these mountain tops isolated from one another because the valleys between them act as barriers, or can ...
Jan 21, 2011 |
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Giant fossil Prototaxites: Unraveling a 400-million-year-old mystery
Contradictions and puzzles surround the giant fossil Prototaxites. The fossils resemble tree trunks, and yet they are from a time before trees existed. The stable carbon isotope values are similar to those of fungi, but th ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Feb 10, 2010 |
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Learning to live on land: How some early plants overcame an evolutionary hurdle
Diversity of life would be impossible if the ancestors of modern plants had stayed in the water with their green algal cousins. Moving onto dry land required major changes to adapt to this new "hostile" environment, ...
Sep 15, 2010 |
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Making its predators tremble: Multiple defenses act synergistically in aspen
If plants did not defend themselves in some way, they would certainly be gobbled up by a whole suite of voracious predators ranging from little insects to large mammalian herbivores. Indeed, not only do plants defend themselves, ...
Apr 23, 2010 |
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Weeding out marijuana: Researchers close in on engineering recognizable, drug-free Cannabis plant
In a first step toward engineering a drug-free Cannabis plant for hemp fiber and oil, University of Minnesota researchers have identified genes producing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance in marijuana. ...
Sep 15, 2009 |
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Wine vine: Microscopic photography reveals bacteria destroying grape plant cell wall
Like a band of detectives surveying the movement of a criminal, researchers using photographic technology have caught at least one culprit in the act.
Mar 15, 2010 |
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Analyzing complex plant genomes with the newest next-generation DNA sequencing techniques
Genomes are catalogs of hereditary information that determine whether an organism becomes a plant, animal, fungus or microbe, and whether the organism is adapted to its surroundings. Determining the sequence ...
Feb 27, 2012 |
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Nanotechnology: A dead end for plant cells?
Using particles that are 1/100,000 the width of a human hair to deliver drugs to cells or assist plants in fighting off pests may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but these scenarios may be a common occurrence ...
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Nov 16, 2010 |
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What should goldenrod do to avoid an insect attack? Duck
A field of golden-flowered stems swaying in an autumn breeze may evoke a peaceful scene. But this tranquility belies serious battles between natural enemies that took place in the spring. In particular, young ...
Mar 08, 2010 |
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Botany
Botany, plant science(s), or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses. Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines including structure, growth, reproduction, metabolism, development, diseases, chemical properties, and evolutionary relationships among taxonomic groups. Botany began with early human efforts to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants, making it one of the oldest branches of science. Today botanists study over 550,000 species of living organisms.
The term "botany" comes from Greek βοτάνη, meaning "pasture, grass, fodder", perhaps via the idea of a livestock keeper needing to know which plants are safe for livestock to eat.
For more information about Botany, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
