In ecosystems around the globe, the danger of being a common or widespread species is the tendency to be overlooked by conservation efforts that prioritize rarity.
Ecology
Oct 30, 2020
1
92
It's said that maple syrup is Quebec's liquid gold. Now scientists at Université de Montréal have found a way to use real gold—in the form of nanoparticles—to quickly find out how the syrup tastes.
Analytical Chemistry
May 05, 2020
1
190
Although pollen has covered cars for weeks and allergy sufferers have been sneezing, we think of sex as being the realm of animals. But plant sex can be quite interesting, especially in species that can have male or female ...
Plants & Animals
May 29, 2019
0
126
Maple trees are best known for their maple syrup and lovely fall foliage. But it turns out that the beauty of those leaves could be skin-deep—and that's a good thing. Today, scientists report that an extract from the leaves ...
Biochemistry
Aug 20, 2018
0
107
Antibiotics save lives every day, but there is a downside to their ubiquity. High doses can kill healthy cells along with infection-causing bacteria, while also spurring the creation of "superbugs" that no longer respond ...
Biochemistry
Apr 02, 2017
3
5413
New research from North Carolina State University shows that urban "heat islands" are slowly killing red maples in the southeastern United States. One factor is that researchers have found warmer temperatures increase the ...
Environment
Jul 23, 2014
7
0
A joint Harvard-Smithsonian study released today in the journal PLOS ONE reveals how much—and how little—Northeastern forests have changed after centuries of intensive land use.
Environment
Sep 04, 2013
0
0
For many of us, maple syrup is an essential part of breakfast—a staple accompaniment to pancakes and waffles—but rarely do we think about the complicated and little-understood physiological aspects of syrup production. ...
Mathematics
Mar 07, 2013
0
0
The seeds that drop from maple trees each fall, whirring softly to the ground like silent one-winged helicopters, are the inspiration for a new kind of flying machine that could be useful for military information-gathering.
Robotics
Aug 15, 2011
39
0
University of Rhode Island researcher Navindra Seeram has discovered 34 new beneficial compounds in pure maple syrup and confirmed that 20 compounds discovered last year in preliminary research play a key role in human health.
Other
Mar 30, 2011
10
0
Acer (pronounced /ˈeɪsər/) is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.
Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in Sapindaceae. The type species of the genus is Acer pseudoplatanus (Sycamore maple).
There are approximately 129 species, most of which are native to Asia, with a number also appearing in Europe, northern Africa, and North America. Only one species, the poorly studied Acer laurinum, is native to the Southern Hemisphere. Fifty four species of maples meet the International Union for Conservation of Nature criteria for being under threat of extinction in their native habitat.
The word Acer derives from a Latin word meaning "sharp" (compare "acerbic"), referring to the characteristic points on maple leaves. It was first applied to the genus by the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in 1700. The earliest known fossil maple is Acer alaskense, from the Latest Paleocene of Alaska.
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