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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The Murcian flower has been 'revived' after 100 years
The species of legume known as 'Tallante's chickpea', which has not been seen for nearly a century, has finally been studied in detail. The species is thought to be in critical danger of extinction given that ...
Oct 13, 2011 |
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Do long-lived crops differ from annual crops in their genetic response to human domestication?
Most of what we have come to think of as our daily fruits, vegetables, and grains were domesticated from wild ancestors. Over hundreds and thousands of years, humans have selected and bred plants for traits ...
Sep 27, 2011 |
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Waging war on invasive plant species: Effects of invasives persist even after removal
(PhysOrg.com) -- Invasive species cost an estimated $1.4 trillion annually in their environmental and economic impacts worldwide and are second only to habitat loss as a threat to biodiversity. As scientists ...
Aug 10, 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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Popular fungicides failing, may cause hard choices for apple growers
Orchard growers have started finding that some of the most commonly used fungicides are no longer effective at controlling apple scab, according to a Purdue University study.
Jul 12, 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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Botanists unearth old headlines while unwrapping plant samples
Students unwrapping plant samples got a bit of history mixed in with botany recently, when they unearthed headlines from old newspapers dating as far back as 1950.
Jun 22, 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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Storing seeds for a rainy day -- or in this case, a fire
As mountain pine beetles march across the forests of western North America, these insects may kill millions of pine trees during a single outbreak. A rise in overall temperatures over the past several years has increased ...
May 31, 2011 |
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When plants spin off new species
(PhysOrg.com) -- Contrary to what most people may think, the speciation rates of plants are not linked to the first development of a novel physical trait or mechanism. New international research shows that ...
May 13, 2011 |
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Chinese primrose rediscovered
A botanist at one of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partners, the Kunming Institute of Botany, has rediscovered two populations of a primrose which was thought to be extinct in the wild.
May 05, 2011 |
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Rare Pennsylvania fungus is named for Philadelphia botanist
A Philadelphia botanist who has studied rare plants for 50 years, but has never attained the honor of having a plant named for him is finally getting his due, but with a barely visible organism so rare it ...
Apr 27, 2011 |
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Hidden elm population may hold genes to combat Dutch elm disease
Two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists may have discovered "the map to El Dorado" for the American elm-a previously hidden population of elms that carry genes for resistance to Dutch elm disease. The disease ...
Mar 30, 2011 |
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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.
