Very old oak; pretty young genes.
Nature examines a tree that was alive in the time of Napoleon, yet has DNA that’s remarkably free of the usual damage of aging: Each […]
botany
Science Art: Medlar, Poppy Anenome, Pear by Hoefnagel and Bocskay, 1561-2.
Wildflower and fruit, from two 16th-century Europeans. More specifically: Medlar, Poppy Anenome, Pear ( 1561 – 1562 ). Watercolour, gold and silver paint, and ink […]
Science Art: Lychee, from Flora Sinensis, 1656.
This is Litchi chinensis, 荔枝, the lychee, sometimes called a “lychee nut” although it’s not nut-like at all. It’s more like a muscadine (tough skin, […]
Science Art: Picea excelsa, Walter Mueller, 1886.
Click to embiggen A spruce tree, for the second day of Christmas. From Dr. Prof. Thomé’s Flora von Deutschland, Oesterreich und der Schweiz, in Wort […]
Science Art: Nutmeg Tree, from 40 drawings of plants at Bencoolen, Sumatra, c.1824.
Click to embiggen Spice. In watercolor. It looks like it would smell delicious. From 40 Drawings of Plants at Bencoolen, Sumatra, a collection of natural […]
Coffee (and pepper) of the dinosaurs discovered.
Discovery News hypes the headline a little here (but forgivably) by declaring that a 45-million-year-old prehistoric coffee has been discovered preserved in amber: Named Strychnos […]
A bionic rose, for electronic lovers – growing circuitry inside.
Nature reports on the creation of a rose implanted with electronic circuits: Researchers at Linköping University have created bionic roses by incorporating plant-compatible electronic materials […]
If you’re looking at a plant in a museum, there’s a better than 50% chance it’s named wrong.
Motherboard checks out the state of our nomenclature, and the findings are not good: n a study published on Monday in the journal Current Biology, […]
Italian police pressure scientists investigating olive blight.
Nature uncovers just how hard it can be to do research when your subjects keep dying: In the past year, plant scientists at various institutes […]
Wood chips (of the computer variety).
Science Daily peers into the smoke clouds to see the truth behind biodegradable computer chips make from wood: Portable electronics — typically made of non-renewable, […]
Science Art: Peppergrass, by Zoe Keller
Click to embiggen I love peppergrass. This is a great illustration of the middle part of the plant – there are actually some narrow, spiky-looking […]
Science Art: Compound flower with pollen no scale bar, by Philippa Uwins
Click to embiggen Here, have a flower. Up close. Colored in photoshop. Found in the Wikimedia Commons.
This vine changes shape to fit in with whatever’s nearby.
How can this vine *know* what to look like? Science looks at the first known case of shape-shifting mimicry in the vegetable kingdom: Fewer examples […]
Boeing announces (with much hype) new way to turn deserts into biofuel farms.
Energy Post calls it “the BIGGEST BREAKTHROUGH EVER!” That seems a bit much, but it is interesting that a Boeing-sponsored group in Abu Dhabi has […]
Plants hear herbivores coming. No, really.
National Geographic reveals what really goes on in a plant’s… mind?… when sap-thirsty plant killers are on the prowl: [University of Wisconsin researcher John] Orrock […]