Plant Science

If it's not about plants, but it is about the natural environment of Death Valley, then this is the place to post your info or question.

Re: Plant Science

Postby CactusHugger » Sat Nov 19, 2016 6:00 pm

Researchers show how dramatically man has changed everything from the banana to the watermelon since our ancestors first ate them
I think researchers know what they're talking about when they talk about the development of modern food crops. There's a lot of evidence to work with and it makes sense that natural plants over the course of hundreds of generations would gradually develop into the domesticated plants that we know today through a process of artificial selection.
Wild carrots are unrecognizable today. Found in Persia and Asia Minor around the 10th century, they were purple or white root-like structures. Its seeds made their way as far as Europe about 5,000 years ago and it is still found today in temperate regions. The orange-ish vegetable we know today was domesticate in the 1900s, which started as a golden ball and transformed into the long orange carrot today. The modern carrot has also become an annual winter crop, compared to its ancestors that thrived in warmer climates.

LINK:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3428689/What-fruit-vegetables-look-like-Researchers-banana-watermelon-changed-dramatically-ancestors-ate-them.html
User avatar
CactusHugger
Backcountry Hiker
 
Posts: 759
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:29 am
Location: The Cactus Patch

Re: Plant Science

Postby surfsteve » Sat Nov 19, 2016 9:26 pm

Actually there are cultivated varieties of purple and white carrots; but yeah: I was thinking about it after I made that post that researchers probably had a good idea of what plants looked like many years before agriculture, based on what they found in the stomachs of prehistoric animals. I do know that plants revert back to their wild state fairly rapidly after escaping cultivation. Hybrids and grafts revert back immediately but stable varieties take a lot longer. Most cultivated plants require much more care such as fertilizer, water and elimination of competing wild plants; and without such care they will soon be taken over by wild ones which don't require any care at all. Without man to cultivate them, survival becomes a game of thorns. Lots of plants depend on man or animals to eat them in order to disperse their seeds by pooping them out; but I suppose there was a time before they had to depend on other means in order to propagate. I suppose one could say that they genetically modified themselves to take advantage of their situation. Or were the animals that ate them responsible for modifying the plants; which brings us back to the whole chicken or the egg thing...
Make Trona great again!
surfsteve
Prehistoric Fossil
 
Posts: 2339
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:57 am
Location: everywhere

Re: Plant Science

Postby panamint_patty » Sat Feb 11, 2017 8:11 am

The Ingenious Ways Plants Defend Themselves
Besides thorns and barbs, plants also excrete chemicals to ward off predators.
User avatar
panamint_patty
Prehistoric Fossil
 
Posts: 1202
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:23 pm
Location: T-Town

Re: Plant Science

Postby surfsteve » Sat Feb 11, 2017 9:21 am

Most plants produce some kind of chemical to fend off predators that want to eat them. Much of those chemicals have been bred out of our vegetables and grains but still remain in small amounts. Cooking usually gets rid of most of what is left. That is why beans, potatoes and wheat need to be cooked before consumption. Next time you don't want to eat your vegetables you might try using that as an excuse!
Make Trona great again!
surfsteve
Prehistoric Fossil
 
Posts: 2339
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:57 am
Location: everywhere

Re: Plant Science

Postby camel » Sat Feb 11, 2017 11:15 am

Hearing danger: predator vibrations trigger plant chemical defenses
Hearing or feeling or just somehow sensing?
Would you walk a mile for me?
User avatar
camel
Cantankerous Mule
 
Posts: 287
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2015 9:16 am
Location: Vast ocean of sand

Re: Plant Science

Postby camel » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:35 pm

Study: Seeds Use Tiny 'Brains' to Decide When to Grow
Simply fascinating! :thumb:
Would you walk a mile for me?
User avatar
camel
Cantankerous Mule
 
Posts: 287
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2015 9:16 am
Location: Vast ocean of sand

Re: Plant Science

Postby wildrose » Wed Jul 12, 2017 6:56 am

Some Plants Turn Caterpillars Into Cannibals
Interesting, but I've never seen anything like this and I've seen a lot of caterpillars eating a lot of tomato plants!
User avatar
wildrose
Prehistoric Fossil
 
Posts: 1396
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 10:41 pm
Location: middle of nowhere

Re: Plant Science

Postby CactusHugger » Mon Jul 24, 2017 6:46 am

Some plants eat other plants
New plant parasitic plant discovered in Japan.
User avatar
CactusHugger
Backcountry Hiker
 
Posts: 759
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:29 am
Location: The Cactus Patch

Re: Plant Science

Postby panamint_patty » Sat Jan 06, 2018 9:53 am

Did a popular sugar additive fuel the spread of two superbugs?
Interesting theory about how this alternative form of sugar, which became cheap to produce around 2000, may have interacted with bacteria in the human gut to produce a dangerous infection.
Two bacterial strains that have plagued hospitals around the country may have been at least partly fueled by a sugar additive in our food products, scientists say. Trehalose, a sugar that is added to a wide range of food products, could have allowed certain strains of Clostridium difficile to become far more virulent than they were before, a new study finds.

Also known as mycose or tremalose, it's found in nature:
In plants, the presence of trehalose is seen in sunflower seeds, moonwort, Selaginella plants, and sea algae. Within the fungi, it is prevalent in some mushrooms, such as shiitake (Lentinula edodes), oyster, king oyster, and golden needle. Even within the plant kingdom, Selaginella (sometimes called the resurrection plant), which grows in desert and mountainous areas, may be cracked and dried out, but will turn green again and revive after rain because of the function of trehalose.

WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trehalose
ARTICLE: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/science/2018/01/04/Did-a-popular-sugar-additive-fuel-the-spread-of-two-superbugs
User avatar
panamint_patty
Prehistoric Fossil
 
Posts: 1202
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:23 pm
Location: T-Town

Re: Plant Science

Postby CactusHugger » Sun Jul 29, 2018 7:33 am

Why Produce Used to Suck
Most people have heard about the transformation of various wild plants into the modern crops grown on farms, but this is a fun review of several examples including the banana, cruciferous vegetables, wheat, corn, watermelon, and eggplants. WARNING: Don't show this in a classroom. Inappropriate language.
User avatar
CactusHugger
Backcountry Hiker
 
Posts: 759
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2012 10:29 am
Location: The Cactus Patch

PreviousNext

Return to General Environment and Nature

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests