originally posted: December 26, 2001 | by chelsie

Evergreens of the temperate and boreal areas have mutualistic associations with fungi generally called ectomycorrhizae [ek' toe my' co rye' zay]. Ectomycorrhizal fungi form a mesh of hyphae called a Hartig net around the roots of the tree. This net serves as an interface between the root and the fungus. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 19, 2001 | by chelsie

Australia is home to twelve species of small butterflies called azures in the genus Ogyris [o gi' ris]. Depending upon the species, the Ogyris butterflies are dependent either on ants in the genus Papyrius [pap ear' ee us] or Camponotus [cam pon' o tus]. Ten of the butterfly species are also dependent on mistletoes (Amyema spp.) [a my' e ma] as hosts for their larvae. The semi-parasitic Amyema mistletoes are dependent on trees, mostly Eucalyptus. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 12, 2001 | by chelsie

The silk taken from the cocoon of the Bombyx mori is a well-known fabric, but there is a wild silk that has a truly rare quality. The caterpillars of Antheraea assamensis [an the ra' ee ah sa men' sis] are endemic (found no where else) to a small area of India, Myanmar, and Malaysia. In the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam the caterpillars are cultivated. Unlike Bombyx mori which can no longer survive without the intervention of humans, these caterpillars have a behavior which has not necessitated domestication. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: December 5, 2001 | by chelsie

The production of fabric from the cocoons of the silkworm (Bombyx mori Linnaeus) goes back almost 5000 years. The manufacture of Chinese silk was kept secret for 2700 years. Silk from China was such a profitable export that the trade routes from China to the Mediterranean were known as the Silk Road. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 28, 2001 | by chelsie

On the banks of the Selangor River in Malaysia, there is a spectacular show after dark. The key mangroves (Sonneratia alba and S. caseolaris) light up with the synchronous flashing of kelip-kelip (fireflies). Thousands of these tiny beetles (Pteroptyx tener) depend upon the mangroves as the stage for their mating ritual. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 21, 2001 | by chelsie

The coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) is the best known of the drift fruits, those seeds that travel the oceans colonizing new lands. The coconut, though, has not traveled alone. It has served as a raft carrying a hermit crab. An unlikely pair of voyagers: an embryo plant inside the husk and a tiny crab clinging to the outside. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 14, 2001 | by chelsie

The sugar beet (Beta vulgaris Linnaeus) industry in North America started in the 1880s, twenty years after the French industry got on its feet. But a couple of strange things happened to the sugar beets in North America. In the late 1940s, American farmers began reporting a new pest. When the beets were dug, the roots had been eaten by maggots and rot had set in. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: November 7, 2001 | by chelsie

Nematodes are microscopic roundworms, unrelated to earthworms, which live in the soil. Some are beneficial to the gardener like those that eat detritus and recycle nutrients back into the earth. But there are those that eat into living roots. There is nothing worse than losing a prized plant or an entire crop to these ubiquitous bar sinisters. But even nematodes have their predators. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 31, 2001 | by chelsie

The tipitiwitchet (Dionaea muscipula Ellis) is an outlandish plant native to the Carolinas. It is a diminutive marvel; a plant that waits for prey, then closes on a meal. Tipitiwitchets inhabit boggy places with peculiar names like pocosins or Carolina bays. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 24, 2001 | by chelsie

Sweet potatoes, like most other plants, protect themselves with chemicals. The primary anti-herbivory device in a sweet potato plant is a trypsin inhibitor. This inhibitor prevents the enzyme from functioning and without active trypsin, proteins are not digested. A caterpillar chowing down on a sweet potato leaf is not getting all the nutrition in the leaf. The trypsin inhibitor is preventing the insect from benefiting from the proteins. Without the proteins, the insect will not develop correctly and may never be able to reproduce. Eventually the insect will die. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 17, 2001 | by chelsie

Not far from the cool coastline of South Africa, there are two sticky plants, Roridula gorgonias [row rid' u la gor gon' ee as] and R. dentata [den ta' ta]. Charles Darwin declared Roridula to be carnivorous for the plants were covered with the carcasses of insects. But Roridula does not digest insects, it simply traps the unwary. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 10, 2001 | by chelsie

The potato, like most other plants, has to contend with its own set of pests as well as all those generalist "bugs" that will eat anything. The solanine, present in potato relatives, keeps animals from eating the plants, but insects are adaptable. Within a few generations, insects develop the ability to neutralize a toxin, ignore a toxin, or use it for their own benefit. The worst problem, though, the insects act as disease vectors. The beetle, aphid, or caterpillar spreads fungal rot, bacterial infections, or viruses. [Click here to read more...]

originally posted: October 3, 2001 | by chelsie

The soybean cyst nematode (Heterodera glycines) is a microscopic creature, a tiny roundworm barely 4 millimeters long. Even when the soybean plant is suffering from a nematode attack, it exhibits symptoms similar to mineral deficiencies or a disease. As people treated fields for other causes of crop failures, the nematode managed to spread itself to many soybean growing regions of the world. [Click here to read more...]