Plants

Happy Fascination of Plants Day!

May 18, 2012
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Happy Fascination of Plants Day!

Today is the first ever Fascination of Plants Day and I am very excited, as my Twitter friends will be able to testify (tweet ALL the plants!). All over the world there will be plant-related activities today, in Botanic Gardens, universities and research institutes. Our group will be at Oxford Botanic Garden from 10-7 pm and show people what plant parts and cells look like under the microscope! To celebrate the occasion, Martin Austwick has written a very lovely song from the view of an ancient tree. Go and listen to it and don’t blame me if it gets...

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In space no one can see you gleam – unless you use GFP

May 5, 2012
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In space no one can see you gleam – unless you use GFP

Will humans one day live on other planets than on Earth? I don’t know the answer to that. But I know that if humans attempt to settle on extraterrestrial land, we will want to take plants with us to provide us with food and make our air breathable (1). Before we can successfully embark on space-farming adventures, we need to understand how plants react and adapt to the extreme conditions in space and what genes or metabolic pathways are switched on in this process. Reporter genes help us to study responses to external conditions and stresses. Some of these...

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Spring is here!

April 21, 2012
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I love photography, and especially makro photography of flowers and other plants. Today was my first makro session of the year and I managed to get totally lost in the small world of flowers for over an hour. It’s fascinating what you start to see once you get your eye into it – all those fine intricate details, hairy surfaces and structural components you never noticed before. Not to mention the colours, which change in an instant when hit by a sunbeam. Bliss!  

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How much is that pet plant in the window?

April 5, 2012
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How much is that pet plant in the window?

I hadn’t realised that there was research on creating interactive pet plants that are able to display emotions! From the description of “My Green Pet” (Hwang et al. 2010): “The difficulty that children have in perceiving plants as living entities has been verified by several studies. As an initial attempt to address this issue, we propose “My Green Pet”, an interactive plant for children. Through this, children enjoy human-like interactions with the plant and also perceive that this particular plant is living. This is achieved by personifying a regular plant by giving it human feelings and emotions, such as...

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I bet plants look good on the dancefloor

February 22, 2012
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Dancing with plants

Plants don’t do much all day except sitting around and photosynthesising.Right? Wrong!! Plants move constantly, but much slower than animals. Therefore they manage to trick us by pretending to be really boring. But if you put up a hidden camera, take a picture every minute or hour and put it together to a time-lapse video, they won’t be able to fool you any longer. The “Plants in Motion” website created by Roger P. Hangarter has a really nice collection of plant time-lapse videos, ranging from germination to tropism (directional movement in response to an external signal such as light...

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Roses are red – but they don’t need to be, if you know how to use food dyes and Fibonacci

February 14, 2012
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Rainbow Rose

Happy Valentine’s Day! Looking for something more special than “just” a bunch of flowers? Read my post at the “Annals of Botany” blog to find out how to make rainbow roses. http://aobblog.com/2012/02/roses-are-red-but-they-dont-need-to-be-if-you-know-how-to-use-food-dyes-and-fibonacci/   A rainbow rose. Photo by Ryan Amos

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Why peanuts are a lie

January 20, 2012
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Why peanuts are a lie

The other day I was digging through my nut storage box (yes, we have enough nut varieties for cooking and baking to hand to give them their own box). I was looking for pine nuts to use in a pasta dish and came across a peanuts pack. Easily amused as I am I thought “oh well, if I can’t find pine nuts, I’ll just use peanuts. Their names are close enough!” However, then I started wondering about the difference between peanuts and pine nuts, especially as my boss is allergic to nuts but keeps emphasising how he can eat...

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When You Wish Upon a Star Anise

December 22, 2011
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When You Wish Upon a Star Anise

What spice represents Christmas for you? Ginger (Zingiber officinale) because of its importance in the international gingerbread house construction industry? Cinnamon, the dried bark of the Sri Lanka tree Cinnamomum verum, as an essential ingredient for Christmas candles, cookies and tea? (Cranberry Cinnamon Christmas Tree Rolls) For me it is Star Anise, the dried fruit of the Chinese evergreen tree Illicium verum, mainly based on its appearance (yes, I am a superficial spice appreciator). It’s just so pretty! Using cinnamon sticks and star anise you can make very nice holiday decorations, as shown in this tutorial. I am also...

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Out with the Tinsel, in With the Evergreens

December 19, 2011
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19th December – Out with the Tinsel, in With the Evergreens

This video produced by the Eden Project gives some ideas about how to decorate your home for Christmas with plants.

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How to clone your Christmas Cactus

December 18, 2011
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How to clone your Christmas Cactus

Today I am going to explain how you can clone your Christmas cactus. “But Dr O”, you might ask, “don’t we need a fully equipped laboratory and a set of pipettes and a lot of other expensive biotechnology stuff to do this?” “Not in this case”, I would answer, “because we are cloning a plant and plants are so amazing that in fact they clone themselves all the time in nature – without using expensive equipment at all!” They are able do this by sending runners, small shoot-like structures, along the soil. The runner eventually roots and becomes a...

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The Science of Christmas Trees Part 2

December 16, 2011
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The Science of Christmas Trees Part 2

There has been quite a high interest in the science of Christmas trees, and therefore I decided to dedicate another post to this season’s VIP (Very Important Plant). To start with some proper Botany, take a look at this very nice schematic diagram by the BCTGA (British Christmas Tree Growers Association), available for download here. It contains tons of information including scientific names, needle and cone shapes and geographic distribution. Did you know that pine cones are actually very flexible and can open and close depending on the air humidity of their environment? The reason for this is that...

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It could have been “O Mistletoe”

December 9, 2011
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9th December – It could have been “O Mistletoe”

This nice video by Kew Gardens explains the traditions behind decorating our houses with Christmas trees, holly and mistletoe. What do these plants symbolise and what is their history? How can they be used as medicine? Where can you find the country’s largest Christmas tree? Watch and find out! Bonus track: “Meet Me Under The Mistletoe” by Colin Healy. Like!

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