Pumpkins, Pumpkins and More Pumpkins!
Happy Halloween! Every year as October 31st approaches, children, teenagers and adults alike gather to select the finest pumpkins from the patch to place on display for trick-or-treaters. Whether this orange fruit remains whole or is carved into a jack-o’-lantern, pumpkins seem to always play a major...
Moving to Higher Ground
AgroParis Tech, a collection of French academic institutions, recently conducted a study looking at plant migration data from six major regions across Europe. The findings were that a whopping 118 out of the 171 plant species tracked have migrated northward and will probably continue to do so. As a result...
Two (Discriminatory) Peas in One Pod
A fundamental problem that arises with all of life on earth is allocating a limited number of resources over the entire span of a population. Since the dawn of humanity, this has been the source of countless wars and conflicts that have resulted in the tragic deaths of many and the injury of countless...
Global Warming, Acid Rain, and Pollution: How They Can Help
You may take a look at this title and see three horrendous things staring back at you. However, to the plant world, and partially our world, they might not actually be the worst things on the planet. As it turns out, global warming increases the length of the growth season of hardwood forests by about...
The Mechanism to Control Root Offshoots
I remember when I was little, every time I would eat a vegetable, my brother would jump up and say, “Ewww, you just ate a root, it came from under the ground, where all those animals poo and dead bodies go!” And slowly but surely I learned to dislike eating roots; in fact, as I took more and more...
Even Plants Play the Mating Game
New studies conducted on plant mating have concluded that humans may not be the only species rejected by the opposite sex. According to researchers from the University of Missouri, pollen proteins may contribute to a signaling process that determines if a female plant accepts or rejects certain pollen...
CO2 update: rising further still and now destroying Peat Bogs
We’ve all woken up in the morning having gotten more than the recommended 8 hours and yet somehow we feel more tired than the night before. The solution we often choose is more sleep, which sadly only perpetuates the cycle of grogginess. The environment suffers a similar issue, only instead of lethargy...
S.O.L: Save Our Leaves
[* Are you visiting our site from Facebook? Welcome to Greenseedling! Here, you'll find the latest news stories from the exciting (yes!) world of plants! Plants have quite a few surprises up their, er, leaves. Need proof? Check out Usman's story on plant communication below. (What? You didn't...
Indigo naturalis, a Natural Treatment for Leukemia?
Being diagnosed with cancer never sits well in a patient’s stomach, especially if they don’t have the money or the health insurance coverage to pay for it. Fortunately, there may be a cheaper alternative through traditional Chinese medicine. Researchers have shown that Realgar-Indigo naturalis formula...
Electron Alternative to Pesticides
Nowadays, people want the cleanest, healthiest, most natural substances around themselves. Media focuses on recyclable goods and companies advertise themselves with pride on helping the environment. Parents don’t want to expose their children to chemicals, this can be seen through the cleaning supplies...
“Acai” of Relief
With research showing that the Brazilian Acai berry contains twice the antioxidants of a blueberry, health-nuts everywhere can start their spring-cleaning early and make room in the pantry for the newest craze in “super-foods.” Amherst College’s Acai Report in 2005 reveals that the Acai berry contains...
Intruder Alert: harmful algal blooms
Harmful Algal Blooms are wreaking environmental havoc at an alarmingly high rate, costing the per annum loss of tens of millions of American dollars invested in fisheries, aquaculture sites and other bio-dependent industries. As a result, Professor Sinjie Lin, an Associate Professor of Molecular Ecology...
We’re all Johnny Appleseeds
Last summer, while sitting with my 8 year old cousin on a lazy Sunday afternoon, we both watched as my mother cut us all a various assortment of fruit as she routinely does and my cousin asked, “Why are fruits the only thing that are good for us and that taste delicious? I love candy and fries but...
Keep the Cranberries on the Shelf
Cranberries are all the rave these days, it seems. Consumer demand for cranberries has never been as high as it is today, and the main reason for this demand stems (this is bad plant humor) from the fact that cranberries are incredibly beneficial to the human body. What exactly do cranberries do for...
Newly Discovered Gene Increases Starch in Rice
Unknowingly for the last few centuries, humans have selectively been increasing the gene frequency of a gene in rice that helps produce healthier and bigger grains. Researchers from Penn State and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found a gene, GIF1, that is responsible for essentially increasing...
“Hey! You Stole My Virus!”
Parents constantly encourage their children to share – share toys, share books, share crayons. However, while children are constantly being told to share their treasures, they are NEVER encouraged to dole out such commodities as orange juice, socks, and half-eaten pb&js. While these rules may...
Eat your veggies, wash behind your ears and…inhale your limonene?
With their age-old abilities to clean pollutants and particles from our air, soil and water, trees with medicinal, environmental and nutritional benefits may be mother nature’s newest pitch for keeping families healthy and thriving. Sixty-three year old botanist Ms. Beresford-Kroeger introduces...
Adaptation
Perhaps the most fundamental unifying feature of all of life on earth is the immense ability of our planet’s various life forms to adapt to the most extreme of conditions. Even in seemingly barren regions of the world, scientists have been hard pressed to find even a single area that fails to provide...
Don’t Worry, Plant a Walnut Tree
A study done by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has shown that walnut trees do not have to go out on weekends to relieve stress. Instead, they emit their own aspirin-like chemicals to deal with stress. It turns out that when walnut trees are faced with unfavorable conditions such...
Genome Sequencing saves $50 billion annually!
As consumerism increases and resources dwindle it becomes necessary to find ways to protect crops from damage. A microscopic worm called Meloidogyne hapla is a parasite more commonly known as northern root-knot nematode. On average, this parasite along with the help of its friends (other root-knot nematodes)...
Red Algae Gives New Meaning to Waterproof Sunscreen
A fish, a sea star, and an algae plant are drifting along the ocean floor. The fish says to the sea star, “Wow! It sure is hot and sunny today!”
Before the sea star can even “bubble up” a reply the algae is quick to say, “I know! Look at my hideous sunburn!”
While a fish, a sea star and...
Roses Never Smelled So Sweet
Roses are red, violets are blue, arthritis is painful, so chunk the Vicoden? Recent studies have concluded that an active ingredient in rose hip can protect and possibly rebuild broken down joint tissue in patients who suffer from arthritis diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. ...
Tel-Aviv aeroponics lab introduces Eco-Furniture
Professors Yoav Waisel and Amram Eshel from the University of Tel-Aviv discovered, along with their collaborative research partner Plantware, a specific species of trees that when grown in air, rather than soil and water, retain a soft root structure.
The lab, conducted at the Sarah Racine Root Research...
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