… experience this by walking in a forest and feeling ground beneath our feet that is spongy from the buildup of slowly decaying leaves that accumulated over decades or centuries. The trees … was brought to the Midwest for ornamental use—it’s great at making hedges—but escaped from human control and is now one of our region’s worst invasive species. As its hedge-producing … clean air and drinking water, food, and other resources). Sequestering carbon —removing it from the atmosphere where it contributes to global climate change and instead locking it away …
Type: Blog
… of flowers in April and May, these ornamental trees boast a variety of sizes, shapes and forms from dwarf and weeping to mounding, wide-spreading and upright. Besides the spring flowers, … single blossoms, but some varieties have semi-double or double blossoms. Bud color ranges from pure white to dark purple-red with many variations. The flower color may be different than …
Type: Plant Info
… this tendency to favor larger species, the average moth is actually quite small, though far from nondescript! Mompha species moth; photo taken in Utah My research at the Chicago Botanic … (evening primroses). In Illinois, Mompha can be collected in your backyard from Oenothera biennis (common evening primrose). Examples of Mompha bud-feeding and Mompha … species caterpillar Instead of conducting genitalia dissections, I am sequencing six genes from hundreds of Mompha collected over the span of three years from the Western and …
Type: Blog
… one. The eastern gray squirrels in our region build dreys in trees for shelter and protection from the elements. What you see as a messy clump of leaves is actually a structure formed from sticks and then lined with leaves and other materials to make it a dry and cozy home. This … Perhaps squirrels are attracted to that particular view. Maybe thermal currents rising from the asphalt make that spot warmer than a branch over a lawn. Could it be that this spot also …
Type: Blog
… dispersed plants. Each time he located an orchid, he looked past the plant and took a sample from the bark of its host tree. “What I’m interested in primarily is identifying the fungi within … generally known to depend on fungi to help them through key stages of life, such as growing from a seed into a seedling. But there are differences in how those partnerships work. When an orchid lives in soil, the fungi help move water and nutrients to and from the roots. But when the orchid lives on a tree, scientists are less certain of what occurs. …
Type: Blog
… and the Mediterranean nations. DNA research found that the European oaks are all descended from a very old ancestor that migrated from North America to Europe. The oaks of China have diverged over very long time periods into … of North America (north of Mexico) with more than 90 species recorded. They range in size from knee-high multi-suckering evergreen shrubs to the majestic live oaks of the South, the white …
Type: Blog
… From the 2015 archives: It is our pleasure to introduce another titan arum (in bloom!), which we … A century after Linnaeus, during the great age of plant exploration in the mid-1800s, ships from many countries were crisscrossing the seas in search of riches—including rare and exotic … with male and female flowers of Amorphophallus titanum (Becc.) Becc. ex Arcang.—titan arum from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine , vol. 117 [ser. 3, vol. 47]: t. 7153 (1891) [M. Smith] One …
Type: Blog
… petals, narrowing to a column of fused yellow anthers with a needle-like style protruding from the central core of the anthers creates a perfect pointer. Prairie primrose is not a common … that the common names don’t reflect about the flower is that the flower color can vary widely from pure white to a rich magenta. A population with a range of these color gradients can be a … shooting stars require the industry of bumblebees and other pollinators to extract the pollen from their anthers. An action called sonication is required for bumblebees—the queen bee in …
Type: Blog
… orchid of them all: the genus Vanilla. (Yes, vanilla is an orchid.) One unusual story comes from Ph.D. student Lynnaun Johnson, whose work in our doctoral program in Plant Biology and … on concrete blocks was the best method. At another farm, the farmer brought decaying wood from a neighboring forest and used it as mulch for his vanilla plants that grew on living posts known as “tuteurs.” This was different from the other farmers who grew their vanilla on trees in the forest and wooden dead “tuteurs.” …
Type: Blog
… Still and floriculturist Tim Pollak removed the spathe (the frilly bract that never opened) from Spike’s spadix (the flower tower that grew to 6 feet tall), I’d had to learn all about the … then they started talking pollen. Flashback: What is pollen? Tiny squiggles of pollen emerge from the male flowers about three days after Spike’s spathe was removed. Think of a grain of … sweet corn or oak trees have pollen as dry and fine as dust (indeed, the word “pollen” derives from the Latin for fine flour or dust). Orchids have developed waxy balls of pollen (pollinia) …
Type: Blog
