Berry Go Round #4

The fourth edition of Berry Go Round is up at Foothills Fancies.  For all your plant-related reading, head on over.

Berry Go Round #3

The third edition of Berry Go Round is up at Greg Laden’s Blog.  Berry Go Round is a new, botanically-oriented blog carnival.  You can submit a blog post for the next issue here.

Disturbance and recovery in tropical dry forests

When people think about the destruction and degradation of tropical forests, they tend to focus on rainforests. Tropical dry forests tend to get overlooked. They aren’t as striking - no cathedral-like understorey, no mind-boggling biodiversity. But more importantly, they often just aren’t there. Over much of their potential range they have [...]

Berry Go Round #2

Welcome to the second edition of Berry Go Round, the blog carnival dedicated to all things botanical. Since this is still a fairly new carnival, I took the liberty of sampling the blogosphere beyond what was submitted to the carnival.
There were two big news items in the last week - the opening of the [...]

Reminder: Berry Go Round #2

Submissions for  Berry Go Round #2 are needed by tomorrow.  If you have anything plant related, please use the link (you can send a submission through the big orange box in the top right corner of that page) or leave me a link here.

Invasive plants journal launched

The Weed Science Society of America has launched a new journal, Invasive Plant Science and Management. The first issue is expected in the first quarter of 2008. The society is soliciting articles in:
[T]he biology and ecology of invasive plants in rangeland, parkland, prairie, pasture, preserve, urban, wildland, forestry, riparian, wetland, aquatic, recreational, rights-of-way, [...]

Calling all plant fans

The second edition of Berry Go Round will take place here. Send your submissions on anything related to plants before the 25th.

Guardian of the grasses

Anoop Sindhu and colleagues report on a gene that may have played a key role in the evolution of grasses. The gene, Hm1, provides resistance against Cochliobolus carbonum race 1 (CCR1), a fungus that is capable of attacking and killing corn at any stage of its development (images of CCR1 infection). While CCR1 [...]

Insecticidal compounds in plants

Several members of three plants families - the Rubiaceae, Violaceae and Cucurbitaceae- produce cyclotides, cyclic mini-peptides made up of 28-37 amino acids arranged in a circular configuration. These compounds are very stable and have attracted the attention of pharmaceutical companies. Because these peptides lack free amino and carboxyl ends, they cannot be broken down by [...]

Do red leaves photosynthesise?

In Temperate regions, two distinct processes are involved when leaves change colour in the Fall. Yellow and orange colours reflect carotenoid pigments that are already present in the leaves. Reds reflect something different - anthocyanins that are produced as part of the process of senescence.
The red colours produced by pointsettias represent something different. [...]