Flowers in Ultra-Violet The compilation of species will continue to be updated at irregular intervals. All species listed here have been documented, and links are added whenever I can find spare time for updating. These images are made for illustrative purposes, not as artistic statements per se. However, there are lots of food for thought in the convoluted ways Nature expresses itself, so for once the artist can step backand let the subjects speak for themselves. "Das Ding an Sich" to paraphrase Kant, or Eigenvalue of Nature. If you are unfamiliar with the botany, just select any species indicated as having a "strong" response to learn how this looks. However, not all species have the typical bull's-eye UV pattern, which may be confined to symmetrical flowers. The UV range of the spectrum has no predefined colours, so we are free to assign any colour we like. UV fluorescence may be a common trait to most flowers, but might be of temporary occurrence for parts of the flower.
10 Creepy Plants That Shouldn't Exist The porcupine tomato is one of the crops you'll find growing in Pinhead's vegetable patch after he retires from abstract horror and turns to horticulture. It hails from Madagascar, the island nation that brought us the Hellbeast lemur and Dracula ants, earning it the Cracked.com nickname "Little Australia." Quick, take a picture of the word "pain." Good job. Aside from being sharp and poisonous, the porcupine tomato is a potentially invasive species, since it is difficult to kill, even in drought. Did we mention that it spreads quickly, and can reach 8 feet tall by 8 feet wide in a relatively short amount of time? Cedar-Apple Rust Fungus What looks like a piece of rotting fruit giving birth to either a family of worms or a single, tentatcled horror? CARF is a fungal infection that attacks, you guessed it, cedar and apple trees. Or what happens when slugs mate with mac and cheese. Buddha's hand is a citrus fruit popular in China and Japan for its strong fragrance. They also ... um ...
Online Books : "Golden Guide Hallucinogenic Plants" - pg 51-60 Golden Guide: Hallucinogenic Plants pages 51 to 60 .Contents...1-10...11-20...21-30...31-40...41-50...51-60...61-70...71-80...81-9091-100...101-110...111-120...121-130...131-140...141-150...151-156...Index Mandrake, with the Propane alkaloids hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and others, was an active hallucinogenic ingredient of many of the witches' brews of Europe. DHATURA and DUTRA (Datura metel) are the common names in India for an important Old World species of Datura. IBOGA (Tabernanthe iboga), native to Gabon and the Congo, is the only member of the dogbane fancily, Apocynaceae, known to be used as an hallucinogen. The drug, discovered by Europeans toward the middle of the last century, has a reputation as a powerful stimulant and aphrodisiac. Although intoxicating substances have not yet been found in the puffballs, there are reports in the literature that some of them have had narcotic effects when eaten. religion surrounded the sacramental use of these fungi. Contents Next
MykoWeb: Mushrooms, Fungi, Mycology Using fireplace ashes in your garden Dawne Howard Frederick County Master Gardener Program Since Roman times, wood ash has been recognized as a useful amendment to the soil. In fact, North America exported wood ash to Britain in the 18th century as a fertilizer, and today, 80 per-cent of the ash produced commercially in the Northeastern United States is applied to the land. Wood stoves and fireplaces are great for warming gardeners' chilly hands and feet. So, what can we do with the ashes? Since wood ash is derived from plant material, it contains most of the 13 essential nutrients the soil must have for good plant growth and health. When wood burns, nitrogen and sulfur are lost as gases, and calcium, potassium, magnesium and trace element compounds remain. Wood ash has a very fine particle size, so it reacts rapidly and completely in the soil. makeup varies with the type of wood burned. Calcium and potassium are both essential to plant growth. 'mote potato scab. Ash should be stored in a metal container with a secure lid.
Paper-Back Planters: Recycling Books to Pot Indoor Plants | Designs &Ideas on Dornob Have books finally met their match with the Apple iPad, or is it just another fad like the Amazon Kindle? Readers may find some poetry in these volumes regardless of whether they are willing to give up their favorite paperback companions: potted plants put into scooped-out sections of beautiful old hardback books. Gardenkultur (via Inhabitat) makes a simple recycling project out of even the most complex novels, but carving into the heart of a book, sealing off the resulting space and putting seeds of little trees or other plant life into the curved void. Of course, this would work just as well as a do-it-yourself gardening project for those green-thumbed enough to provide proper moisture barriers for their own plants. But if a picture is said to be worth one thousand, at how many words do we value a wee plant? Hopefully these books were beyond repair and those ripe only for reuse.
How to grow a Rainbow Rose, Naturally In 2004, two dutch companies, River Flowers and F.J. Zandbergen, experimented and successfully grew a rose that had its petals rainbow colored. As petals get their nourishment through stem, the idea is to split the stem into several channels and dip each one in a different colored water. This way all the colors will be drawn by the stem into petals and resultant rose will have all the colors in it. The same method can be applied to other flowers especially to Chrysanthemum and Hydrangea. You can use the same idea to color any flower, anyway you like. Sources: 1, 2, 3 Watch: Flowers Color Time Lapse
What types of outdoor garden plants "like" wood ashes added to their soil? Wood ash is primarily made of calcium carbonate, which will raise the pH of your garden soil, making it more alkaline (as opposed to more acidic). In case it's been a while since chemistry class, here's a pH scale to give you an idea of where other things fall: Wood ash falls on this chart anywhere between 9-13. And to give you an idea, using wood ash is equivalent to using a 0-1-3 (NPK) fertilizer for your plants. Which means it has a very mild supply of phosphorous and potassium in it, but no nitrogen. Different plants prefer different pH levels, so you have to find ones that thrive with greater alkalinity. This website gives this list of plants, trees, and shrubs that love alkaline soils: In plain language, that means that you can use it on plants such as.... Carnations Daffodils Cabbage Asparagus Asters Perennial Sunflowers Salvias Poppy Lewisia Yew Firethorn Boxwood Clematis Mock Orange Spirea ...and many others like a little alkalinity. Azaleas/Rhododendrons Calla Lilies Delphinium Phlox Ivy Crocus Pines
Food in Uncertain Times: How to Grow and Store the 5 Crops You Need to Survive by Makenna GoodmanOctober 21, 2010 Having food resiliency is as much about learning how to store and use food properly as it is about growing it. The key is learning interdependence not independence. In an age of erratic weather and instability, it’s increasingly important to develop a greater self-reliance when it comes to food. Makenna Goodman: Many gardeners (both beginners and more serious growers) come across obstacles they might not have planned for. Carol Deppe: The basic issues are getting more control over our food, getting lots higher quality and more delicious food, and enhancing the resilience of our food supply. However the person who has learned to make spectacular applesauce or cider or apple butter or pies can often trade some of the processed products for all the apples needed. So the first thing I would say is, garden if you can and if you enjoy it. We humans trade. Neanderthal stone tools, interestingly, are all found within a few miles of where the rocks originated.
Genes may travel from plant to plant to fuel evolution Evolutionary biologists at Brown University and the University of Sheffield have documented for the first time that plants swap genes from plant to plant to fuel their evolutionary development. The researchers found enzymes key to photosynthesis had been shared among plants with only a distant ancestral relationship. The genes were incorporated into the metabolic cycle of the recipient plant, aiding adaptation. Results appear in Current Biology. The evolution of plants and animals generally has been thought to occur through the passing of genes from parent to offspring and genetic modifications that happen along the way. But evolutionary biologists from Brown University and the University of Sheffield have documented another avenue, through the passing of genes from plant to plant between species with only a distant ancestral kinship. How this happened is unclear. "People were wondering how these genes evolved. Scientists call this evolutionary event "lateral gene transfer."