✌ oikos

“According to Japan Times, a new species of carnivorous plant has been found in Aichi Prefecture, on the central-southern coast of Japan’s main island. The Japan Times calls it a “pitcher plant,” which it is not; as a species related to (and mistaken for) Drosera indica, it’s actually a sundew.

Sundews and pitcher plants are both carnivorous, and largely insectivorous, but they’re very different otherwise. Pitcher plants have a large, cup-shaped flower with a slippery rim that unsuspecting prey falls into, where it is digested. Sundews, on the other hand, have tentacles, looking like very small spines topped with a clear drop of dew, hence the name. It isn’t dew, of course; it’s a sort of sticky mucous that traps insects, where they die of exhaustion, dehydration, starvation, or suffocation, to be digested by the enzymes within the mucous.”

Read more here

An epiphyte is a plant that grows upon another plant (such as a tree) non-parasitically or sometimes upon some other object (such as a building or a telegraph wire), derives its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and sometimes from debris accumulating around it. Epiphytes are usually found in the temperate zone (e.g., many mosses, liverworts, lichens and algae) or in the tropics (e.g., many ferns, cacti, orchids, and bromeliads) 

rhamphotheca:

curiousbotanicals: Pink Lithops, a succulent from arid southern Africa

Used to have one till I killed it.

Hedgehog cacti - Echinocereus 

(Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

brilliantbotany:

Black isn’t a color you often find in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It is therefore highly coveted. This is Cymbidium Kiwi Midnight, that being its commercial name. This flower is not actually true black, though it might appear to be, it is a deep burgundy.

(Source: brilliantbotany)

illustratorkirsten:

2012 Natural Science Illustration Exhibition
Burke Museum, Seattle, WA

Opening Reception:
Thursday, July 19, 6:30pm

This exhibit features the works of the 11 graduates of the University of Washington’s 2011-2012 Natural Science Illustration certificate program. At the reception, you will have a chance to view not only the works on display, but also individual portfolios as well as educational posters created from student works. And of course, most of us will be on hand as well - we would love to meet all of you and talk about science and art!

The Burke Museum is located on the northwest corner of the UW main campus:
17th Ave NE & NE 45th Street
Seattle, WA 98105

Even if you cannot make it on opening night, the exhibit will remain up in the Burke Room until sometime in October, so come by and see it when you can!

(via scientificillustration)

brilliantbotany:

Yes.

(Source: brilliantbotany)

biomedicalephemera:

Five Important Plants in Pharmaceuticals (in no particular order):

1. Papaver somniferum, the Opium Poppy: Gives us opiates such as morphine, thebaine, codeine, and heroin. All opiates are powerful analgesics and most derivatives of the poppy also have a strong sedative effect. The smooth muscle in the body is also relaxed by these substances.

2. Digitalis purpurea, Purple Foxglove: Gives us digoxin, one of the most important cardiac glycocides that exist. Causes the heart to beat more slowly and effectively at the correct dosages.

3. Filipendula ulmaria, Meadowsweet: Gives us salicin, and salicylic acid. While salicylic acid in the form of white willow bark powder had been used for centuries as an analgesic, the salacin of meadowsweet caused much less gastric upset, and was mixed with acetyl chloride to create aspirin - the antipyretic, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory that is still the most common pain relief medication in the majority of the world.

4. Atropa belladonna, Deadly Nightshade: Gives us atropine, a powerful smooth-muscle antispasmodic and pupil dilator. In fact, the name itself (belladonna) comes from the fact that women used to use the plant to increase their pupil size at several points in history, as was considered attractive. Atropine was also used as an anesthetic during surgery in the Middle Ages.

5. Physostigma venenosum, the Calabar Bean: A very toxic plant with a rich history of poisonings and trial-by-fire incidents, the calabar bean also provides us with physostigmine. Physostigmine is a powerful cholinergic agent, and can be used to counteract poisonings by anticholinergics (such as deadly nightshade, mandrake, henbane, and datura plants). Conversely, those plants provide the anticholinergic agent used to treat calabar bean poisoning.

Every single one of these plants is easily fatal in the incorrect dosages, but by discovering the ethnobotanic history of plants (traditional cures), and isolating the active ingredients in plants identified, effective and relatively safe medications can be produced. Over 85% of our modern medications have been derived from plant compounds to some degree, and ethnobotanists have played a huge role in that.

Image: Atropa belladonna, Deadly Nightshade - Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz. Dr. Otto Willhelm Thome, 1885.

ScienceDaily (June 8, 2012) — New research published June 8 in BioMed Central’s open access journal BMC Genomics reveals that the Malaysian parasitic plant Rafflesia cantleyi, with its 50cm diameter flowers, has ‘stolen’ genes from its host Tetrastigma rafflesiae. Analysis of these genes shows that their functions range from respiration to metabolism, and that some of them have even replaced the parasites own gene activity.

Vertical gene transfer is that between parents and their offspring, while horizontal gene transfer is the movement of genes between two different organisms. Bacteria use horizontal gene transfer to exchange resistance to antibiotics. Recent studies have shown that plants can also use horizontal gene transfer, especially parasitic plants and their hosts due to their intimate physical connections.  (Read Article: Parasitic plants steal genes from their hosts)