Plants in the News

[Leo]

A new species of giant water lily has been discovered - and it's been hiding in plain sight for 177 years.

I thought V. boliviana had already been used, for what is now known as V. cruziana?

[David Pilling]

5 heat-seeking plants that actually love hot weather

"It's hot, it's muggy and you're starting to wilt – much like a flower from lack of water. Although, come to think of it, some plants thrive under super-hot conditions."

https://pa.media/blogs/pa-editors-picks/5-heat-seeking-plants-that-actually-love-hot-weather/

[David Pilling]

Whisky makers are turning their backs on peat

"We want to change the way the world thinks about Scottish whisky," says founder Annabel Thomas, "to create delicious spirits that exist in harmony with nature - putting planet, people and profit on an equal footing."

"Extracting peat to burn is not sustainable. Peatlands are created over a very long time. They are a great carbon sink and house enormous biodiversity," she says. "When cut and burned, it impacts both the biodiversity of the peat bog and releases carbon back into the atmosphere."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61596047

[David Pilling]

Drought resistant plants: 10 of the best heatwave tolerant shrubs and perennials to grow in the UK


https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/homes-and-gardens/drought-resistant-plants-best-heatwave-tolerant-shrubs-perennials-grow-uk-1766430

[David Pilling]

Bear cub high on hallucinogenic 'mad honey' rescued by park rangers

A brown bear cub has been rescued by rangers at a national park in Turkey, after it consumed a hallucinogen.

Mad honey, or deli bal in Turkish, is a type of rhododendron honey.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-62519493

[janemcgary]

The late "kleptocratic ruler of Angola from 1979 to 2017, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is survived by a daughter whose name is Welwitschia dos Santos. Was that intended to give her a lifespan of a thousand years?

[Arnold]

The Romans had trouble with honey as well.

https://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/mad-honey-deli-bal/

[Leo]

Bear cub high on hallucinogenic 'mad honey' rescued by park rangers

Rhododendron ponticum. http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/371384
It happens also with the related Kalmia spp.

[Diane Whitehead]

My goat died after eating a tiny bit of Kalmia

[Leo]

The late "kleptocratic ruler of Angola from 1979 to 2017, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is survived by a daughter whose name is Welwitschia dos Santos. Was that intended to give her a lifespan of a thousand years?

Maybe two breasts that never stopped growing.

[David Pilling]

Climate change: Avocados and exotic plants grow in hot UK summer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62665053

Record-breaking hot and dry weather this summer has seen more exotic plants including figs and avocadoes growing in the UK, gardeners have told BBC News.

[David Pilling]

Is it time we ditched the word 'gardening'?

The botanist James Wong has caused a hoo-ha by suggesting that we should consider ditching the term "gardening". I know, I know, but bear with. The g-word, he says, is loaded with "cultural baggage" and if more young people are to embrace (trigger warning!) "gardening" we may need a term that is more "inclusive".

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/aug/28/james-wong-on-gardening-is-it-time-we-ditched-the-word-gardening-

(warning - article behind a plea wall)

[Diane Whitehead]

Maybe the term "gardener" has already been used too much, so people need a new term for their hashtags, like #plantdaddy.  I assume getting a hashtag is rather like getting a gmail account - put in your suggested name, it's rejected because someone already has it, try another, and another and another.

[David Pilling]

Some PBS list members have similar "handles" to those hash tags. More difficult to scrap the noun "garden".

[David Pilling]

The alien shrub that can't be stopped

"Little did von Siebold know, when he sent that first sample to London, that he would become one of the greatest villains in botanical history."

"The surface parts of a Japanese knotweed plant wither and die back each winter, but its rhizomes – actually a kind of gnarled, modified stem – are still there"

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221006-the-race-to-kill-the-worlds-most-invasive-weed