Plants in the News

[CG100]

Over the years, what to hang in gardens/vegetable plots has changed.......

The most ancient of "guaranteed to work" were probably the foil cases/trays used for shop-bought pies and the like. The next idea was probably empty PET bottles, followed by PET bottles with some water in them (not much). The idea of using CDs has been around for ages (remember all those freebie AOL junk mail CDs?).

It is all fantasy. If it works at all, it doesn't for very long.

The other idea was to bury bottles  so that their tops were just proud of the ground - the sound from the wind blowing across the tops would frighten/discourage various things.

I presume that people are pining for the gamekeepers' gibbet? Equally as effective.

[David Pilling]

Many of the fish and chip shops in Blackpool have flying outside the like of:

"Peregrine Pro Hawk Kites Professional bird deterrents that scare Seagulls and Pigeons away from rooftops
and gardens instantly. Kite on pole that takes a less than 5 minutes to install."

Seagulls being the second biggest predator of chips.

[CG100]

Kites I would have thought would work, but................

Maybe 6-8-10 years ago bird-shaped kites that had a very fast and random flight pattern - a very clever, but presumably simple design, as most clever things are - were very popular over crops that are (wood) pigeon magnets. I don't recall seeing one for quite some while, near certainly not since before C19, and perhaps they only persisted for a year, maybe two?

I haven't heard a gas gun for umpteen years either (although I seem to recall mutterings of banning them due to noise nuisance).

If anything is effective and cost-effective, it tends to hang around.

[MarkMazer]

FIRST U.S. VASCULAR PLANT EXTIRPATION LINKED TO SEA LEVEL RISE? PILOSOCEREUS MILLSPAUGHII (CACTACEAE) IN THE FLORIDA KEYS, U.S.A.

https://journals.brit.org/jbrit/article/view/1350/1361

[David Pilling]

Botanists vote to remove racist reference from plants' scientific names


Offensive term to be replaced as first step towards more changes in unprecedented reform of nomenclature rules

Scientists have voted to eliminate the names of certain plants that are deemed to be racially offensive. The decision to remove a label that contains such a slur was taken last week after a gruelling six-day session attended by more than 100 researchers, as part of the International Botanical Congress, which officially opens on Sunday in Madrid.


The effect of the vote will be that all plants, fungi and algae names that contain the word caffra, which originates in insults made against Black people, will be replaced by the word affra to denote their African origins. More than 200 species will be affected, including the coast coral tree, which, from 2026, will be known as Erythrina affra instead of Erythrina caffra.



https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jul/20/botanists-remove-racist-references-plants-scientific-names

[janemcgary]

This reminds me that when I have received emails with a subject line being the taxonomic name of one of the many plants with the species epithet formed from the Latin adjective for 'black' (niger nigra, nigrum), the message gets tagged with a red chili pepper, signifying offensive content. Earthlink apparently believes it's a message from a nasty racist who can't spell either.

[Judy Glattstein]

Always good for a news alert: Titan arum in bloom  at Edinburgh Botanic Garden

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cz9x9pkq5wvo

[Bern]

Glow in the Dark Petunia Plants - Will Worsleya Be Next?

'Firefly' Petunias are plants that have bioluminescent genes inserted into them.  These plants glow in the dark, especially the flowers and  flower buds.  They will probably be mass marketed within a few years, but they can be purchased again in 2025 in the USA while supplies last.  I believe the price in 2024 was about $29.  Here are the links about this plant.

https://www.light.bio/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-genetically-engineered-petunia-glows-in-the-dark-and-could-be-yours-for-29/

Thanks to Lee Poulsen for informing me about this plant!

[Lee Poulsen]

I bought one of the petunias. They really do glow. Here are a couple of photos taken with my handheld phone camera (hence the blurriness).