This week in the world of gardening: plants as "individuals," flowers are dying out, and listen to a birdsong while you can.
Flowers Are Fading
Above: Lilacs via Lilac Love: A Guide to Spring's Best-Loved Flower.
In The New York Times, evolutionary biologist Stephen L. Buchmann makes plain our need for flowers: as food, medicines, textiles, and more. "It's becoming ever more apparent," he writes, "that we need flowers to maintain our health, our food supply, and for our happiness and mental abilities." However, an estimated 68 percent of the world's flowering plants are threatened or endangered due to habitat loss, habitat degradation, and invasive species. He calls for remediation via parks and preserves, enforced conservation laws, and adequate funding. Read it at The New York Times.
Nature Quieter Than Ever Before
Above: Gray waxbills in Garden Visit: My Mother's Garden in South Africa.
Bioacoustics researcher Bernie Krause has been recording the sounds of nature since 1968; his library now includes sounds of more than 15,000 organisms. But more than half of the places he's recorded over five decades no longer support enough living organisms to create a "biophany"—the non-human biological sounds of a habitat. "The natural world responds acoustically to everything we do to it," he says. Read it at National Geographic.
App Maps Global Water Use
Above: Photo via From Goat to Table: Harley Farms on the California Coast.
Using NASA satellite imagery data, two US universities and Google have created an app that maps global agricultural water use. Intended for farmers and water conservationists, the maps can be used to track the effectiveness of water reduction programs and can compare water use from 1984 through today. Read more at Nature World News.
Vegetal Intelligence
Above: Trifolium repens 'Atropurpureum' in DIY Outdoor Planter: Rich Fall Hues.
The Guardian nature writer Richard Mabey ponders plants as individuals—beings that may have intrinsic value in themselves. He cites recent research on "vegetal intelligence"—beans locating bean poles by echolocation, vines changing leaf shape and color to match the trees they're climbing on, and a mimosa plant's ability to retain knowledge about dangerous stimuli for a period 10 times longer than the memory of a bee. Read it in The Guardian.
Trees Defend Against Polluted Soil
Above: Photo via Hike of the Week: Oswald West Sate Park, Oregon.
Researchers at the University of Montreal learned that willow trees planted in heavily contaminated soil develop genetic changes indicating a heightened defense system. It's known that planting trees in contaminated soil can help remediate the pollution, but researchers are just learning about the trees' own defense mechanisms against pollution like heavy metals and petroleum by-products. Read more at Inhabitat.
More from this week:
- Trending on Remodelista: California Creatives
- Current Obsessions: Citrus Blossoms
- Trending on Gardenista: Cabin Porn and More, West Coast Cool Edition
- Current Obsessions: Serenity Now
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