Tag Archive | "botany"

Fungi-filled forests are critical if endangered orchids are to thrive

Fungi-filled forests are critical if endangered orchids are to thrive

Older forests with just the right fungi may be secret to saving these vulnerable plants. [...more]

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Ancient popcorn discovered in Peru

Ancient popcorn discovered in Peru

People living along the coast of Peru were eating popcorn 2,000 years earlier than previously reported and before ceramic pottery was used there, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [...more]

anthropology Comments (2)

Frederick Walpole illustrations recovered

Frederick Walpole illustrations recovered

Lodgepole pine drawn in 1898 by U.S. National Herbarium illustrator Frederick Andrew Walpole. [...more]

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Mistletoe facts from a Smithsonian botanist

Mistletoe facts from a Smithsonian botanist

When you’re caught under the mistletoe, the tradition is to kiss the person next to you. But this holiday season you may want to wow them first with some cool mistletoe facts from Smithsonian botanist Sylvia Orli. [...more]

Research Topics, zoology Comments (0)

Air pollution is fertilizing tropical forests

Air pollution is fertilizing tropical forests

Studies at two remote Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory sites in Panama and Thailand show the first evidence of long-term effects of nitrogen pollution in tropical trees. [...more]

Featured, conservation biology, zoology Comments (0)

Super tough seed coat keeps Michaux’s sumac on critically endangered list

Super tough seed coat keeps Michaux’s sumac on critically endangered list

It is one of the rarest shrubs in the southeastern United States but for scientists trying to save it, the critically endangered Michaux’s sumac (Rhus michauxii) is not cooperating. [...more]

conservation biology Comments (1)

Fulcaldea stuessyi is newly discovered member of the Barnadesioideae, a subfamily of the Compositae, or sunflower family of flowering plants,

Fulcaldea stuessyi is newly discovered member of the Barnadesioideae, a subfamily of the Compositae, or sunflower family of flowering plants,

Fulcaldea stuessyi is a newly discovered member of the Barnadesioideae, a subfamily of the Compositae, or sunflower family of flowering plants. It was found in northeastern Brazil and is described in the August 2011 issue of the journal “Taxon” by botanist Vicki Funk of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Nádia Roque of [...] [...more]

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Increased tropical forest growth may result in release of stored carbon in the soil

Increased tropical forest growth may result in release of stored carbon in the soil

A new study shows that as climate change enhances tree growth in tropical forests, the resulting increase in litterfall could stimulate soil micro-organisms leading to a release of stored soil carbon. [...more]

conservation biology Comments (0)

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This fossil represents a new genus and species of extinct aneuretopsychid, Jeholopsyche liaoningensis, recently described in a paper in the journal ZooKeys by Conrad Labandeira of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Dong Ren and ChungKun Shih of the College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing. The aneuretopsychidae are a family of long-proboscid insects that lived in Asia from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. The paper documents the first formal record of fossil Aneuretopsychidae in China. The new fossils reveal previously unknown and detailed structure of the mouthparts, antennae, head, thorax, legs and abdomen of this distinctive insect lineage.

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