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In this post, author Netta Shamir Weller offers desert snail survival tips by exploring their dietary choices when faced with predation stress. With their behind the paper post for their article “Constraints and demands interact to affect prey dietary reaction to predation”, Netta shares how fascinating and unpredictable nature can be when looking at predator-prey interactions and reiterates the importance of doing what you love. …

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On the way to the airport Dana managed to squeeze in one more garden visit while I was up in Vancouver, at the home of Gary Lewis. Gary owns Phoenix Perennials—which we also visited, that will be Friday’s post—and is the author of  The Complete Book of Ground Covers (which I own, and still need to write a review of). This is the view from the sidewalk…

It’s so much better than just a fence, isn’t it? A plant smorgasbord for those walking past.

Although the sections with a fence were pretty great as well. I thought maybe this style was unique to the property but saw a couple of similar nearby.

During the Modern Buyer RO-Fruit and Vegetables show on the 21st of November Tatayoyo once again secured an award, this time the Best Product Award. The journey of Tatayoyo in RomaniaThe story began in 2023 when a team from Romanian retailer Mega Image, along with the management of Holland Farming Agro…

Sendot recently launched a new data portal that hopes to take the way growers manage and analyze their data to the next level. Sendot’s Erwin Grafe and Arie Draaijer talk about the platform’s new capabilities and what this means for the agricultural sector. Portal as an optimization tool”Our new data portal…

With the arrival of the peak export season ahead of Christmas, shipping capacity has been increasingly constrained since November, driving up freight costs. During the South American mango season, Beijing Sino-agricultural Biosciences Co., Ltd., a supplier of temperature data loggers for the fruit and…

Researchers have identified two fungal enzymes that hijack the immune system of plants, playing a critical role in the colonization of plant roots. These findings open new avenues for interventions in both medicine and agriculture.

Abstract

Key message

Hydraulic properties of wetwood differ from normal sapwood: hydraulic conductivity is null and water contained in wetwood is totally trapped. Wetwood could result from a bad healing of dead branches.

Abstract

Wetwood is a common phenomenon in silver fir (Abies alba Mill.), posing technical challenges for its industrial use. In this study, we thoroughly characterized the properties of this particular wood, investigating the mechanisms governing its formation and exploring its potential physiological relevance for trees. To address these objectives, we used a wide range of techniques, offering a comprehensive insight into the structure of wetwood at different scales, from cellular to whole-tree. Our results revealed significant variability in moisture distribution in the heartwood of the silver fir trees studied, suggesting the absence of a predefined distribution pattern. The physical properties of wetwood differ from those of sapwood, notably in terms of its hydraulic conductivity, which is null. In addition, our study demonstrated that the anatomical characteristics of wetwood are identical to those of normal dry heartwood, including features such as aspirated tori in bordered pits and the absence of nuclei. These results suggest a normal initial duraminization process followed by a progressive resaturation of the heartwood of silver fir. Taken together, these observations strongly suggest that the water present in wetwood is trapped and unavailable for use by the tree, particularly under conditions of prolonged drought.

Abstract

Key message

The deciduous species of the Aronia and Pourthiaea genera are differentiated by the finger-shaped colleters present on the midrib of the adaxial side and the pronounced cuticular folding.

Abstract

This work presents data on taxonomically significant features of leaf micromorphology in six deciduous species from the closely related genera Aronia and Pourthiaea of the subtribe Malinae (formerly Pyrinae, Maloideae) in the family Rosaceae. All species were found to have hypostomate leaves with numerous anomocytic stomata on the abaxial side. However, Aronia arbutifolia, Pourthiaea arguta, and P. villosa showed single stomata on leaf teeth on the adaxial leaf side. All species exhibited stomatal dimorphism, with a large single ‘primary’ stomata at the center of a cluster of smaller ‘secondary’ (ordinary) stomata. Aronia species were characterized by well-defined cuticular striations on the surface of the adaxial epidermis, as well as cuticular radial folds and peristomatic folds in both types of stomata. Cuticular folding in Pourthiaea species is restricted to radial folds in primary stomata and is less pronounced or absent in secondary stomata. All species of Aronia and Pourthiaea have colleters of deltoid or elongated shape in leaf teeth. In A. mitschurinii and A. arbutifolia, rounded colleters were found in the sinuses between the leaf teeth. Aronia species have the unique feature of forming a special type of colleters on the adaxial side of the leaf midribs. In contrast, Pourthiaea species lacked similar structures. The secretion of the colleters showed an intense peak at 670-674 nm with a small shoulder in the range of 695-740 nm in its fluorescence spectrum. The micromorphological features of the studied leaf structures can serve as taxonomic characters in the genera Aronia and Pourthiaea.