Tag: Botany

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Mandrake by Sarah Das Gupta

A screaming root
beneath the moon’s watery spears
black hound needed

by Sarah Das Gupta
Botanical name:Mandragora officinarum
Popular names:Satan’s Apple, Devil’s Turnip, Manroot, Circe’s Plant
Family:Solanaceae
Origin:Mediterranean, Middle East, North Africa.
Flower:Purple–yellow-green, bell-shaped corolla, five petals, flowers grow from rosette of  leaves.
Habitat:Stony waste ground, edge of woodland, coastal areas

The long taproot, shaped like a human form, was said to scream when pulled from the ground. Anyone hearing this would go mad. In Medieval times, it was believed the only way to harvest the plant was on a moonlit night and using a black dog with a cord attached to the plant to uproot it!

It was also believed that the mandrake first grew from the dripping ‘juices’ of a hanged man. This, by the medieval Doctrine of Signatures which taught that the shape and appearance of a plant linked it to parts of the human body, made the mandrake highly valued for specific ailments. However, the poisonous nature of the plant made its medicinal use difficult, as Harry Potter fans may know

The mandrake contains tropane alkaloids which give it narcotic, emetic, sedative and hallucinogenic properties. As early as the fourteenth century BC the plant is mentioned in cuneiform texts and subsequently in Arabic, Greek and Roman writing. It was said the root could be seen as a baby in form, albeit a rather ugly one. This gave rise to the belief that the plant helped childless women to conceive.

Mandrake roots were valuable and not surprisingly there were fraudsters at country fairs with oddly-shaped ‘mandrakes’ carved from turnip roots. It was even believed that these roots knew the sites of buried treasure. They would whisper the secret to their owner, if they trusted him. These beautiful lines from Shakespeare suggest Mandrake was still in use in the 16th century:

‘Give me to drink mandragora.
That I might sleep out the great gap of time
My Antony is away.’

William Shakespeare,
Anthony and Cleopatra, Act 1, Scene 1.

Further reading:

‘Pagan Portals – By Wolfsbane & Mandrake Root: The Shadow World of Plants and Their Poisons’, 2017, Draco, M., John Hunt Publishing Limited, ISBN: 1780995725.

‘Poisonous Plants in Great Britain’, 2008, Gillam, F., Wooden Books, ISBN: 1904263879.

‘Witch’s Garden: Plants in folklore, magic and traditional medicine’, 2020, Lawrence, S., Welbeck   London, ISBN: 978178739436.

Author bio:

Sarah Das Gupta is a young 81 year old. Loves writing haiku and most forms of poetry. Is learning to walk after an accident. Main outside interests include equine sports. Lives near Cambridge, UK. Read other sciku by Sarah here.

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Monkshood by Sarah Das Gupta

imposing imperial purple
deadly to man, beast and bird
Shiva’s throat turned blue

by Sarah Das Gupta
Botanical name:Aconitum napellus (over 250 species)
Popular names:Aconite, Blue helmet, Blue rocket, Leopard’s bane, Monkshood, Wolfsbane
Family:Ranunculaceae
Origin:Mountain slopes of Europe eastward to the Himalayas.
Flower:Purple-blue (white, yellow), tall floral spires, mid-late summer.
Habitat:Northern Hemisphere, mountain meadows, partial shade, east or west facing.

Monkshood, so called because its hooded flowers resemble a monk’s cowl, is a hairless perennial of the buttercup family. Several species are cultivated, often at the back of herbaceous borders. Every part of the plant is poisonous and eating even a leaf can be fatal. It is best to wear gloves when handling and keep out of the reach of children or pets. Apparently, it tastes so repulsive that accidental poisoning seems unlikely.

Several unpleasant symptoms result from rubbing the plant into the skin, including numbness. Ingesting it results in stomach pain, dizziness, and heart problems. It is still used in medicines today but in very small quantities.

From ancient times, people have been aware of the dangers of this plant. The ancient Greeks associated it with Hades and it was believed to have sprung up from the saliva of the three-headed dog, Cerberus. The goddess, Athena, is said to have sprinkled the sap on the maiden Arachne, turning her into a spider! In Hinduism the plant is sacred to Lord Shiva who saved the Earth by drinking poison, which he stored in his throat, turning it blue. In European tradition, aconite is linked to Hecate which is why it was found at crossroads and gateways which were associated with her cult. Anglo-Saxon hunters covered the tips of their arrows with aconite when hunting wolves, hence the name wolfsbane.

Further reading:

‘Pagan Portals – By Wolfsbane & Mandrake Root: The Shadow World of Plants and Their Poisons’, 2017, Draco, M., John Hunt Publishing Limited, ISBN: 1780995725.

‘Poisonous Plants in Great Britain’, 2008, Gillam, F., Wooden Books, ISBN: 1904263879.

‘Witch’s Garden: Plants in folklore, magic and traditional medicine’, 2020, Lawrence, S., Welbeck   London, ISBN: 978178739436.

Author bio:

Sarah Das Gupta is a young 81 year old. Loves writing haiku and most forms of poetry. Is learning to walk after an accident. Main outside interests include equine sports. Lives near Cambridge, UK. Read other sciku by Sarah here.

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Amaranth by Sarah Das Gupta

Ancient crimson flame
burning on lofty Olympus
a new era is calling

by Sarah Das Gupta
Botanical name:Amaranthus
Popular names:Prostrate pigweed, Love lies bleeding
Family:Amaranthaceae
Origin:Central and South America. Currently found on all continents except Antarctica
Flower:Catkin-like cymes, closely packed
Habitat:Dry conditions, drought resistant

There are over 70 species of this ancient plant and they are very diverse. In 1996 Mosyakin and Robertson divided the family into 3 subgenres. There is some argument as to where and when the first plants were cultivated. It may be that both in South America and separately in south-east Asia cultivation occurred over 8,000 years ago.

In Ancient Greece the plant had spiritual significance. Its name means ‘unfading flower’, perhaps because it has a long flowering period. It was associated with immortality and believed to grow on Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. Aesop’s Fables also refer to the flower.

The Aztecs in the 15th and 16th centuries, grew three crops, beans, maize and amaranth. In a sacrifice to the god of war, the amaranth grain and honey were used to mould the image of the god which was later broken into pieces and eaten by the people. After the Spanish conquest, the cultivation of amaranth was discouraged as it was associated with old customs and religious practices.

Fifteen of the species have edible parts: the grain from the seed-head, the root and the leaves are high in nutrients and oxalates but some of the former are lost in cooking. However, with rises in temperature and growing interest in vegetarian diets, there may well be a future for this ancient plant. The seed-head produces a high yield while the plant is very drought resistant. In parts of Asia, amaranth is largely grown for its dye and for ornamental reasons.

Further reading:  

‘RHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants’, Editor-in-chief Christopher Brickell, 2016, Dorling Kindersley, ISBN: 9780241239124.

‘Amaranth Tastes as Good as It Looks’, James Wong, 2020, The Guardian.

‘Amaranth – May Grain of the Month’, The Whole Grain Council, USA.

Author bio:

Sarah Das Gupta is a young 81 year old. Loves writing haiku and most forms of poetry. Is learning to walk after an accident. Main outside interests include equine sports. Lives near Cambridge, UK. Read other sciku by Sarah here.

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Asphodel by Sarah Das Gupta

In Autumn fields
pale ghosts of myth
search lost memories

by Sarah Das Gupta
Botanical name:Asphodelus
Popular names:Onion Weed, King’s Spear
Family:Asphodelaceae
Origin:Mediterranean, North Africa, Middle East, Indian-sub continent
Flower:Tall spike – white, yellow, pink
Habitat:Well-drained soil, abundance of light

Until 1753, Asphodel was classified as part of the lily family. Carl Linneas then reclassified the plant. It is a herbaceous plant with a tall white or yellow spike.

The Ancient Greeks associated asphodel with death and the underworld. The poet, Homer, describes the Fields of Asphodel as ‘covering the great meadow and the haunt of the dead.’ To the Greeks the underworld included: Elysium, Tartarus and The Fields of Asphodel. The last was the abode of the average person who had done nothing good nor wicked. Asphodel may have become associated with death as having ‘strange, pallid, ghostly flowers.’ It was commonly found on graves and is particularly associated with Persephone who was abducted by Hades, ruler of the underworld. She is sometimes portrayed as wearing a crown of asphodel.

Many diverse writers from Homer and Milton to Faulkner and Poe have used the symbolism associated with the plant. Although it is suggested they may well have been referring to the Narcissus rather than the asphodel. Like many plants, asphodel is reputed to have healing qualities – dealing with snakebites or used against sorcery. It even plays a part in Harry Potter.

Its leaves are used to wrap Burrata cheese. Both the leaves and the cheese are at their best for four days. So don’t buy the cheese if the leaves are withered!

Further reading:

‘An Empire of Plants: people and plants that changed the world’, Toby Musgrave & Will Musgrave, 2000, Cassell, ISBN  13 9781844030200.

‘Amaranth and Asphodel, poems from the Greek anthology’, Alfred J Butler, 1922, Oxford: B. Blackwell, ISBN 13 9781013710728

Author bio:

Sarah Das Gupta is a young 81 year old. Loves writing haiku and most forms of poetry. Is learning to walk after an accident. Main outside interests include equine sports. Lives near Cambridge, UK. Read other sciku by Sarah here.

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Moss by Jonathan Aylett

not quite rock bottom
the moss, living her best life
down in the gutter

by Jonathan Aylett

Aside from the social commentary offered by this haiku about finding happiness regardless of wealth or social standing, this is a poem about the ecological niche – ‘the match of a species to a specific environmental condition’.

Further reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_niche

Author bio:

Jonathan has been writing and publishing poetry for several years. His work has featured in journals dedicated to haiku, and broader literary journals, and won competitions across both disciplines. His collection ‘Goldfish’ – a mix of haiku and long form poetry, will be published by Stairwell books in spring 2024. You can follow Jonathan on Instagram here: @jonathanaylettpoetry 

Read other sciku by Jonathan here: ‘Light’, ‘String Theory’, ‘Dusty Shoulders’, and ‘Attraction’.

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The Glastonbury Thorn by Sarah Das Gupta

humble hawthorn bloom
ancient Christmas message
crown of thorns awaits

by Sarah Das Gupta

The Glastonbury Thorn is associated with the Grail Legend and the story of Joseph of Arimathea’s visit to Glastonbury. The legend tells of Joseph climbing Wearyall Hill and planting his staff in the ground where it rooted and grew into a thorn tree which blossomed twice, once at Christmas and once in spring. Written versions of the story did not emerge until the 13th century.  In 1520, a pamphlet by Richard Pynson was published, ‘The Life of Joseph of Arimathea’. In 1647, during the English Civil War, the tree was chopped down and burnt as a symbol of superstition. A tree was planted on the hill in 1951 and again in 2010 but both were vandalised. The same fate has met subsequent efforts.

Trees now exist in the nearby Churchyard of St John’s which were budded or grafted from previous specimens. If grown from the haw(fruit), they do not produce a ‘true’ sapling. A sprig in bud is traditionally presented to the reigning monarch at Christmas. The winter flowers are smaller than the summer blossom.

The hawthorn has long been associated with supernatural and magical powers. Particularly in Ireland, lone thorns are seen in the middle of fields, in hedgerows, near places of religious significance and farmers will not cut them down. They have been associated with fairies and the border between this world and the mysterious ‘other’.

Botanical name:Crataegus Monogyna biflora
Popular names:holy thorn, fairy thorn, hawberry, maythorn, mayflower
Family:Rosaceae
Origin:Native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere- Europe, Asia, North Africa, North America 
Flowering:December and May
Habitat:Undemanding – rocky crevices, exposed sites

Further reading:

‘Glastonbury, Myth and Archaeology’, Philip Rahz, 2003, Tempus Publishing Ltd.

‘Glastonbury, Maker of Myths’, Frances Howard-Gordon, 1982, Gothic Image Publications Ltd.

Author bio:

Sarah Das Gupta is a young 81 year old. Loves writing haiku and most forms of poetry. Is learning to walk after an accident. Main outside interests include equine sports. Lives near Cambridge, UK. Read other sciku by Sarah here.

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Mistletoe by Sarah Das Gupta

sweet Christmas kisses
beneath the white mistletoe
secret memories

By Sarah Das Gupta

Mistletoe is a semi-parasitic plant which lives off the nutrients and water from the host plant. Birds often spread the seeds from tree to tree, especially blackcaps and the mistle thrush which explains why clumps of mistletoe are found near the tops of trees.

In UK mistletoe is found most commonly in the south-west Midlands, particularly in Herefordshire. It is almost unseen in Scotland, Ireland and the rest of Wales. When picked, it will last for 2 weeks in a cool place. It would appear the plant has no connection with toes.  This seems to be a corruption of the old English ‘tan’, meaning ‘twig’.

There has been some decline in mistletoe as a result of the diminishing number of old orchards, the apple being the favourite host, together with poplar, lime and conifers.

Mistletoe played an important role in Nordic legend. Balder was killed by his blind brother, Hodr, who used the plant as a missile. The Druids also valued the plant for medicinal purposes. The association of the plant with Christmas is probably because the berries appear in December and the leaves remain green. There is some evidence that the Greek holiday, Kronia, was associated with mistletoe and kissing. Many different varieties of mistletoe exist with different coloured berries in other continents

Botanical name:Viscum album
Popular names:Mistletoe
Family:Santalaceae
Origin:Northern Europe
Flowering:February-April
Habitat:Branches of apple, conifer, hawthorn, lime, poplar etc. 

Further reading:

‘A Little Book About Mistletoe’, Jonathan Briggs, 2013, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

‘Mistletoe Winter’, Roy Dennis, 2021, Saraband.

‘Blood and Mistletoe, History of the Druids in Britain’, Ronald Hutton, 2011, Yale University Press.

‘Mistletoe’, Royal Horticultural Society.

Author bio:

Sarah Das Gupta is a young 81 year old. Loves writing haiku and most forms of poetry. Is learning to walk after an accident. Main outside interests include equine sports. Lives near Cambridge, UK. Read other sciku by Sarah here.

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Bird’s Foot Trefoil by Sarah Das Gupta

Trefoil, bright yellow
a field of eggs and bacon
or granny’s toenails

by Sarah Das Gupta

Bird’s foot trefoil is native to most of Europe. It was taken to North America to enrich the grass for cattle and to prevent erosion at the sides of roads. It has a number of  popular names derived from its yellow flowers, tinged with red or the claw shape of the seed pods. It provides feed for caterpillars, bees and butterflies.

‘Trefoil’ is derived from Old French and refers to the pattern of three leaves. For this reason, it was included in Midsummer wreathes, fixed to front doors, as a symbol of the Trinity. Strangely enough, in the Victorian language of flowers, the plant symbolised jealousy and revenge!

Medicinally it was used to treat mild depression and insomnia. Its anti-inflammatory properties were used to alleviate skin conditions. The seed is sold commercially to enrich grazing and forage for cattle. Recently gardeners have planted it to add to the revival of wild flower meadows.

Botanical name:Lotus corniculatus
Popular names:Bird’s-foot trefoil, eggs and bacon, granny’s toenails, baby’s slippers
Family:Fabaceae
Origin:Native to Europe, parts of Asia (taken to N.America)
Flowering:March to June
Habitat:Meadows, rocky-crevices, roadside (Favours sandy soil)

Further reading:

‘Collins Complete Guide to Wild Flowers’, Paul Sterry, 2006, HarperCollins Publishers.

‘Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field’, John Lewis-Stempel, 2014, Transworld Publishers Ltd.

Articles from ‘The Woodland Trust‘ and ‘Nature’.

Author bio:

Sarah Das Gupta is a young 81 year old. Loves writing haiku and most forms of poetry. Is learning to walk after an accident. Main outside interests include equine sports. Lives near Cambridge, UK. Read other sciku by Sarah here.

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Dog’s Mercury by Sarah Das Gupta

Green dog’s mercury
your tiny secret flowers
toxic to canines

By Sarah Das Gupta

Originally a coloniser of ancient woodland, dog’s mercury is a useful ancient woodland indicator, determining areas of ancient woodland, even if there is no tree cover. Some ground-nesting birds like woodcock seem drawn to the plant. Speckled bush cricket nymphs feed on it, as do species of beetle, weevil and mollusc. It is a contributor to biodiversity in ancient woodland.

All parts of this plant are poisonous and can induce jaundice, diarrhoea, vomiting, even death. The epithet ‘dog’ in this context means ’lesser’ or ‘inferior’ to other plants of the family, as applied to other species such as ‘dog’ violet or ‘dog’ rose. The reference to ‘mercury’ probably refers to the god Mercury and the medicinal properties of the species.

From ancient times it has been used externally and its juice is emetic, ophthalmic and purgative. It was used particularly to treat warts and sores. If the leaves are thoroughly heated and dried, it is no longer toxic.

Botanical name:Mercurialis  perennis
Popular names: Dog’s mercury, false mercury, boggard posy, dog’s cole
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Origin:Native to most of Europe – almost excluding Ireland, Orkney and Shetland
Flowering: February to April
Habitat:Ancient woodland, broad-leaf woodland, hedgerows

Further reading:

‘Collins Complete Guide to Wild Flowers’, Paul Sterry, 2006, HarperCollins Publishers.

‘Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field’, John Lewis-Stempel, 2014, Transworld Publishers Ltd.

Articles from ‘The Woodland Trust‘ and ‘Nature’.

Author bio:

Sarah Das Gupta is a young 81 year old. Loves writing haiku and most forms of poetry. Is learning to walk after an accident. Main outside interests include equine sports. Lives near Cambridge, UK. Read other sciku by Sarah here.

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Tobacco Road by Michael H. Brownstein

tobacco pathways
across North America
ocean to ocean

by Michael H. Brownstein

Like many others, I always thought the native people of North America smoked and/or ingested a number of different plants to expose themselves to different plains of consciousness. This botany research reveals that isn’t the case. Tobacco was the main plant for smoking–perhaps the only one in certain areas–and it is also a study of how tobacco made it across the nation to the State of Washington.

Further reading:

‘An Ancient Residue Metabolomics-Based Method to Distinguish Use of Closely Related Plant Species in Ancient Pipes’, K.J. Brownstein, S. Tushingham, W.J. Damitio, T. Nguyen and D.R. Gang, 2020, https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffmolb.2020.00133

‘Biomolecular archaeology reveals ancient origins of indigenous tobacco smoking in North American Plateau’, S. Tushingham, C.M. Snyder, K.J. Brownstein and D.R. Gang, 2018, https://doi.org/10.10bioche73/pnas.1813796115

Author bio:

Michael H. Brownstein’s latest volumes of poetry, A Slipknot to Somewhere Else (2018) and How Do We Create Love (2019) were both published by Cholla Needles Press. In addition, he has appeared in Last Stanza, Café Review, American Letters and Commentary, Skidrow Penthouse, Xavier Review, Hotel Amerika, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Pacific Review, Poetrysuperhighway.com and others. He has nine poetry chapbooks including A Period of Trees (Snark Press, 2004), Firestorm: A Rendering of Torah (Camel Saloon Press, 2012), The Possibility of Sky and Hell: From My Suicide Book (White Knuckle Press, 2013) and The Katy Trail, Mid-Missouri, 100 Degrees Outside and Other Poems (Kind of Hurricane Press, 2013). He is the editor of First Poems from Viet Nam (2011). Michael recommends Project Agent Orange.

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If A Tree Talks in a Forest by James Penha

hear trees shoot the breeze
take the forest floor, fungal
roots confabulate

by James Penha

“The Last of Us” television series has energized discussions and imaginings of mushroom networks, but I prefer to consider in this poem not monsters but the beneficent “wood-wide web” that forester Peter Wohlleben describes in “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World”. That book explores how trees communicate and form alliances via their roots and associated fungi.

I myself was first exposed to this idea not from Wohlleben nor from scientific treatises, but from Richard Powers’ novel “The Overstory”, itself inspired by Wohlleben and the complementary work of Suzanne Simard.

Further reading:

‘The Overstory’ by Richard Powers, Norton Books: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393356687

‘Finding the Mother Tree’ by Suzanne Simard, Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602589/finding-the-mother-tree-by-suzanne-simard/

‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ by Peter Wohlleben, Greystone Books: https://www.peterwohllebenbooks.com/the-hidden-life-of-trees

‘The German Forester Who Wants the World to Idolize Trees’, Robert Moor, The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-german-forester-who-wants-the-world-to-idolize-trees

‘The Real Zombie Fungus That Inspired HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’’, Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-real-zombie-fungus-that-inspired-hbos-the-last-of-us-180981514/

‘The Social Life of Forests’, Ferris Jabr, The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/02/magazine/tree-communication-mycorrhiza.html

‘‘Mother Trees’ Are Intelligent: They Learn and Remember’, Richard Schiffman, Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mother-trees-are-intelligent-they-learn-and-remember/

‘We Asked a Mycologist About The Last of Us and It Got Weird’, Bria McNeal, Esquire: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a42760795/last-of-us-fungus-cordyceps-mycologist/

Author bio:

Expat New Yorker James Penha  (he/him🌈) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. His essays have appeared in The New York Daily News and The New York Times. Penha edits TheNewVerse.News, an online journal of current-events poetry. You can find out more about James’ poetry on his website https://jamespenha.com and catch up with him on Twitter @JamesPenha

Enjoyed James’ sciku? Check out more of his sciku here: ‘Quantumku‘, ‘DNAncient’, ‘Air-Gen-Ku’, ‘Boys Whale Be Boys’, and ‘Down Dog’.

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Leto’s Children

Does Demeter know
of your lunar harvest plans?
Rooted regoliths.

Humanity has long looked at the moon and wondered if and how we could colonise it. How would we survive? What would we eat? Could we ever plant crops on the moon?

Yet for over 50 years the possibility of answering this third question has been within our reach. The Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions all brought back samples of lunar regolith – a fine grey soil found on the moon’s surface. If earth plants can grow in lunar soil then the idea of growing crops on the moon isn’t entirely in the realm of science fiction.

With the start of NASA’s Artemis program in 2017 (which aims to get humans back to the moon by 2025) interest in the potential for lunar soil has increased. Paul et al. (2022) were given permission to test whether mouse-ear cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) would grow in lunar regolith.

They found that the plants sprouted from seeds and grew, although they were slow to develop, showed signs of stress and differentially expressed genes indicating ionic stresses. Whilst plenty of small steps are needed to understand how to mitigate these issues, the fact that the plants grew at all is a huge leap for humanity’s dreams of colonising the moon.

This poem plays with ancient Geek mythology. Leto is the goddess of motherhood and fertility and the mother of Artemis and Apollo (who the NASA space programs are named after). Demeter is the goddess of the harvest. Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, nature and the moon. Apollo is the god of the sun, music and, fittingly, poetry.

Further reading: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03334-8

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Wood Wide Web by Gauri Sirur

Fungal filaments
Humming under forest floor
Trees communicate.

By Gauri Sirur

Trees communicate with each other through an underground network of mycorrhizal fungi. The fungal strands colonize the tree roots, and form a web connecting the roots to each other.

The relationship between the fungi and trees is usually symbiotic. The fungi take a share of the sugars that the trees produce during photosynthesis. In return, the trees receive nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen that the fungi synthesize from the soil.

Through the network, trees share food — carbon-rich sugars, nitrogen, and phosphorous — with other trees. They also send out warning messages about predators such as aphids and caterpillars. Or about pathogen attacks. This buys their neighbors time to activate their defenses.

All is not sugar and spice, however. Both trees and fungi try to extract the maximum amount of nutrition from the other while giving the minimum in return.

Trees are more likely to help their kin than an unrelated tree. Or to release toxic substances to harm an unwanted neighbor.

Dr. Suzanne Simard, a scientist at the University of British Columbia, discovered the fungal network in 1997. She dubbed it the “Wood Wide Web.”

Further reading:

‘Wood Wide Web mapped for the first time’ – Science article.

‘Uncovering the hidden language of trees’ – Suzanne Simard interview.

‘Net transfer of carbon between ectomycorrhizal tree species in the field’ – Suzanne Simard’s 1997 research paper first documenting the fungal network.

Gauri Sirur enjoys writing about nature, family, and anything that intrigues her. You can find her writing at gaurisirur.wordpress.com and gaurisirur.medium.com.

This sciku was originally published by Gauri Sirur on Medium.com here.

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Mistletoe

festive parasites
regulating virulence
to preserve their hosts

Mistletoe is a parasitic plant often found growing on hardwoods, such as apple trees. Whilst able to photosynthesize itself, the majority of a mistletoe plant’s water and nutrients are taken from its host, putting strain on the host plant.

The burden of parasitism can be particularly hard on the host when environmental conditions are tough, for instance during a drought. Research by Nabity et al. (2021), however, has shown that the desert mistletoe (Phoradendron californicum) is able to adjust the balance between autotrophy (the amount it obtains resources for itself through photosynthesis) and heterotrophy (the amount it takes resources from its host).

During dry periods the researchers found that desert mistletoe plants increased the amount of photosynthesis they performed, limiting the burden they place on their environmentally stressed host, the velvet mesquite (Prosopsis velutina). In this way mistletoe plants increase the chances of their host plants surviving the harsh environmental conditions and, as a result, increase their own chances of survival.

The researchers also demonstrated evidence of competition for xylem resources between mistletoe plants on the same host, some of the first evidence of intraspecific competition in parasites. The mistletoe plants are able to detect other mistletoe plants on the same host and can adjust their virulence accordingly. Possible ways that mistletoe could detect one another include via scent (chemical compounds released through a plant’s pores) or through chemical compounds traveling along the host’s xylem.

The research also suggests that levels of relatedness between mistletoe plants sharing the same host may even affect virulence. More research is needed to clarify this, however, and to investigate whether the plants can actually detect relatedness or whether mistletoe’s method of seed dispersal simply means that plants sharing the same host are likely to have higher levels of relatedness than mistletoe plants on separate hosts.

Further reading: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.034

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Mapping Seagrass Loss

Quantifying our
marine meadows – past, present.
A threadbare carpet.

Everyone knows their own science interests, the areas of research that they find thought-provoking. Sometimes I think that there are also subjects that we don’t realise we find fascinating. I never knew I was interested in seagrasses but this is the third sciku I’ve published about them, the second that I’ve written myself. It’s curious that I wouldn’t have known this about myself before today when this research paper caught my eye.

Seagrasses are hugely important ecosystems. In the sciku ‘Forgotten value’ I wrote about how seagrass meadows provide a nursery habitat for over a fifth of the world’s largest 25 fisheries. And as Dr Phil Colarusso showed with his sciku ‘Blue Carbon’, seagrass meadows collect and sequester large amounts of carbon, removing it from the global carbon cycle. As a result seagrass meadows are referred to as blue carbon habitats, along with salt marshes and mangroves.

Today’s sciku is based on a study by Green et al (2021), which examines the historical loss of seagrasses from the waters around the United Kingdom. By scrutinising multiple accounts from as early as 1831 and using data collected from 1900 onwards the researchers were able to estimate the UK’s seagrass losses. It makes for sobering reading:

“At least 44% of United Kingdom’s seagrasses have been lost since 1936, 39% since the 1980’s. However, losses over longer time spans may be as high as 92%.”

The research shows that the UK currently has only 8,493 hectares of seagrass meadows remaining. That’s approximated 0.9 Mt (million tonnes) of carbon, equivalent to around £22 million in the current carbon market. Whilst that may seem a lot, it’s worth considering that historic seagrass meadows could have stored 11.5 Mt of carbon, supporting around 400 million fish.

These losses are catastrophic but the information from this study can be used to inform future monitoring and restoration efforts. What’s more, by quantifying the benefits we gain from seagrass meadows as well as what we’ve lost from their disappearance, the findings also provide an impetus for improved conservation efforts, beyond ‘softer’ arguments such improving biodiversity.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.629962  

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Glacier Mice by Dr. Jon Hare

unexplained movements
of a moss ball herd
island bioglaciology

By Jon Hare

My brother sent me an NPR story about a herd of fuzzy green “glacier mice”. The concept is crazy – small rocks, covered in moss, on a glacier, moving in tandem like a herd of miniature muskox. Hotaling et al. (2020) studied moss balls on an Alaskan glacier. They tagged the balls and tracked them for 54 days to understand their movement and then revisited the site over the next three years to understand persistence.

Photo credit – Tim Bartholomaus (http://tbartholomaus.org)

The moss balls moved in unison at approximately 2 cm day-1. Speed of movement was related to rate of ablation of the glacier surface: more ice melting, greater speed of movement. The direction of movement, however, was not related to ablation, nor slope, wind direction, or direction of solar radiation. Further, the moss balls persisted over years with an annual survival rate of 0.86, which equates to a greater than 6 year life span. It is hard to imagine a herd of moss balls surviving six Alaskan winters to move around together in subsequent summers.

These moss balls are also hotspots of biological diversity – they provide an island-like habitat for an array of organisms. How the biodiversity survives the winter is also unknown, as are the rates of colonization and extinction on the moss balls – raising questions of island biogeography on a glacier.

Original research: Hotaling, S, T. C. Bartholomaus and S. L. Gilbert (2020). Rolling stones gather moss: movement and longevity of moss balls on an Alaskan glacier. Polar Biology. https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs00300-020-02675-6

Dr. Jon Hare is a scientist who works in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His research background is fisheries oceanography and climate change impacts on marine fisheries. Check out Jon’s other sciku ‘Owls of the Eastern Ice’, ‘Varves’, ‘Signs of Spring’ and ‘Cobwebs to Foodwebs’.

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Signs of Spring by Dr. Jon Hare

silvery white
shadbush blossoms
swim upstream

By Jon Hare

Shadbush (Amelanchier arborea) blooms in the spring. Clusters of small white flowers appear in March through May before leaves grow. The bloom time coincides with the upstream migration of American shad (Alosa sapidissima). Millions of shad used to return to east coast rivers, but these runs are now greatly reduced because of historical overfishing, dams, and loss of habitat.

Much like salmon, shad return to rivers to reproduce after several years at sea. Unlike salmon that reproduce and die, shad go back to sea after reproducing to return to rivers in following years to reproduce again. Thus salmon are termed semelparous from the Latin semel – once, a single time. Shad are termed iteroparous from the Latin itero – to repeat.

Photo credit: NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Center.

Shadbush is also iteroparous – blooming year after year in the spring to mark the return of the shad. Recent research by Nack et al. (2019) indicates shad migration will be earlier in the season; whether shadbush will bloom earlier remains to be seen.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1002/mcf2.10076

Dr. Jon Hare is a scientist who works Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His research background is in fisheries oceanography and climate change impacts on marine fisheries. Check out Jon’s other sciku ‘Owls of the Eastern Ice’, ‘Varves’, ‘Cobwebs to Foodwebs’ and ‘Glacier Mice‘.

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Blue Carbon by Dr. Phil Colarusso

Climate change buffer
Particles settle in grass
Seagrass meadows rule

By Phil Colarusso

Seagrass meadows collect and sequester large amounts of carbon in the sediments below the meadows.  The carbon accumulates through 2 different pathways.  First, through photosynthesis and tissue growth, seagrasses extract carbon from the water column and incorporate it into its own tissues. The root and rhizome structures and some cast leaf material end up being incorporated into the sediments.  In most cases, this provides less than half of the carbon found in those sediments.  The majority of the carbon in the sediments originates from outside of the meadow.  The canopy of the meadow functions as a filter, facilitating the settlement of organic particles as the tide passes over the meadow going in and out. 

As long as the meadow stays intact, the carbon in the sediments remains isolated and out of the global carbon cycle.  Data shows that the age of carbon in meadows can be hundreds of years old.  Seagrass meadows, salt marsh and mangroves all perform the same carbon sequestration function and collectively are referred to as blue carbon habitats.  This is still a relatively young field of research.

Photo credit: Phil Colarusso

In the above photo, you can see the seafloor in the foreground, which is primarily sandy cobble.  The eelgrass meadow has a dark organic layer indicating the large carbon component that has accumulated due to the presence of the plants.

Further reading on seagrass blue carbon: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1477

Dr. Phil Colarusso is a marine biologist with US EPA Region I.  He has been working on eelgrass restoration, conservation and research for 31 years.  He and his team just recently had a paper on carbon sequestration rates in eelgrass in New England accepted for publication.

Interested in seagrass meadows? They’re also hugely important for the world’s fisheries. Find out more in the sciku Forgotten Value here. You can also check out Phil’s sciku Invasive Species and Diving for Science.

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Climate Masting

Seed production up,
surely that’s a good thing, no?
Benefits declined.

Whilst the world stirs slowly into action to limit climate change, general consensus is that there will be some winners amongst the losers as temperatures rise. All organisms have their niches and changing environments will benefit some just as much they cost others.

Or at least that’s the simplistic take on the matter…

New research into plant masting – synchronous seed production – suggests that all isn’t as clear cut as that. The phenomenon of masting is beneficial to plants as the synchronicity “increases the efficiency of pollination and satiates predators” – sure predators will eat lots of seeds but the overwhelming numbers of seeds mean that large numbers aren’t eaten. It’s a bit like the synchronous emergence of some cicada species, which only emerge on mass every 13 or 17 years, with the gaps between emergence ensuring that predators aren’t reliant on the cicadas as a stable food source.

Bogdziewicz et al. (2020) looked at a 39 year-long masting dataset for the European beech and found that whilst climate warming increased seed production, the trees are actually losing out for three reasons:

1) Increased temperatures result in more consistent numbers of seed produced year-on-year – preventing the traditional boom and bust nature of seed production that helps to limit predator numbers.

2) Increased temperatures reduce synchronicity, resulting in less effective pollination.

3) Reduced seed production synchronicity means that predators aren’t overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of seeds available and are able to eat more seeds over a longer period of time.

All of this means that whilst the simple story suggests climate warning leads to increased seed production, the truth is more complex and instead those that actually benefit are those that eat the seeds.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0592-8

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Fatal Attraction by Fred Mason

Sundew enticement.
Sweet nectar beyond compare.
Come hither, dear midge.

By Fred Mason

Philippe Martin revolutionized digital nature photography by “stacking” multiple images of the same subject to create a single, startlingly focused image. The resulting sharpness and brilliance create an almost three-dimensional quality. His book Hyper Nature (Firefly Books, 2015) advances the study of nature’s smallest creatures. The image which inspired this haiku shows a small (3 mm) midge, Anthomyia pluvialus, trapped in a sundew.

About the author:

My name is Fred Mason. I spent 37 years working for IBM Corporation. After retiring, I embarked on several new activities, including the writing of poetry. Most recently, I have written many Hiakus. My approach is to start with an exceptional photo, then to give it a voice of its own. My range of subjects runs the gamut from Comedy Wildlife Animals, to weird and unusual scenes (sculptures, buildings, nature, etc.).

Editor’s note: This is actually the first image featured on The Sciku Project. I very much enjoy Fred’s approach to writing haiku and am so pleased to have been able to feature his poem and the image that inspired it. The image is from Hyper Nature by Philippe Martin, published by Firefly books, you can find more about it here.

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Fluttering by at dusk by Roy McGhie

Fluttering by at dusk,

dawn, and in between.

Crop diversity!

Recent research by Olimpi & Philpott (2018) concludes that crop diversity as a management practice drives bat activity, and that crop diversity and less frequent pesticide use increase bats’ insect prey populations. The study notes that this could be a useful management tool where other options, such as hedgerow or tree management, are not available.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2018.06.008

Roy McGhie works for Natural England as an Uplands Advisor. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here. If you enjoyed his sciku, check out his previous poems Ghost Ponds, A Heady Mixture and Hedgerow Snuffling.

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Oh ketchup packet!

Oh ketchup packet!

How to get the last sauce out?

Hydrocarbon films!

 

Waste from packaging where food products can’t be completely extracted builds up. Now research by Mukherjee et al (2018) suggests a solution might be at hand. The researchers found that hydrocarbon-based polymer films can be stably impregnated with vegetable oils. The resulting material is slippery and durable, ideal for the inside of packaging to reduce food sticking and waste.

Whilst this sounds high-tech the researchers were actually inspired by the pitcher plant which uses a slippery coating on its leaves to capture visiting insects.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29823-7

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Chestnut menace

Invading clonal

wasps. Chestnut menace spreading

yet no males required.

 

The Chestnut gall wasp arrived in Europe in 2006, imported accidentally from China. Since then it has begun to spread and devastate European Chestnut trees.

Bonal et al (2018) have now revealed that the European population has very low genetic diversity due to 1) the founding of the population by a small number of individuals, 2) an endosymbiont bacterial infection present within the population that is known to have male-killing tendencies and 3) it’s parthenogenetic reproduction strategy. This is where females are able to reproduce and produce female offspring without the need to be fertilised by males. No males have been observed in the European population and the females and their offspring are effectively clones of one another.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-23754-z

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Forgotten value

Forgotten value

of seagrass meadows. Crucial

for world’s fisheries.

Life in the ocean is under threat from a variety of manmade issues, including climate change, mining and over-fishing. Yet our understanding of marine ecosystems still remains far from complete.

New research by Unsworth et al (2018) has revealed just how important seagrass meadows are for fish populations and as a result for humanity’s fisheries. Seagrass meadows are found in the shallow seas around all the continents (aside from Antarctica) between the intertidal zone and 60 meters deep.

The researchers found that seagrass meadows provide a nursery habitat for over a fifth of the world’s largest 25 fisheries and provide support to a large number of other small-scale fisheries around the world. The study indicates that these seagrass meadows should be maintained in order to maximise their role in global fisheries production.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12566

Interested in seagrass meadows? They also play a hugely important role in sequestering carbon. Find out more with this sciku here.

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The year’s best species

Mystery protist.

Apes, snailfish and amphipods.

The year’s best species.

 

Every year since 2008 the College of Environmental Science and Forestry has released a Top 10 New Species list. 2018’s selection include single celled organisms, plants and animals (including two species of beetle) as well as a prehistoric marsupial lion identified from fossils. All 10 species are fascinating but those highlighted in the sciku are:

Protist – Ancoracysta twista, a single celled predatory Eukaryote with harpoon-like organelles that it uses to immobilise its prey. Intriguingly its evolutionary origins are unclear and it doesn’t fit neatly within any known groups.

Ape – Orangutans now come in three flavours: Bornean, Sumatran and now a newly identified Southern Sumatran species of orangutans. It is the most endangered great ape in the world.

Snailfish – Whilst snailfish are found at all depths, 2018’s species is the deepest fish in the sea, found in the Mariana Trench at 7,966 meters below the surface. It appears to be the top predator in its benthic community and is tadpole-like and around 4 inches long.

Amphipod – Epimeria quasimodo is found in the Antarctic Ocean. The 2 inch long crustacean takes its name from the hunchback of Notre Dame and has beautiful vivid colours.

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Crop blighter

Rice blast: crop blighter.

Inhibiting one protein

stops the fungal spread.

 

Up to 30% of rice crop is destroyed by rice blast every year, causing huge welfare and economic costs. Sakulkoo et al (2018) have found that inhibiting a single protein enzyme in the fungus stops the spread of the blight through a rice plant.

The fungus’s mitogen-activated protein Pmk1 plays a role in suppressing its host’s immune system and controls the ability of the fungus to move from one rice cell to another. By inhibiting Pmk1’s kinase the fungus is trapped within the infected rice cell and is unable to spread and infect the rest of the rice plant. This latest discovery could point the way towards new rice blast control methods, resulting in increased food security and economic development.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0892

 

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Closing the trap by Dr Hortense Le Ferrand

A feather falling –

hungry inert soul wakes up,

snaps, closing the trap.

The Venus flytrap, Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that performs one of the fastest movements in the flora: when an insects touches the hairs inside the leaves of the trap, it closes in a few milliseconds.

Inspired by the plants and its internal microstructure, a team of researchers from ETH Zürich and Purdue University have developed a composite material mimicking the Venus leaf and able to change shape as fast as the plant (Schmied & Le Ferrand et al, 2017).

Thanks to the good match between the theoretical simulations and the experimental results, their method opens new avenues for the creation of autonomous and fast robotic devices.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/aa5efd

Dr Hortense Le Ferrand is a postdoctoral fellow at Nanyang Technical University, Singapore. Hortense’s interests are on the fabrication and design of novel materials and systems inspired by nature. Check out her other scku ‘Shrimp molting’ here.

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An orphan crop

Yam: an orphan crop,

vital yet disregarded.

Gene map may assist.

 

Yams are a stable tuber crop in tropical Africa yet their cultivation has been constrained due to little interest from the rest of the world, their susceptibility to pests and diseases, and their awkward propagation. As such they can be referred to as an “orphan crop that would benefit from crop improvement efforts”.

To help the humble yam’s lot, researchers have sequenced the genome of the white Guinea yam (Tamiru et al, 2017). The research has revealed that yams belong to a unique genus (Dioscorea) that is distinct from rice, palm and banana groups. Yams have separate male and female plants (a limiting factor for yam breeding efforts) but the research has now revealed that yams use female heterogametic sex determination – unlike our XX females and XY males, yams have ZZ males and ZW females meaning that it’s the female gamete that determines the sex of individual offspring. The research hopes to assist yam breeding and cultivation efforts as well as improve food security and sustainability.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-017-0419-x

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Blossoms

Cherry blossoms dance

across the road like heat haze

on a summer day.

 

Ok, this is not technically a sciku but since haiku have traditionally had a strong association with cherry blossoms it felt right for The Sciku Project to feature a cherry blossom based haiku.