Tag Plants
Buckthorn Baggie kills invasive trees without chemicals
The problem was simple: Buckthorn kept resprouting in Matthew Hamilton's backyard after he cut it back. His patent-pending cure annihilates the weed tree once and for all.
Beyond genes: Protein atlas scores nitrogen fixing duet
The massive atlas of plant and bacterial proteins is possibly the most exhaustive proteomic inventory of any kind to date.
With designer lignin, biofuels researchers reproduced evolutionary path
As one of the researchers put it, 'Nature was already doing what we thought we’d laboriously taught her to do.'
UW spinoff helps boost new crop in cranberry country
Some Wisconsin cranberry farmers have started growing aronia, a fruit that is sometimes touted, in this nutrition-conscious era, as the "next superfruit." A UW–Madison spinoff is helping explain aronia's benefits.
Spring comes sooner to urban heat islands, with potential consequences for wildlife
It may be music to gardeners’ ears, but that tune could be alarming to some native and migratory birds and bugs.
Carrot genome paints picture of domestication, could help improve crops
The crop's full genetic code was just deciphered by a team of researchers led by UW–Madison horticulture professor and geneticist Phil Simon.
Specimens from George Washington Carver discovered at UW–Madison
At least 25 specimens of fungi that infect plants, collected more than a century ago, were found in the Wisconsin State Herbarium.
Mycologist says our close relatives break the bounds of biology
The mushroom nicknamed "death cap" made headlines this summer when it poisoned Syrian refugees fleeing through Eastern Europe.
Ancestors of land plants were wired to make the leap to shore
When the algal ancestor of modern land plants made the transition from aquatic environments to an inhospitable shore 450 million years ago, it changed the world by dramatically altering climate and setting the stage for the vast array of terrestrial life.
Giant Pumpkin Regatta set for Oct. 10 at Memorial Union
Madisonians have a fun, alternative way to enjoy the fall harvest: attending the university's Giant Pumpkin Regatta at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Memorial Union Terrace, 800 Langdon St.
Pharmacy garden exhibits the roots, shoots and leaves of medicine
The garden of traditional medicinal plants at the entrance of Rennebohm Hall on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus shows the deep plant roots of pharmaceuticals, says former Dean Jeanette Roberts, a professor of pharmacy.
Family tree for orchids explains their astonishing variability
Orchids, a fantastically complicated and diverse group of flowering plants, have long blended the exotic with the beautiful. Most species live on trees, often in remote, tropical mountains. Their flowers can be strange - one even flowers underground, and many species deceive their pollinators into thinking they are good to eat.
UW study shows how a kernel got naked and corn became king
Ten thousand years ago, a golden grain got naked, brought people together and grew to become one of the top agricultural commodities on the planet.
New curators dig in at UW–Madison’s public gardens
Plants brought new curators to a pair of public gardens at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but it’s people that Ben Futa and David Stevens are hoping to see more of.
Starved for fire, Wisconsin’s pine barrens disappear
A century spent treating wildfires as emergencies to be stamped out may have cost Central Wisconsin a natural setting that was common and thriving before the state was settled.
Controlled prairie burns to take place in Lakeshore Nature Preserve
No cause for alarm: If citizens see smoke on the west end of the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus this weekend, it's part of nature's plan.
UW botanist harnesses the grid to illuminate crop growth
With help from the Center for High Throughput Computing (CHTC), botany Professor Edgar Spalding is applying this astronomical sense of scale to our understanding of corn. Spalding uses the HTC capabilities pioneered by Miron Livny, Morgridge Institute for Research chief technology officer, to quantify the incredibly complex process of corn growth from seed to vigorous seedling — not just one at a time, but over thousands of samples.
Last stand of the President’s Oak: A tree’s life remembered
After a tall and green life, Quercus macrocarpa, better known to friends as the President’s Oak, was taken down on Jan. 14, 2015, following a lengthy illness.
Deer account for almost half of long-term forest change, study finds
A study released this week has linked at least 40 percent of species changes in the forests of northern Wisconsin and Michigan over the past 60 years to the eating habits of white-tailed deer.
Flower links Civil War, natural history and ‘the blood of heroes’
On August 14, 1864, in a Union Army camp in Georgia, a captain from Wisconsin plucked a plant, pressed it onto a sheet of paper, wrote a letter describing the plant as "certainly the most interesting specimen I ever saw," and sent it with the plant to a scientist he called "Friend" in Wisconsin.