The Catch-All Botany Thread

[KichigaiNeko]

bit like this little weed





Beautiful none the less

[thesummerqueen]

Kichi, wtf are these?



I read the book that Ferngully was based on and used to irritate my mother with my botanical and zoological questions, which she had no idea about because they weren't Amazonian, they were Australian. (wtf mom, there were distinctly Australian animals in the movie). I managed to figure out most of my questions myself (I think I was 7 when this movie first came out) but I've never figured this one out!

They look like the stuff you posted above but on stilts!

[KichigaiNeko]

Kichi, wtf are these?



I read the book that Ferngully was based on and used to irritate my mother with my botanical and zoological questions, which she had no idea about because they weren't Amazonian, they were Australian. (wtf mom, there were distinctly Australian animals in the movie). I managed to figure out most of my questions myself (I think I was 7 when this movie first came out) but I've never figured this one out!

They look like the stuff you posted above but on stilts!

They are called Xanthorrhoea sp often known as "Black Boys" and "Grass Trees"; a heathland species, that can grow quite tall. You have to burn tehm to get them to flower....meh it's Australia

Wiki notes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthorrhoea

28 species in the genus of which

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthorrhoea_preissii

...grows like a fucking weed over here in Perth. Like many Australian plants they are soil specific in the majority of cases

[The Grand Nudger]

I love species that leverage wildfire to reproduce. Hell of a way to make sure you don't waste your efforts eh? Refuse to flower unless everything else is smoldering ash.

[thesummerqueen]

Huh.

Well, that's what happens when you're born in one rainforest an entire world away from another...takes 20 years to figure stuff out.

Thanks, Kich.

[KichigaiNeko]

The DaintreeRainforest..(which Fern Gully is supposedly about ) is only 1200 sq km. Not very big by Australian standards. Here is the linky for wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daintree_Rainforest

Some Touristy crap

http://www.daintreeinfo.com/?gclid=CLLDp...4god0xHU2Q

http://www.daintreerainforest.com/

[KichigaiNeko]

And now for another indestructible plant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doryanthes_excelsa



http://gardeningwithangus.com.au/austral...lies.shtml

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1805318.htm.

[thesummerqueen]

Botany Photo of the Day:



Calceolaria uniflora

[KichigaiNeko]

Huge Australian bushfires ignited rare plant growth (newscientist 19 Sept 2011)



Rare plants are springing up in an Australian park ravaged by bushfires – plants that had never been recorded there before the fire. The astonishing revival is providing new insights into the way ecosystems recover from fire damage.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20...rowth.html

[thesummerqueen]

Commonly known as an oyster mushroom, the name of this species comes from Latin: pleurotus meaning "sideways", and ostreatus relating to its similarity to the oyster bivalve (possibly its taste as well). This species is edible. First cultivated by Germany for sustenance during WWI, it is now cultivated world-wide. Due to its prevalent culinary uses, other names include píng gū in Chinese, nấm sò or nấm bào ngư in Vietnamese, and chippikkoon in Malayalam.

Wikipedia provides a fairly comprehensive description of the uses and prevalence of Pleurotus ostreatus, including its potential for lowering cholesterol, and its use in "mycoremediation", as termed by Paul Stamets.

Also included in the article was the link for this TED talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on...world.html