‘Greedy’ trees leave enough “crumbs” for little plants to eke out a living

October 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has explored how increasing CO2 (carbon dioxide) concentrations may affect trees and water and carbon cycles over the next 100 years. Scientists nowadays face the problem of predicting how each component of our complex ecosystem will respond to the many environmental changes sweeping the globe.

October 8th, 2009 LONDON - Scothedge campaigners have taken their drive against "vegetation tyranny" to the MSPs. These people are fighting against the high hedges and trees of their neighbours that leave them in the dark.

October 5th, 2009 SYDNEY - The discovery of a piece of fossilized amber that came from a plant living more than 300 million years ago, has led scientists to suggest that flowering plants may have started to appear a lot earlier than previously believed. It is believed that flowering plants only started to show up in the fossil record at the beginning of the Cretaceous period, around 120 million years ago.

September 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers at North Carolina (NC) State University, US, are working to demonstrate that through a unique process, trees can be used to remove pollutants from the environment. Through a process called phytoremediation - literally a "green" technology - plants and trees remove pollutants from the environment or render them harmless.

September 17th, 2009 LONDON - Some Indian families living in a housing estate in Portadown, a town in Britain's Northern Ireland province, have said they want to leave the area after racist attacks last week, according to reports. The BBC said windows were smashed at two houses in the Killicomaine estate Sep 3 in what police said was a race hate crime.

September 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A surprising new study has found that cities trap more carbon dioxide (CO2) than rain forests. According to a report in National Geographic News, compared with tropical rain forests, cities store more carbon, acre for acre, in their trees, buildings, and dirt.

September 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has determined that flowering plants originated not as trees, but as relatively non-woody "pre-trees" that could outcompete ancient plants like conifers, thus reinventing the concept of weediness. Flowering plants widespread and are phenomenally successful, but how did they get to be so successful and where did they come from? This question bothered Darwin and others, and a research paper published in the September issue of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society indicates that their ability to adapt anatomically may be the answer.

August 26th, 2009 LONDON - Reports indicate that trees around the world are colonizing new territories in response to higher temperatures, all thanks to global warming. From the US west coast to northern Siberia and south-east Asia, trees are growing at higher elevations, and at higher latitudes as the climate warms.

August 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has found that pine trees grown for 12 years in air one-and-a-half times richer in carbon dioxide (CO2) than today's levels produced twice as many seeds of at least as good a quality as those growing under normal conditions. The findings suggest some woody tree species could, in the future, out-compete grasses and other herbaceous plants that scientists had previously found can also produce more seeds under high-CO2, but of inferior quality.

July 27th, 2009 SYDNEY - Like animals, trees can camouflage themselves too, a new study has found. One tree even kept changing the colour of its leaves to protect them from a giant flightless bird.

July 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - New findings from Queen's University biologists in Canada show that smaller plants have many advantages over bigger ones, as they have superior 'staying power'. "Until now most of the thinking has suggested that to be a good competitor in the forest, you have to be a big plant," said Queen's Biology professor Lonnie Aarssen.

July 3rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have constructed a new time-calibrated family tree for ferns, which has indicated that while modern tropical rain forests were becoming established, ferns climbed aboard, and experienced a flowering of their own species diversity. The family tree for ferns was created by Duke University researcher Eric Schuettpelz, along with associate professor Kathleen Pryer.

June 19th, 2009 London, June 19 (ANI): Some plants can increase the rate of ozone production by up to 50 times, according to a study. Rosemary, juniper, and pine trees are among certain plants that emit chemical compounds known as terpenes, thought to help deter insect predators, or protect the plant from other stresses like high temperatures.

June 9th, 2009 LONDON - Chimpanzees have an inherent spatial memory that makes them remember the exact location of all their favourite fruit trees, according to a study. In fact, primatologists have found that their spatial memory is so precise that they can find a single tree among more than 12,000 others within a patch of forest.

June 6th, 2009 LONDON - A study of the giant trees and beautiful flowers depicted in Maya art has identified which plants they held sacred. According to a report by BBC News, the depictions, created during the Maya Classic Period, are so accurate they could help researchers spot plants with hitherto unknown medicinal uses.