Flora Library - News about flowers, plants & trees

Forest & trees

Tree planting has potential to increase carbon sequestration capacity on Nation's forests - In the United States, fully stocking non-stocked and poorly stocked forests would result in an annual increase of 20 percent in the amount of carbon sequestered by forests.

Colorado's famous aspens expected to decline due to climate change - Using computer modeling, researchers simulated how the distribution of quaking aspen, a native tree known for its brilliant yellow and orange foliage in fall and the sound of its trembling leaves, will change amid rising temperatures over the next 100 years.

Coconut rhinoceros beetle makes unexpected 'host shift' to Guam's cycad trees - Researchers have documented what biologists call a 'host shift' of the coconut rhinoceros beetle in Guam. The beetle, first documented as an invasive species in Guam in 2007, has been devastating the island's ubiquitous coconut palms and is now also burrowing into Guam's endangered native cycad tree, Cycas micronesica.

News & articles

Genome duplications as evolutionary adaptation strategy - Genome duplications play a major role in the development of forms and structures of plant organisms and their changes across long periods of evolution. Biologists made this discovery in their research of the Brassicaceae family. To determine the scope of the different variations over 30 million years, they analyzed all 4,000 species of this plant family and investigated at the genus level their morphological diversity with respect to all their characteristic traits.
Warming temperatures are driving Arctic greening - As Arctic summers warm, Earth's northern landscapes are changing. Using satellite images to track global tundra ecosystems over decades, a new study found the region has become greener, as warmer air and soil temperatures lead to increased plant growth.
Researchers find new way to protect plants from fungal infection - Widespread fungal disease in plants can be controlled with a commercially available chemical that has been primarily used in medicine until now. In a comprehensive experiment scientists have uncovered a new metabolic pathway that can be disrupted with this chemical, thus preventing many known plant fungi from invading the host plant.