Biomineralised barbed botanics bite back!
They almost literally bite. Glochidiate trichomes in some species of Loasa contain nanocrystalline apatite-cellulose composite, similar to the material found in teeth.
Nigel Chaffey
600 posts
I am a Botanist and former Senior Lecturer in Botany at Bath Spa University (Bath, near Bristol, UK). As News Editor for the Annals of Botany I contributed the monthly Plant Cuttings column to that in
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The 21st century Prometheus
The full title of Mary Shelley’s acclaimed 1818 novel “Frankenstein” is “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus”. Well, fictional frightening-fellow fabricator Dr Frankenstein may have been the modern Prometheus of his day, but I’ve just chanced upon the 21st century version. Nothing to do with hard
Colletotrichum comes good
A relative of a notorious fungus that infests beans may have positive advantages for some other plants.
Life’s little certainties…
Nigel Chaffey discovers Nature has its own taxes.
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