Natural Science Forum / Biology / Botany / June 2006

Can anybody help me find books or papers to read?  For free-floating
and floated-leaf plants, I know air is trapped and density is lower
than water. People told me:" upper leaf surface is hydrophobic and
unwettable (so it floats); and lower surface is hydrophilic". Is that

Hi, can anyone help?  I have a strelitzia (bird of paradise) that is
years old (grown from tiny plant) which is thriving but has some for
of knats laying eggs in the soil which are infesting our flat!  I hav
tried re-potting, using bug spray and anti fungus stuff for the soi

Are there any specific types of plants that absorb iodine
from the soil and water moreso than other plants?

What's the exact term for the unusual occurence of "twin" flowers o
fruit that grow from the same node in a species that should normally b
one-node-one-flower/fruit?
Thanks

Can anyone direct me to an online picture of a 'common' water lily which
shows the entire profile from dirt at bottom of pond to leaf on top of
water.  Like a black and white proflile pict...
These grow from bulbs in the mud not just roots that float in water,

Can anyone direct me to an online picture of a 'common' water lily which
shows the entire profile from dirt at bottom of pond to leaf on top of
water.  Like a black and white proflile pict...
These grow from bulbs in the mud not just roots that float in water,

this may sound like a crazy question but is it possible that plants
that receive too much of what they require to exist would flourish and
die at an accelerated rate? Are there any examples, particularly in the
tropics, of this? Can plants die of too much of a good thing?

A friend sent me this photo for identification. He took it in the
Pyrenees last week. He describes it as a collection of limp tubes.
http://www.box.net/public/static/ys4dzg1xqn.jpg

After living HERE about 5 years, we discovered this wild orchid a few
feet off the path in a tangle of weeds and brush. We cleared the area
around it and put up the usual cage to keep out the critters.
js

Thank God for Newton Hills State Park in South Dakota for I was able to
get seeds of Rock Elm. This is becoming a rare tree. It may go extinct
if we are not careful.
I made some cuttings tonight and planted about 200 seeds. Has anyone

I can sometimes identify plants with the aid of a field guide
and sometimes not. Sometimes leaves and other stuff from the plant
falls on the ground and is easily collected for its own sake, just
to have a record of what I found. I own a microscope which can give

Using carbon dioxide the chemical formula often given for carbon
fixation is...
6CO2 + 12H2O -> C6H12O6 + 6O2 + 6H20
but in principle, carbon monoxide could be used as follows:

Juneberry is my first canning crop this year. Although I could have
canned some rhubarb. Rhubarb is always there to cann except winter and
that is because the fruit is the stalk itself. But a little rhubarb
goes a long way for me. Perhaps it is because the acid of rhubarb is

I am in the southeast corner of South Dakota, near Sioux City Iowa, and
this is the first time I have experienced drought in Spring. Last month
was May and normally we get 3.5 inches or rainfall and this year only
0.8 and it looks like no rain until perhaps Monday. Normally drought

I saw a plant at a canyon park in San Diego that I can't seem ID with
any of the resources I have.. it had very irregular looking flowers,
consisting of four upper fingers that were almost completely fused and
a single lower finger.  They were much longer than they were wide.