Wine? Wine not!

Species name: Vitis riparia

Common name: riverbank grape

Location: Western University campus

The riverbank grape is one of our great native vine species (the other major native eastern North American species to be featured in the next blog, Virginia creeper). It is a very vigorous grower, capable of growing up to the top of a riparian forest tree canopy (not nearly as tall as a "normal" tree canopy of a forest, since trees that live in riparian, or riverbank, areas don't tend to be able to grow as tall). In the southern areas of its native range it can be a real pest species, but here in Ontario other native species are pretty good at competing with it. Some trees have a harder time than others, but non-native species have an especially difficult time with the smothering tendencies this species sometimes has. That being said, as soon as it is transplanted, either naturally via bird poop (the most common animal vector) or "artificially" via human transplantation, into an area of lowland or upland forest the forest canopy can really suffer as a result. It is remarkably good at smothering new saplings before they have a chance to grow tall enough to escape it, and some forests are so thick with grape vines they're impassable. A great example of a species that grows well in harmony with other species in its native habitat, but can become a real pest, even in its native range, if introduced beyond those limits.

The riverbank grape has a bit of a bad rap in Ontario and the northeastern United States, but that perception seems to be changing a bit. In the 1940s and 1950s, the US government (the Canadian government quickly followed suit) decided that riverbank grape vines were a forest pest and that this species should be eradicated. There had been a lot of accidental introductions of this species into areas important in the logging and lumber trade, and if you're allowing a vine to smother your profits you're not a very good businessperson! So instead of just local eradication programs, these programs were carried out across the United States and into Ontario and Quebec, and whenever a riverbank grape vine was seen in a forest (either riparian area or otherwise) it was sprayed with very toxic herbicides. This was very effective at killing the vines, but also equally effective in killing all of the surrounding vegetation and poisoning the soil (both for soil microbes, very important in forest health, but also making it inhospitable to new seedlings). Unfortunately, it was far too late before anyone realized what was happening, so you still find "dead zones" where mature trees escaped the soil poisoning by having a root system vast enough to support itself with un-poisoned soil, but the understory species are completely missing. I have a rather personal connection to riverbank grape, because one of the species of fungi that I study for my PhD grows exclusively on grape vine in North America. Unfortunately, there's a catch (as there always seems to be with rules regarding where fungi are most likely to be found): it only grows on mature, living or dead grape vine. This means that any suitable habitat that might have been in forest ecosystems in the 1800s when a lot of the work was being done on the fungal flora of North America no longer exists for this species. For this reason, it was collected three times in the 1880s by great, now long-dead, mycologists only to never be recorded ever again. Have these species gone extinct because of our destruction of their host species? No one, including myself, knows that for sure. Since the 1930s there has been a lack of concerted effort to document the diversity of forest species, only re-invigorated in the early 2000s. What I can say is that for the last 6 years whenever I'm in a forest where there's grape vine I look for it...and haven't found it yet. Perhaps I'm not looking in the right spot, or perhaps it doesn't exist anymore. I'll let you know in 20 years when I either find it or give up looking. ;) This idea of "disappearing species" is not unique in mycology; there are also a lot of plant species that were discovered during the times of the Great World Explorers (as I like to call them) that have never been found again. Part of the problem stems from the lack of location data for the collections--how do I know where "Aunt Edna's House, near the south greenhouse but past the wood pile, 5 minutes from the beach" is?! Sure, maybe EVERYONE in 1872 knew where Aunt Edna's house was...but it's long gone by now. You don't realize just how useful GPS coordinates are until you have to figure out something like that!

Anyway, back on topic...

Riverbank grape fruits are reportedly edible, and were also reportedly an important food source in the summer for early settlers in North America. Now, I'm guessing that tastes have progressed a bit since those times, or perhaps they were much less picky eaters than we are now (or maybe a bit of both). Have you ever tried a grape from a wild grape vine? They are TERRIBLE. I wasn't expecting a sweet grape when I tried one, but holy jeez. This was...terrible. That's the only way I can describe it. It was gooey and had the most awful texture on the planet (almost like jello on the inside), plus one of the most sour fruits I've ever had in my life (puts the Cornelian cherry to shame, which you can read all about HERE, and I often eat lemons for fun...so that tells you something about my tolerance for "sour"). My friend Tanya convinced me to try one when we were out geocaching one afternoon, and I could taste the lingering "lip-puckering sour" in my mouth for hours. That's the last time I ever listen to Tanya. Ha.

Sure, the grapes don't taste that great and the plant isn't all that much to look at (although, I personally really love the shape of their leaves and the cute little curving tendrils that are most visible during the winter and early spring), riverbank grape is one of the single most important "novelty agriculture species" that we have in North America. I call them an agricultural novelty not because their use is new, but because the product we get from them is certainly not necessary for everyday life (some people might argue with me on that one; we'll agree to disagree) nor has it ever been. Wild grape vines are VERY tolerant to winter conditions in North America, which can be incredibly harsh, especially in the ground. Traditional wine grape vines, of the species Vitis vinifera, don't have a very cold hardy root system, and are prone to freezing damage in northern climates. For this reason, riverbank grape rootstock is often grafted onto a wine grape scion (or "top") for commercial grape production for the wine industry. Once grapevine producers were experts in the creation of natural hybrids, they started experimenting with different varieties of V. vinifera as well as V. riparia to make more cold-tolerant grape vines, but with the same commercial qualities of traditional wine grapes. Another major benefit is that the resulting hybrid is much more resistant to common fungal diseases encountered on grape vines. Eventually what was obtained were varieties that were genetically 50-80% wine grapes, and 20-50% riverbank grape. Baco Noir, Marchel Foch (sometimes called Marechal Foch) and Frontenac grapes are all hybrids between these two species, and produce some of the best wine in the world. Isn't it amazing what a little traditional plant breeding can do?! Cheers to grapes.

Traditional uses by Aboriginal North Americans are also numerous; they are used as a food (although, I'm guessing in small numbers), to make jellies and jams, and to produce a type of traditional North American wine. From what I understand, this wine is really unpleasant when compared to wine from a "real" winery, but it really packs a punch: it has 2-3 times the alcohol content of a traditional wine. Maybe it's alcoholic enough you don't realize how terrible it is! Not commercially sold, but every so often you might be able to find some courtesy of a backyard brewer. Let me know how it is, if you get a chance to try it.

Remembering JFK with cornflowers

Species name: Centaurea cyanus

Common name: bachelor's button, cornflower

Location: picture 1 from HERE, picture 2 from HERE, picture 3 from HERE and picture 4 from HERE

Today is a rather special day in history, whether you're American or not, and this special day deserves its own special blog post. In case you aren't aware of the significance of today, it is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the former President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, in Texas. He was one of the most well-liked Presidents in US history, and will always be remembered as one of the great young minds that died far too young. With that said, let's see how well I can weave this into a blog about plants.

The cornflower, also called the bachelor's button or the common cornflower, is native to Europe where it historically grew like a weed. It prefers highly disturbed areas like prairies (historically, the sustaining life source of a prairie was fire which wipes out much of the herbaceous growth, allowing new species to colonize the area), which is why it can sometimes be seen growing alongside the Flander's poppy, as seen in the fourth image above (I thought that was rather fitting, since both flowers are now considered the flowers of remembrance depending on which continent and/or country you're from). Unfortunately for the cornflower, it also thrives as an agricultural weed since agricultural fields are, by default, highly disturbed areas. They are plowed every year which encourages weedy plants (or plants that can grow very quickly) to move in and colonize the area. Because of the intense amount of herbicides that are applied to agricultural fields, many of the once-ideal habitats for cornflowers are now being lost. This has led to the placement of the cornflower onto many endangered species lists across much of its native range (the population in the UK has gone from 264 sites to just 3 sites in 50 years; also a rather fitting time of measurement). Fortunately for the cornflower, it's not about to go extinct any time soon. It has been introduced as an ornamental species in North America, and parts of Africa and Asia where it is considered a naturalized species (locally invasive in some areas). In Australia it is a pest species. In fact, because of the planting of this species ornamentally it was recently featured near the top of the list of the top 100 species that have the potential to be brought back from the brink of extinction. With proper rehabilitation efforts and the protection of prairie habitats across Europe, this species could once again thrive.

There are also some locations where cornflowers are planted for agricultural purposes aside from seed generation for the ornamental flower trade. Cornflower "petals" (I'll get into this in a minute) are dried and often used as an additive in loose leaf teas to impart flavour and colour into some blends. The flavour is very subtle; so subtle I doubt you would even be able to pick up the taste. More often than not, cornflowers are added to loose teas just to make them look pretty in their package. And who isn't about to buy tea because it looks pretty?! I'll admit, I've been guilty of that on more than one occasion. Sometimes with successful results, but often with "BLAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!" results. That's also how I buy my wine. You'd think I would learn from these experiences...

The petals seen in the cornflower aren't really petals at all. The "flower" of a cornflower is a compound flower, or a flower head. Each one of the "petals" is called a ray floret, and each one of the dark purple wispy bits on the inside of the flower head is called a disc flower. This is the typical flower head (or inflorescence) structure of flowers in the aster or sunflower family.

Aside from being the flower of remembrance in the United Kingdom and much of the rest of Europe, cornflowers hold special meaning to JFK. Not only was blue his favourite colour, but on those days when he wore flowers on his lapel (which was quite often) they were always cornflowers. In fact, on the day his son, John F. Kennedy Jr., was married he had cornflowers pinned to his lapel and cornflowers were featured in the bridal bouquet and in every centrepiece as a symbol of remembrance for his father.

I often wonder what the world would be like today if people like JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. were still alive. Would gay marriage be an issue? Would it be a bigger issue than it is today? What about poverty and homelessness? Drug use? I guess it doesn't do much to hypothesize about how the world would be different, but instead try to make it different. Push the envelope to do better, to be better.

May you Rest In Peace, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963

President John F. Kennedy

JFK Jr. giving his father a final salute

BLOG RERUN: Mom's Secret Recipe

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Guess what?! Today is American Thanksgiving! Or, as we in Canada like to call it, Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers. Enjoy the day off, and I'm VERY excited for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. For me, it's one of the highlights of November. I'll be really disappointed this year if the gigantic balloons don't make an appearance because of the high winds (but understandable; safety over balloons!). But more importantly...rest up! We've got some shopping to do tomorrow.


UPDATE: It has come to my attention that in my desire to be awesome and pseudo-celebrate American Thanksgiving, I have managed to jump the gun and do so a week early. SO! Stop reading this blog. Stop it! GO AWAY! Just kidding. Please don't go away. But skip this entry! And come back in a week.

(a version of this blog was originally posted on November 22, 2012)

Today I decided to do something completely different on my blog, because...well, because I can!

I was having a hard time coming up with another plant that screamed "Thanksgiving," since today is American Thanksgiving. I've already done two different species of pumpkins, and the only other suitable plant to blog about would be sweet potatoes...and those are a kettle of fish I was planning on getting into next year (still hasn't been done, despite my best intentions. One day!). So what other plant could I possibly blog about? There's no other typical vegetable of Thanksgiving that is universal to all celebrations, no matter where in the country you are. But then a colleague in the Biology Department, gave me a fabulous idea: why not blog about a recipe instead? Brilliant! So that's exactly what I'm going to do.

I'm going to feature my absolute favourite part of Thanksgiving, and Christmas (and sometimes even Easter) dinner: stuffing! I'm about to give away my mom's secret recipe (sorry mom!), so get your pens ready. Ready? Here it is:

My Mom's Famous Stuffing Recipe:
- bread (enough to stuff a turkey of your choice)
- water (enough to dampen the bread, but not make it soggy)
- onion (you like onion? Add a lot! Don't like onion? Add a little!)
- ground sage (see comments for onion, above)
- ground poultry seasoning (see comments for onion, above)
- love (don't have love on hand? Steal some from someone else!)

Steps: 
1. Tear up the bread by hand. Do it the way of the pilgrims. Food processors are the easy way out. Leave it chunky, don't make bread crumbs.
2. Chop up the onion. Dice it relatively finely, but not so fine it turns to mush when it starts cooking.
3. Put bread and onion in a giant bowl. Dump in your herbs.
4. Add in a little bit of water, and here's where your love comes in handy. Make sure your hands are clean, and mix that by hand. Mix, mix, mix. Still feels dry? Add a bit more water. Mix, mix mix. Still feels dry? Keep adding water and mixing until it's the desired consistency. Not soggy, but the bread sticks together with the mixture when you squish it into a ball. Feel free to make shapes here. I suggest snowmen. Use baby carrots as the nose. Take pictures!
5. Once you've got your desired consistency of stuffing, stuff it into your bird and enjoy the smell while it cooks.

Now you must be sworn to secrecy never to tell anyone how to do it! The bright side of giving away my mom's "secret" recipe is that NO ONE has been able to reproduce how it tastes. Trust me. That love? That's the secret ingredient. Each person's love tastes just a little bit different. And perhaps hand lotion...

So how on earth can I turn this into a blog? Well, there are three obvious species here that can be featured in this blog, each of which I'll do in a mini-blog: wheat, onion, and sage. Here we go!

A field of genetically modified wheat to resist fungal infections (Science Centric)

Wheat fruits, called a caryopsis (Flashcard Machine)

Species name: Triticum aestivum

Common name: bread wheat

Location: See above for internet sources; a common, non-native species

Wheat is native to the Middle East, in a region known as the Fertile Crescent and was first thought to be domesticated almost 11,000 years ago. This is a region of the Middle East from which we get many of our most important crops in North America. There are actually  more than 20 species of wheat, each of which are used for different purposes. The most common way that species of wheat have been "created" over the last few millenia is through spontaneous tetraploidy. This means that the plants have undergone some sort of cell division problem that has caused all of the DNA of the plant to go into one pollen grain and none in the other, instead of half of the DNA going into each pollen grain. One of these pollen grains comes into contact with an egg that has done this same thing, and now an embryo exists with the complete genome of its mother plant and father plant (and sometimes this is actually the same individual; this is called "selfing"). If this happened in humans or almost any other animal, the embryo would not be viable. In plants, however, this is incredibly common and probably the most common method of creating new species of plants. This is a pretty remarkable adaptation, too; think about how much genetic variation could be available to an organism containing four copies of each gene instead of only two! The expression rare recessive diseases would essentially be eliminated from the population. Some common wheat species that we use are the diploid T. aestivum which is mainly used for flour that goes into breads and cakes; T. durum (tetraploid), used for making pasta and couscous, is low in gluten; T. dicoccum (diploid), also known as emmer, is used for breadmaking in Egypt and some parts of Europe; and T. spelta (hexaploid), an ancient form of wheat (popular during the Middle Ages) still used now as a low-gluten equivalent to bread wheat.

Onions with their green leaves still attached (Illinois Vegetable Garden Guide)

Some different varieties of onions (Garden of Eaden)

Species name: Allium cepa

Common name: onion

Location: See above for internet sources; a common, non-native species

Onions are probably native to Central Asia, but there is much uncertainty about where they originated. Onions as a species are only known from cultivation, which is incredibly unusual as far as crop plants go. It is possible that it has gone through so many rounds of human selection that it is now genetically distinct from its ancestral species (the most likely explanation), or the ancestral species has now gone extinct (the unlikely explanation). There is one species, A. asarensefrom Iran, that is genetically very closely related to the common onion. All species of the genus Allium produce sulphur compounds, which give them their pungent smell. When these sulphur compounds come into contact with water they produce sulphuric acid, one of the most potent acids known. This is the chemical basis for the "IT BURNS MY EYES!!!!" reaction most people get when cutting onions. The easiest way to get rid of this effect is by refrigerating your onions before use, or putting them briefly in the freezer before chopping (just enough to make them cold, not frozen). This prevents the cut onion from being able to "bleed" as much as a non-refrigerated onion, contributing to less eye-burn. Also, make sure you wash your hands with soap before rubbing your eyes. Some people say plugging your nose also helps; I think it's more the silliness factor than anything else. The sulphur compounds are still becoming airborne and the mucous membranes of your eyes still contain a lot of water, so the chemical reaction cannot be modified by plugging your nose. I would contribute that to the placebo effect more than anything else. These sulphur compounds in onions (and garlic) have been exploited medicinally by humans for centuries. Yes, onions do have medicinal properties! They are very potent against bacteria and fungi, and so are popular for treating colds, the flu, and, of all things, Athlete's Foot. If you suffer from this (quite disgusting) fungal infection on your toenails, put some freshly chopped warm onions in a pot of warm water. Submerge your feet for a while, rinse, and pat dry. Fungi are incredibly intolerant to sulphur, so this should take care of them in a jiffy. In fact, many creams for Athlete's Foot exploit the natural sulphur-containing chemicals of onions!

The sage plant (GroAction.com)

Sage flowers (Soulistic Wellness)

Species name: Salvia officinalis

Common name: garden sage

Location: See above for internet sources; a common, non-native species

Sage is one of the most popular seasonings in the world, let alone in North America. The sage plant is native to the Mediterranean Region of Europe and Africa, where it still grows commonly in the wild. In North America it has the potential to become an invasive species in warmer climates, so just be careful if you plant it outside. It doesn't seem to tolerate Canadian winters well, or if it does it rarely spreads beyond where it was originally planted. The flower is incredibly characteristic of the mint family; it is purple, has a darker eyespot than the rest of the flower, the male and female parts of the flower overhang the bottom petal of the flower, and features a large bottom petal that can act as a "landing pad" for bees for pollination. This flower is very specialized for pollination by insects that can see ultraviolet light, and the reproductive parts have been modified to ensure that pollen gets onto that "secret spot" on the back of the bee's neck where it cannot access the pollen to groom it off of itself mid-flight. Bees actually love being covered in pollen by flowers not because they enjoy pollinating flowers, but because they pack this onto specialized areas on their legs to take back to the hive to feed the young larvae. Without the ability to put pollen onto the back of a bee's neck, the flower will be incredibly inefficient at cross-pollination, and will essentially be giving away its sperm to be used as bee food. Some biologists argue that bees are the most inefficient pollinators in the world! Sage also has some demonstrated health benefits and medicinal uses, although it is reported as being able to treat much more than it has actually been shown to do. One of the most promising uses of sage leaf extract (containing a combination of a huge number of essential oils; the exact combination of different chemicals has never successfully been created in a lab) is as a treatment for hyperlipidemia, or an increased level of lipids in the blood. This isn't just equivalent to obesity; in fact, obese people are incredibly efficient at filtering fats out of their blood and storing them in fat tissues (hence the obesity). This is more a result of a vast variety of genetic diseases that cause, sometimes for unknown reasons, lipids to build up in the blood. Other times it can be acquired due to various other medical conditions, the two most common being diabetes and renal failure. Chronic high levels of lipids in the blood can be incredibly dangerous to the circulatory system because it changes the viscosity of the blood, causing the heart to work harder. This can lead to different kinds of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers!

Gobble Gobble (not a plant)

BLOG RERUN: The best boat ever made in nature

(a version of this blog post first appeared on October 31, 2012)

Species name: Cucurbita maxima

Common name: giant pumpkin

Location: photo 1 from Veggie Gardening Tips (click HERE), photo 2 from McShanes Nurseries (click HERE), and photos 3 to 6 from The Daily Mail (click HERE)

The giant pumpkin is actually a completely different species of squash than the regular pumpkin. When young (or more "natural" plants that have not been bred specifically for their oversized fruit), they are a completely different colour than regular pumpkins (almost red) and a very different shape. They are often sold in the grocery store as an edible squash variety, and called many names depending on their general appearance: banana squash, buttercup squash, Jarrahdale pumpkin, Kabocha squash, Lakota squash, Arikara squash, and the Hubbard squash. The giant pumpkin species originated about 4,000 years ago in southern North America (southern Texas and northern Mexico, but also perhaps as far south as Nicaragua) but was transported quite early in human exploration to Europe where species like it were already familiar to them. Cucurbita as a genus also has a second area of domestication around Burma, and since that was one of the stops on the great spice route, it was one of the groups of species that had been used by Europeans for centuries.

Growing giant pumpkins is a bit of an art form. To get a giant pumpkin to turn giant, first you need the correct variety. If you've ever consumed a Hubbard squash, you know how "regular sized" giant pumpkins can be. Once you have the giant fruit producing variety, the plant still won't produce a big enough fruit to enter into any giant pumpkin contests. To ensure that, you have to get crafty: you have to convince the plant that any sugars produced on a branch of the vine can ONLY be stored in the fruit because they have no where else to go. Normally plants can shuttle sugars produced in the leaves to any storage organ in the entire plant using their network of phloem, or sugar-conducting cells. Some plants make tubers underground (potatoes), and some make starchy or sugary fruit above-ground. In order to ensure that your one favourite pumpkin grows to an enormous size, you have to take a razor blade, and veeeeeery carefully cut the phloem off of the stem in a ring. This normally would be absolutely debilitating to a plant, and is called "girdling." A girdled plant cannot recover, and will eventually die. But what it does in the meantime is prevent the plant from conducting the sugars produced in that one branch to any other part of the plant. Instead, the plant just stores all of it in that one branch, in your soon-to-be-gigantic pumpkin. Some people also swear by watering with a sugary solution, but that won't do anything other than encourage microbial growth around the roots. This might be beneficial for a while, but sooner rather than later a detrimental fungus or bacterium will take over and rot the roots. Not a good idea. Ensure that the pumpkin gets enough water (because if you girdled the branch carefully, the xylem or water-conducting cells will remain intact), and sit back and watch your pumpkin grow!
Believe it or not, the seeds of the giant pumpkin are reported to have medicinal qualities. Fry the seeds in oil then grind into a powder, mix with sugar, then suspend that in castor oil. Drink it, and if you've got intestinal worms they will be no more. I think by the time you've resorted to drinking castor oil you're in pretty bad shape and would resort to any treatment, but to me this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. There have been no scientific studies to suggest that this home remedy is remotely successful in the treatment of any human disease. Use at your own risk!

Since today is Halloween, I couldn't possibly pass up one of the most awesome uses of giant pumpkins that have nothing to do with carving them into jack-o-lanterns. Giant pumpkin regattas. Yes, you read that right. There are locations that actually grow giant pumpkins to turn into really awkward kayaks, then have races in them while the "pilots" are dressed in ridiculous costumes. There seem to be points awarded for creativity in decorating your "boat," too, since some of them seem to have some rather unusual additions that wouldn't contribute to the aerodynamics of their vessel. Don't believe me? That's why I have pictures.

 Pumpkins as helmets?! Not recommended.

Happy Halloween!

Mexican White Pines are better than our own White Pines in our own climate?!

Species name: Pinus ayacahuite

Common name: Mexican white pine, ayacahuite

Location: Western University campus

I have my suspicions about this tree, and it has nothing to do with the identification. There are three Mexican white pines all planted in a pretty clump; they are definitely ornamental trees and were planted after the arboretum was established on campus (so, believe it or not, these trees are younger than I am. Boy do they grow fast! Because...I'm not that old, no matter what my students would lead you to believe). They are most definitely Mexican white pines. What I have my suspicions about is their distribution and abundance. They are native to three very, very small pockets in Mexico along parts of the mountain range that runs straight through the middle of Mexico. These three pockets are now independent populations, and at the time of their assessment under the IUCN (the International Union on the Conservation of Nature) the three populations were non-interbreeding. This in itself isn't necessarily a big deal, but it's the rest of it that matters. Mexico is undergoing, like many countries in Latin America, a huge shift from rural rolling landscapes where you won't see a person for miles into a highly urbanized country with extensive urban sprawl. On top of that, all of these "Eco Resorts" are popping up all over the country. And then there's the drug running (there's no point in denying that it exists!). Oh, and on top of all of that the conversion from traditional vegeculture multi-crop agriculture to a more "North American" (I hate that description for it, since Mexico is part of North America) method of monoculture agriculture. These four things in combination amount to a lot of deforestation; doing this in an area that already contains three highly fragmented populations of a species, populations that exist nowhere else, probably means that the "Least Concern" status that this species has according to the IUCN is now incorrect. I would bet that at least one of those three populations no longer exists, and that the status of the species should, at minimum, be category NT or "Near Threatened", if not VU or "Vulnerable." But, as with all biodiversity research, you first need to find an organization that will fund the research to go out and study these populations (which hasn't been done since 1994!). To say this is a "Mexican problem," or even a "Third World problem," would be completely incorrect. Under the current economic climate in Canada, the only species reassessments done for species at risk are for species that grow in economically significant areas (like the Tar Sands in Alberta), or in areas where urbanization is slated to occur (in the case of Environmental Assessments). I like to think that Canada is a pretty "developed" country...!

Not having the funding to do diversity studies and study species distributions isn't something that can be restricted to a specific geographic region. It's something we, as human beings inhabiting the world, need to think about. Where are our future medicines going to come from? Nearly 95% of medicines around the world are plant-based or plant-derived (or once plant-derived but now synthesized in the lab). Many of our most successful early cancer treatments originate from plants (taxol is the first one that jumps to mind, and you can read all about the plant that taxol comes from HERE). Our most widely prescribed (and most would argue, for good reason, over-prescribed) antibiotic comes from a fungus (penicillin from the Penicillium fungus). And where would we be without wine (grapes and an alcohol-fermenting fungus) or tequilla (agave and an alcohol-fermenting fungus)?! It would be a sad case indeed. Anyway, onto happier things, like talking about Mexican white pines... :)

The Mexican white pine is one of the most widely planted pulp trees, from which we derive paper. Nearly every large paper-producing country in the world (except Canada) plants the Mexican white pine as opposed to any other white pine species. This is because it is highly disease-resistant (especially to white pine blister rust, which is an ever-increasing problem in Canada and the United States, attacking all of our native white pine species), highly cold-tolerant (despite being from tropical Mexico, it can withstand temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius!), and highly drought-tolerant. This makes it ideal for planting in hot, dry countries, hot, wet countries, cold, dry countries, and cold, wet countries. Name a country that doesn't fall into one of those categories! I dare you :) Because of their large cones, and soft, feathery needles they are also a highly prized ornamental species. One great thing about this tree that makes it ideal to plant as an ornamental is that it doesn't actually get to be that large. The tallest Mexican white pine on record lives in Germany and is only 20 meters tall. That's not a very big tree for being the biggest ever recorded!

BLOG RERUN: The Fruit of Thanksgiving

(this blog post was originally published on October 9, 2012)

Species name: Cucurbita pepo

Common name: pumpkin

Location: pictures 1 and 3 from Dave's Garden (dave), picture 2 from Dave's Garden (kennedyh), picture 4 from Dave's Garden (tman)

Since today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, I figured I should post a blog about a plant that is essentially analogous to Thanksgiving in both Canada and the United States (yes, I know your Thanksgiving Day is in November...you weirdos!). That plant, of course, would be the pumpkin. What's Thanksgiving (or Christmas, for that matter) without pumpkin pie?!

Pumpkins are actually a specific variety of the species Curcurbita pepo, one that has been artificially selected for an over-sized fruit and the orange colour (or white, depending on the cultivar). The species Curcurbita pepo is actually one of the most variable and one of the most popular fruit/vegetable species that we currently have in cultivation. We get zucchini, acorn squash, delicata squash, dodi marrow, gern squash, heart of gold squash, pattypan squash, pumpkins, spaghetti squash, sweet dumpling squash, crookneck squash, and summer squash all from that one species alone! It's amazing what human selection for various traits can do to a species. This species is native to North America, but likely native to a region in the north of what is now Mexico, or the southern parts of Texas, New Mexico and Nevada.

Pumpkins are a great example of integrative agriculture, and how agriculture has changed over the centuries. Traditional plantings of pumpkins (or any squash) were not monocultures like you would see today (entire fields of nothing but pumpkins). Native North American people used to grow squash in association with corn and beans, and those three crops are what we now refer to as "the Three Sisters." Corn depletes the soil very quickly of nitrogen because it requires so much to grow, but beans create biologically-available nitrogen through the nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their root nodules. Beans are vines, and require props to grow so they wind themselves up the corn stalks to use them for support. Squash plants are very far spreading plants that cover the ground surface and don't require many nutrients (surprisingly enough), and due to their large leaf size they out-compete weeds for light resources. The three crops grown together create their very own bio-feedback ecosystem, and ideal harvests come from all three of these crops being grown together. Now with fertilizers and pesticides we no longer require the synergistic action of all three crops in one field, but you can see how this concept will become useful once we decide that dumping chemicals on our food is not the ideal way to grow plants. If you'd like to read more about the Three Sisters, you can do so HERE.

Happy Columbus Day to my American readers, Happy Dia de la Raza to my readers in Latin America, Happy Discovery Day in the Bahamas, Happy Dia de la Hispanidad to my readers in Spain, Happy Dia del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural to my readers in Argentina, and Happy Dia de las Americas to my one lone reader in Uruguay!

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

Las Tres Hermanas

Today instead of a "regular" blog where I only profile one species, I figured I would profile a mini-ecosystem, and a traditional method of growing crop species. On campus there was a recent initiative to convert some "wasted space" (a plot of land completely over-run by Japanese knotweed, which you can read about HERE, and buckthorn, which you can read about HERE) into a garden. This isn't your everyday garden, even though at first glance you might think it is. This is an Aboriginal garden. What makes that different from a regular garden? Well, all of the plants grown in the garden have traditional uses, and some are even heirloom varieties, to Aboriginal North Americans. Many of the species grown are food crops, and they're grown in the same manner that their ancestors would have grown them, and they're growing the same varieties that their ancestors would have grown 3,000 years ago. I find this a pretty mind-boggling idea: growing the exact same genetic variety of plants as your ancestors did 3,000 years ago. Not looking up at a 3,000 year old tree and thinking "gee, I wonder how it got here" (there are very few of these left in the world, but they do exist), but growing the same food to eat that your ancestors ate. Awesome! There are a bunch of other plants in this garden other than just the three I'm profiling (including "medicinal tobacco," which is a concept I will never understand) so if you're on campus sometime next summer or fall make sure you walk around the outside of the garden and check out what they're growing (the garden is behind Collip building, near the lower greenhouses. A PDF map of campus is available HERE).

So with out further rambling, I present the Three Sisters:

Sisters, huh? These are three crop species all domesticated at about the same time (5,000 years ago) all in the same place (Mexico), and all eaten at the same time. Corn, squash and beans all contain different quantities of essential nutrients, and when the three are eaten in combination they provide an excellent balanced diet. Corn is rich in starch, beans are rich in protein, and squash contains many of the vitamins and other nutrients not in the other two (plus has a nice sweetness to balance a meal). Sometimes you'll also find potatoes added to a Three Sisters soup, but don't worry. That should actually be called a Four Sisters soup, and would have been a traditional food of Peruvian people (once corn had been domesticated into a crop species and the knowledge and seeds were shared; potatoes, beans, and a different type of squash had all been domesticated in and around Peru about 9,000 years ago!)

So let's talk about each species!

Species name: Zea mays

Common name: corn

Location: Western University campus (Aboriginal garden)

First we've got the plant that's most easily distinguished in the first image, and that's corn. Corn is a very unique plant in that it is monoecious: this means it has separate male and female flowers on the same plant. The male flowers, called staminate flowers, are at the top and are often called the "tassel." The female flowers, called ovulate flowers, can be found at the base of each of the leaves and they turn into the cobs of corn that we eat for dinner. If you are driving down a highway in "corn country" (there are a lot of farms that grow corn in Southwestern Ontario, but also a huge number of farms in the southern United States), keep your eyes peeled for corn growing in tightly packed rows with signs at the end. There would maybe be 2 or 3 of these rows, then a large space (large enough for someone to comfortably walk down and be able to take notes or photographs), and then more tightly packed rows with a different sign. This is the type of growth and the type of planting that comes with field trials of experimental varieties of corn. If the varieties don't work (don't produce enough corn, the kernels are often misshapen, are more prone to disease, don't mature fast enough, or any other number of reasons), then they are scrapped and not grown again. Farmers can "lease" part of their land to plant breeding companies for field trials, and they are compensated often by square foot; for every square foot they allow companies to grow corn, they are compensated for the amount of money they would have earned by growing their own corn on that plot. So if market value of corn is very low, there's little incentive to lease out your land for experiments. If market value of corn is very high, you could lease out a small area, not have to water or fertilize it (so lower cost for the farmer), and still get the same amount of money out of it. Good deal!

But obviously all of this is an aside; I want to talk about corn, not about farming. What do experimental rows of corn have to do with the biology of a corn plant? If you look carefully at these rows, you might notice something missing. It's difficult to put your finger on it if you don't know what you're looking for, but look at the tops of the plants. Do you see any tassels? The answer is more than likely you don't see any. This is an ancient practice dating back to the very first attempts at domesticating corn. People figured out very early that in order to select traits you want to propagate, you have to know who the "parents" are of the plant. Male flowers blow their pollen everywhere, and if the pollen lands on the silks of a female flower then that pollen fertilizes that flower (each kernel of corn used to be its own flower, so in order to get a fully developed cob you have to have every single flower fertilized or you get those awkward holes in the cob that no one likes, and misshapen kernels around the hole). Not knowing what pollen landed on the silks is a big problem, so if you cut the tassels off the top then you eliminate the issue of not knowing what pollen fertilized the female corn flowers. De-tasseling is a very labor-intensive process, and is rarely done anymore with corn unless a breeding program is in place. There are other, much easier ways to sterilize corn but they all involve transgenic (genetically modified) plants. If you want to see how a new variety of plant is doing, usually it's not a transgenic plant (there are many, many regulations in place for new transgenic plants and testing phases; a biotechnology company can't just walk up to a farmer and say "hey! Grow this. I'll pay you.").

So what's special about corn? Well, we've managed to modify the plant beyond its biological means. What do I mean by that? Traditional breeding (controlled crosses of plants in attempts to propagate desirable traits; something still very common in the gardening industry with food and ornamental plants) has managed to completely eliminate the possibility of the corn plant being able to reproduce on its own. Think about the seeds: each kernel of corn is an individual seed, meant to be dispersed into the environment. How on earth is a corn kernel going to be dispersed when it's covered with all of those layers of thick husk? The husk does a great job of protecting the kernels from the outside environment (which makes a good cob to eat), but that's lousy for the plant. In fact, even if the thick husk didn't exist at all, the kernels now more often rot on the plant than fall off because of other traits we have bred into corn plants (no one wants all of their corn kernels loose in the husk, so our ancestors selected traits that kept the kernels on the cob for eating). There are so many modifications that have been made to corn that it now looks nothing like its ancestor, Teosinte. Teosinte is still relatively common in the wild, and grows like a weed. Corn? It would cease to exist in a very, very short time without human intervention.

Species name: Phaseolus vulgaris

Common name: common bean

Location: Western University campus (Aboriginal garden)

Common beans have themselves been domesticated separately dozens of times by different populations of people in Central and South America to create all of the different types of beans we have today. String beans, French beans, haricots, garden beans, navy beans, kidney beans, wax beans, bush beans, pole beans, black turtle beans, pinto beans, and pop beans are all different names of the same species, often associated with specific varieties of the plant (and there are many, MANY other types of beans that are all part of this species). I have no idea what variety or cultivar of beans these are, but they are the "pole bean" type in that they are climbing vines. When the Three Sisters are grown together, corn acts like the pole that beans can grow up. They in turn fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into a type of nitrogen that plants can use, which is like free fertilizer. The corn plant says "thank you very much" and uses almost all of it in order to produce the corn kernels. The bean vines are a bit hard to see unless you know what you're looking for, so I put a red box around where most of the bean plants can be seen. Look for a vine-like plant with leaves that each have three leaflets. It might look a bit like poison ivy has taken over the vegetable patch :)

Also highlighted in this picture is one of the neat characteristics about this traditional corn variety grown: when mature, the husks around the cobs turn a dark purple. In fact, if you compare the picture above (the husk is in the purple box) to the second picture of the corn plants, you can see the drastic difference in shade of purple that the husks are of those two corn cobs. A pretty neat indicator to know when your corn is ready to eat!

Species name: Cucurbita sp. (probably C. maxima)

Common name: squash

Location: Western University campus (Aboriginal garden)

The last of the three sisters is simply known as "squash", and could be any number of species or varieties. This type sure looks like a pumpkin to me, but it might just be a type of "Candy Roaster" squash which was actually domesticated in North America (in the southern United States by the Cherokee). The role that squash plays in an agricultural sense is a "Jack of all trades." The leaf stems or petioles are incredibly prickly with stiff hairs, which is a strong deterrent of agricultural pests. The leaves themselves are enormous, which provides a great amount of shade at soil level. This does two things: first, it creates a cooler microclimate at the base of the corn stalks so that the hot soil in the heat of summer doesn't burn the stalk, and second it shades out any weeds that might want to grow in the garden so the corn and beans can use all the soil's nutrients.

The nutritional side of the squash is two-fold. First, it contains a huge number of nutrients that the other two crops don't have but are necessary for proper nutrition like vitamin A, many of the vitamin B complexes, and vitamin C. It also contains quite a bit of sugar compared to starch, so can be used to sweeten a meal and impart flavour (corn and beans on their own don't taste like much, it's the liquid you cook them in or the spices you add that make them taste good). The seeds of squashes are also incredibly nutritious, but can also be pressed instead of eaten and used as cooking oils. If dried properly, the seeds can also be ground into a paste (the North American version of hummus?), or into a fine powder and used to make bread. Now that I know this I'm on the hunt for squash-bread. If you know how to make this, please let me know. It sounds delicious!

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So there we have it! The three sisters, all being grown just outside my building in a neat, new garden on campus. Now I'm tempted to make some corn, bean and squash soup for dinner...