A Cave Dwelling Nettle From China

Photo by Monro & Wei [SOURCE]

Photo by Monro & Wei [SOURCE]

Caves and plants do not seem like a good combo. Plants need sunlight and caves offer very little to none of it. However, plants in general never seem to read the literature we write about them. As such, they are constantly surprising botanists all over the world. 

A recent example of this was published back in September of 2012. A team of botanists exploring limestone gorges in southwestern China stumbled upon three new members of the nettle family. One of these nettles seemed to be right at home growing well within two limestone caves. 

Needless to say this was quite a shock to the botanists. The regions in which these plants were growing were quite dim, with light levels ranging from a mere 0.04% to a measly 2.78 % of full daylight! Although this is by no means complete darkness, it is an incredibly low amount of sunlight for a plant that still relies on photosynthesis to get by. 

They named the nettle Pilea cavernicola in reference to its cave-dwelling habit. While it has only just been discovered, the IUCN considers this species vulnerable. Only two populations are known and their proximity to expanding human activity puts them in danger of rapid extinction. 

Photo Credit: Monro & Wei

Further Reading: [1]

Plight of the Panda: a bamboo story

There are few creatures more iconic than the giant panda. These bears are the poster children for conservation movements around the world. Unlike their ursine relatives, pandas have abandoned carnivory for a diet that consists almost entirely of bamboo. In the light of human destruction, specialist lifestyles like the pandas are a risky strategy. It doesn't take much to upset such obligate relationships and humans are quite proficient at doing just that. However, the plight of the giant panda has just as much to do with the ecology of its food source as it does man-made destruction of its habitat.

Essentially giant grasses, the bamboo tribe consists of over 1,400 species worldwide. Not only are bamboo some of the tallest grasses in the world, they are also some of the fastest growing plants. Some have been known to grow 250 cm (90 in) in only 24 hours! As typical with grasses, bamboo can reproduce via underground rhizomes, forming dense stands of clones. Entire forests can be made up of the clones of only a few individuals.

The strangest part of bamboo ecology is that they rarely flower. A typical bamboo will live for 20 to 60 years before flowering, with some species taking well over 100 years. As such, bamboo experiences mast flowering events, with entire bamboo forests flowering all at once. After flowering and setting seed, the bamboo dies. Entire bamboo forests are lost in only a matter of weeks.

There have been many hypotheses put forth to explain this and while each has likely played a role in the evolution of this strategy, these mast flowering and subsequent death of bamboo forests probably serve to ensure the survival of the next generation. If the adults were to live through flowering and seed set, it is likely that the thick canopy of the parents would be too much for young seedlings to overcome. What's more, mass die offs create a significant fuel load for fires to sweep through. However catastrophic a fire may be, it reduces competition for bamboo seedlings.

Before humans fragmented their habitat, giant pandas had no trouble dealing with mass bamboo die offs. They simply migrated to a new bamboo forest. Anymore today, they cannot do that. When a bamboo forest flowers and dies, pandas in that area have nowhere to go. They simply starve to death. Because of this, pandas now occupy a mere fraction of their former range. What intact bamboo forests remain are restricted to the highlands of the Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces.

Despite considerable success in the captive breeding of pandas, there is simply not enough habitat to support their recovery in the wild. Because of this, captive breeding programs have come under harsh criticism. It has been argued that the massive amounts of money spent on captive breeding of pandas could be spent on habitat conservation projects elsewhere. No matter where you stand on the subject, there is no denying that pandas fall under the charismatic megafauna syndrome. They captivate the hearts and minds of people all over the globe. They also encourage the masses to open up their wallets. Sadly, it is probably too late giant pandas in the wild. If anything else, they certainly serve as a stark reminder of the importance of habitat conservation on a large scale.

Photo Credit: Abby Wood, Smithsonian's National Zoo (http://bit.ly/1qDX21K)

Further Reading:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/303243?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

http://www.completebamboo.com/bamboo_behaviors.html

A Plant That Isn't

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Photo by Karz09 licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo by Karz09 licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Every once in a while a story so silly makes it through some of the larger news organizations that it just makes you want to slap your forehead so hard that you knock yourself out. A few years back a story broke and spread like wildfire. Apparently a Chinese nun discovered a legendary Buddhist flower growing under her washing machine. The story took the world by storm. Everyone seemed to be talking about it. But just as quickly as it came, it was gone, which was probably for the better. These Buddhist flowers are referred to as "Udumbara" and there are a lot of historical references to them throughout religious texts. However, like aliens, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster, from time to time these pseudo-scientific trends get out of hand.

There are so many botany fails when it comes to the idea of Udumbara that you really wonder what kind of reality some people exist in. For starters, Udumbara is said to only bloom once every 3,000 years. Oh really? Who keeps track of these events? Evolutionarily speaking, what could possibly be the benefit to a strategy like this? Second, every supposed picture of an Udumbara depicts a plant with no chlorophyll and no roots. They seem to grow on some pretty strange surfaces as well. Whereas there are many examples of achlorophyllous plants in nature, they are still readily recognizable as plants. Also, they all have intricate and specific adaptations to be able to live this way. Some tap into the roots of a host plant while others steal nutrients from mycorhizzal fungi. Okay, so perhaps the latter is what Udumbara does... Not so fast. The extreme differences in the supposed locations that they are found would seem to suggest that a possible fungal symbiont is quite a generalist. If that is the case, why aren't Udumbara more common? Finally, if the discoverers of these "plants" are so adamant about their existence then why have none ever made it into the hands of a competent botanist for a more thorough study?

There are numerous blog posts claiming that the denial of the existence of the Udumbara flower is some sort of mass botanical cover-up conspiracy (yea, such a thought exists). There are plenty of others that claim "irrefutable proof" via macro shots of some blurry structures which, to the authors, seem to show actual floral anatomy. Though I am not writing this post to bash on religious beliefs, I am making an attempt to attack the perpetuation of pseudo-scientific dogmas that are still painfully abundant in otherwise modern times. The real explanation for Udumbara is most likely lacewing eggs. Lacewings lay their eggs on the ends of long strands of silk to help hide them from predators like ants. Many of the reported pictures of Udumbara flowers depict exactly that. Other pictures depict what more closely resembles the fruiting bodies of some slime molds which take up that morphology once they mature.

As far as I am concerned I have yet to see anything remotely convincing that these Udumbara "flowers" are anything other than lacewing eggs or slime mold. To claim that the botanical community is conspiring against the true identity of these "flowers" is to be completely naive to how botanists tick. To think that any botanist would turn down an opportunity to admire and study a plant previously unknown to science is just plain silly. The internet can be such a wonderful tool for research and broadening horizons but it is also a cesspool of misinformation and one wrong turn can send you spiraling into the realm of crazy. Be careful of where you get your information. It's okay to be open minded but don't be so open minded that your brain falls out. Question everything and embrace the discipline that is scientific thought and reasoning.

Photo Credit: Be Zen

Further Reading: http://naturelap.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/udumbara-flower-that-blooms-every-3000-years/

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/science/udumbara-blossoms-buddhist-celestial-31484.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7345137/Rare-Buddhist-flower-found-under-nuns-washing-machine.html