Plants are at the heart of many crucial global issues facing us today

If we were to close our eyes and imagine a world without animals, what would it look like? It’s not that difficult to imagine a planet devoid of humans or other animals.

Now try and imagine a world without plants. It’s almost impossible to conceive. Although we sometimes take them for granted, plants have made possible and shaped life on Earth while making this a truly green planet.

Plants are at the centre of many of the most crucial global issues that face us now and will face us in the century to come. How can we ensure that a growing human population has enough food to eat? How can we produce that food and, at the same time, reduce the environmental impact of crop production and agriculture generally? How can we reduce the impending threat of global warming?
Can we use plants to power our homes and cars? How do we maintain global biodiversity and use medicines produced by plants to cure diseases and promote human health? All these questions and more require us to look again at our relationship with plants and how they can ultimately be useful to our society and economy.

Looking back through time, plants have shaped the world we now live in and are ultimately responsible for creating the conditions for human life to exist on Earth in the first place. When the earliest land plants appeared on Earth about 450 million years ago, they drastically changed the Earth’s atmosphere; reducing the amount of carbon dioxide and increasing the level of oxygen. That change allowed other organisms to evolve and flourish - some of them, our evolutionary ancestors.
Green plants are nature’s solar panels that have colonised much of the planet. Through a powerful process called photosynthesis, plants are capable of harnessing the vast energy radiating from the Sun. They can then make that energy available to animals, which lack this amazing ability to gather energy from an extra-terrestrial source. The Sun is the ultimate source of all energy in our solar system but we would have no way to access that energy without plants.

Our use of plants to produce food is, perhaps, the most central element of the human connection to this green planet. Since the earliest of farmers, 10,000 years ago, humans have sought to (subconsciously at first and then, more and more, consciously) select for plant types and varieties which gave the most fruits, tastiest tubers or most stable yields. Now, we’ve got more powerful tools at our disposal for plant breeding, but the basic process is essentially the same - select the best plant from this year’s crop and grow its seed next year.

But growing plants for food is just one of the ways in which we utilise them in the modern world. The ancient Egyptians once chewed willow bark to reduce fever and headaches. Now we know that the bark of willow contains the active ingredients of aspirin. More recently, a chemical derived from daffodils has been used to treat Alzheimer’s disease and cancers have been treated with the medicine taxol, derived from the yew tree. Plants are also gaining attention as “edible vaccines”, where vaccines for diseases like HIV could be produced in a plant that might also act as a delivery vehicle.
The Irish government seem to recognise the importance of plants to Ireland’s economy. If we look at the 2012 Action Plan for Jobs, sectors highlighted for potential job creation include the “Green Economy” and “Agri-food production”.  Both of these sectors have plants at their centre. Tourism - another sector flagged for growth - also relies heavily on Ireland’s natural landscape and our native flora.

Taken together with the fisheries sector, the agri-food industry in Ireland directly employs about 150,000 people and represents about 60 per cent of manufacturing exports by Irish firms. Our success in this area is hinged on plants, whether as crops grown for direct consumption, as raw materials for other products or as animal feed for the meat and dairy sectors. In recent years our reliance on plants within the agri-food sector was emphasised by the fodder crisis. A longer than usual winter meant reduced grass growth and a need to provide an alternative food source for Ireland’s more than 6 million cattle. As the effects of climate change become more obvious on our weather patterns, this type of event may become more common.

Perhaps then, the economic and societal importance of plants only becomes truly obvious when they fail us. Ireland’s history of famine due to late blight of potato in the mid 19^th Century had profound effects on Irish population levels and social history.

As well as an economic impact, plants also have an aesthetic quality which makes them good things to have around. A number of studies have reported the mental and physical health benefits of being exposed to plants and green spaces in general. One study, from the Netherlands, looked at 10,000 people’s general health and compared it to the amount of green space in their neighbourhood. A clear trend emerged: people living in areas with more plants, on average, experienced less symptoms of ill-health and perceived their own health to be better.

In a classic study conducted in the US in the 1980s, patients in a hospital ward with a view of a natural setting, including trees and other plants, recovered more quickly from surgery and took less pain-killing medication than patients with a window view of a brick wall.

Rather than taking them for granted, the role plants play in our lives needs to be recalled. The Irish writer Jonathan Swift once wrote: “Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, deserves better of mankind, and does more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together”. With apologies to our local and national representative, I’d have to agree with Swift.

This is an adapted version of a piece I first wrote for The Journal.

Bees Boost Irish Economy

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have shown that bees contribute almost €4 million to the Irish economy each year, simply by improving seed production in crops of oilseed rape.

Known for its brilliant yellow flowers, oilseed rape is being grown to an increasing extent in Ireland as farmers respond to a heightened demand for pure plant oil. This oil is an important source of biofuel and could ultimately reduce our reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels as we seek greener, more environmentally friendly solutions to energy demands.

The crop is pollinated adequately by the wind, but, for the first time in Ireland, researchers were able to show that foraging bees transferring pollen from flower to flower greatly boost the all-important yield. When bees were experimentally excluded from visiting the flowers, seed production was, on average, 27% lower than when they had open access.

This discovery, which will soon appear in the international Journal of Insect Conservation, added to related findings that were reported in another article in the journal GCB Bioenergy. Both papers sprang from research conducted as part of the Sectoral Impacts on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (SIMBIOSYS) initiative, which received €1.6 million in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency over a five-year period.

In addition to the discovery that bees are important assets to oilseed rape farmers, the previous paper showed that these fields were buzzing with insect life comprising many species of bees, hoverflies and beetles.

Associate Professor in Botany at Trinity, and Director of the Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research, Jane Stout, who was the principal investigator on both papers said: “Oilseed rape fields are full of pollinators, including honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies. Although many people think of the honeybee as being our main pollinating species, bumblebees and hoverflies are also important pollinators of oilseed rape crops. We found hundreds of bees, especially in spring oilseed rape, where we estimated on average 600-800 colonies of bumblebees alone using the pollen and nectar from just one field.”

The diversity and sheer volume of pollinators in oilseed rape crops came as something of a happy surprise, because some reports had previously suggested that swathes of the plant might discourage farm-friendly insects. However, researchers caution that different patterns could arise when the crop is grown on a larger scale than was investigated. They also recommend interspersing fields that grow food and biofuel crops in the hope that such a patchwork quilt-like pattern will promote insect diversity and enhance the precious pollination service provided by the critters.

Researcher Dara Stanley, who worked with Stout on these projects, added: "Oilseed rape crops in Ireland are expanding hugely, and, if they benefit from pollination, this is both good news for farmers, and an incentive to conserve bees in agricultural areas.”

One major threat to bees comes from the use of certain pesticides called neo-nicotinoids, which have been implicated in recent declines of many species throughout Europe and North America. An EU ban preventing the use of these pesticides on oilseed rape was recently agreed, which will hopefully help the bees of Ireland keep up their good work in our farmers’ fields. However, there are concerns that use on other crops, which is still permitted, will negatively affect our furry friends.

Is "gardening" killing plant science?

Gardening Gnome by pareerica (Creative Commons)

James Wong - the ethnobotanist, author and BBC science presenter- came in for some criticism in recent days for being over-excited about gardening.

The writer Helen Gazeley wrote in her blog:

"Gardening isn't exciting. Gardening is the epitome of delayed gratification. We wait; we nurture. People who need excitement in the quantities that gardening marketing departments would like to serve up go sky-diving, bungie-jumping, or throw all their savings into a once-in-lifetime venture. Those of us who garden find it has exciting moments, but we do not do it for excitement."

Fair comment, I suppose, but Wong was not about to take the criticism lying down and tweeted:

Shame that finding gardening 'fun' & 'exciting' is considered cynical, infantilised & trite. Unsurprising hort is in crisis when..... (1/2)
— James Wong (@Botanygeek) July 4, 2013

the dominant model is so straight jacketed that it has a monopoly on not only how I grow, but even how I should FEEL when doing it. (2/2)
— James Wong (@Botanygeek) July 4, 2013

So, are plants exciting? Is gardening exciting? Should we strive to make the study and use of plants exciting for a younger audience?

I'm a plant scientist. I'm not really a gardener. The sum total of my personal gardening efforts (i.e. growing plants at home, for non-research purposes) are a few tomatoes, some sunflowers and a small pot of herbs outside the kitchen window. So, credentials out of the way, I'm proposing a question: Is "gardening" killing plant science?

In Ireland, we still have a very strong network of plant science researchers and teachers along with a good selection of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in plant science/botany/plant biology, etc., along with horticulture degrees and MSc programmes. My own university runs a successful degree programme in Applied Plant Biology and a new MSc in Organic Horticulture at a newly established Centre for Organic Research in West Cork.

That being said, we still have to work hard to excite school-leavers to consider the option of studying plants rather than get swept away by the thrill of studying animals and other more "exciting" life forms.

In the UK, things are not so rosy in the garden (if you'll embrace the pun!). Plant science degrees (and even whole departments) are being closed by universities unwilling, it seems, to look at the bigger picture of a world increasingly reliant on plants and their products. Just ten universities in the UK continue to offer undergraduate degrees in plant science. The figures are shocking to anyone with even a cursory interest in issues like global warming, food security and biodiversity loss.

Although it might be unpopular to say it, could it be that school leavers are being turned off plants and the study of plant science because they associate it too closely with gardening? "Gardening" (and I use the inverted commas deliberately to denote the public perception of same) is something their grandparents do. It's something their parents do at the weekend. Are our prospective plant scientists of the future mentally scarred by having been dragged around boring garden centres every weekend of their childhood?

Perhaps gardening has an image problem. Perhaps making gardening, and also the study of plants "exciting" is just what we need.Gazeley's notion of relying on "delayed gratification" to attract people to plants clearly isn't working in the UK.

Whilst gardening is an extremely interesting, and yes, exciting pastime; "gardening" is perhaps in need of an image overhaul. While many gardeners do get excited about plants and how these amazing organisms work, there is no doubt that some are purely interested in the aesthetic quality of plants. That is not necessarily exciting to a younger audience.

The Aberystwyth-based plant ecologist Dr. John Warren, writing in 2010, sums it up nicely when he says students are often lured away from studying plants by the promise of animals which are "majestic, beautiful, cute and dynamic".

"I'm not arguing that zoologists are villainous Dr. Evils determined to destroy the Earth," writes Warren, "but that many of them are plant scientists that we have failed to inspire".

If James Wong gets excited about plants, good luck to him. We need more of that, not less. He's inspiring people.

Fascination of Plants Day 2013

'Plant Evolution' at JFK Arboretum, Ireland.

Today marks Fascination of Plants Day 2013 around the World. 

It's a day to get as many people as possible enthused about the importance of plants for agriculture, food production, horticulture, forestry, energy production, production of pharmaceuticals and the variety of other ways that plants impact on all our lives.

The celebration is spearheaded by the European Plant Science Organisation but, in just two years, has already spread beyond Europe and events this year will take place as far away as Australia and Zambia.

For a full list of events taking place around the World, see the Fascination of Plants website.

To mark Fascination of Plants Day, I've written a column for The Journal today on the importance of plants to our society and economy. Read it here

Are you interested in the greatest challenge on Earth?

The Director of the National Botanic Gardens, Matthew Jebb, has said that the study of plants has never been more important given the global problems we face - the greatest challenge on Earth.

"By 2050, the UN estimates the world will need 70% more food, 55% more clean water and 60% more energy than today", said Jebb. "These challenges will have to be met through the sustainable use of natural resources. The most important question facing the human race must be how will the world feed our children’s children? The answer is with advances in plant biology and ecology, and using this knowledge in field-based solutions".

A career and information day for Botany and Plant Science will take place at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin later this month.

The event, on Thursday 21st March from 2pm-5pm, is the perfect opportunity for those interested in a university degree, or career in plant sciences, to learn more.

Matthew Jebb said the event was "an unparalleled opportunity to hear first hand from botanists engaged in biodiversity, ecology, conservation and genetics jobs, and the potential prospects in one of the most important future careers for saving our planet".

Dara O’ Briain at the National Botanic Gardens for Dublin2012

Writing in advance of the information day, Jebb said that plant science had never been more important: "The growing and increasingly prosperous human population needs abundant safe and nutritious food, shelter, clothes, fibre, and renewable energy, and needs to address the problems generated by climate change, while preserving habitats. The key to solving these challenges is Plant Science; plants are the source of all the food we eat and the air we breathe".

Plant scientists, researchers and teaching staff from the Botanic Gardens and from University College Cork, University College Dublin, Trinity College, NUI Maynooth and NUI Galway will present on the day and provide information on the courses they offer.

The Botany and Plant Science Career and Information Day takes place at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin Dublin on Thursday 21st March from 2pm-5pm. More details can be found on the Gardens website.

BBC Science Club and Plant Blindness

The latest episode of Dara O'Briain's Science Club on BBC was all about extinction. The problem is, they seem to have killed off the plants before they even got started with the show.

The programme itself was excellent. The series has been largely well received and the move to a 'Topgear-style' format  gives it a nice edgy and interactive feel to it. Dara O'Briain has also been engaging as our amusing guide to all things scientific.

My problem is that this week's episode was entirely zoocentric, without any mention of threatened plant species and their importance to the overall ecosystem.

There was an excellent studio piece on the African Clawed Frog and their former use as a rudimentary pregnancy test. Then we had a report on the Giant Panda and whether such "charismatic megafauna" are worth trying to save. We looked at the humble bee and also managed to find time to make a comet. All interesting TV but no mention of plants at all when talking about extinction? That seems a bit odd.

An EU report from 2008 showed that Europe is home to about 12,500 species of vascular plants (flowering plants, conifers and ferns). A staggering 21% of these species are threatened, according to the IUCN and 50% of plants which are only found in Europe are in danger of extinction. The main threats to Europe's wild plants are habitat loss, the introduction of alien species, the effect of pollution, the introduction of plant pests and diseases, and the effect of climate change. And that's just Europe alone!

It would have been nice to see the threat of extinction for plant species being discussed. After all, the solution to human-mediated extinction of animals is unlikely to be found without considering the overall impact of the environment the animal is living in and the plants which they are using for food and cover. It's all connected.

It seems, while outlining the the problem of conservationists becoming distracted from the bigger picture by the Giant Panda and other charismatic megafauna, the programme makers got distracted from looking at extinction in a broad sense and took the animal route alone.

I guess we can chalk this up as an example of 'Plant Blindness' a term coined to describe the inability of some to see the importance of plants in their lives and to the natural world in general. I talk about the importance of avoiding plant blindness in an article in the Winter edition of Walton Magazine. You can read it for yourself here.

Below, a clip from Tuesday's show: A Dodo's Guide to Extinction

Plant Watch: Germander Speedwell

 

This is the beautiful little Germander Speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys).

Found widely in hedgerows around Ireland, the small blue flowers have a four-lobed corolla (that's the collective term for the petals) and two stamens (the male parts of the flower).

In Germany, the flower is often referred to as "Männertreu" or "men's faithfulness" due to the fact that it wilts very quickly after picking! In English-speaking countries, it was considered a good luck charm for travellers, meant to 'speed' you on your journey.

It generally flowers from April to June, altough I found this specimen flowering at Tragumna, West Cork in late August!

Plant Watch: Portland Spurge

Here's Euphorbia portlandica, Portland Spurge. It's a relatively common, coastal plant found on sand dunes around the country, while being less common on the west coast.

Tending to grow low across a dunes, the red stems are a diagnostic feature.

It's a species in the genus Euphorbia, which contains 1603 species and  belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family. The plants bloom from June to August (this photo was taken in late August at Cullenstown, Co. Wexford).

The flowers are aranged as cymes - a more or less flat-topped flower-cluster. Don't confuse it with sea spurge (Euphorbia paralias) which is taller, with larger, less yellow flowers. The bracts of Portland Spurge (those modified leaves associated with the flower) are "ace of spades" shape with a tiny point at the end.

Keeping the blooms alive

Ever the romantic, I bought my beloved a clump of dying plant tissue to put in a vase on the kitchen window. Of course I didn't put it quite like that when I brought them home but it's good to remember what you are buying when you pick up a bunch of flowers.

From the moment they are cut to the time when they end up in your wheelie bin, it's a battle against the inevitable to keep cut flowers alive and Spanish scientists have now shown that sugar and the plant hormones in the flowers themselves are key to keeping them looking their best long enough for your partner to forgive you for whatever you've done to offend.

A flower is a thing of beauty to be enjoyed but from a biological point of view it has a definitive job to do. The huge diversity in flower anatomy, colour and scent is largely related to pollination. Plants have evolved flowers to attract insects, birds and other animals to disperse pollen and fertilise the female reproductive organs.

From the colossal flowers of Rafflesia arnoldii - the largest flowers in the world at up to a metre in diameter, to the minute blooms of Wolffia species - the smallest in the world, the simple goal is the same.

Once fertilisation has occurred, the plant has no need for such gaudy displays and the petals are usually the first parts of the flower to show signs of decay once their job is done.

To counteract the short vase-life of flowers, a packet of 'flower food' is often included when you visit the florist. These products usually contain some sugar to act as an energy source; a compound to alter the acidity of the water to make it more suitable for the flowers; and a disinfectant to kill off any bacteria which could speed up decay in the vase.

Now researchers using lilies (Lilium longiflorum) have shown that adding sugar to the vase speeds up the opening of the flower and slows down its decay but doesn't affect the rate at which the petals drop off the flower - a sure sign your peace offering should have been binned already. The overall effect of these changes is a longer flowering window and a happy customer.

Laia Arrom and Sergi Munné-Bosch found that adding sucrose to the vase accelerated flower opening by 2.4 days and delayed its decay by 24 hours. Their work was published in the journal Plant Science earlier this year.

Further analysis of how the tissues of the flower use this sucrose showed that the petals and the male parts of the flower took up lots of the sugar and used it quickly. The female parts of the flower, on the other hand, took up sucrose and held on to it - a reserve, perhaps, for the female element's new role as a seed-bearer.

So, how did adding simple sugar to the distilled water in the vase increase the length of time the flowers kept their condition? Crucially, the addition of sucrose to the vase seemed to alter the balance of hormones in the flower tissues.

Hormones serve much the same function in plants as they do in animals - acting as chemical signals which can be transmitted over long distances.

It was already known that a particular group of plant hormones called cytokinins can delay the onset of floral decay and, sure enough, this recent study showed that a cytokinin called zeatin riboside was accumulated in the flowers, prolonging their vase-life.

Another plant hormone, abscicic acid, is known to speed-up the decay of petals and the researchers found that flowers treated with sucrose had 57% less absicsic acid compared to control flowers.

The cut flower industry is big business. A recent report (pdf) on the industry described it as being worth over US$100 billion a year worldwide. The UK share alone is worth around £2.2 billion - a 250% increase over the last twenty years. That's a lot of husbands doing a lot of apologising.

Whatever we're buying them for, consumers like flowers that stay alive long enough to enjoy them. This latest research suggests we're doing the right thing by adding sugar. The extra energy source is able to alter the balance of plant hormones enough to get an extra few days of enjoyment out of the blooms. If that doesn’t work, you may need to try a box of chocolates.

The Forgotten Botanical Gardens

On the south side of Cork City, between Turners Cross football stadium and Munster Rugby's Musgrave Park, lies the remnants of the southern city's long lost botanical garden.

It's so long ago since the site was used as a botanical gardens and the duration of its existence so short, that the memory of it is almost gone from the public consciousness.

To find the site today, you need to look for Saint Joseph's Cemetery. Once the short-lived gardens were closed, the site became one of the largest public cemeteries  in the city.

The Cork Botanical Gardens were established in 1808 by the Royal Cork Institution, which itself had been founded in 1803. The RCI had a huge influence on educational matters in Cork, supportive of the establishment of Queen's College Cork (now UCC) and the institution itself was a forerunner of Cork Institute of Technology. The gardens were themselves just one element of the RCI's plan to promote scientific and cultural matters in Cork.

James Drummond with one of his grandchildren

The Scottish botanist James Drummond (1786-1863) was chosen to curate the new gardens and he continued to do so until its closure, due to lack of funds, in 1828. Drummond was just 22 when he arrived in Cork from Scotland. On the closure of the park, Drummond, his wife (Sarah Maxwell Mackintosh) and six children travelled to the Swan River Colony (Western Australia) where he took up various roles as Government Naturalist, farmer, and plant collector. A hill and nature reserve in Australia, as well as over 100 plants have been named in his honour. A memorial to Drummond stands in Pelham Reserve, overlooking the family farm at Toodyay, Western Australia.

Drummond's father, Thomas, was a noted bryologist (collector of mosses) in Scotland and his grandfather, also Thomas, was a gardener.

Pinguicula grandiflora

The gardens in Cork had their beginnings when the RCI leased the 5.5 acre site at 'Lilliput', Ballyphehane in 1807. Once Drummond arrived in 1808, he laid out the site with a walled enclosure of about 1-acre at its centre with a glasshouse. As well as his work in the gardens, Drummond botanised widely across the Co. Cork and was elected an associate of the Linnean Society in 1810. He discovered Spiranthes gemmipara near Castletown Berehaven in 1810 and the insectivorous  Pinguicula grandiflora at Macroom in 1809.

Hogan's reclining angel atop the Murphy tomb. The inner wall of the cemetery and botanical gardens is visible in the background.

Once government funding was withdrawn, the garden became untenable and Fr. Theobald Mathew, the 'Apostle of Temperence' purchased the site for use as a public cemetery for Cork's poor. An 1837 description in A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland says the botanical garden/graveyard was "in the style of the Pere la Chaise, at Paris: the graves are distributed over the greater part amid the shrubs, plants, and flowers brought hither at a very great expense by the original proprietors; the ground is intersected by broad gravel walks, and there are several handsome monuments. Among these, one of the most remarkable is that erected over a vault belonging to Messrs. Murphy and O'Connor: it consists of a sarcophagus of Portland stone resting on a base of limestone. On the sarcophagus is the figure of a mourning angel, as large as life, of white Italian marble, wrought in Rome by Mr. John Hogan, a native of Cork". Fr. Mathew was buried at the centre of his own cemetery in 1856.

Grave of Fr. Theobald Mathew

For many years after the closure of the gardens and the opening of the cemetery, it was common for the place to be referred to as the 'Botanic Gardens Cemetery'. A death notice in the Cork Examiner on 31st October 1898 concludes: "Funeral from the South Parish Chapel for the Botanic Gardens on Tuesday (Nov. 1st), at 3 o'clock. R.I.P."

Now, all that remains of the gardens is the inner stone wall which once housed Drummond's glasshouse and which is now crowded with headstones and monuments. No significant planting remains. The street opposite the main gates to the cemetery is still however called Botanic Road. Unfortunately, nothing else marks the site of Cork's first Botanic Garden. Although further public and private botanic gardens were to be established, including that associated with University College Cork, this site at Ballyphehane has a unique place in the cultural and scientific heritage of the City. A place which has been all but forgotten by the general public.

The site should be marked with a suitable and modest marker to celebrate the vision of the Royal Cork Institution and the hard work of James Drummond.

Edwin Butler Honoured

I've written before about Edwin Butler - the man who was born in Kilkee Co. Clare and went on to become known as the greatest plant pathologists and mycologists of his generation.

Now, Butler has been honoured in his native Kilkee with the unveiling of a plaque at Kilkee Library last month.

Born in Kilkee in 1874, Butler went on to study medicine at Queen's College Cork (now UCC) but never practiced. Developing an interest in fungi and plant pathology, he was eventually to become known as the "Father of Indian Plant Pathology" and the founding director of the Imperial Bureau of Mycology at Kew, London.

Butler's book 'Plant Pathology' was to become the international standard for teaching the subject. Butler was a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and he was knighted in 1939.

Tuesday's event was attended by Prof. Peter Jones, Acting Head of Plant Science at University College Cork who gave a brief outline of Butler's connection to Cork.

His Excellency, the Indian Ambassador to Ireland Mr. Debasish Chakravarti was also in attendance to mark Butler's contribution to science in India. The Mayor of Co. Clare, Pat Hayes unveiled a plaque in Butler's honour at the newly renovated Kilkee Library.

Another in series of fitting tributes to one of Ireland's neglected scientific heroes.

Fascination of Plants Day

Image: Wageningen UR/Fascination of Plants Day

Today, May 18, the fascination and importance of having plants on our planet will be in the spotlight worldwide.

Launched under the umbrella of the European Plant Science Organization (EPSO, Brussels), the Fascination of Plants Day has been adopted by 39 countries, 29 from Europe and 10 from North- and South America, Asia, Australasia and Africa.

More than 580 institutions - ranging from botanical gardens to plant research centres - are hosting different kinds of public and media events which are all closely related to basic plant science, agricultural research, environmental conservation, biodiversity, education and arts.

The public as well as journalists and the media are invited to attend press conferences, to explore laboratories or to visit greenhouses, field stations or field sites, museums, and other exhibitions. People will have the opportunity to talk with plant scientists and discuss basic and applied research in plant biology.

For information on Irish Events for Fascination of Plants Day - see here

Australian organisers have been running a Youtube video competition on the theme. Here's one of the entries-

Plants on the coast

Apologies for the dearth of posts of late. To ease us back into it, here's a few images from a day spent botanising on the coast of West Cork. 

They're two very common plants found right around the coast of Britain and Ireland.

The first is Common Scurvygrass (Cochlearia officinalis). Found on saltmarshes and cliffs, the white flowers have four petals and the leaves are easily identifiable, being arrow-shaped around the stem. It's a member of the Brassicaceae family.

The plant gets its common  name from the fact that it was often used on ships as a cure for scurvy - caused by a lack of vitamin C.

The second plant is Thrift (Armeria maritima). Flowering now until almost the end of summer in places, the pink flowers are found in round terminal heads on tall stalks extending from a cushion of slender, single-veined leaves.

Found also in saltmarshes and (as here) on clifftops, it's also known as Sea Pink.

Interestingly, Thrift is highly tolerant of copper - able to exclude the metal, retaining it in the roots without transporting it to the rest of the plant. It also excretes the copper through its decaying leaves.

The plants and trees of Fota

This Bank Holiday weekend marked a much-anticipated return visit to Fota Arboretum in East Cork.

Fota Island was originally the home of the Smith-Barry family and in the ownership of that family since 1177. After the death of the last of the Smith-Barrys in 1975, the Island was sold to University College Cork. Over time, parts of the island has been put to a variety of uses including the unique Fota Wildlife Park. Although financial constraints required parts of the estate to be sold off for a golf course and hotel development, much of Fota remains in public ownership.

Fota House, former seat of the Smith-Barrys and their impressive gardens and arboretum is open to the public and is well worth a visit.

The Irish Heritage Trust took over responsibility for Fota House, Arboretum and Gardens in 2007 and there has been some noticeable improvements in signage and accessibility in that time. The Office of Public Works manage the gardens and arboretum.

Many sources describe the word Fota as coming from the Irish term 'Fód te' meaning warm soil and as such, the gardens are a great spot to relax and enjoy one of the greatest collection of rare and tender trees and shrubs growing outdoors in Ireland and Britain.

Japanese Cedar - a billowing thundercloud

The Smith-Barrys can be credited with the laying-out of the gardens and arboretum. Even up to the last of the Smith-Barrys, a Mrs. Bell, cataloguing and conserving the plant collections were important.

Japanese Cedar

One of the most impressive trees in the collection is a magnificent Japanese Cedar (Cryptomeria japonica 'Spiralis') planted in around 1880. The national tree of Japan, this variety has particularly interesting foliage where many of the needles twist themselves around the stems giving a spiral appearance. From a distance, the tree resembles a billowing thundercloud and is about 20 metres high.

There are a few small Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana) trees in the arboretum.

Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana)

Now is also a good time to visit. The Camellia and Magnolia are already in flower and Primroses abound in the wooded areas.

Magnolia 'Big Dude'

Camellia japonica 'Lavinia Maggi'

There is a magnificent Drimys winteri 'Glauca' currently in flower. Native to rain forests of Chile and Argentina, the bark of the plant known as "Winter's Bark" was a well known cure for scurvy.

Drimys winteri 'Glauca'

Drimys winteri 'Glauca'

Also at this time of the year, the azaleas which are dotted around the house are a riot of pinks, reds and purples.

For those who love plants Fota is a must visit. Understandably, the animals in the nearby wildlife park are a huge draw but, and at the risk of spoiling this oasis of calm, the gardens and arboretum deserve to be more visited in their own right.

Fota Garden and Arboretum are open year round and entry is free. There is however a €3 charge for parking. The island can also be accessed by train from Cork's Kent railway station. Charges apply for visiting Fota House and Fota Wildlife Park.

The Fota House Plant and Garden Fair takes place on Sunday 22nd April 2012 in association with Marymount Hospice New Building Fund. For more details, see www.fotahouse.com

Getting creative with plants

Green roofs, living roofs or eco-roofs are not new but they are becoming more popular as their role in clearing up pollutants in the city air and providing much needed recreation areas become clear.

This spectacular creation - the world's first 'vertical forest'- is the brainchild of architect Stefano Boeri and is in the form of a pair of skyscrapers (now under construction), part of a €65 million luxury apartment development in Milan.

If planted on the ground, the plants would cover about 10,000 square metres!

Broadsheet mentioned the development today and I was intrigued enough to find out more. According to the architect's website, Bosco Verticale is a project for "metropolitan reforestation" and the towers will house up to 900 trees along with a range of shrubs and flowering plants.

"The Bosco Verticale aids in the creation of a microclimate and in filtering the dust particles contained in the urban environment. The diversity of the plants and their characteristics produce humidity, absorb CO2 and dust particles, producing oxygen and protect from radiation and acoustic pollution, improving the quality of living spaces and saving energy. Plant irrigation will be produced to great extent through the filtering and reuse of the grey waters produced by the building."

The vertical forest development brings into focus the growing (pun intended) calls to develop something similar at the abandoned Anglo Irish Bank headquearters in the Dublin Docklands. Those behind the calls see it as an innovative public park and urban space as well as a project to mark the centenary of the Irish Republic. It's certainly a noble aspiration and an expensive one; whether anything comes of it, we'll have to wait and see. The youtube presentation on the project has some more info.  

Proposed use for the former Anglo HQ © Mahoney Architecture 2011

That's certainly a creative use of plants- and here's another. This one was brought to my attention by one of my students and it's called moss graffiti.

It's a form of guerrilla gardening and what has been labelled "eco-graffiti" or "green graffiti".

Image: Anna Garforth

The concept involves painting a moss/buttermilk solution onto a blank wall, keeping it moist and watching the results grow. Although the results look really stunning and the "eco" label is attractive to people, it's probably best to get the wall owners permission before you try this!

The infographic below explains the process and comes from the book More Show Me How.

Are there buildings and locations you know that could do with some guerrilla gardening? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

In search of monkey puzzles

A. araucana, Spanaway, WA.

It's National Tree Week and earlier in the week I posted something on Araucaria araucana, the Monkey Puzzle Tree and asked for readers to let me know of any interesting examples in their area.

The thing about the Monkey Puzzle is that it is so unique and unmistakable for any other tree species that it tends to stick out in peoples' mind where they see one. As one writer put it: because of their uniqueness, they seem more common than they actually are.

They are also enough of a botanical curiosity that they are often an indication of some historic botanical connection that can be unearthed. They make for some good stories!

Melanie Brisbane was in touch from Spanaway in Washington State in the US to send a photo of her A. araucana covered in snow. The tree is quite cold-tolerant, although the roots can be damaged by severe and extended cold snaps.

Mary Higgins from Waterford mentioned the Monkey Puzzle at Doneraile Park in North Cork. The gardens at Doneraile Court and the plant collecting activities of Mary St. Leger are worthy of a post of their own. The tree is apparently still there but I don't have an image to hand. A trip North is on the cards, I think!
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Update 12/03/2012: Having travelled to Doneraile this weekend in search of A. araucana, I can safely say that if there was one in the park, it's gone now! More details in due course.
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TriploidTree commented on the specimen tree located at Tramore Road in Cork City (between Musgraves and CMP). CMP is gone from that location but at least one Monkey Puzzle is still present on the site.

Monkey Puzzle at Tramore Road, Cork

The size of the tree indicates that it has been located on the site for much longer than the current occupiers. A quick check of some old maps confirms the site was a plant nursery in the middle of the 19th Century and the tree was positioned at the entrance to the establishment. Surely a great way to impress prospective customers, by exhibiting one of the botanical curiosities of the age at the front gate.

c.1840 map of the Tramore Road Nursery site showing approximate position of the Monkey Puzzle tree (red dot)

OpenPlaques brought my attention to a tree at the bottom of Malone Road in Belfast which must surely be associated with the nearby Botanical Gardens? A quick search hasn't shown up anything there at the moment. Can any Belfast readers shed some light on the matter?
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Update 12/03/2012: Prof. John Pilcher from Queens University, Belfast contacted me recently to tell me that, as far as he knew, there was no Monkey Puzzle in the Gardens now. "Some of the old Belfast postcards seem to show one near the Malone road gate (near the Kelvin statue)" says John. "There are some specimens of [the related species] Araucaria heterophylla, one in the Tropical ravine and I think two in the Palm House".
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Finally, one other specimen of note is the fine example to be found at what is now Mahon Point in Cork City. This tree is all that remains of the once impressive Lakelands Demesne built by none other than William Crawford. As we've already learned, he was a keen plantsman and developed spectacular gardens on the site now occupied by suburban housing, a shopping centre and a dual carriageway. Sic transit gloria mundi.

I'll write more on Lakelands and Crawford's botanical exploits at a later date, but for National Tree Week it's good to know that this unique tree can act as a reminder of Crawford's Lakeland gardens.

A. araucana at Mahon Point, Cork