Plants are always popular in the food department. Even the most plant-blind person still has to eat them. Archaeozoology documents the history of the potato, a plant that had an important impact on human history. Over at Wiggly Wigglers Karen profiles the Dandelion. Fruit Species profiles the Sugar Apple – Fruity’s coverage of tropical fruit is enough to generate real homesickness. Green Me says “If you love me, give me strawberries” and encourages people to eat organic strawberries. Jamie McIntosh of Suite101: Organic Gardens blog encourages expectant mothers to eat – and garden – organically. In a quest to eat locally produced food, Green Me learns how difficult it is to find non-GM beet sugar. Larry of botanizing marvels at the artichoke and the orchid, while discussing evolutionary history and Darwin. AppleJade talks about getting a jump on spring planting. And It’s Easy Being Green has a review of Michael Pollan’s new book In Defense of Food, while Erin at Gastronormous talks about his earlier book, The Botany of Desire.
Also on the topic of food, Jeremy of the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog discusses his adventures using informatics to stalk wild peanuts – and lays claim to a new verb! At Desertification Willem discusses some of the challenges associated with the important work of promoting local fruit species in Africa. Jan TenBruggencate at Raising Islands talks about the role of seaweed in the diet of ancient Hawai’i.
At its best, the blogosphere is a conversation. I commented on an article in Nature Biotechnology which discusses the evolution of resistance in Bt cotton. Both Tangled Up In Blue Guy and Karl Mogel at the Inoculated Mind discussed some of the implications of the paper. While GM crops are a mixed bag, there are some very real benefits in crops like cotton. It’s also a great example of the application of evolutionary theory to real-world problems. I also discussed a paper on cyclotides, a group of very interesting insecticidal compounds in plants that appear to act by damaging midgut cells in insect larvae, thus stunting their growth.
Finally, there’s no way you can talk about plants without getting into their visual beauty. I could link to any post at Botany Photo of the Day, but I really love today’s Aristolochia elegans. Kallen at Biojournalism welcomes the flowers of Spring. The Reluctant Botanist profiles Alectryon excelsus also known as Titoki or the New Zealand Oak in his “Plant of the Week” feature.
This concludes this edition of Berry Go Round. The next edition will be hosted at Greg Laden’s Blog. You can submit your blog article to the next edition the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found at the
Also on the topic of food, Jeremy of the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog discusses his adventures using informatics to stalk wild peanuts – and lays claim to a new verb! At Desertification Willem discusses some of the challenges associated with the important work of promoting local fruit species in Africa. Jan TenBruggencate at Raising Islands talks about the role of seaweed in the diet of ancient Hawai’i.
At its best, the blogosphere is a conversation. I commented on an article in Nature Biotechnology which discusses the evolution of resistance in Bt cotton. Both Tangled Up In Blue Guy and Karl Mogel at the Inoculated Mind discussed some of the implications of the paper. While GM crops are a mixed bag, there are some very real benefits in crops like cotton. It’s also a great example of the application of evolutionary theory to real-world problems. I also discussed a paper on cyclotides, a group of very interesting insecticidal compounds in plants that appear to act by damaging midgut cells in insect larvae, thus stunting their growth.
Finally, there’s no way you can talk about plants without getting into their visual beauty. I could link to any post at Botany Photo of the Day, but I really love today’s Aristolochia elegans. Kallen at Biojournalism welcomes the flowers of Spring. The Reluctant Botanist profiles Alectryon excelsus also known as Titoki or the New Zealand Oak in his “Plant of the Week” feature.
This concludes this edition of Berry Go Round. The next edition will be hosted at Greg Laden’s Blog. You can submit your blog article to the next edition the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found at the
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