Do Plants Have an Immune System?

It Depends on How You Define “Immune System”
Plants get sick. That is, they can be infected by pathogens.
But after hundreds of millions of years of pathogen attacks, plants are still here. So, they must have ways to get well after being sick.
Plants can defend themselves against disease-causing organisms (pathogens) such as viruses, bacteria, [...]

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Photosynthesis and Global “Weirding” – How Heat and Drought Affect Photosynthesis (part 2)

As previously mentioned….if most climatologists are correct, then parts of the Earth’s surface may experience increasing episodes of heat and drought as a result of global “weirding”. (see here for a current example)
Some of the effects of heat on photosynthesis was considered in part 1 of this post.
But what about drought (a.k.a., long term water [...]

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Photosynthesis and Global “Weirding” – How Heat and Drought Affect Photosynthesis (part 1)

If most climatologists are correct, then parts of the Earth’s surface may experience increasing episodes of heat and drought as a result of global “weirding”. (see here for a current example)
In a previous post in this blog, I briefly introduced the complex subject of how increasing atmospheric CO2 may affect plant photosynthesis.
There is some evidence [...]

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Will Frenzied Plant Growth Help Solve Global Warming?

Devil-may-care and out-of-control plants.
A couple of reports in the science news this week seem to suggest that one way to cope with global climate change may be unbridled plant growth.
One has to do with the discovery of a cellular regulator for the synthesis of cellulose by plant cells.
The other involves plants’ natural [...]

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Plant Gas – How Humans, Insects, and Other Plants May Be Affected

Can humans measure photosynthesis on a global scale?
Since plants consume CO2 during photosynthesis, one way is to measure the relative amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) using satellites (click on photo at left for more info).
But plants also release CO2 as a product of respiration. This has confounded efforts to accurately measure photosynthesis at ecosystem [...]

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Hot Plants! – How Will Plants Cope with Heat Stress Caused by Global Warming?

Are plants likely to be more heat stressed in the future?
The levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are increasing in Earth’s atmosphere. This, most climate scientists agree, is resulting in global warming. Among the environmental effects of global warming are higher frequencies of extreme heat-waves.
Unusually high temperatures, especially for [...]

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“Talking” Plants: Stressed Plants and Wintergreen Lifesavers (and Aspirin)

What do wintergreen lifesavers have to do with stressed plants?
And what is a “stressed” plant, anyway?
A plant that’s “stressed” has usually been injured by the physical (cold, heat, drought) or biological (insects, disease-causing microbes) environment.
Such stress often causes the plant to produce an array of defensive compounds. Some of these compounds may help the plant [...]

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