Category: plant cutting
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Chapter 4 21st century botany gets Classical
The text explores the ancient four elements—earth, fire, air, and water—highlighting their critical roles in plant biology. It discusses how modern botany acknowledges these elements’ contributions while noting plants’ remarkable adaptability to environmental changes. Understanding these elements provides a perspective on plant life, linking ancient concepts with contemporary science.
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Chapter 3 The economical and efficient design of plants
Taxodium, a remarkable gymnosperm, exemplifies nature’s design with its three essential tissue systems—dermal, vascular, and ground. These systems enable plants to achieve tremendous diversity and size while fulfilling human material needs, such as fibres for textiles. Plant structures also inspire innovative solutions in human engineering through biomimetics.
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Chapter 2 Oxygen, the planet’s most precious waste product
Plants, through photosynthesis, produce vital oxygen and organic compounds that support life on Earth and enabled the evolution of complex organisms. This chapter highlights the importance of photosynthesis in ecosystems and discusses potential improvements to increase efficiency for a growing human population, emphasising the need for more plant scientists in…
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Chapter 1 Plants: The great collaborators and crafters of planet Earth
Angiosperms, with roughly 369,400 species, exemplify plant diversity and ecological significance. This chapter explores various plant classifications, emphasizing interactions within the Plant Kingdom and between plants and other organisms. Mycorrhizal relationships are highlighted as critical for land flora evolution, shaping landscapes and humanity’s connection with plants throughout history.
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Introduction to Mr Plant Cuttings’ book project
This post highlights Mr P Cuttings’ ambition for a book about plants. Highlighting 10 need-to-know facts about our green neighbours, topics include plant diversity, structure, and senses, photosynthesis, agriculture, and cultural and wellbeing impacts of plants. By emphasising plants’ historical – and continuing – impact on human life, it hopes…
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Lichens and humans cement a friendship
The post discusses a study by Nisha Rokaya et al. exploring a synthetic lichen system to address concrete cracking. This approach combines fungi and algae/cyanobacteria to create a self-healing solution by producing calcium carbonate for repair. The research shows potential for sustainable construction but requires further testing for effectiveness in…
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Locusts are not fish (please, bear with me…)
Research by Touré et al. (2026) indicates that increasing millet’s protein content through nitrogen fertiliser application reduces locust damage…
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Masking the medicinally malodorous…
The post discusses an Ancient Roman glass unguentarium that contained human faeces, suggesting medicinal use in antiquity. It highlights the incorporation of aromatic herbal compounds to mask the odour while aligning with classical medicinal practices noted by prominent ancient figures. The exact medicinal application remains speculative.
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Mycology manages mattress mountain…
Every day, over 50,000 mattresses are discarded in the US, contributing significantly to landfill waste as they take up to 120 years to decompose. Innovative research explores use of fungi to convert mattress materials into sustainable insulation, highlighting potential benefits for recycling and environmental sustainability in the mattress industry.
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Hedging your climate change bets (or, betting your climate-change hedge..?)
The “Superbloom at Carrizo Plain National Monument, 2017” highlights the transient beauty of desert blooms. However, a re-vegetation initiative in the Taklamakan Desert has shown promise as a long-term solution to combat desertification and mitigate climate change by creating a carbon sink. The project emphasises careful management due to potential…
Plant Cuttings 