Showing posts with label plants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plants. Show all posts

March 02, 2008

Survival Toolkit: article on Galls

Interesting article

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/pljuly99.htm

To Be Or Not To Be A Gall

The Story Of Strange Growths On Plants

Galls are caused by many organisms living on plants,
including insects, mites, mistletoe, fungi and bacteria.

Table Of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Destructive Galls
3. Galls Caused By Mistletoe
4. Fasciated Stem Galls
5. Galls Caused By Fungi
6. Galls Caused By Insects
7. Initiation Of Insect Galls
8. Spruce Pineapple Galls
9. California Jumping Galls
10. Jumping Beans Not Galls
11. The Fig Gall Controversy
12. Desert Trumpet Controversy
13. Acacia Thorn Gall Misnomer
14. Wayne's Word Gall Links
15. Wayne's Word Fig Links
16. Some References About Galls


1. Introduction

The mysterious origin of strange growths on the stems, leaves, flowers and roots of plants have intrigued naturalists for centuries. Called galls or hypertrophies, these tumorous (neoplasmic) outgrowths develop from rapid mitosis and morphogenesis of plant tissues and come in an astounding array of colors, shapes and sizes. Galls may be smooth, spiny or fuzzy, and resemble everything from marbles and ping-pong balls to dunce caps, saucers and sea urchins. Many galls provide the food and brooding structure for various species of harmless insects. Because of the general nature of galls, many authors refer to any swollen structure bearing insects as galls. This is not only incorrect, but it detracts from the marvelous evolution of some remarkable plant species which have literally developed little "condos" to house their special symbiotic insects. These help-mate insects provide a vital service to their host plant in the form of pollination or protection in a highly competitive environment where these plants could otherwise not survive.

Swollen stem galls on the branchlets of a canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis) caused by a cynipid gall wasp (Andricus spectabilis?).

More on link..


December 03, 2007

Project Mockingbird: Anderson Cooper

Anderson Cooper: CIA Asset - CNN's anchor went to Yale, then trained with the CIA, and now he's one of their top guys

Related

The gossip-news-whatever magazine Radar has found out quite a few dirty secrets recently. The most recent one, though, is probably the most interesting: Anderson Cooper, the silver haired CNN anchor, has been outed as being a former trainee in the CIA. This may not seem like huge news since he never became a full scale agent, but perhaps it is his job to infiltrate the high levels of journalism and mold public opinion? It may be a little too much of a “conspiracy theorist” and it probably isn’t his active job, but if before the debate the CIA heads told Cooper to watch out for Ron Paul, that could explain CNN’s brash and almost obvious hatred of the constitutionalist congressman.

This may not be a big story, it may be, but either way, Cooper was involved with the CIA. I recently read Murray Rothbard’s Betrayal of the American Right, and in it he said that he knew two CIA agents in the 1970’s who said

“Once a CIA agent, always a CIA agent.”
(I’m paraphrasing a bit.)

I’m far more suspicious of Mr. Cooper now than I was, but I guess we should all be watching out for the guy who withstands hurricanes at full force.

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