2009-06-25

2009-06-25 10:48 pm

I'm not going to repost every mantisshrimp article

so you had better subscribe yourself.

But just this oncetwice!


"The flowers of butcher's broom grow in the center of the cladophylls"



Snow roots:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17299-unique-roots-let-plant-forage-in-the-snow.html
Botanists have discovered that Corydalis conorhiza grows a never-before described network of roots that reach upwards into the overlying snowpack to grab nutrients. This makes the plant the first species known to forage for nutrients in the snow.
[...]
The team reasoned that the unusual roots must be used to gather nitrogen that is trapped in snow flakes as they form. To test the hypothesis they added a traceable isotope of nitrogen in water to snow above C. conorhiza plants. After a few days, the team found that parts of the plant were rich in the isotope.