Herself’s Houston Garden

We know plants need many different nutrients besides the basic three in most fertilizers. Molybdenum is one of those ingredients. Trace amounts of molybdenum are needed to help plants take up nitrogen. It also turns out in tropical forests molybdenum exists in the soil in far greater amounts than is needed by plants. The molybdenum helps to change the nitrogen in the air into nitrogen in the soil that can be used by plants.

It was believed that molybdenum deficiency in plants was best treated with foliar sprays, in light of the new information you might consider adding to the soil as well.

. . . Until now, scientists had thought that phosphorus was the key element supporting the prodigious expansion of rainforests, according to Lars Hedin, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University who led the research. But an experiment testing the effects of various elements on test plots in lowland rainforests on the Gigante Peninsula in the Barro Colorado Nature Monument in Panama showed that areas treated with molybdenum withdrew more nitrogen from the atmosphere than other elements.

“We were surprised,” said Hedin, who is also a professor in the Princeton Environmental Institute. “It’s not what we were expecting.”

The report is detailed in the Dec. 7 online edition of Nature Geoscience.

Molybdenum, the team found, is essential for controlling the biological conversion of nitrogen in the atmosphere into natural soil nitrogen fertilizer, which in turn spurs plant growth. “Just like trace amounts of vitamins are essential for human health, this exceedingly rare trace metal is indispensable for the vital function of tropical rainforests in the larger Earth system,” Hedin said. Molybdenum is 10,000 times less abundant than phosphorus and other major nutrients in these ecosystems. . . .Secret ingredient for the health of tropical rainforests discovered ( read more )

See also:
The role of molybdenum in agricultural plant production
Molybdenum in Idaho ( Essential plant and animal micronutrients )(pdf)

When a native plant population has declined drastically, the remaining plants become inbred. While these inbred plants clearly have what it takes to get through what ever caused the decline, seed supplies can be small and inbred in ways not beneficial to restoring a population.

The answer to successful revegetation of native flora is in sourcing genetically diverse seed, not necessarily relying on seed sourced from remnant local native vegetation.
“A common belief is that local native plants are the best source of seed for revegetation projects,” says CSIRO Plant Industry scientist, Dr Linda Broadhurst, “It has been presumed that local seed is adapted to local conditions and therefore provides the best results for restoration projects.

“However, the research shows that where vegetation loss is high and across large areas, ‘local’ seed sources are often small and isolated and can be severely inbred resulting in poor seed crops.

“This can lead to germination failure and poor seedling growth.”

The findings are based on a review the results of which have been published in an article entitled; ‘Seed supply for broadscale restoration: maximising evolutionary potential’ which appears in the latest edition of the journal, Evolutionary Applications. . . . read more “Local see not best for revegetation

See also:
Ecosystem Restoration

We’re all aware of how important it is for cities to leave greenways for wildlife, but who know plants were putting those greenways to good use also?

Greenways are strips that are left undeveloped to allow animals to relocate from one patch of undeveloped area to another. In Sept. 2006 a paper was published demonstrating that greenways also greatly enhanced plant diversity.

This month a study was released showing that plants will move down a greenway, each generation moving itself a bit further down the road.

The wild pea pod is big and heavy, with seemingly little prayer of escaping the shade of its parent plant.

And yet, like a grounded teenager who knows where the car keys are hidden, it manages – if it has a reasonable chance of escape.

University of Florida researchers working at the world’s largest experimental landscape devoted to wildlife corridors – greenways that link woods or other natural areas — have discovered the pea and similar species share, given a clear shot, a mysterious ability for mobility. Though their seeds are neither dispersed by birds nor borne by the wind, they are nevertheless far more likely to slalom down corridors than slog through woods.

The findings are revealed in a paper that appears this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. read more news release by University of Florida

See also:
First evidence that wildlife corridors boost plant biodiversity study says

My only experience with twig girdlers so far has been on my river birch. There are always twigs under the tree and I had thought that river birches just shed old branches naturally. But this is not so, it is twig girdlers who are stripping the twigs from the tree.

Twig girdlers are very common across Texas and we have several species of them. All have antennae that is twice as long as their bodies on the males, and same size as bodies on females. They range from a half inch to just under an inch in size. Colors vary by species, but they are shades of brown and grey and speckled with pink, yellow or orange spots.

After mating the female selects a tree branch. She then cuts into the bark until a clean circle is made around the twig. Then the female girdler makes notches around the circle and lays eggs in the notches. About a week later larvae hatch. The larvae then feed on the dead wood of the branch borrowing beneath the bark. A year later they emerge fully grown, usually in late summer into early autumn. Later branches fall from tree as the weather and time further weaken them.

Most deciduous trees can be attacked by tree girdlers.

The most effective control is to immediately remove branches that have fallen and likely contain young girdlers. Insecticides are rarely effective.