Botany News
Welcome to this fifteenth editio
Welcome to this fifteenth edition of Botany News!
TOPICS:
1.
A note from the editor
2.
Plants grown in northern gardens: Strawberries
3.
The hardy plants of Iceland
4.
Green tabloid: Global warming
5.
A special announcement to Icelandic readers
6.
The flower box
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A note from the editor
Greetings and welcome back to Botany News!
Hope you enjoy this new issue. Summer has arrived, bringing
sunshine and warmer weather to Iceland. Hiking on the coast, parks,
gardens, and suburbs of
Reykjavik, you see and smell the budding trees, green herb leaves and emerging
grasses. Many garden plants are already in bloom; white and purple crocuses,
bright yellow daffodils, and blue and white anemones to name a few. This issue
of
Botany News contains topics of
interest to all botany enthusiasts. Search our site and
Botany News archive for
valuable articles and bookmark your favourite items for future reference. If
you enjoy this ezine and the
Eco-logy.com web feel free to share our articles with your friends. Check
out our
Botanical Tour
option and plan
a visit to Iceland this summer!
Plants grown in northern gardens: Strawberries
Strawberries are stoloniferous herbs, producing five-divided,
usually white flowers and fleshy, red juicy fruits. Rich soils and plenty of
sunlight are important for strawberries; such conditions may be found at forest
edges and south-facing slopes. While the berries are delicious, strawberries
are also medicinal
herbs against intestinal
problems.
Three species of strawberries, Wild Strawberry (Fragaria
vesca), Musk Strawberry (F. moschata) and Creamy Strawberry (F.
viridis), grow wild in Europe. Wild Strawberry being the most widespread
and the only species of strawberries growing wild here in Iceland. Wild
Strawberry is common in South and West Iceland. While vegetative growth with
runners is strong, wild strawberries may produce ornamental white flowers and
later tiny edible berries in sheltered sunny spots here in Iceland. Musk
Strawberry (F. moschata) is a native European species and quite common in
central Europe. Musk Strawberry extends its distribution to other parts of
Europe including Scandinavia,
Britain, and Spain. Creamy
Strawberry (F. viridis) has a similar distribution, but does not grow in
the wild in Britain.
The common strawberry, the Garden Strawberry (Fragaria ×
ananassa ) is a hybrid between two American species Beach Strawberry (Fragaria
chiloensis) and Virginia Strawberry (Fragaria
virginiana). The Garden Strawberry can be grown in gardens as far north as
Iceland. Developing
berries need to be protected
from birds. For a commercial harvest Garden Strawberries are cultivated in
greenhouses in some countries in Northern Europe and North America, good
knowledge of the biology of Garden Strawberries and relevant horticultural
techniques is needed for greenhouse cultivation of this species on large
scale.
The hardy plants of Iceland
Conditions here in Iceland are often unfavourable for plant
growth. In parts of the country,
barrens have formed as a
consequence of long-term overgrazing and destructive natural forces. The
highlands of Iceland have
wide-ranging black deserts. Commonly, the soil is poor containing much sand and
gravel. Sands are arid and infertile with rapid loss of nutrients and water.
Among the successful plants on drifting sands are the tuft-forming, coarse
Lyme-grass (Leymus arenarius)
and the stoloniferous Fiorin (Potentilla anserina), binding the sand with
rooting nodes.
On the gravelly barrens of both highland and lowland
river banks you may find the
exquisite River-beauty Willow-herb (Chamerion
latifolium) bearing large, pink flowers. Muddy gravels may fragment
into characteristic gravel polygons as a consequence of alternating soil
freezing and thawing processes. On wet gravels you may find the delicate
pink-flowered Hairy Stonecrop (Sedum villosum),
the sturdy Two-flowered Rush (Juncus biglumis),
the drooping Spiked Wood Rush (Luzula spicata),
and growing from green rosettes the Tufted Saxifrage (Saxifraga
caespitosa), cushion plants such as
Thrift (Armeria maritima)
and the pleasant, white-flowered Alpine Mouse-ear (Cerastium
alpinum).
Green tabloid: Global warming
Most of the sunlight reaching the
Earth is in the spectrum of
visible light. The radiation emitted from the Earth has longer wavelengths than
the incoming radiation. The gas molecules of the atmosphere absorb a fraction of
the long wavelength radiation from Earth. The denser the concentration of
gases, the more heat is trapped near the Earth and as a consequence Earth’s
surface temperature increases. Mankind is contributing to an increase of this
warming or greenhouse effect of the atmosphere. The general warming of Earth’s
climate systems during the last two centuries is called global warming, most of
this recent warming is thought to be the result of human activity. Global
warming is expected to increase in the future causing shifting ranges of plant
populations with regard to
latitude and altitude and
population decline for species that are unable to adjust. The whole ecosystem
and food webs are also under threat.
Gasses that participate in trapping the planet’s heat
emission are called greenhouse gasses. The most common ones in the atmosphere
are water vapour and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide plays a central role in the
Earth’s chemical cycling and
ecosystems, being a key
component of both terrestrial and marine ecosystems. It enters the ecosystems
through the process of photosynthesis in green organism plants,
algae or photosynthetic
bacteria. Other gas types that
add to the greenhouse effect are to a large extent by-products of human
activity, among them are methane, ozone and nitrous oxides. The effect of the
different gasses depends in the amount and the type of molecule. For example,
methane contributes twenty times more to the greenhouse effect than carbon
dioxide. Fortunately, methane is found in a very low concentration in the
atmosphere.
The climatic warming underway this century is expected to
have a profound effect on the
biosphere and species
geographic distribution. Global warming could affect
agricultural communities and
wilderness areas, the hardest hit likely being fragile and sensitive vegetation
such as the Arctic tundra and desert areas and their inhabitants. It is
therefore important to try and reverse the effect of global climate change.
A special announcement to Icelandic readers -
Tilkynning!
Sendið okkur bréf og greinar um gróður til birtingar í næsta hefti Gróðurfrétta
(Botany
News), þið getið líka skoðað fyrri hefti á netinu. Hægt er að hafa tengla á
ykkar vefsíður á tenglasíðunni. Í fréttabréfinu má finna ýmislegt efni um
villtar plöntur og nytjaplöntur. Miðlið af ykkar eigin fróðleik til annarra um
efni eins og plöntur, ræktun, náttúru landsins og útivist. Sendið okkur
tilkynningar og greinar um fjölbreytt efni tengt náttúruupplifun,
garðyrkju og umhverfislist. Fyrir þau ykkar sem hafið áhuga á náttúrlegum
jurtavörum til gjafa má skoða á
sölusíðu Þundar. Te og krydd frá Þund henta vel til smágjafa, í næsta boð
eða fyrir klúbbinn! Fylgist með nýjum vörum frá Þund, gerist áskrifendur að
fréttabréfinu eða setjið vefinn
Eco-logy.com í bókarmerki hjá ykkur. Oreganó og oolong te eru nýjar vörur
frá Þund. Póstsendum te og kryddvörur innanlands.
The flower box
Plan a visit to Iceland this spring and explore the countries
amazing nature, where volcanic rock formations, birch forests and green pastures
each have their own distinctive flora and wildlife. Become familiar with
Iceland's unique plant life through one of our
Botanical Tours in Iceland.
Botany News welcomes letters from people working on all aspects of botany,
ecology and conservation. In particular, we welcome contributions from persons
working for the environment,
biodiversity and conservation
around the globe. Please, feel free to send us brief articles or recommend new
links to exceptional botanical and green pages to be included in the next Flower
Box section.
Submit your Botany News article
or announcement!
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Best wishes,
Soffia Arnthorsdottir
BOTANY NEWS is published by Thund, Reykjavik, Iceland
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May 17, 2012 -- Botany News, Issue #015
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