Botany 2.0

January 28, 2018 8:07 PM

The lost art of looking at plants "Plant biologists hope that, by combining new approaches to botany with data from genomics and imaging labs, they can provide better answers to questions that biologists have asked for more than 100 years: how genes and the environment shape the rich diversity of plants’ physical forms. "
posted by dhruva (9 comments total)

This is brilliant, thank you!
posted by lokta at 11:36 PM on January 28, 2018

Those three snapdragon buds look like Star Trek TOS aliens discussing what to do with the insignificant life form that has just beamed down to their planet.
posted by pracowity at 3:53 AM on January 29, 2018

I gave this article to my Field Botany class to read over the weekend. We have class at 9; I'll try to remember to report back on their thoughts. Meanwhile, I've decided I need a poster of the plant archetype illustration for my office.
posted by pemberkins at 4:01 AM on January 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yeah, that illustration is great!
posted by aniola at 8:13 AM on January 29, 2018

Researchers often knock genes out to determine how they affect a plant’s form or function. “If you’re not really capable of diagnosing the morphology or the anatomy, you really don’t know what you’re looking at,” Niklas says.

I cosign this. We've seen so many gene function papers come out saying "foo is a phi gene, therefore when sigma reacts like phi to the knockdown of foo, we know that sigma is evolutionarily related to phi." So not the case. But morphology can be REALLY HARD! And I work on insects, it's all just different kinds of legs -- plant morphology is crazy hard, and just decided that what you're looking at really is a "leaf" requires multiple lines of evidence.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 8:49 AM on January 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

level 1: Look at these pretty poinsettia flowers!
level 2: Actually poinsettia's "flowers" aren't really flowers, they're leaves!
level 3: It's technically a bract because it is associated with reproductive organs.
level 9000: Actually possibly all of the flower parts are just leaves now except for the stem, actually leaves might just be stems.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 8:51 AM on January 29, 2018 [5 favorites]

Closely related: Harvard has refurbished and reopened their glass flowers collection. One of the most beautiful exhibits I've ever seen, It's worth the trip to Cambridge.

Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants
posted by MengerSponge at 11:02 AM on January 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

I cannot BELIEVE that those are glass! That's amazing!
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 11:04 AM on January 29, 2018

I took plant anatomy from Dr. Niklas. One of my favorite courses ever! I'm always surprised at my student interns' lack of knowledge of plant anatomy. They are supposed to be looking at plant diseases, but they spend a lot of time not recognizing pollen, trichomes, crystal inclusions and latex cells. You can't tell what's wrong with a plant if you can't tell what's right. Of course, a lot of these students have never looked at anything under a microscope. This is sad, because when we set up at the County Fair every year, we bring a bunch of microscopes and a bunch of stuff to look at, and kids love it. Those same kids in college would also love it.
posted by acrasis at 5:05 PM on January 29, 2018 [1 favorite]