The World in a Pot

The flowerpot to be precise

Take a close and careful look some time at what floats on the film of water, when you water your pot plants the next time. Chances are you will see some tiny whitish specks on the water surface, which miraculously appear to disappear the moment the water is soaked up by the soil in the pot.

Grappling with Gravity

A problem for plants

There can be no doubt that seedlings know that their roots have to grow down and their stems upward. This awareness of gravity seems to be maintained even in older plants, for if a young tree was lying flat on the ground (perhaps as a result of a storm), but with its roots still anchored in the soil, its tip would slowly bend upward in the months to come. Animals possess gravity receptors, statocysts, ear-stones; if they lack them they use their eyes and perceive the light from above, but plants? Where are their gravity sensors and where are their “eyes”?

Lichen’s paradise

The Lichen’s Paradise on Earth: Antarctica

Lichens? Most people if asked what they associate with the word ‘lichens’ may scratch their heads and come up with nothing. Some, however, will think of packing material and decoration used by florists in flower shops. And then there are those, who think of reindeer and other Arctic grazers like musk oxen, snow hare, etc. But I’m thinking of Antarctica as the “continent of the lichen”, a continent without grazers that could harm the lichen.