Heteromeles arbutifolia (from yellow fruit), "TOYON" Versatile, Calif. native, water-efficient small tree/large shrub w/ toothed, glossy green leaves, large clusters of white flowers in summer, showy red berries in winter; some may produce yellow berries. [9] (H*B*W*C*) Homalanthus populifolius, "QUEENSLAND POPLAR" Small, Aust. rainforest tree that is surprisingly hardy; fast-growing w/ handsom...

Wood is the most abundant biomass produced by land plants. Dissection of the molecular mechanisms underlying the transcriptional regulation of wood formation is a fundamental issue in plant biology and has important implications in tree biotechnology. Although a number of transcription factors in tree species have been shown to be associated with wood formation and some of them are implicated i...

Understanding seasonality and longevity is a major challenge in tree biology. In woody species, growth phases and dormancy follow one another consecutively. In the oldest living individuals, the annual cycle may run for more than 1,000 years. So far, however, not much is known about the processes triggering reactivation from dormancy. In this study, we focused on wood rays, which are known to p...

Energy Poplar (Enhancing Poplar Traits for Energy Applications) is an EC Seventh Framework Programme project aimed at further improving poplar trees as an energy crop. The work is directed to understand and improve traits such as yield and wood properties coupled to Bioethanol production. The project also addresses environmental and economical sustainability questions. The final goal of ENERGYP...

Introduction The goal of plantation culture is the economically and ecologically sustainable production of wood to meet a growing worldwide demand. At the end of the 20th Century, poplar culture has reached a fork in the road to the future, and both paths must be followed in order to achieve the goal of sustainability. One branch of the road leads to poplar forestry, where natural or extensivel...

Poplar (Populus sp.) plantations have been, on the one hand, broadly used in northern China for urban greening, combating desertification, as well as for paper and wood production. On the other hand, such plantations have been questioned occasionally for their possible negative impacts on water availability due to the higher water-use nature of poplar trees compared with other tree species in w...

Wood from biomass plantations with fast growing tree species such as poplars can be used as an alternative feedstock for production of biofuels. To facilitate utilization of lignocellulose for saccharification, transgenic poplars with modified or reduced lignin contents may be useful. However, the potential impact of poplars modified in the lignification pathway on ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi, w...

Plants have developed biochemical responses to adapt to biotic stress. To characterize the resistance mechanisms in poplar tree against Apripona germari, comprehensive metabolomic changes of poplar bark and xylem in response to A. germari infection were examined by gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF/MS). It was found that, four days after feeding (stage I), A. germari i...

Knowledge of water movement in the plant-xylem system and contaminant bioavailability in the soil environment is crucial to evaluate the success of phytoremediation practices. This study investigated the removal of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) from a contaminated sandy soil by a single poplar (Populus fastigiata) tree through the examinations of temporal variations of xylem water potential, root...