Pollinator and/or mate scarcity affects pollen transfer, with important ecological and evolutionary consequences for plant reproduction. However, the way in which the pollen loads transported by pollinators and deposited on stigmas are affected by pollination context has been little studied. We investigated the impacts of plant mate and visiting insect availabilities on pollen transport and rec...

Mercury (Hg) is a global pollutant which exists in both aquatic and terrestrial systems in three main forms including elemental Hg, ionic mercury, and methyl mercury, (MeHg), and Hg cycling plays an important role in ecosystems. Great Sippewisset Marsh, (GSM) in Falmouth MA has been chronically treated with fertilizer that contains heavy metals such as Hg in varying concentrations since the ear...

While beneficial health properties of tea leaves have been extensively studied, less attention is paid to the flowers of tea. In this study, the anti-inflammatory effects of hot water extract of tea (Camellia sinensis) flowers were investigated. Pharmacological studies found that administration of tea flowers extract (TFE) could effectively inhibit croton oil-induced ear edema and carrageenin-i...

In ‘McIntosh’ apples (Malus domestica Borkh.), the number of well-formed seeds and the number of fertilized ovules (well-formed plus aborted seeds) were correlated to yield an index of asymmetry for individual fruit. In spite of different flowering and pollination conditions in 1990 and 1991, the index of asymmetry decreased curvilinearly with increases in the number of well-formed seeds and of...

Pollinators exhibit a range of innate and learned behaviors that mediate interactions with flowers, but the olfactory bases of these responses in a naturalistic context remain poorly understood. The hawkmoth Manduca sexta is an important pollinator for many night-blooming flowers but can learn--through olfactory conditioning--to visit other nectar resources. Analysis of the flowers that are inn...

BACKGROUND Recently, tea (Camellia sinensis) flowers have attracted increasing interest because of their content of bioactive compounds such as catechins. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of some characteristic compounds in tea flowers. RESULTS A principal component analysis of metabolites using ultra-performance liquid chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry sh...

interspecific or intergenus hybridization in sugarbeet (b. vulgaris l.) is usually failed due to non fertilization, embryo death or absence of connection between embryo and endosperm. consequently invitro embryo rescue technique is of value to save hybrid embryos before annihilation. sugar beet inter-specific crosses with wild species is impossible in classical breeding because of no chromosoma...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Studies of the effects of pollination on floral scent and bee visitation remain rare, particularly in agricultural crops. To fill this gap, the hypothesis that bee visitation to flowers decreases after pollination through reduced floral volatile emissions in highbush blueberries, Vaccinium corymbosum, was tested. Other sources of variation in floral emissions and the role of...

[1] Measurements have been made of the effect of compaction on water retention, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and porosity of two English soils: North Wyke (NW) grassland clay topsoil and Broadbalk silty topsoil, fertilized inorganically (PKMg) or with farmyard manure (FYM). As expected, the FYM topsoil had greater porosity and greater water retention than PKMg topsoil, and the NW clay tops...

Chilling damage under 15ºC in anthurium cut flowers reduces the vase-life, quality and marketability of the product. In the present experiment, GABA postharvest treatment (0, 1 and 5 mM) was studied on the vase-life, total soluble solid (TSS), H2O2 content, proline content, spathe browning, catalase and superoxide dismutase enzymes activity of Anthurium andraeanum...