BACKGROUND In their quest to understand and interpret nature, people have frequently sought religious or divine origins for plant species and their characteristics. Less often, historical events or persons are involved. This study comprises eleven cases of the latter kind, all claiming that plant species have been introduced by foreigners or at least from foreign lands. METHODS Based on liter...

The replacement of native forests by exotic tree monocultures, such as those of Eucalyptus, decreases the quality of leaf litter inputs to streams and often reduces riparian cover, which can elevate water temperature. The combined effects of these stressors on the survival and performance of detritivores may be important, as detritivore species loss leads to reduced litter breakdown, a key ecos...

background: nowadays candida albicans has become resistant to the toxic and expensive commercial anti-candida drugs. therefore, investigation for new anti-fungal agents is necessary. objectives: the purpose of this survey was to investigate the in vitro anti-candida activity of the hydroalcoholic extracts of heracleum persicum fruit. materials and methods: the plant ingredients were extracted u...

Heracleum mantegazzianum has been the focus of a 40 month in depth study by eight research groups across Europe, one of the most detailed studies undertaken in Europe of a nonagricultural weed. Lessons learned from this research are linked to investigations of other alien invasive species and their management. The value of understanding the ecology of the species in its native range is consider...

chemical composition of the essential oils extracted from the leaves, stems, flowers and seeds of  heracleum rechingeri manden. were analyzed by gc and gc/ms. twenty-four components were characterized for the leaf oil with octyl acetate(47.2%), octanol(15.2%) and e-caryophyllen (5.7%) as the main constituents. 25 compounds were identified in the stem oil with elemicin (65.3%), octyl acetate (13...

The Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) is an invasive species that disrupts the balance of natural ecosystems by displacing indigenous ant species throughout its introduced range. Previous studies that examined the mechanisms by which Argentine ants attain ecological dominance showed that superior interference and exploitation competition are key to the successful displacement of native ant spe...