CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 91, NO. 7, 10 OCTOBER 2006 943 *For correspondence. (e-mail: [email protected]) 19. Gori, D. F., Post-pollination phenomena and adaptive floral changes. In Handbook of Experimental Pollination Biology (eds Jones, C. E. and Little, R. J.), Scientific and Academic Editions, New York, 1983, pp. 31–49. 20. Baker, H. G., Bawa, K. S., Frankie, G. W. and Opler, P. A., Reproduc...

A study of preserved starch grains from sedimentary sequences at Niah Cave, Sarawak, Borneo, reveals direct evidence for the use of rainforest plants rich in digestible carbohydrates. Plants identified include several species of Aroids (Alocasia sp., Cyrtosperma sp.), at least one species of yam (Dioscorea sp.), and the pith of sago palm (cf. Caryota mitis, Eugeissona utilis). Starch grains fro...

Warming due to global climate change is predicted to reach 2°C in tropical latitudes. There is an alarming paucity of information regarding the effects of air temperature on tropical agroecosystems, including foraging pastures. Here, we investigated the effects of a 2°C increase in air temperature over ambient for 30 days on an established tropical pasture (Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil) do...

Medicinal plants are resources of new drugs. Phyllanthus niruri L.(Euphorbiaceae) is a widespread tropical herb. The phytochemical screening and quantification of primary metabolites in the plants collected from three geographical locations. Maximum extractive value (3.951%) was found in water extract among test solvents. All metabolites were qualitatively present in water and ethanolic extracts.

Tropical rainforests have recently been confirmed to be the largest source of methyl chloride and a missing source for methyl bromide. However, very few field studies have quantified methyl halide emissions from tropical plants. This study presents the first methyl halide emission measurements from 16 tropical crop species at the University of California, Berkeley Botanical Gardens. Leaf vial e...

Despite the progress made in understanding the ecophysiology of tropical plants during the past two decades (Lüttge 1997, Mulkey et al. 1996), questions regarding relationships between the environment and physiological diversity remain. It is now recognized that tropical climate can be quite variable (see Coen 1983) which could lead to significant functional diversity (increased variation in li...

We determined patterns of post-dispersal fruit and seed removal for 11 common native plants, as well as sunflower seeds (Helianthus annuus L.), within a tropical deciduous forest in Jalisco, Mexico. Removal values were high in Delonyx regia (Bojer) Raf. (90%), Crescentia alata Kunth. (87%), H. annus (81%), Pithecellobium dulces (Roxb.) Benth (81%), Albizia occidentalis Brandegee (80%), Coccolob...

American Journal of Botany 98(2): 306–325, 2011; http://www.amjbot.org/ © 2011 Botanical Society of America morphologically heterogeneous and ecologically diverse. Growth forms include large tropical rainforest trees, temperate and high altitude tropical herbs and shrubs, and aquatic plants of swiftfl owing rivers and streams. Although their distribution is nearly cosmopolitan, their greatest s...

The floral composition of Yunnan is conspicuously linked to the biogeographical history of this extremely species-rich province in southwestern China. The floristic compositions of three representative regions in Yunnan were compared to reveal their variation with geography. From southern Yunnan, 4150 native species (including subspecies and varieties) from 1240 genera and 183 families of seed ...

Previous exclosure studies measuring the top-down control of arthropod abundance and herbivory combined the effects of birds and bats. We experimentally partitioned bird predation from bat predation in a lowland tropical forest in Panama and measured the direct effects (arthropod abundance) and indirect effects (herbivory). The exclusion of birds and bats each directly increased arthropod abund...