It's Friday: Here's Your Week in Trees
November 30, 2012 at 6:18 pm by Amanda Cooke
FUNGUS! Here's your tree news from around the world this week:
- Climate change is threatening the French truffle, which grows on oak and hazelnut trees between November and February [AFP]
- Amanita muscaria--also known as fly agaric--grows around a number of tree species, helping the trees enjoy an increased uptake of nutrients and protection against harmful organisms [The Guardian UK]
- In a battle against the chestnut blight--an imported fungal infection first noticed in 1904--genetically resistant hybrid saplings were planted along Virginia forest ridges [The Roanoke Times hat tip to Seyden.net]
- Dothistroma needle blight--caused by a fungus and threatens ash trees--is now widespread throughout the United Kingdom [Scotsman.com]
- Not fungul but just as gnarly: The stuff in your belly button is diverse like a rainforest, an ecosystem with as many as 107 species living in it, say scientists [news.com.au]
- What do you get when you match chain saws with reality TV show wood carvers? Boo Boo Scarface [The New York Times]
- Footage of Sumatran tiger cubs has been captured in the forest of Sembilang National Park, Indonesia (there are just 300 Sumatran tigers alive in the wild) [Wildlife Extra]
- One photographer is on a mission to become the first to document all 39 species of birds of paradise. Check out this not-to-be missed rainforest slideshow [The Guardian UK, again]
- A tree-growing project in a Kenyan village, home to hundreds of AIDS orphans, now stands six years from its first harvest. Some 120,000 trees have already been planted! [The Washington Post]
- Learn about the connection between coastal fog in Southern California and Pinus muricata (the bishop pine) [Los Angeles Times]
- Scientists reveal a fossil of the Jurassic hangingfly Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia. Can you guess which tree spcies the insect mimicked? [Wired]
- Drought-stressed trees are facing a race to adapt [CNN]
- Brazil's jungle city populations are surging, eating into rainforests [The New York Times]
- Scientists from the University of London have sequenced the genetic code of a birch tree for the first time [National Association of State Foresters]
