Latest Berberis Stories

Varieties of long-lived plants that have been bred to produce fewer viable seed retain the potential to be invasive, despite claims to the contrary, and regardless do not usually 'breed true,' researchers conclude Cultivars of popular ornamental woody plants that are being sold in the United States as non-invasive are probably anything but, according to an analysis by botanical researchers published in the October issue of BioScience. Tiffany M. Knight of Washington University in St....

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have solved a longstanding mystery as to why a pathogen that threatens the world's wheat supply can be so adaptable, diverse and virulent. It is because the fungus that causes the wheat disease called stripe rust may use sexual recombination to adapt to resistant varieties of wheat.ARS plant pathologist Yue Jin and his colleagues Les Szabo and Marty Carson at the agency's Cereal Disease Laboratory at St. Paul, Minn., have shown for the first time...

By McDonald, Robert I Motzkin, Glenn; Foster, David R MCDONALD, R. I. (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138), G. MOTZKIN AND D. R. FOSTER (Harvard Forest, Harvard University, Petersham, MA 01366). Assessing the influence of historical factors, contemporary processes, and environmental conditions on the distribution of invasive species. J. Torrey Bot. Soc. 135: 260-271. 2008.-Despite concern over potential detrimental effects of non-native invasive species on...