Dies Mirabilis!

[rain_gryphon]

It has been a day of wonders! When I awoke this morning, little did I suspect that I would hear the comet singing its song - https://soundcloud.com/esaops/a-singing-comet .

I've also learned today of the existence of active asteroids - http://www.astronomy.com/news/2014/11/tail-discovered-on-long-known-asteroid .

Most amazing to me, though, is the fact that vascular plants apparently use mycorrhizae to share nutrients, hormones, and possibly information. http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet .

This is the sort of thing that I would never have expected in a hundred years, and yet here it is, going on all around me. I've known all my life that you can't dig a hole in decent soil without finding mycelia, but I never once suspected that they might be doing more than just mindlessly breaking down compost. There is so much around us of which we are unaware.

Comments

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

I really didn't know anything about the "wood wide web" before you and a couple of others linked to that BBC Earth feature. A day of wonders indeed!

[xolo.livejournal.com]

That just floored me. And now, just a few minutes ago, when I went to amazon to look for books, one of the 'recommended for you' choices came up "Mycorrhizal Symbiosys", a 500 page* text on the subject. Somehow, Amazon seems to have worked out my sudden interest in the subject, which is kind of creepy.



*and $138, so even if I eventually break down and get it, it's not in the impulse buy category for me.

[whitetail.livejournal.com]

I've long seen plants and trees as 'upside-down' beings. Their real realm of existence - where their 'brain', if you will, is located - is below ground in the roots and soil, while they just send stems, leaves and flowers up into the atmosphere to breathe, obtain energy for metabolism, and breed. A related article on the BBC site describes tree species which are almost entirely underground (http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141103-why-some-trees-live-underground) - a phenomenon I did not know about previously, but which supports my heterodox view of woody plant life.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I was vaguely aware of the below-ground trees even before I saw that article. I've always kind of thought of vasculars as dual-natured - the underground part can survive almost anything, and collects minerals and water, while the above ground part reproduces, does gas exchange, and collects energy for sugar-making. If you've ever tried to get rid of dandelions, you come to understand how disposable the above-ground parts are.