Gardens π²βπ΄βπΈβπ΅βπ³β of the World πβπβπβ
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Wu Ming β 11 months ago(April 18, 2025 12:45 AM)
Mathematicians solve centuries-old Mystery of how
'broken'
Tulips get their Stripes
The striped popular tulips were coveted in the 17th century for their beautiful markings.
Itβs been known since 1928 that the pattern is caused by an infection of the
tulip breaking virus
.
How exactly the stripes are formed remained an unsolved mystery, until now.
A study solved the mystery of the signature stripes on 'broken' tulips.
In a study published in
Nature Communications Biology
and led by
University of Alberta
mathematics professor Thomas Hillen, researchers found out the tulip breaking virus inhibits the production of anthocyanins, the pigments that give tulips their vibrant colours.
"The plant wants to produce a pigment and the virus wants to produce a virus. And if the virus is very strong, it takes over the machinery completely and thereβs no more resources to produce any colouration."
The striped pattern arises because the areas of the tulip petals that are most infected become
almost colourless, while the areas that have less extensive infection keep their colour.
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The
activator-substrate mechanism
is similar to a well-known concept called the
Turing instability
, working together with
Wolpertβs mechanism
, which is responsible for other patterns in nature such as stripes on zebras or spots on leopards. This mechanism helps explain how the virus moves at different rates within the tulip, creating areas with more or less infection, and consequently more or less pigmentation.
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Working together in the model, the
activator-substrate mechanism
kicks things off by creating instability in the tulip that causes the virus to spread unevenly, while
Wolpertβs mechanism
signals how much pigment is needed in each part of the petal. The result? Eye-catching flowers that commanded an eye-watering price during
"Tulip mania"
(1631-1637).
Semper Augustus, the most expensive tulip during Tulip mania.
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According to Hillen, the model could be used to better understand other patterns found in nature. For example, he posits that plants within the lily family would likely be affected by the same mechanisms as tulips, because both flowers transport their nutrients in similar ways. And since the virus is responsible for weakening the plant, mathematical modelling could also be beneficial in helping growers avoid viral infections in commercial plants.
https://www.ualberta.ca/en/folio/2025/04/mathematicians-solve-centuries-old-mystery-of-how-broken-tulips-get-stripes.html
April 14, 2025
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-07507-z
January 27, 2025
The sick (infected) tulips are the most beautiful tulipsβ¦philosophically.
β
How a Random Flower
βββ became the Bitcoin of the 1600s -
Wu Ming β 11 months ago(April 24, 2025 02:27 AM)
by /.γ € April 24, 2025 01:17 AM
Member since January 25, 2022
She aged well and I like her better than when she was young and came across as a bit artificial.
Audrey Hepburn was a classic woman with style.
I enjoy her informative garden tours with all the tender beauty in and around her.
β
After one episode, I feel good and relaxed.
If I watch two episodes in a row, I feel like going to a punk concert.
Though that's actually not my taste in music.
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TaraDeS β 10 months ago(May 15, 2025 01:05 PM)
"Get rid of your Lawn!"
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We shouldn't mow our lawns in May. Environmental groups are calling for this.
Our author has been trying for a long time.
Mowing-free May
The call is simple and not mine:
"Don't mow your lawns in May!"
If it were mine, it would be:
"Get rid of your lawns!"
Because lawns are your calling cards.
As the lawn, so the people. Means, behind each of those gardens covered in green carpets lurks a boring, wild-hating creature.
Nature conservation organizations are calling for people not to mow their lawns in May. This promotes biodiversity and species diversity, because then wildflowers can grow. Where wildflowers bloom, bees and other pollinators have something to eat. Ground beetles, spiders, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and larvae all benefit. And where there are many insects, birds and wild animals like hedgehogs also find food. About 5% of Germany's area is covered with lawns. It's estimated that 1/3 of the lawn areas are private gardens.
The
No Mow May
movement originates in Great Britain, where
No Mow May
was first declared in 2019.
In addition to all the benefits for plants, insects, and animals, humans also benefit.
"If you don't mow, you save time and energy,"
says National Geographic. And where less grass is mowed, there's also less noise.
That all sounds great and so easy. Stop mowing and everyone will be better off! But it's not that simple. For 20 years, I've been trying to turn the lawn in my allotment into a wild meadow. In vain. I spend countless hours cultivating the wild. Cultivating the wild β of course, that's a contradiction. [
Yep!
]
A neighbour who owns an allotment garden has practically nothing in her garden except grass.
Molehills make her gasp for breath. Recently, she removed the old lawn, laid a wire mesh underneath, and sowed new grass on top. At best, that would polish the moles' snouts, but it would protect her lawn. Her boyfriend's business card says
"Polisher"
. The neighbours on the other side, Turkish immigrants, ErdoΔan fans, Allah fans, have covered their garden with turf.
"You're more German than German,"
I told him.
Here, too, the message is clear: He wants to be accepted.
I'll stay in between. My lawn absolutely refuses to turn into a meadow. Carnation, greater celandine, and oregano, yes, they're coming. The former absorbs heavy metals, no wonder, since for decades the garden was under the scouring of planes taking off and landing at Tegel Airport. Celandine, in turn, helps with warts. Oregano compacts the soil. In every garden, what people need grows, that's old gardening wisdom. I don't have warts, which I would need the celandine for, but I seem to be ungrounded β and oregano is supposed to help. Meadow flowers, I'm thinking of daisies, meadow sage, cornflowers, and scabious, don't grow when I sow them. I have to buy them in pots and plant them.
And I can watch them wither away and not come back the next year.
I do everything I can to give my lawn a meadow structure, but I only create chaos.
So much for a calling card. Every time I inspect the garden, I'm told to pull the weeds.
https://taz.de/Dem-Rasen-den-Kampf-ansagen/!6084166/
May 14, 2025
Of course, the author of the article got much excellent advice on how to
'cultivate'
a wild meadow.
One of the cutest comments just posted a poem:
Voll BlΓΌten steht der Pfirsichbaum,
Nicht jede wird zur Frucht.
Sie schimmern hell wie Rosenschaum
Durch Blau und Wolkenflucht.
Wie BlΓΌten gehn Gedanken auf,
Hundert an jedem Tag.
Lass blΓΌhen, lass dem Ding den Lauf
Frag nicht nach dem Ertrag!
Es muss auch Spiel und Unschuld sein
Und BlΓΌtenΓΌberfluss,
Sonst wΓ€r die Welt uns viel zu klein
Und Leben kein Genuss.
(Hermann Hesse)β
https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=882097
(English translation) -
TaraDeS β 10 months ago(June 04, 2025 05:15 AM)
Japanese Knotweed π₯¬β
βπ₯¬β Invasion
Aggressive, fast and dangerous for nature and property values.
All of this is a plant that's currently spreading rapidly.
The Japanese knotweed has egg-shaped leaves up to 20 cm long. You can watch it grow every day.
The invasive plant reaches its peak growth in May, growing between 10-30 centimeters per day. What was initially just an ankle-high plant next to the road, now became an almost 3-meter-tall bush that extends deep into the narrow roadway.
Drivers are already forced to pause as they roll down from the Cappenberg Heights into the Langern Valley. As if from nowhere, a swaying wall of plants blocks the view to the right: densely leafy branches with large, egg-shaped leaves. That it slows down traffic is by no means the biggest problem with Japanese knotweed. Introduced as an ornamental 200 years ago, the dried plant may be said to have healing properties for the stomach and intestines. For conservationists and homeowners it's a nightmare, even without being toxic.
Black Plastic Foil and an Excavator
Birgit Stephan is deputy head of the Biological Station for the Unna district and Dortmund. Her focus is on contractual nature conservation. When it comes to knotweed, she doesn't think about protection, but rather the opposite.
"We have to fight it. Otherwise other species won't stand a chance."
For this plant with its enormous vigor,
"there can only be one."
Those who allow it to spread uncontrolled will lose native species and thus important food sources for insects and other animals. Controlling it, is easier said than done. Knotweed is not only unusually fast and aggressive, but also clever.
Birgit Stephan from the Biological Station for the Unna district and Dortmund.
Birgit Stephan only needs to look out the window of her office in Bergkamen-Heil, then she sees a black sheet. The traces of the battle with the plants that the
International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) calls one of the 100 most harmful invasive species in the world. The deputy director of the biostation doesn't yet know whether she has won this battle. The black foil must remain in place for leastwise three years, where the knotweed previously grew. Only then there's any hope that the roots of the deeply mown plant will no longer have the strength to make a comeback. While she waits, Birgit Stephan and her team must regularly check that the agile shoots don't sneak up on the sheet. The disadvantage of this action: the black foil not only kills the knotweed from Japan, but also the native plants in the area.
The foil method isn't the sharpest tool in the fight against this extremely resilient plant.
"If necessary, we'll have to bring in an excavator."
The excavated roots must then be disposed of along with the soil to prevent knotweed monoculture in protected biotopes.
Properties are devalued
Garden owners usually cannot afford this but should take the problem seriously and repeatedly pull out and mow the plants, thereby weakening them. While Birgit Stephan and others β such as the
North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture
and conservationists from NABU and BUND β are committed to consistent control, knotweed is still available for purchase. Touted as a
"versatile ornamental plant with attractive flowers from late summer to autumn,"
it costs just under EUR 10 (excluding delivery).
Antique locomotive at Beekbergen, Netherlands, is overgrown by knotweed.
In Switzerland, the sale, propagation, planting, and tolerance of this plant are prohibited. Homeowners in the UK are legally required to disclose whether knotweed grows on their property when selling it.
If so, it will lead to a reduction in value.
https://www.ruhrnachrichten.de/werne/luenen-selm-werne-gefahr-japanischer-staudenknoeterich-immobilien-wertverlust-bekaempfung-w1036241-2001669505/
June 03, 2025
Or the Japanese Knotweed (what a name!) will save our bees
βββ and bodies. β
Japanese Knotweed π₯¬ββπ₯¬ Delicious and Edible Invasive Species 
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TaraDeS β 9 months ago(June 10, 2025 10:07 AM)
I looked for something relaxing for the lunchbreak and was happy to find this article:
From Berlin to Stuttgart: The 17 most beautiful Botanical Gardens in Germany
https://www.cntraveller.de/artikel/schoenste-botanische-gaerten-deutschland
June 07, 2025
Inside the article the only picture for Berlin.
Botanical Garden Berlin
What kind of stupid photo is this?!
Mme. Nathalie (author of this article) is lucky that I've neither the time nor the desire to write an angry e-mail.
So, here's the Botanic Garden Berlin and some more.
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World of the Botanic Gardens (2024)
Off-topic
Oh ScheiΓe, just in the radio.
School shooting in Austria, leastwise 5 people dead.
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TaraDeS β 7 months ago(August 23, 2025 09:36 AM)
Perhaps I'll look next time for new videos for the lost ones above.
β
GΓ€rten der Welt
β Family HighlandGames 
σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄
Scottish customs and quirky competitions for the whole family on August 23, 2025!
This year, you can once again show off your muscles in this Scottish showdown.
The focus of the Family Highland Games is on the strengths and skills of visitors of all ages.
Immerse yourself in the world of Celtic culture with impressive competitions, such as log throwing, trunk carrying and barrel rolling β and best of all: you can participate and test your strength yourself. Simply come to our competition area between 12:00-17:00 and try out the various disciplines on site.
Or would you like to compete against other visitors? Registration is required to participate in our competitions, which you can do directly with us on site. You can participate in a competition either at 13:00 or 15:00. The winners can look forward to some great prizes.
This applies to both men and women and to both heats.
1st place:
2x Viva la Musia tickets
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2nd place:
Gardens of the World annual pass
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3rd place:
1 bottle of mead
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[
for the full program use a translator, please
]
This year, visitors in typical Highland dress (such as a kilt) will receive reduced admission.
EUR 4.00 Reduced day ticket, without a kilt EUR 9.00
EUR 7.50 Reduced combined day ticket with overhead railway, without a kilt EUR 12.90
Children up to and including 5 years: free
GΓ€rten der Welt, Berlin-Marzahn-Hellersdorf π§Έβ
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https://www.gaertenderwelt.de/events/veranstaltungen/detail/2025-08-23_1200/family-highlandgames/
Overhead Railway
β to the Gardens of the World in Berlin
Stage Combat show during the Highland Games
β Toy Car April 07, 2025 09:04 PM
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