Thursday’s stories at the Botanic Congress

Niall on 28 July, 2011

At the Botanical Congress today

  • Secrets of a voodoo plant revealed – it could reshape Australian crops, and rescue African farmers from a disastrous plant parasite
  • How cotton was born: a million year-old mating opens up an improved future
  • Is there too much cyanide in imported cassava products?
  • Sister Water Lily meets the Big Bad Banksia Man – do they hold the key to a new era in botany education?
  • Why life depends on plants and what we need to do to for biodiversity and humanity – an op ed from Peter H. Raven, President Emeritus,MissouriBotanical Garden. Read More about Thursday’s stories at the Botanic Congress

Thursday's stories at the Botanic Congress

Operations on 28 July, 2011

At the Botanical Congress today

  • Secrets of a voodoo plant revealed – it could reshape Australian crops, and rescue African farmers from a disastrous plant parasite
  • How cotton was born: a million year-old mating opens up an improved future
  • Is there too much cyanide in imported cassava products?
  • Sister Water Lily meets the Big Bad Banksia Man – do they hold the key to a new era in botany education?
  • Why life depends on plants and what we need to do to for biodiversity and humanity – an op ed from Peter H. Raven, President Emeritus,MissouriBotanical Garden. Read More about Thursday's stories at the Botanic Congress

How cotton was born

Niall on 28 July, 2011

A million year-old mating opens up an improved future

A coming together and genetic merging of an American plant with an African or Asian plant one or two million years ago produced the ancestor of the bush that now provides 90% of the world’s commercial cotton. And although the resulting plant has been domesticated and changed genetically by breeding over thousands of year, it retains a genetic structure and capacity which is conducive to further modification. Read More about How cotton was born