Celebrating Fascination of Plants Day 2017
The School of Life Sciences celebrating Fascination of Plants Day 2017
The aim of Fascination of Plants Day is to get as many people as possible around the world fascinated by plants and enthused about the importance of plant science.
In celebrating this the School of Life Sciences at the Wellesbourne Campus on May 18th, 6-8pm, hosted an evening of talks and demonstrations to showcase several fascinating aspects of their research on plants - focusing on food production and protecting the natural environment.
Talks included:
Horticultural histories – the story of the vegetables in your fridge.
Where do the vegetable varieties we eat come from? When did carrots first become orange? How did cauliflowers and Brussels sprouts arise? Which vegetables were people eating in Shakespeare’s day?
Stopping the rot: fighting plant diseases.
Why are vegetable plants affected by so many different diseases? Where do plant diseases come from and how are they moved around? Will climate change increase the incidence of plant diseases? What approaches can we take to limit damage to our crops?
The rhizosphere – where roots and soil meet.
The region where roots and soil interface is known as the rhizosphere and contains many microorganisms that interact with the roots influencing plant growth. What is the role of these microorganisms? How much do they influence a plant’s uptake of nutrients and the suppression of plant disease? What can we do to increase the beneficial effects of these microbial communities?
Cup plant – flowers for fuel?
Maize is considered to be one of the options for growing plants to provide renewable sources of energy, but there are several drawbacks to the intensive production of maize. Would the cup plant, an American member of the daisy family, provide an alternative source of biofuel for the future? Learn about our research on this interesting species.
For queries and further information please contact c.barratt@warwick.ac.uk or tel: 02476 575270.