In a world ruled by natural selection, plants have evolved many methods to escape being eaten by herbivores. These little tricks take many forms, from poisons like deadly nightshade, to spikes on cacti. At the U of M Conservatory Greenhouse I've noticed one particular plant that displays an unusual trick to fool animals that would otherwise eat it in its youth. The leaves of the juvenile lancewood plant from New Zealand are about as photogenic as they are appetizing -- in other words, not at all! The serrated leaves are stiff and barbed. They also appear to be dead, with a desiccated brownish color. But as the plant grows taller, up to 60 feet, it completely changes its form of its leaves, and the trunk grows multiple branches forming a lollipop shaped canopy. The tender green leaves of the mature tree appear similar to eucalyptus leaves, with smooth edges. These tender mature leaves are well above the reach of grazing animals like the giant 12-ft moa bird that roamed New Zealand...
A large contingent of students and staff was gathered when I arrived for my volunteer shift at the Conservatory Greenhouse at the University of Minnesota on the St. Paul campus. The crowd was on hand to help with the gentle felling of the largest plant in the greenhouse, decades old and 30+ feet tall. Native to the island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific, this fern -- S phaeropteris intermedia the largest of all tree ferns -- has been happily growing in the tropical room of the greenhouse for a number of years, to the point its fronds are brushing up against the glass ceiling panes of the roof. Tree fern fronds brushing against the roof of the U of M greenhouse Rather than cut the tree down and lose the specimen, the staff decided to try to save the tree. The process would involve cutting off the top half of the tree and reinserting it into a new space in the soil of the greenhouse floor. Months of planning and preparation A well-known technique was used, referred to as ai...