Pollinator Interactions with Yellow Starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) across Urban, Agricultural, and Natural Landscapes

Pollinator Interactions with Yellow Starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) across Urban, Agricultural, and Natural Landscapes

Pollinator-plant relationships are found to be particularly vulnerable to land use change. Yet despite extensive research in agricultural and natural systems, less attention has focused on these interactions in neighboring urban areas and its impact on pollination services. We investigated pollinator-plant interactions in a peri-urban landscape on the outskirts of the San Francisco Bay Area, Ca...

In vitro culturing of yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) for screening biological control agents

In an effort to design a bioassay to screen for biocontrol pathogens and their toxins, procedures were developed to produce calli of yellow starthistle (YST), Centaurea solstitialis (Asteraceae), on solid and liquid media. Three Murashige and Skoog (MS) media with different hormone additives were compared for their effects on the growth of the YST calli. The most effective medium was made of MS...

A Structural Growth Model of the Invasive Weed Species Yellow Starthistle, Centaurea solstitialis L

Yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis L.) is a summer-flowering annual plant of the family Asteraceae, and a significant weed of roadsides, pasture and grasslands in California. It is also distributed, though with less economic and ecological significance, throughout the US and in other temperate parts of the world. Yellow starthistle grows vigorously during the dormant period for most nat...

Biological Control of Yellow Starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) in the Salmon River Canyon of Idaho

Estimating Yellow Starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) Leaf Area Index and Aboveground Biomass with the Use of Hyperspectral Data

Hyperspectral remote-sensed data were obtained via a Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager-II (CASI-II) and used to estimate leaf-area index (LAI) and aboveground biomass of a highly invasive weed species, yellow starthistle (YST). In parallel, 34 ground-based field plots were used to measure aboveground biomass and LAI to develop and validate hyperspectral-based models for estimating these me...