Caragana microphylla (Leguminosae) is a dominant climax semishrub species in northern China. We evaluated genetic variation within and among populations sampled from three different environmental gradients in Horqin Sandy Land in northern China using intersimple sequence repeats markers and investigated the possible existence of relationships between genetic diversity and environmental factors....

Limnanthes floccosa ssp. floccosa and L. floccosa ssp. grandiflora are two of five subspecies within Limnanthes floccosa endemic to vernal pools in southern Oregon and northern California. Three seasons of monitoring natural populations have quantified that L. floccosa ssp. grandiflora is always found growing sympatrically with L. floccosa ssp. floccosa and that their flowering times overlap co...

Ludwigia hexapetala and L. grandiflora are recent, aggressive invaders of freshwater wetlands in California. To assess the relative role of sexual versus clonal reproduction in invasive spread, we used AFLP markers to genotype 794 ramets of L. hexapetala sampled from 27 populations in three watersheds of California, and 150 ramets of L. grandiflora from five populations in a fourth watershed. W...

In water-limited regions, rainfall interception is influenced by rainfall properties and crown characteristics. Rainfall properties, aside from gross rainfall amount and duration (GR and RD), maximum rainfall intensity and rainless gap (RG), within rain events may heavily affect throughfall and interception by plants. From 2004 to 2014 (except for 2007), individual shrubs of Caragana korshinski...

Cigarette smoke is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases. However, it may be possible to relieve the smoke-induced damage by increasing the defensive system. In this study, we planned to evaluate the protective mechanism of Sesbania grandiflora (S. grandiflora) leaves against cigarette smoke-induced oxidative damage in liver and kidney of rats. Adult male Wistar-Kyoto rats were exposed ...

Recent studies comparing genome-wide polymorphism and divergence in Drosophila have found evidence for a surprisingly high proportion of adaptive amino acid fixations, but results for other taxa are mixed. In particular, few studies have found convincing evidence for adaptive amino acid substitution in plants. To assess the generality of this finding, we have sequenced 257 loci in the outcrossi...

Caragaphenol A (1), a new trimeric stilbene, was isolated from the roots of Caragana stenophylla (Leguminosae) along with three known oligomeric stilbenes: (+)-alpha-viniferin (2), miyabenol C (3) and kobophenol A (4). The stereostructure of 1 was elucidated by one- and two-dimensional (1D- and 2D-)-NMR spectral studies.

Shrub species have increased in density and cover desertification areas, however, the role of sandy habitats contributing to expansion shrubs is poorly understood. Although effect on plant growth reproduction been demonstrated, most existing studies lack either experimental demonstration or an integrated study during whole shrub life cycle. We performed field laboratory experiments examine resp...

AIM The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of seed oil of Caragana korshinskii Kom. against Trichophyton mentagrophytes on an in vivo guinea pig model of dermatophytosis. METHODS The skin of albino guinea pigs was infected with T. mentagrophytes, and the animals were divided into five groups: negative control (NC group), positive control (PC group), vehicle control, CK50% gro...