The flammability of plant leaves influences the spread of fire through vegetation. Exotic plants invading native vegetation may increase the spread of bushfires if their leaves are more flammable than native leaves. We compared fresh-leaf and dry-leaf flammability (time to ignition) between 52 native and 27 exotic plant species inhabiting dry sclerophyll forest. We found that mean time to ignit...

The plant has tuberous roots, deep green leaves and a scarlet coloured fruit with a bitter taste. The Ayurvedic writers recommend the juice of its tuberous roots and leaves in diabetes; the leaves are also used by them in skin diseases. We investigated the anti-diabetic properties of this plant as its juice is often prescribed by medical practitioners in Bengal and wonderful results are ascribe...

Plants initially accepted by foraging leaf-cutting ants are later avoided if they prove unsuitable for their symbiotic fungus. Plant avoidance is mediated by the waste produced in the fungus garden soon after the incorporation of the unsuitable leaves, as foragers can learn plant odors and cues from the damaged fungus that are both present in the recently produced waste particles. We asked whet...

samples of salvia leriifolia were collected from khorasan mountains in different growing stages. chemical composition, rumen degradability characteristics of dry matter (dm), crude protein (cp) and neutral detergent fiber (ndf) of salvia leriifolia whole plant (stem and leaves) in different flowering stages and plant leaves in comparison with alfalfa hay and triticale straw were measured using ...

Effects of plant litter type (larch needle-leaves, mixed broad-leaves, and sasa green leaves) and nutrient addition (nitrogen and phosphorus) on bacterial community-level physiological profiles (CLPPs) of a forest soil were examined using BIOLOG EcoPlates(TM). Both the litter and nutrient additions significantly increased color development in most of the wells in the BIOLOG microplates, with th...

We consider passive polarimetric near infra-red imaging systems that measure the three first elements of the Stokes vector and deduce from them the degree of linear polarization and the angle of polarization in near infra-red spectrum for analyzing plant leaves. By using the variance of the angel of polarization from each sample leaf, we identify the curl of the leaf surface and compare it to o...

Medicinal plants especially leaves are used in traditional medicine for rapid anti-viral therapy against infectious diseases. Protease, a potential candidate in medicinal plants is not so for studied in leaves. So an attempt was made to determine the protease activity of various medicinal plants especially leaves. Buffers of different pH range were used for extraction of the leaves to identify ...

one of the most important predator-prey interactions is functional response which its type and parameters are affected by different factors including host plant characteristics. in this research, the influence of leaf surface on functional response and prey consumption rate of third instar larvae of the episyrphus balteatus (de geer, 1776) (diptera: syrphidae) to third instar nymphs of aphis go...

A new high-performance liquid chromatographic method with photodiode array detection was established for the determination of linalool in the plant Michelia alba. Linalool was extracted from the plant sample with the aid of ultrasound, and was analyzed on a Waters RP C(18) column (4.6 x 150 mm, 5 microm) using an acetonitrile and water (55:45, v/v) mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The...

rounded leaf tip. The leaf collar marks the junction of the leaf blade and sheath and appears when the leaf is fully developed. Each leaf sheath originates at its own node on the plant stalk. The sheath surrounds and strengthens the stalk (culm). The flag leaf is the last to emerge on the plant and is considerably smaller than the other leaves. The panicle (head) emerges from the flag leaf shea...