...ars sine scientia nihil est...

I'm trying to put together a presentation about my project, but the catch is that I'm presenting to non-botanists, and probably non-biologists for that matter. (I know the chemistry students don't understand most of the stuff I say!)

So, can some people help out with the poll below? I'm trying to figure out at what level my introduction to plant nutrition should start at.

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B. Frank "Über die auf Wurzelsymbiose beruhende Ernährung gewisser Bäume durch unterirdische Pilze." Berichte der Deutchen Botanischen Gesellschaft, Band III, 128 - 145 (1885)
http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/fo33/frank/frank.htm

Edit:
A.P. Kelley, Mycotrophy in plants; lectures on the biology of mycorrhizae and related structures (1950)
http://www.archive.org/details/mycotrophyinplan00kell

Herbals, their origin and evolutiion; a chapter in the history of botany, 1470-1670 (1912)
Agnes Arber
http://www.archive.org/details/herbalstheirorig00arbeuoft
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There is a weird bubble-y looking thing growing out of the middle of my sundew. It might be that it's going to have a crack at flowering, since it looks awfully like a raceme.

So, for people who haven't met my sundew (who, except for teffanias' rosemary is the longest-lived plant I've owned) have some photos.
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S/he hasn't got a name yet, any suggestions as to what I should call my Drosera sp.?

For the hoardes of history-loving botanists out there:
A Dictionary of Old English Plant Names!

This is exciting, and really really cool.

A Biblical-aged palm seed has been successfully germinated and grown for three years, in a rather unassuming pot and is now being poked by researchers.

I gather this is a part of the Middle Eastern Medicinal Plant Project, and I hope that the figure out all the tricky bits with what gender it is, and how to get it to bear fruit.

From the OED entry on water-lily( Read more... )
I should write this up a bit more neatly, but it is interesting. :)

I'm looking at waterlilies, because I want to know if they were called lotus' or lily before 1600.

Let's start by looking at three lily/lotus flowers known in Europe:
Nuphar lutea (L.) Sm., the Yellow Waterlily
Nymphaea alba L., European White Waterlily
and
Nymphaea caerulea Sav., The Egyptian Blue Lily, or Sacred Lotus.

Nuphar lutea has been found in archaeology digs, so it was definitely around.

Nymphaea alba is mentioned by Culpeper, is a native of England, it was known in medieval times and seemingly used for cures relating to sex, but by what name I don't know. Maybe nymfeta.