Cordyceps, mind control and something definitely not for the tropical greenhouse!

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Alastair Culham

In the Guardian yesterday was the amazing story of a fungus that controls the behaviour of ants and the use of another fungus by the ants to control the first fungus.

Zombie-ant parasitic fungus kept in check by hyperparasitic fungus

Ant colonies are protected against brain-manipulating parasitic fungi by another fungus

I don’t plan any large ant colonies in the new tropical glasshouse but this story is well worth a read for general interest and that macabre thought of the battle between two kingdoms of life.

Posted in Evolution | Leave a comment

Groundwork stage 1 – heavy duty design

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Alastair Culham

A Karri railway sleeper in transit to the tropical glasshouse. Yusuf, Justin and Matthew use a trolley to wheel the sleeper along.

This gallery contains 3 photos.

At lunchtime today we started moving some of the railway sleepers to mark out the design of the tropical glasshouse planting areas on the ground. There is a world of difference between a sketch on paper and the reality of … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Leave a comment

Colombian Exchange

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Alastair Culham

The travel of Europeans to the Americas in the 15th century began a process that was to dramatically change agriculture and humanity around the world. The Colombian Exchange was a term coined by Alfred W. Crosby in 1972 to describe this dramatic meeting of two biotas that have been separate since the breakup of Gondwana. The Colombian Exchange in pictures
Many major crops over between continents including wheat and peas from Eurasia and maize and Potato from the Americas. There is a short fun quiz on the agricultural aspects of this exchange at Sporcle http://m.sporcle.com/games/lupin/columbian_exchange that will help you remember some of the species that moved. It doesn’t mention the movement of some serious diseases from the Americas to Europe!

Posted in Annual Fund, Crops, Interactive, Species | Leave a comment

Utricularia longifolia – a large flowered tropical bladderwort

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Alastair Culham

Protologue for Utricularia longifolia from the London Journal of Botany, Vol.1 p 545 (1842)

Utricularia longifolia Gardner was described from Pedra Bonita some 50 km north of Rio De Janeiro in the London Journal of Botany in 1842 in an article on the Flora of Brasil. The page describing the species can be seen online. It is a large flowered species growing on rocks among Sphagnum or rarely among grasses. Peter Taylor, in his monograph on Utricularia, describes the leaves as sometimes over 1 metre long and 4.5cm wide however I have never seen such large leaved specimens in cultivation. The material we are cultivating has leaves about 10-20cm long but does seem to flower fairly freely.

Flowers of Utricularia longifolia in the glasshouse at Reading University

Distribution for Utricularia longifolia based on data from CRIA.

The area of distribution of this species is in the Mata Atlantica (Atlantic Forest), one of the most endangered habitats in the world. Over 90% of this forest has been lost, and what is left is quite fragmented. The Mata Atlantica was used as a source of timber in the 1500s and later the land used for grazing beef cattle, coffee and sugar plantations. Urbanisation has further reduced the forest.

Utricularia longifolia is one of the easier tropical bladderworts to grow tolerating a range of different substrates. Currently it is growing in a mix of perlite, peat, seramis and sand to provide the free drainage the species likes. It is one of several Utricularia species we will be growing. The entire genus is able to capture animals using small suction traps. Most of the animals caught are small invertebrates that live in soil water films.

Posted in Annual Fund, Low Nutrient Environments, Species | Leave a comment

Low nutrient habitats

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Alastair Culham

I’m working through the plans for the low nutrient habitat display in the glasshouse. We already have a good range of epiphytic bromeliads and some epiphytic orchids. There are also a range of carnivorous plants to be grown here including Heliamphora, Utricularia and Nepenthes. I’m hoping also to add some ant plants – Myrmecophytes – including ant ferns that have a relationship with ant species that protect the plants from herbivore attack. To grow these plants means setting up a rainwater reservoir as our tap water has too much calcium and too many other nutrients for the plants to thrive. The growing media will a mixes of orchid bark, live Sphagnum (which we have been cultivating for many years) and Seramis granules.

Posted in Annual Fund, Low Nutrient Environments, Planning | Leave a comment

Cyperus papyrus – Papyrus

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Alastair Culham

We have been growing Cyperus papyrus for many years at Reading University and while the individual shoots grow tall the plants never seem very vigorous. The opportunity gained by digging the plant up and dividing it has allowed the option of trying differing watering regimes. So far the division that is growing best is in the deepest water tray and has sent up 8 new shoots.

One of the divisions of our Cyperus papyrus clump showing vigorous young growth

The division growing in conditions most like those we have been using – damp but not wet soil – appears to have died. Trawling through the internet there seems to be strong consensus that water should be at or just above soil level for optimal growth. The post at Plantzafrica is pretty comprehensive and has some nice images of the species in cultivation.

What surprises me is that many sites report no pests or only a single rust species as a problem for papyrus yet I have known our specimens to become badly infested with mealy bug.

Posted in Annual Fund, Species | 2 Comments

Clearing the tropical glasshouse continues

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Alastair Culham

Most of the old plantings have now been dug up and new plants propagated. Here we see six keen volunteers with a range of the plants in pots including a fine flowering orchid specimen. Now much of the old overgrown plant material has been removed the glasshouse staff are able to work on eradicating plant pests such as mealy bug and scale insect so that the glasshouse replaning will start in a clean environment in May 2012.

Six of the team with a young plant of sugar cane, flowering bromeliads and a fine flowering orchid

Posted in Annual Fund, Hands-on | 1 Comment

Tropical smallholding – what will we be growing?

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Alastair Culham

I’ve been in discussion with a range of people about the crops we should be growing in our global tropical small holding. There are some obvious species the we know we can grow and we already have: Banana (Musa cultivars), New Cocoyam (Xanthosoma violaceum), Taro (Colocasia esculenta), sugar cane (Saccharum spp.), Yam (Dioscorea spp.), guava (Psidium guajava), Strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum), coffee (Coffea spp.), black pepper (Piper nigrum), chilli pepper (Capsicum annuum), ginger (Zingiber officinale), lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) , star fruit (Averrhoa carambola), papaya (Carica papaya), pineapple (Ananas comosus), achiote (Bixa orellana), Pink banana (Musa velutina), Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatus), Arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea).

Crops we should add are: dry rice (Oryza sativa), cassava (Manihot esculenta), rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), oil palm (Elaeis spp.), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), peanuts (Arachis hypogaea).

Although Reading is a world centre for cocoa quarantine our tropical glasshouse is not kept warm enough to grow Cocoa but we have many plants just a few metres away in specialist growing facilities.

If there are major crops you think I have missed and will fit in a medium sized greenhouse do let me know. Coconuts are off the list we don’t have the roof height needed!

Posted in Annual Fund, Crops, Planning, Species | Leave a comment

The sleepers have arrived!

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Alastair Culham

After many weeks of research, discussion and negotiation we finally have our recycled, untreated hardwood railway sleepers to create the raised beds for drainage and landscaping in the greenhouse. Although the space seems small we needed 120 sleepers to do the job. In the end our supplier was Kilgraney ltd. who provided Karri sleepers at a price we could afford and even found a lorry with a crane to unload and that was narrow enough to fit through the entrance gates to the greenhouse. We now have the materials to start the practical layout of the greenhouse.

120 Karri railway sleepers arrive safely

Posted in Annual Fund, Hands-on | 1 Comment

Preparing compost for the raised beds

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Alastair Culham

Four people and two hours were needed to mix together a large pile of well rotted compost and a slightly smaller pile or horticultural grit. Luckily the weather was dry and not too hot for this long and tiring job. Thanks to Maria, Justin and Luke for their hard digging and to Kalman for his photography!

Maria, Luke and Justin mixing three tonnes of compost. This is just the start!

Posted in Annual Fund, Compost, Hands-on | Leave a comment

Tropical Biodiversity