ON A REMOTE ISLAND in Papua New Guinea, scientists have uncovered the world's only known orchid to produce flowers exclusively at night that die by the next morning.

World's first night-flowering orchid discovered

By:Tom Lawrie 

A unique orchid that produced flowers only for one night has been discovered in Papua New Guinea.

Bulbophyllum nocturnum, night-flowering orchid. (Credit: Andre Schuiteman)

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ON A REMOTE ISLAND in Papua New Guinea, scientists have uncovered the world's only known orchid to produce flowers exclusively at night that die by the next morning.
Of more than 25,000 species in the orchid, only a handful flower in the evening. The new orchid, dubbed Bulbophyllum nocturnum, is the first known one whose flowers shrivel and fall off before dawn breaks.
Botanist André Schuiteman from the Royal Botanic Gardens in the UK, one of the team who described the unique flower in the recent issue of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, hailed it as "another reminder that surprising discoveries can still be made."
"The discovery of Bulbophyllum nocturnum is important for various reasons," André says. "It demonstrates that there are still gaps in our knowledge of tropical orchids and poses interesting biological questions: Why did night flowering evolve in this particular species and not in other orchid groups? Why does this species flower at night?"

Nocturnal orchid relies on moth pollinators

Orchids typically flower during the day because they rely on pollination by insects that are active throughout daylight hours.
Night-time orchids get over this hurdle by turning to moths as pollinators. Since their flowers remain open during the day, they can attract insects at any time, simply coordinating their fragrance emissions when a pollinator is present.
Unlike its night-time orchid cousins, though, Bulbophyllum nocturnum can only attract insects that are active during the evening.
The scientists are still unsure as to why the plant has adopted this nocturnal habit, but André thinks the species takes advantage of an ecological niche, attracting nocturnal midges as pollinators.

Discovery of rare orchid

Orchid specialist Dr Ed de Vogel from Hortus Botanicus in the Netherlands, discovered the specimen in a logging area on the PNG island of New Britain during a research trip. 
After careful examination, he figured it to be part of the genus Bulbophyllum, which contains many unusual and rare species. Ed said he eagerly awaited the opening of its buds, but once they reached the size at which they should have opened, they withered.
He took the plant home to figure out what was happening and found the buds actually opened up after nightfall.

Orchid could mimic slime mould

Many other orchids employ a strategy of 'deceptive pollination', luring insects by seemingly offering something attractive to them. Some orchids mimic the female insects, or the smell of rotting meat.
Due to the short space of time in which Bulbophyllum nocturnum flowers, it "might be offering something to pollinators," says Peter Weston, of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, "unlike deceptively pollinated orchids, which don't offer tangible rewards."
In order to flower only for one night, the Bulbophyllum nocturnum "must have a good attraction" for its pollinators, he says.
André suspects the orchid has adapted some of its features to resemble midges' favourite food source: slime moulds.
André and Ed are planning a trip to Papua New Guinea, to look for more rare or undescribed orchid species. They are writing a book about the orchids of New Guinea, which will be published next year. 

Get your garden and landscape ready for the holidays

By Laurie Garretson

Here we are all ready in the first week of November. How does this month seem to get here so fast each year? Believe me, when I was a child, the months really didn't go by as fast as they do now. It took forever for my birthday, which is around Thanksgiving, and Christmas to get here. But anyway, here we are quickly getting into the busy holiday season.
This can also be a busy time of the year for gardeners. Getting lawns, vegetable gardens, house plants and flowerbeds ready for cold weather can keep us busy.
Fall is a great time to grow vegetables. How nice it would be to have your own fresh, homegrown veggies served during the holidays. Now is the time to plant lettuces, spinach, radishes, mustard and other greens. Don't forget about planting some of your favorite herbs. Cilantro, fennel, chives, parsley, dill and many other herbs can all be planted during the fall.
For many, the holidays are the time of year when seldom seen friends and relatives come to visit. This means we really like to spruce up our landscapes. There are many colorful annuals that can be planted to brighten up your flowerbeds, containers and window boxes. One of the most colorful and hardiest cold-weather annuals has to be pansies. Pansies come in many different colors. Ornamental cabbage and kale, dusty miller, snapdragons, marigolds, nasturtiums and Johnny jump ups are just some of the other cool-season plants you could also plant now.
If your lawn looks less than healthy after this past summer now is the time to feed it some of your organic fertilizer. This is also a good time to spread compost on the lawn. Rye grass seed can be broadcast over the lawn area to provide you with a green lawn through the cool season. Having a cool-weather rye grass lawn will also help to discourage weeds from that area. Rye grass dies off as the weather warms up in spring.
This is the time of year to divide and replant or give away your spring blooming perennials. This includes Shasta daisies, daylilies, cannas and iris.
To help with cold protection, and to also feed all types of things that grow in the soil, remember to regularly fertilize with liquid seaweed. Since temperatures are cooling down, it would be best to apply the seaweed on a weekly basis. Used regularly, seaweed actually toughens foliage. Tougher foliage is better able to handle cold temperatures, and it also deters all sucking types of insect pests. Seaweed is good stuff.
Until next time, let's try to garden with nature, not against it, and maybe all our weeds will become wildflowers.

Source

The Butchart Gardens

Benvenuto, Italian for 'welcome', is the name the Butcharts used for their original estate, now a National Historic Site of Canada, and still privately owned by family descendants. The Butchart Gardens offers 55 acres of wonderful floral display located in Greater Victoria on Vancouver Island. The family's commitment to horticulture and hospitality continues to this day.

Community gardens are targets for thieves

With everything from cucumbers to watermelons ripening in the open, the gardens are like a supermarket without doors, effectively free for the picking.

By David Abel, The Boston Globe

FREE FOOD: Theft from urban gardens peaks at this time of year, as the fruit and vegetables reach their final stages, sizable prizes waiting to be harvested before the first frost. (Photo: vicki moore/flickr)

William Anderson, like a growing number of urban farmers in Boston, doted on his small plot near Codman Square over the summer, sowing seeds, watering regularly, clearing weeds, and watching with pride as the sprouts slowly blossomed into turnips, bell peppers and other hearty vegetables.

Then, as he prepared to harvest the broad leaves of his collard greens, he was dismayed to discover about 15 of his plants decapitated, all the tasty leaves pilfered.

"It was just depressing to see,'' said Anderson, 69, who planned to share the fruits of his labor with friends. "I was hurt. I had nursed them, watched them grow, and someone took advantage.''

It is an increasingly familiar lament across the city, where there are some 3,500 plots in about 150 community gardens. With everything from cucumbers to watermelons ripening in the open, the gardens are something like a supermarket without doors, effectively free for the picking.

"It's a problem that has worsened with the economy,'' said Paul Sutton, coordinator for open space and director of urban wilds at the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, which oversees five community gardens. "I hear about people picking "tomatoes and squash in the middle of the night. It happens all the time.''

Theft from urban gardens peaks at this time of year, as the fruit and vegetables reach their final stages, sizable prizes waiting to be harvested before the first frost.

Veteran urban gardeners learn what not to plant and how to veil what they do grow. Valerie Burns — president of the Boston Natural Areas Network, a nonprofit that oversees more community gardens than any other organization in the city — has found that the bounty of mature eggplants and butternut squash are like bait for vegetable thieves.

After hers were swiped at a garden along the Southwest Corridor, she stopped planting them.

"You have to be philosophical about it if you garden in the city,'' she said, noting that a fellow urban farmer found six cabbages for sale at a bodega that he suspected were stolen from his plot. "You just have to hope that it's going to be food for someone who might really need it.''

Betsy Johnson, president of the South End/Lower Roxbury Open Space Land Trust and a board member of the American Community Gardening Association, said the bigger the fruit or vegetable, the more likely it is to be stolen. She said pumpkins and beefy tomatoes are more enticing than spinach or Swiss chard.

Her organization issues tips to urban gardeners that include avoiding growing the more tempting vegetables and fruits at the edge of gardens and veiling them in the thicker foliage of less popular plants. She and others counsel gardeners to harvest as soon as possible.

"It's a fact of life, but if it was so serious a problem, community gardens would have died out a long time ago,'' Johnson said. "Instead, they are thriving.''

The battered economy, the trend of growing food locally, and increased efforts by the city to turn foreclosed land into gardens have translated into a boom for city produce. This year, there are about 200 new community plots across the city, and urban gardeners now produce an estimated 500,000 pounds of food a year, including 100,000 pounds of zucchini and summer squash, 14,000 pounds of green beans, and 11,000 pounds of tomatoes, according to the Boston Natural Areas Network.

Johnson and others said some city residents do not understand that a community garden does not mean that anyone can partake. Others see them for their economic value.

Annie Anderson, coordinator of the 35 plots at the Savin & Maywood Streets Community Garden in Roxbury, said the locks and fences around her garden are no defense against those committed to poaching. She thinks much of the filching is done by fellow gardeners, some of whom see ripened fruit that they assume will die on the vine as theirs to take.

Then there are the more common culprits: the squirrels and raccoons. But they cannot be blamed for the larger thefts.

"We just look at the losses as if we're giving it away, which we would do anyway,'' Anderson said.

At the Nightingale Community Garden in Dorchester, which was refurbished and significantly expanded this year with more than 130 plots, Elnora Thompson said thefts had not been a problem until the group built a new gazebo, new beds, a shed, and cut trees and removed lots of weeds, making the garden more visible and more of a target.

Besides William Anderson's plot, she said, thieves hit three others this summer under the cover of night, and rather than helping themselves to a few tomatoes or collard green leaves, they essentially took or destroyed the entire plants.

"It was depressing,'' she said. "But what can you do to protect a community garden?''

She plans to install solar lights.

Source

Hawaiian Flower