December Links

Scott's Botanical Links Leigh's Links --December 1997

Past Links:

December 19, 1997 - Welcome to the Mistletoe Center

To really impress your kissing partner this holiday season you'll want want plenty of information on mistletoes of both the Loranthaceae and Viscaceae around the world, and the ecology and pathology of Arceuthobium (dwarf mistletoe) and Phoradendron in western North America. While only a few copies of the publication "Dwarf Mistletoes: Biology, Pathology, and Systematics" are still available for the asking, the site features also an Annotated Bibliography of published literature on these mystical, parasitic plants, which includes books, proceedings, and journal articles discussing some aspect mistletoe lore, use, biology, or management. Bone up on European folklore of Viscum album and be ready to party and explain a theory of mistletoe in the American doorway after a visit to this site by the U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Flagstaff Lab, Flagstaff, Arizona. (****) -LF

December 18, 1997 - The Biology Project

The Biology Project is an interactive online resource for learning biology, developed at The University of Arizona. A grant-funded learning project designed for biology students at the college and high school level, it is as well useful to medical students, physicians, science writers, and anyone with an interest. Teachers may utilize problems sets for reviews before exams, or assign activities related to labs; students may print and use graphics, properly cited, for reports. Subjects include Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Human Biology, Mendelian Genetics, Immunology, and Molecular Biology. (The plant kingdom is conspicuously absent except for sections on Photosynthesis). Project Team members are Darin Goss, Undergraduate intern, Bill Grimes, Professor of Biochemistry, Rick Hallick, Professor of Biochemistry, Madeleine Lapointe, Senior Instructional Specialist, Marcia Underwood, Graphic Designer, Denice Warren, Senior Instructional Specialist, and Ken Williams, Senior Systems Analyst / Technologist. Site by the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. (****) -LF

December 17, 1997 - The National Christmas Tree Association

Until the early 1950s, most family Christmas trees in America were cut from the forest. Now 98% of America's Christmas trees come from tree plantations. Projected sales figures for 1997 are near 200 million dollars, with a retail per foot cost ranging from $3.10-$5.65. At those prices, Christmas trees are a bargain considering they are pruned once a year and may take up to sixteen years to harvest. Find descriptions of sixteen types of trees used for the holiday season, information on tree selection and care of a tree, and the place nearest you to purchase one, at this site by the National Christmas Tree Association Internet Committee: Clarke J. Gernon, Sr., Shady Pond Tree Farm-Chairman; Dr. Craig R. McKinley, North Carolina State University; Dennis Tompkins, Editor of the "American Christmas Tree Journal;" Dr. Melvin R. Koelling, Michigan State University; and the National Christmas Tree Association, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.(****) -LF

December 16, 1997 - Daylilies Online

Those not content with roadside varieties of garden flowers will find this indexed-by- hybridizer collection of high resolution daylily jpegs and links to the important daylily websites to be a great start for tuning up the perennial border with easy to grow plants whose varieties are not so easy to keep straight! Check out the faces behind names like 'Radar Love,' 'Forest Lake Fringe Binge,' 'Moment of Passion,' and 'Pinup Pink.' The author has produced a good number of named plants himself, including 'Lullaby of Guns,' and reprints his article "Triploids are Fertile" from the Spring 1994 issue of The Daylily Journal. An extensive list of growers on the net and a link to the American Hemerocallis Society complete this site by Nick Chase, Worcester, Massachusetts. (****) -LF

December 15, 1997 - Metropolitan Plants

The scientists' pages at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden website document the flora within a fifty-mile radius of metropolitan New York with a goal of one day providing everything from the botanical to the horticultural aspects of the almost 3000 species growing there. Metropolitan Plants is inspiration for the city botanist, and most likely for a widening field of the discipline as time goes on. A traditional identification key is accompanied by the Metropolitan Plant Encyclopedia's photos, descriptions, and distribution maps. The Encyclopedia is easy to use with both family and scientific name/common name indexes. Seasoned intellects will find The Glossary quite up to par! Find also a checklist of plants searchable by county, a Bibliography with over 8000 references on metropolitan plants, the Calendar of events, green-links, and a BBG exclusive feature, Vanishing Plant, a series of portraits of rare and endangered plants. Site by the New York Metropolitan Flora Staff, Steven E. Clemants, Bryan Dutton, Steven Glenn, Linda Marschner, Kerry Barringer, and Michael P. Fleming, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, New York. (****) -LF

December 12, 1997 - NetBiochem

NetBiochem is designed for teaching and learning the fundamentals of a typical medical biochemistry course and is structured for customizing its use in lecture materials or other presentations. Animated or still graphics can be utilized in conjunction with outlines of various topics and all materials can be downloaded to any hard drive. A number of tables have been devised to organize the key points of Amino Acid Metabolism, Bioenergetics, Carbohydrate Metabolism, Lipid Metabolism, and Purine and Pyrimidine Metabolism into concise information packets for studying. This site is co-authored by James Baggott, Ph.D, Department of Biochemistry, MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine, Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Sharon E. Dennis, M.S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. (****) -LF

December 11, 1997 - Sylva W3

For the ardent admirer of Canada's majestic forests, a trip to Sylva W3 has special rewards. The forest biology site features sections on the why and wherefore of fall color, gymnosperm and angiosperm reproduction, and the anatomy of wood. The Virtual Forest project has spectacular slides of the countryside, cross-sectional slides of cell division and root cells, and a section on endo-mycorrhizae. While the author's link collection is mostly in English, the lingually- challenged reader will find an artistic use of graphics with outstanding photography transcends the barriers of language at this site by Jean-Robert Thibault, Faculté de foresterie et de géomatique, Université Laval, Québec, Canada. (****) -LF

December 10, 1997 - An annotated check-list of the genus Paphiopedilum

One of the most revised of all orchid genera, Paphiopedilum is recognized by the author as having 65 species and 15 varieties, in a checklist that notes synonymy in names used by growers and elsewhere in the trade. The pages are reprinted from the Orchid Digest (1995) vol 59: 115-139, 183, updated November 6, 1995. Entries have images and a descriptive note or two on distinguishing features. Get your lady's slippers straight and check out the links to biodiversity and conservation servers at this site by Harold Koopowitz , UCI Arboretum, University of California, Irvine, California. (****) -LF

December 9, 1997 - Fundamentals of Microbiology 101

For one hundred years the Biology/Botany Department at WSU has offered a microbiology course similar to Fundamentals, for non-science majors, and in its present form it emphasizes the need for scientific literacy amongst the general public as it affects the quality of life for all. The full course is online, with illustrations, hyperlinked text, links to glossaries needed for each section, microbe news links, and a substantial annotated list of other microbiology courses on the internet. The text is witty, interesting, and focused on essentials of sanitation and disease prevention, some of which in America are still obscured by social myth or plain ignorance. This is valuable information for all human beings, and vindication for hand-washing mothers everywhere who have long known about dirty money. Publication of these materials in a friendly, encouraging format where most anyone can feel at home is another outstanding success of this site by R.E. Hurlbert, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. (****) -LF

December 8, 1997 - Genetic Engineering at Air Academy High School

Mr. Lundberg has published a cool-site for his year-long course concerned with laboratory research in plant tissue culture and recombinant DNA, and, for extra coolness, all kinds of info from the history of to the purchase of genuine and fake amber. Taught through telecommunications to high schools throughout Colorado, the genetic engineering course outline for teachers provides full information on methods of plant tissue culture, how to perform the onion tissue/DNA isolation experiment, and how to spark enthusiasm for the experiments by assigning the book and viewing the film Jurassic Park. Subscribe to GENTALK, utilized by high school teachers and students to discuss technical and social issues of education and public policy, including laboratory protocols and bioethics. Also, follow some great links to news-making genetic occurrences at this site by Doug Lundberg, Air Academy High School, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado. (****) -LF

December 5, 1997 - Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO) Technical Network

ECHO'S Technical Bulletins and Development Notes are an outstanding resource for ethnobotany, based on more than twenty years experience working with peasant farmers and urban gardeners in Haiti. Study of nutritional leaves and veterinary use of plant parts has resulted in enhanced food production for Third World farmers, with technologies that must be skillfully introduced to people wholly dependent on their agricultural traditions. ECHO was instrumental in re-establishing the Haitian hog population which was exterminated in 1981 during an outbreak of African swine flu. A method of feeding the animals with leaves of Moringa and Leucaena enabled farmers to justify once again raising animals which otherwise compete with humans for food. The mission recruits inspired college graduates for one-year internships, who train at the ECHO farm in southwest Florida and proceed to Haiti for three months to work with Haitian students and farmers. Study options and visits to the farm can be arranged. Site by ECHO, Fort Meyers, Florida. (****) -LF

December 4, 1997 - Women of Science at the MBL

Essential reading for women in colleges of science today is an exhibit of the academic achievements and careers of women who were born between 1849 and 1930 and who studied at the Marine Biological Laboratory. The biographies behind these noble brows reveal a diversity of paths- from the career change of author Gertrude Stein who first considered becoming a scientist, to the tunicate tissue affinity studies of Sister Florence, with several instances of final success and recognition for one's work coming at a very late age. Hyperlink documents include letters, articles, photographs and poems from the lives of the women at this highly inspirational site assembled by Cherry Tong, the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts. (****) -LF

December 3, 1997 - Florida Plants Online

This being his birthday, the Link-of-the-Day is dedicated to my faithful plant companion and dear, sweet husband Joseph H. Fulghum who for twenty-five years has been inextricably embroiled in my vegetative capers and pursuits and is no doubt the muscle behind the woman I am in today's plant world. A gifted guitarist, Joey has blazed for me the trail through field and forest, transplanted inumerable native plants not being allowed to kill even one, gotten stuck in the marl off Alligator Alley more than once, been a one-man residential landscape crew, poinsettia and dish garden delivery man, fertilizer spreader, brick layer, truck driver, mangrove salesperson, and now manager of my new endeavor Florida Plants Online. I'm afraid I have also recruited our only offspring, Loren M. Fulghum into this one, who, while he's thinking about applying to Western Carolina University does our programming and graphic design as well as explain, "What is a computer?" to his doddering old mum. As for me, Leigh M. Fulghum, my mother put flowers in my crib every day, and I come from a long line of farmers. At the age of four I began transplanting Florida plants and you will find a lifetime of work and study directed to organizing internet resources at this site by the Fulghums and Plants Online, Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Florida. -LF

December 2, 1997 - Wildflowers of Rhode Island

The author/photographer has for years explored the diverse habitats of Rhode Island and now combines her personal enthusiasm for the state's wildflowers with a keen eye and talent for the camera, along with a purpose to promote wildflower awareness and preservation everywhere. She invites readers for a stroll along rocky shores and sandy beaches, through pine woods, hardwood forests, and freshwater wetlands, to appreciate the art of nature, its durability and fragility. Enjoy the flowers, links to wildflower conservation info and other wildflowers on the internet at this site by Barbara R. Money from Northwestern Rhode Island. (****) -LF

December 1, 1997 - Swords to Plowshares - A Brief History of Oak Ridge National Laboratory

"On first glance, there's little resemblance between the sprawling ORNL of today and the single-mission radiochemical pilot plant of World War II. A closer inspection and a longer view, though, show otherwise: An early scientific path led here, then branched this way and that; another converged from over yonder." So reads the summary of the politically shaped evolution of the Department of Energy laboratory, now managed by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.. Though formally initiated in July 1939 by physicists Eugene Wigner, Leo Szilard, and Albert Einstein's letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a turn of the visionary, John Hendrix, had slept with his ear to the ground on the future site of the lab forty years earlier and described the coming of the scientific complex in detail to the residents of the area. Read the fascinating tale of war, peace, the environmental cleanup years, and everything about ORNL and its staff on their homepage accessible through this site by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. (****) -LF