A lot of the plants in YKK seem to be oddly large and healthy. The persimmon and the chestnut Alpha eat during her journey are several times larger than real ones, and they don’t seem to be special or noteworthy to Alpha or anyone else. There is Alpha’s super-sunflower, but given the normal seeds it produced and the way people came to see it, that was clearly something bizarre.
So why is this? The assumed global warming might provide a more favorable environment for plant life, but that was a really big chestnut. How big was the TREE?
- Fronzel
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Miracle-Gro?
- El Gonzo
Monday, May 16, 2005
There is a popular belief that global warming and ozone depletion will lead to giant plants. This would be caused by increased UV-B radiation. The idea is that the additional UV energy will enable enormous and rapid plant growth.
I apologize for not providing a link to these theories. Perhaps tomorrow.
- Loran Gayton
Monday, May 16, 2005
I think it's a genetic engineering thing.
I frequent greenhouses. We have stuff now that did not exist 10 years ago. The main evidence for this were the trees that served as street lamps. If we don't blow ourselves up, I think our grandchildren will see stuff like that .
- iwakurarara
Monday, May 16, 2005
Another example for engineered rather than natural origins for the large plants, the sunflower.
The giant sunflowers grow once, then die and don't come up again. Sounded like an engineered safeguard to me.
- tudza
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
I wonder about UV-B. If it could cause this kind of growth, wouldn't it be in regular use in artificial-light environments?
- El Gonzo
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
"The enhanced UV-B radiation generally has negative impacts on growth, yield and quality of some crop plants such as soybean, winter wheat, rice, sorghum, cotton and corn. The response varies with different plant species. Some are very sensitive and some are least sensitive. With enhanced UV-B radiation photosynthesis decreases, plant height and leaf area decrease, dry matter production, yield and quality reduces in many crops. In the study conducted by Tevini et al. (1991b) plant height, leaf area, and the dry weight of sunflower, corn, and rye seedlings were significantly reduced with enhanced UV-B radiation. "
http://uvb.nrel.colostate.edu/UVB/uvb_plant_intro.html
Rice!
- Loran Gayton
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
http://www.ozonecell.com/OzoneLayer.htm
"Effects on Terrestrial Plants
It is a known fact that the physiological and developmental processes of plants are affected by UV-B radiation. Scientists believe that an increase in UV-B levels would necessitate using more UV-B tolerant cultivar and breeding new tolerant ones in agriculture. In forests and grasslands increased UV-B radiation is likely to result in changes in species composition (mutation) thus altering the bio-diversity in different ecosystems. UV-B could also affect the plant community indirectly resulting in changes in plant form, secondary metabolism, etc. These changes can have important implications for plant competitive balance, plant pathogens and bio-geochemical cycles."
- Loran Gayton
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
The chestnut and the sunflower have a big difference... the sunflower's seeds were normal, but the chestnut's seeds (the actual nut) were not. This shows that the sunflower was modified so that it could never get loose and go wild like the chestnut and persimmon might have done. This would be done genetically to the sunflower by affecting the DNA of the plants which control size and shape, while leaving the reproduction processes unchanged.
I don't know if that's possible with today's technology. It seems easier to stimulate the growth with hormones (or the plant equivalent) to make them so large.
-k
- Kempis Curious
Thursday, June 2, 2005
High levels of CO2 have an amazing effect on plant growth, but the fruit size is probably caused by genetic engineering. My idea is that they were created to take advantage of higher CO2 levels...
- Z
Saturday, June 4, 2005
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