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Like most of us, trees don't want to be eaten alive. To prevent this gruesome fate, they developed extremely tough cell walls around 400 million years ago. For millions of years, nothing could break down lignin, the strongest substance in those cell walls.

Occasionally plants show up in our office for identification and no one in the office knows what it is. So it's sent off to to others who might know. This was the case of a perennial amaranth, also called goosefoot for some reason. The is Chenopodium californicum, also know as Blitum californicum.

For centuries, the prevailing science has indicated that all of the nitrogen on Earth available to plants comes from the atmosphere. But a study from the University of California, Davis, indicates that more than a quarter comes from Earth's bedrock.

Several Florida blueberry growers have recently reported flower bud damage and corresponding fruit loss, in some cases up to 50% on certain affected cultivars.

This is the summary of a recent article by Allen Morris, a retired University of Florida Extension Economist Even when a cure for HLB is implemented, unless something is done to stop the decline in orange juice consumption, the citrus-growing part of the industry will become too small to support the...