Bomb-Sniffing Flowers

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Xeramtheum Summerville, SC(Zone 8a) Jun 30, 2006

No kidding! I was looking up the chemistry of color in flowers and came across this article about scientists who are genetically engineering a plant whose flower will change color if it's near a land mine!

“Within three to six weeks from being sowed over land mine infested areas the small plant...will turn a warning red whenever close to a land mine.” Arabidopsis can be genetically sensitized to the nitrogen-dioxide (NO2) that leaches from buried explosives.

Here is the link for the whole article .. it's about half way down the page.

http://www.humanflowerproject.com/index.php/weblog/C29/

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podster Deep East Texas, TX(Zone 8a) Jul 01, 2006

X ~ Interesting. This is rather like the canary in the mines. If I recall, Spiderwort Tradescantia blooms will indicate nuclear contamination by blooms changing color.

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Xeramtheum Summerville, SC(Zone 8a) Jul 01, 2006

That's amazing! A lot of people don't stop to think about the symbiotic role that plants have with animal life.

That whole site, the human flower project is very interesting .. I spent about a half hour there reading the different articles .. The one on the flowers that were found in an Egyptian tomb was very interesting. I was astonished they weren't dust.

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