With cherry trees blooming from Jamaica Pond to the Public Gardens, Boston and the rest of New England experienced a reprieve from winter weather earlier this season. In fact, December 2006 was the warmest December on record in Boston, with the average monthly temperature reaching 6 degrees higher than normal. But what does this dramatic and sustained increase in temperatures mean for gardens and gardeners in the spring? Continue reading To Bloom or Not to Bloom: Environmental Sensing in Flowering Plants

Imagine for a minute that you are a zookeeper and that one day while inspecting your prized lizard exhibit you make a surprising discovery: your rare female Komodo dragon has produced a clutch of viable eggs despite having no contact with a male dragon! “What’s going on here?” you wonder. Well, the staff at two different European zoos encountered this scenario recently, and their findings have led to the discovery that the Komodo dragon, the largest of the world’s lizards, and an endangered species, is capable of reproducing asexually, making it the largest vertebrate animal known to reproduce in this way. Continue reading The Birds and the Bees….and the Komodo Dragons?