25-04-2010, 12:28 PM
(This post was last modified: 25-04-2010, 12:34 PM by Helen Reyes.)
I'm sure Antarctica has something deadly lurking somewhere. What was that horror film set down there where the dogs carried the alien entity to the next camp?
If this fungus is truly associated with eucalyptus, it would be natural to seek for an anti-fungal agent in the volatile oils, alkaloids or other chemical agents used by the different eucalyptus species to ward it off. Plants have had a lot longer to develop such agents than we have. The idea it comes from eucalyptus is a nice cover story if its artificially enhanced, because the fake environmental movements embrace the concept of "dangerous invasive exotics" despite all scientific evidence to the contrary; people destroy habitat, exotic plant species don't.
Eucalypti get a bad rap especially in California, where they were imported over a hundred years ago to provide cheap firewood and timber. North of the Oregon border they really don't grow very well at all, except for a few species from the mountains and Tasmania, ghost gums, which still require extensive coddling.
I can't remember if it was UBC or Fraser or some private corporation, but there was an experimental planting of hardy bananas in Stanley Park in Vancouver a few years ago. It would be odd for a new fungus to get its start on a eucalypt on Vancouver Island, my sense is there's a lack of density in the eucalypt population there, outside Butchart Gardens near Victoria. I guess we can't ask plant pathogen specialist ben Moshe because no one knows where he is now.
If this fungus is truly associated with eucalyptus, it would be natural to seek for an anti-fungal agent in the volatile oils, alkaloids or other chemical agents used by the different eucalyptus species to ward it off. Plants have had a lot longer to develop such agents than we have. The idea it comes from eucalyptus is a nice cover story if its artificially enhanced, because the fake environmental movements embrace the concept of "dangerous invasive exotics" despite all scientific evidence to the contrary; people destroy habitat, exotic plant species don't.
Eucalypti get a bad rap especially in California, where they were imported over a hundred years ago to provide cheap firewood and timber. North of the Oregon border they really don't grow very well at all, except for a few species from the mountains and Tasmania, ghost gums, which still require extensive coddling.
I can't remember if it was UBC or Fraser or some private corporation, but there was an experimental planting of hardy bananas in Stanley Park in Vancouver a few years ago. It would be odd for a new fungus to get its start on a eucalypt on Vancouver Island, my sense is there's a lack of density in the eucalypt population there, outside Butchart Gardens near Victoria. I guess we can't ask plant pathogen specialist ben Moshe because no one knows where he is now.