Plant Rhizomes  
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This project is funded in part by the National Science Foundation #0820346.

Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above the ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away - an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost the sense of something that lives and endures beneath the eternal flux. What we see is blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains. Carl Jung in "Memories, Dreams, Reflections".


List of plants proposed to be used in this investigation
Species Significance
Bermudagrass major weed, advanced monocot
Johnsongrass major weed, advanced monocot
Quack grass major weed, advanced monocot, rhizomes studied
Giant Salvinia major weed, primitive plant
Horsetail "scouring rush" major weed,primitive vascular plant
Ginger medicinal plant, advanced monocot
Turmeric medicinal plant, advanced monocot
Calamus medicinal plant, primitive monocot
Black cohosh medicinal plant, primitive dicot
Common monkey-flower important ecological model species, advanced dicot
Sacred lotus primitive dicot, rhizomes studied
Broad-leaf birdsfoot trefoil model legume, advanced dicot, rhizomes studied
Common Reed weed, advanced monocot
Giant Miscanthus potential biofuel crop, advanced monocot
Peppermint culinary and medicinal crop, advanced dicot
Aloe medicinal plant, monocot
Spatterdock model basal angiosperm, Nymphaeales
Dutchman's pipe model basal angiosperm, magnoliid
Red Rice close relative of cultivated Asian rice, advanced monocot

Last updated: 29 July 2009