From Marcel.Dicke@medew.ento.wau.nlWed Apr 17 14:57:36 1996 Date: 17 Apr 1996 13:00:30 GMT From: Marcel Dicke To: sustag-public@amani.ces.ncsu.edu Subject: Re: Indicator plants In article <4krbos$5u8@altrade.nijmegen.inter.nl.net>, f.vd.laan@inter.nl.net (Frits v/d Laan) says: > >I would like to get any information about plants that are known to >indicate at a early stage anything to do with there environment, >shortage or to much of nutrician N, P, K, Mg etc. or are sensitive for >or atract insects earlier than most plants. >If there are databases already existing or someone knows such planttypes >please mail them to me. >Any free data will be posted back to these groups when there's enough >data collected > >Frits v/d Laan >Organic horticulture With regard to attracting insects, there is enough evidence now that plants that are infested with herbivores attract carnivorous insects or mites. All plant species investigated so far have shown this ability. I am not sure that this is what you are looking for, but herbivore-infested plants may thus be used as indicator plants for carnivorous insects in the environment. Carnivores may discriminate between plants infested by different herbivore species. For more information see e.g. J. Plant Physiol. 143: 465-473 (1994). Marcel Dicke Wageningen Agricultural University Marcel.Dicke@medew.ento.wau.nl From lhess@msu.oscs.montana.eduWed Apr 17 14:59:22 1996 Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 16:21:59 GMT From: lhess@msu.oscs.montana.edu To: sustag-public@amani.ces.ncsu.edu Subject: Re: Indicator plants In article <4krbos$5u8@altrade.nijmegen.inter.nl.net>, f.vd.laan@inter.nl.net (Frits v/d Laan) writes: >I would like to get any information about plants that are known to >indicate at a early stage anything to do with there environment, >shortage or to much of nutrician N, P, K, Mg etc. or are sensitive for >or atract insects earlier than most plants. >If there are databases already existing or someone knows such planttypes >please mail them to me. >Any free data will be posted back to these groups when there's enough >data collected > >Frits v/d Laan >Organic horticulture Sir: Agronomically speaking, there are a couple crops I can think of which tend to indicate nutritional deficiencies. 1. Pretty much anything in the Fabaceae (peas, beans, alfalfa, etc.) and iron. This is because of the root nodulation complex, which requires a form of hemoglobin, and thus iron. 2. Sugarbeets and boron. Boron is regularly top- dressed to sugarbeet fields in modern agriculture. There are others. Lots of them. Lidia Hess-- College of Agriculture-- Montana State University at Bozeman-- USA