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This book systematically describes the green engineering, chemistry and manufacture of bio-based polymers and composites derived from plants. This book gives a thorough introduction to bio-based material resources, availability, sustainability, bio-based polymer formation, extraction and refining technologies, and the need for integrated research and multi-disciplinary working teams. It provides an in-depth description of adhesives, resins, plastics, and composites derived from plant oils, proteins, starches, and natural fibers in terms of structures, properties, manufacturing, and product performance. This is an excellent book for scientists, engineers, graduate students and industrial researchers in the field of bio-based materials.

Principles of Soil and Plant Water Relations combines biology and physics to show how water moves through the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum.This text explores the instrumentation and the methods used to measure the status of water in soil and plants.

An understanding of the mineral nutrition of plants is of fundamental importance in both basic and applied plant sciences. The Third Edition of this book retains the aim of the first in presenting the principles of mineral nutrition in the light of current advances. This volume retains the structure of the first edition, being divided into two parts: Nutritional Physiology and Soil-Plant Relationships. In Part I, more emphasis has been placed on root-shoot interactions, stress physiology, water relations, and functions of micronutrients. In view of the worldwide increasing interest in plant-soil interactions, Part II has been considerably altered and extended, particularly on the effects of external and interal factors on root growth and chapter 15 on the root-soil interface. The third edition will be invaluable to both advanced students and researchers.

A new species of the genus Drymonia (Gesneriaceae) from the Serranía de los Paraguas in the Cordillera Occidental from the Colombian Andes, is here described. The new species, Drymonia paraguensis Clavijo & Zuluaga, is distinguished by a rugose and grooved stem with lenticels, decurrent winged petioles that often fuse with the opposite petiole forming a wing around the node, blades drying dark maroon with four main lateral veins, ovate calyx lobes covering two thirds of the corolla with long attenuate apex, and laciniate corolla lobe margins. The species is only known from three localities in the Serranía de los Paraguas, in the departments of Chocó and Valle del Cauca, a biodiversity hotspot in the tropical Andes that harbors high richness of Gesneriaceae. Detailed morphological comparisons with similar species, digital photographs, an illustration, and a preliminary IUCN risk assessment are provided for the new species. Se describe una especie nueva del género Drymonia (Gesneriaceae) de la Serranía de los Paraguas, Cordillera Occidental de los Andes Colombianos. La especie nueva, Drymonia paraguensis Clavijo & Zuluaga, se distingue por los tallos rugosos y acanalados con lenticelas, peciolos alados decurrentes que a menudo se fusionan con el pecíolo opuesto formando un ala alrededor del nudo, láminas secando de color rojizo marrón con cuatro venas laterales principales, lóbulos del cáliz ovados que cubren dos tercios de la corola con un ápice largo y atenuado, y márgenes de lóbulos de la corola laciniados. Esta especie sólo se conoce de la Serranía de los Paraguas, en los departamentos de Chocó y Valle del Cauca, un centro de biodiversidad en los Andes tropicales que sostiene una gran riqueza de Gesneriaceae. Se presentan comparaciones morfológicas detalladas con especies similares, fotografías digitales, una ilustración y una evaluación preliminar de la categorización IUCN de la especie nueva.

Pycnophyllum macropetalum Matff. is a species originally described for the Andes of Chile which has also been collected in Bolivia and in Argentina. Presence of P. macropetalum in Argentina is based on a single sterile specimen collected in 1945. For this reason, and because P. macropetalum is morphologically very similar to P. molle, the species was excluded from the Argentinian Flora; however, recently, a population of P. macropetalum has been found in the province of Jujuy (Argentina). Therefore, the objective of this work is to describe and to illustrate this species, to provide environmental notes about the habitat where it was found, and to provide a map of the geographic distribution of the species for Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. Furthermore, based on molecular analyzes of the collected specimen, the morphological identification is corroborated, and the monophyly of the genus is confirmed. Finally, a dichotomous key is provided to differentiate the four Pycnophyllum species recorded in Argentina. Pycnophyllum macropetalum Matff. es una especie originalmente descrita para los Andes de Chile, que además se la ha coleccionado en Bolivia y ha sido citada para la Argentina sobre la base de un único ejemplar estéril coleccionado en 1945. Debido a esto, y al ser morfológicamente afín a P. molle, la especie fue excluida de la Flora Argentina; sin embargo, recientemente se ha localizado una población de P. macropetalum en la provincia de Jujuy (Argentina). Por este motivo, el objetivo de este trabajo es describir e ilustrar a dicha especie, proporcionar notas ambientales acerca del hábitat en donde se la encontró y proveer un mapa de distribución geográfica de la especie para la Argentina, Bolivia y Chile. Además, sobre la base de análisis moleculares del ejemplar coleccionado se corrobora la identificación morfológica y se confirma la monofilia del género. Por último, se proporciona una clave dicotómica para diferenciar las cuatro especies de Pycnophyllum registradas hasta el momento para la Argentina.

Recent botanical explorations carried out in the northwest of Argentina allowed us to find two new species of Apocynaceae, one of them, which belongs to the genus Petalostelma, was found in the Garrapatas Private Reserve, General Güemes, in the Mountain Chaco region, the other, of the genus Philibertia, was found in the Quebrada de Escoipe, Chicoana, in inter-Andean valleys. In this contribution both taxa are described and illustrated. Recientes exploraciones botánicas llevadas a cabo en el noroeste de la Argentina permitieron hallar dos especies nuevas de Apocynaceae, una de ellas, que pertenece al género Petalostelma, fue hallada en la Reserva Privada Garrapatas, Gral. Güemes, en la región del Chaco Serrano, la otra, del género Philibertia se halló en la Quebrada de Escoipe, Chicoana, en valles interandinos. En esta contribución se describen e ilustran ambos taxones.

Roadsides are preferential migration corridors for invasive plant species and can act as starting points for plant invasions into adjacent habitats. Rapid spread and interrupted distribution patterns of introduced plant species indicate long-distance dispersal along roads. The extent to which this process is due to species' migration along linear habitats or, alternatively, to seed transport by vehicles has not yet been tested systematically. We tested this by sampling seeds inside long motorway tunnels to exclude nontraffic dispersal. Vehicles transported large amounts of seeds. The annual seed rain caused by vehicles on the roadsides of five different tunnel lanes within three tunnels along a single urban motorway in Berlin, Germany, ranged from 635 to 1579 seeds/m²/year. Seeds of non-native species accounted for 50.0% of the 204 species and 54.4% of the total 11,818 seeds trapped inside the tunnels. Among the samples were 39 (19.1%) highly invasive species that exhibit detrimental effects on native biodiversity in some parts of the world. By comparing the flora in the tunnel with that adjacent to the tunnel entrances we confirmed long-distance dispersal events (>250 m) for 32.3% of the sampled species. Seed sources in a radius of 100 m around the entrances of the tunnels had no significant effect on species richness and species composition of seed samples from inside the tunnels, indicating a strong effect of long-distance dispersal by vehicles. Consistently, the species composition of the tunnel seeds was more similar to the regional roadside flora of Berlin than to the local flora around the tunnel entrances. Long-distance dispersal occurred significantly more frequently in seeds of non-native (mean share 38.5%) than native species (mean share 4.1%). Our results showed that long-distance dispersal by vehicles was a routine rather than an occasional mechanism. Dispersal of plants by vehicles will thus accelerate plant invasions and induce rapid changes in biodiversity patterns.

Woody plants such as trees have a significant economic and climatic influence on global economies and ecologies. This completely revised classic book is an up-to-date synthesis of the intensive research devoted to woody plants published in the second edition, with additional important aspects from the authors' previous book, Growth Control in Woody Plants. Intended primarily as a reference for researchers, the interdisciplinary nature of the book makes it useful to a broad range of scientists and researchers from agroforesters, agronomists, and arborists to plant pathologists and soil scientists. This third edition provides crutial updates to many chapters, including: responses of plants to elevated CO2; the process and regulation of cambial growth; photoinhibition and photoprotection of photosynthesis; nitrogen metabolism and internal recycling, and more. Revised chapters focus on emerging discoveries of the patterns and processes of woody plant physiology. * The only book to provide recommendations for the use of specific management practices and experimental procedures and equipment*Updated coverage of nearly all topics of interest to woody plant physiologists* Extensive revisions of chapters relating to key processes in growth, photosynthesis, and water relations* More than 500 new references * Examples of molecular-level evidence incorporated in discussion of the role of expansion proteins in plant growth; mechanism of ATP production by coupling factor in photosynthesis; the role of cellulose synthase in cell wall construction; structure-function relationships for aquaporin proteins

A new pseudostipule-bearing species of Aristolochia, A. stevechurchillii, is here described and illustrated, along with a key to identify all the species of the informal ´Pseudostipulosae´ group naturally occurring in Bolivia. The new species differs from its closely related species by the formation of two serial flowers per axil, the base of the utricle with six retrorse digitiform processes, and the perianth limb narrowly ovate, with acute apex. Along with A. andina and A. lozaniana, A. stevechurchillii is the third species of the genus endemic from mid-elevation (1600-2500 m) Tucumano-Bolivian forests of the departments of Cochabamba, Chuquisaca and Tarija (Bolivia). The new species is morphologically similar to A. melanoglossa, from northern Argentina, which provides additional evidence to floristic affinities previously proposed between the Tucumano-Bolivian forests and the Chaco vegetation. Se describe e ilustra aquí una nueva especie con pseudoestípulas de Aristolochia, A. stevechurchillii, junto con una clave para identificar todas las especies del grupo informal ‘Pseudostipulosae’ que ocurren naturalmente en Bolivia. La nueva especie difiere de sus especies cercanamente relacionadas por la formación de dos flores seriales por axila, la base del utrículo con seis procesos digitiformes retrorsos y el limbo del perianto angostamente ovado, con ápice agudo. Junto con A. andina y A. lozaniana, A. stevechurchillii es la tercera especie del género endémica de los bosques tucumano-bolivianos de altura media (1600-2500 m s.m.) de los departamentos de Cochabamba, Chuquisaca y Tarija (Bolivia). La nueva especie es morfológicamente similar a A. melanoglossa, del norte de Argentina, lo que aporta evidencia adicional a las afinidades florísticas propuestas previamente entre los bosques tucumano-bolivianos y la vegetación chaqueña.

Thrips (Thysanoptera) constitute one of the most important groups of pest insects in horticultural crops worldwide. In Honduras, knowledge about the species of thrips present in crops and associated plants is scarce. The objective of the study was to know the species of thrips present in sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), onion (Allium cepa L.), lettuce (Lactuca saliva L.), and the four main associated weeds in systems developed in agroecological contexts in El Zamorano (Honduras). Two surveys were carried out for crops and weeds between November 2020 and March 2021. Sampling was carried out randomly and in a non-systematic manner. The four weeds selected for their history of abundance and persistence inside and outside the horticultural plots were identified with taxonomic keys. The thrips collected in the field were taken to laboratory conditions to be macerated, dehydrated, clarified, and mount them on microslides to observe them under a microscope to identify them with taxonomic keys. The weeds sampled and identified included Amaranthus hybridus L., Amaranthus spinosus L., Melampodium divaricatum (Richard), and Portulaca oleracea L. 622 thrips were collected, and seven species were identified, including Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), Frankliniella bispinosa Morgan, Frankliniella insularis (Franklin), Frankliniella schultzei (Trybom), Microcephalothrips abdominalis (Crawford), Thrips tabaci Lindeman, and Haplothrips gowdeyi Franklin. In the horticultural system studied, F. occidentalis was the dominant species.