Posted on 08/10/2016 10:15:05 AM PDT by JimSEA
New fossil finds from China push back the origins of deep soils by 20 million years, new research has uncovered.
This is a key part of the stepwise conquest of the land and transformation of the continents, researchers from the universities of Peking and Bristol have discovered.
One of the greatest transitions in Earth history was the greening of the land. Up to 450 million years ago, there was no life outside water, and the land surface was a rocky landscape. Without plants there were no soils, and the rocky landscape eroded fast. Then the first tiny plants crept out of the water, and provided a green fringe. However, they could not venture far from the edge of the water.
By 390 million years ago, in the Middle Devonian, the first trees emerged. These early trees were only a few metres tall, but they could survive in soils away from the edges of rivers and streams. Importantly, they sent roots deep into the rocks, and helped develop thick soils, and the landscapes began to stabilize.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
That was a neat article.
The most recent example of plant colonization (albeit man-forced) is the Kudzu plant.
Originally brought in to help control soil erosion, the plant took to the task ardently.
Hardly a state road or country road in my state you can’t see it. It is a bitch to get rid of.
I have been working for years on a Kudzu/cannabis hybrid.
Still have a few bugs to work out yet.
Dude! That sh!t will GROW inside your lungs, man! It’ll choke you out to Nirvana and you can’t come back!
You reminded me of iceplant along California’s freeways, that, it turns out, actually benefit from the car exhaust that blankets them.
I love to garden but do not have a green thumb. Should I try kudzu?
I even planted an invasive bamboo in my yard, and it has failed at invading thus far.
You remind me of some kind of tree out in California they have a problem with. Something about roots you can’t kill...I remember seeing a program about a home nearly destroyed by the growth of this underground nightmare. It was creepy, frankly. I don’t remember what it was but is was a something awful.....
I look on Kudzu like that.
So far I have a cannabis that grows like a weed
but it doesn’t get you high, and a kudzu that
seems to defy gravity.
Funny you say that.
Folks in CO have successfully bred pot and hemp to create a type of pot with zero THC.
Why they’d do that rather than, say, crossing tobacco with a tomato, I do not know.
Was it eucalyptus?
Eucalyptus was implicated in the Oakland Hills Fire that destroyed thousands of homes.
It burned so hot it turned some of the sidewalks to a gritty dust.
They come from Australia, and like most things from Australia they seemed like a good idea but actually were not.
I posit that most cannabis should grow like a weed and if it doesn’t, it is failing at a fundamental part of its’ mission statement.
I have no idea really, but it’s roots tore up the driveway, house foundations and the entire property and there wasn’t any way they could kill it to stop it from growing......
The only way to kill it would be to excavate the entire property several feet down and even then no one would assure them the problem wouldn’t come back. Everlasting roots or something, IIRC..
Kudzu will grow as long as you mulch it with cement blocks.
Folks in CO have successfully bred pot and hemp to create a type of pot with zero THC.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.