'Fairy circles' stump botanists

The Australian ^ | 01apr04 | AFP

[aculeus]

ATTEMPTS by South African botanists to explain "fairy circles" in Namibia - bizarre outlines in the grass, somewhat akin to Britain's bogus crop circles - have drawn a complete blank, New Scientist reports.

The circles comprise innumerable discs of completely bare sandy soil, ranging from two to 10m across, found in grass on Namibia's coastal fringe. Over the past three decades, scientists have wrangled over how the shapes are formed.

There are three main theories: radioactive soil, which prevents plants from growing; toxic proteins left in the soil by a poisonous plant called the milkbush; and termite colonies that mop all the seeds, leaving nothing left to grow.

Each of these explanations has now been examined at length and then discarded, in a study by South African researchers.

Tests of soil samples taken from "fairy circles" found all to be negative for radioactivity, and desert plants were successfully grown in the lab on soil on which milkbushes had grown.

As for the termites, the team dug trenches up to two metres deep in and around the circles, but found no sign of these insects or their nests, present or past.

Lead scientist Gretel van Rooyen, a botanist at the University of Pretoria, is now exploring the theory that, somehow, toxic elements are deposited in the shape of the circle, making it impossible for plant life to get established there.

"But even if we find them, how they came there is the next problem," New Scientist quotes her as saying in next Saturday's issue.

For the moment, she admits wryly, "we're left with the fairies".

Fairy circles occur in a broken belt in the pro-Namib region, from southern Angola to the Orange River in South Africa and have become so famous that they are included in visitors' tours.

Britain's rash of crop circles in the 1980s were initially attributed by the superstitious to aliens or divine powers.

It was then discovered the circles were made by pranksters, who carefully flattened down wheat and other crops using sticks and chains. In Namibia's case, though, human intervention has clearly been ruled out.

AFP © The Australian

[battousai]

I wanted pictures, so went looking and found these:

http://www.kornkreise.de/fee.htm

[lilylangtree]

According to the company that weeds and feeds my yard, my fairy rings are nothing but a circle of queers playing ring around the roses.

Seriously, though, the company called it a fungus. Maybe that's what these fairy circles are--rotting underground fungus, perhaps?

[quantim]

Keepin' up with the Joneses'!

[battousai]

Here's a closer photo of one:

[martin_fierro]

Problem solved. Next!

[rogueleader]

Maybe we're under attack by alien children armed with the equivalent of pea shooters.

[tet68]

It was then discovered the circles were made by pranksters, who carefully flattened down wheat and other crops using sticks and chains.

Or so they would have us believe.

[mfulstone]

"Seriously, though, the company called it a fungus."

Yup, marasmius oreades (qv)

[chadwimc]

If you have a cat, you don't get fairy rings in your grass. Everyone knows cats can't tell the difference between a woodland nymph and a mouse. It works!

[Salamander]

Those scientists can't "Google"?......:)

http://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/ppdl/expert/Fairy_Rings.html

http://www.wonderquest.com/fairy-ring.htm

http://www.tandjenterprises.com/OrganicRepairFairyRings.htm

http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/FS03/FS0320.pdf

[Moonmad27]

With a title like this thread has, I just knew Richard Simmons was going to show up here eventually, but post #6 was faster than expected!

[Katya]

Wow...and to think my landscaper told me it was due to the dog peeing on the lawn.