Friday Obscurity Blogging
Every now and then I read through published articles on the science of cactus, and then post my analysis of the quality of the science.
This is not one of those times.
Instead, I pass along this abstract from National Center for Biotechnology Information on Tissue Cultures of a Cactus.
Tissue Cultures of a Cactus.
Tissue cultures have been established from stems of Trichocereus spachianus (Riccob.) for the purpose of studying alkaloid biosynthesis in cactus tissue. On a basal inorganic medium supplemented with glucose, coconut milk, and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, three distinct types of callus are initiated. One is greenish, compact, and slow-growing; another is firm and yellowish, with a moderate growth rate; the third is very friable and rapid-growing. The growth habit remains constant for a given clone in successive subcultures.
PMID: 17749633 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]
Now, I don’t purport to understand this. In fact, I can state categorically that I have no idea what this is about. However, since I run the number 1 cactus blog on the world wide web I am contractually obligated to present information that even I don’t know a thing about, and never will. So here you go.
If anyone can abstract this abstract down to one clear sentence, I will pay you $5.99, or send along a very lovely Echinopsis.
