Subject: Indicator plants

From: [email-masked] (Frits v/d Laan)
Date: 14 Apr 1996 17:14:04 GMT

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

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From: [email-masked] (m.lee)
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 02:43:00 GMT

Frits v/d Laan ([email-masked]) wrote:
: 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

I have books at home - I think one of them is called Hunger signs in 
crops.  I'll look this weekend.

ml

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From: [email-masked] (Mark Thorson)
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 00:34:27 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
>or atract insects earlier than most plants.

Lichens are indicators of air pollution.  Unlike vascular plants,
they don't have any way to get rid of toxins, so they are
particularly sensitive to environmental pollution.

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From: martin adler <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 14:34:20 +0200

> particularly sensitive to environmental pollution.

some (epiphytic) mosses are as well. e.g. (in central europe) most 
orthotrichum spec. tend to disappear with increasing air pollution (
or over-nutrition), a few like o.diaphanum tend to profit from this as 
long as the changes are not too severe.

concerning lichens, there are a few that are rather resistant and may
profit from environmental changes, such as xanthoria parietina or 
lecanora muralis.

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From: [email-masked] (Kenneth Nilsson)
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 14:57:00 +0100

In article <[email-masked]>,
[email-masked] (Mark Thorson) wrote:

>So you mean, if there are Lichens (is there only one kind?/ Is Liver Wart alichen?) the air is clean?

..........................................
Visit my Fuchsia homepage at
http://www.klippo.se/nilsson/home.html
Kenneth
..........................................

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From: [email-masked] (m.lee)
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 18:37:11 GMT

: Frits v/d Laan
: Organic horticulture

I ran searches in the University of California Libraries catalog MELVYL 
on "deficiencies in plants" and "plant indicators" which I will email you 
as attachments.

ml

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From: [email-masked] (Jari Oksanen)
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 13:36:41

In article <[email-masked]> martin adler <[email-masked]> writes:
>From: martin adler <[email-masked]>
>Subject: Re: Indicator plants
>Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 14:34:20 +0200

>> particularly sensitive to environmental pollution.
Lichens are sensitive to some pollutants, but not to all. For instance, it is 
easy to find plants which are more sensitive to ozone. Lichens are traditional 
indicators of sulphur dioxide pollution, in particular. Traditionally they 
were used only in worst cases, where the complete absence of some species 
indicated really dirty air. They may not be as effective in finding small 
differences in air quality with cleaner air.

I'm not sure that the mechanism suggested above is the reason behind lichen 
sensititivity. They have within-cell detoxification mechanisms just as well as 
other fungi and algae. On the other hand, they are very good catchers of dry 
and wet deposition, and the "symbiotic" balance between fungus and alga is 
easily de-stabilized.

>profit from environmental changes, such as xanthoria parietina or 

If an environmental variable has an effect on the abundance or condition of a 
plant species, then the abundance or condition of that plant species can be 
used as an indicator of that environmental variable. That means, all plants 
are indicator plants. The problem is to find their indicator values (I can 
imagine two meanings for "indicator value", but both are research problems). 

Original poster asked about "indicator" plants used in mythical agriculture. I 
won't bother her /him with my response, but I removed the alt.groups.
--- Jari Oksanen Tromssa, Ruija / Romsa, Norga / Tromsø, Norge

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From: [email-masked] (Marcel Dicke)
Date: 17 Apr 1996 13:00:30 GMT

>Any free data will be posted back to these groups when there's enough

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
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 16:21:59 GMT

>Any free data will be posted back to these groups when there's enough

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

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From: martin adler <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 17:21:55 +0200

On Wed, 17 Apr 1996, Jari Oksanen wrote:

> plant species, then the abundance or condition of that plant species 
 
 or of species competing with that or depending on that particular species
 (synecology is a complex field with much left to do...)

  can be 
> imagine two meanings for "indicator value", but both are research problems). 
 
martin adler

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From: [email-masked] (JONES)
Date: 15 Apr 1996 16:32:44 GMT

I remember reading somewhere about types of plants which indicate sources 
of water are near by - like elderberry indicates water within 15 ft (I 
think).  Seems like this was from an article on where to dig wells - but 
it's been a few years since I read this.

: 
: Frits v/d Laan
: Organic horticulture
-- 
Robin

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From: Terry Norman <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 20:14:42 -0500

> it's been a few years since I read this.

Robin, 
  I love elderberries, but then am I to assume that seaweed means one is 
a tad too close to the water? <BSEG>  Just joshin', killing time waiting 
for spring. Things are looking up for this weekend.
-- 
...Terry (Da Wiz-z-z) Batavia, IL (Zone 5)
   (Snow is just another 4 letter word))

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From: [email-masked] (Seeps)
Date: 17 Apr 1996 22:18:55 -0400

It seems that most plants (if not all) could be considered indicators of
"anything to do with their environment."  It might be helpful and more
manageable to pick one environmental gradient and attempt to compile a
list of indicator plants for that one feature.  

For wetland plants in Illinois, a list has been compiled categorizing
these plants be their likelihood of being found in a wetland.  The scale
ranges from UPL (upland: plant rarely occurs in a wetland) to OBL
(obligate: plant rarely occurs outside a wetland).  The Floristic Quality
Assessment was developed by John Taft et al. at the Illinois Natural
History Survey located at the University of Illinois in Champaign,
Illinois.  

Christina Bolas
Wetland Ecologist
Illinois Natural History Survey

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From: [email-masked] (BRateaver)
Date: 19 Apr 1996 05:13:15 -0400

The mining people are aware of indicator plants, since the vegetation can
say: there is gold there,   or  nickel there,  etc.  So the Colorado
School of Mines may have something on this.

B. Rateaver

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From: [email-masked] (BRateaver)
Date: 19 Apr 1996 05:18:53 -0400

That is an old book, Hunger Signs, hard to find. Wish I had a copy. I did
pay for one, along with moneh sent to publisher for copies to send to
Australia, and they sent all the copies there, so I never got mine.

But there is a new one: Diagnosis of Mineral Disorders in Plants, vol 1
and 2, maybe there are more volumes now.

But I already combed these books for data for my book, as I already told
you, Organic Method Primer UPDATE, in which I have a good section on
indicator/accumulator plants, garnered from a variety of publications.

Did you see the response here from the authority on grass farming, a
frequent writer for Stockman Grass Farmer?  He said he was writing a book,
and his listing of indicators is longer than mine.

You also did not say in what country you live--maybe that might help us.

I learned  at UC, as a student, in the course on learning about soil from
airplane trips. NASA does that sort of photography all the time, maybe
they would help you, especially if you are in a foreign country.  I know
planes are used to fly over territory where the vegetation proves certain
minerals are there.

B. Rateaver

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From: [email-masked] (Sarah C. Goslee)
Date: 20 Apr 1996 13:30:26 GMT

I'm afraid I missed the original question, so this may not be relevant.

There's a book I have found useful in the area of indicator geobotany, a 
translation from a Russian symposium in the 1960s. It seems to be fairly 
readily available in university libraries.

Chikichev, A. 1965. Plant indicators of soils, rocks, and subsurface waters.
Conference on indicator geobotany, Moscow, 1961.

--
Sarah C. Goslee                      "When I get a little money, I buy books;
School of the Environment             if there is any left over, I buy food
Duke University                       and clothing."
[email-masked]                     --Erasmus
http://www.duke.edu/~scg3/home.html

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From: [email-masked] (BRateaver)
Date: 4 Sep 1996 01:23:13 -0400

Hunger Signs in Crops is an old book, still very good photos in color. The
British have a new set of volumes, pics not quite so clear.

But both these show deficiencies in plants, not indicator or accumulator
plants. That is why I went to so much trouble to track down data on
indicators for the Primer UPDATE

B. Rateaver