Pollination

A tiny bee may help save New Zealand's unusual exploding mistletoe by replacing the now-rare birds that used to be the only creatures that could pollinate it, scientists report in the Dec. 19 Nature. The lightweight bees have learned how to wrestle open the flowers of the mistletoe, which cannot open by themselves.

I've grown accustomed to the bugs that flit around my desk at home while I write. They're the buddies of my office mate, a puppy who naps straddling the doggy door, with his head propping open the plastic flap to outside. That's an open invitation to insects sweltering in our Valley backyard. Rio spends entire afternoons chasing down the flies that venture inside. But Rio didn't know what to make of the buzzing that greeted us on the hottest afternoon of the year last week.

Third-generation beekeeper Roscoe Hall spent the last year fretting over a disease that has inexplicably caused thousands of his industrious insects to abandon their colonies. Now entire hives are disappearing too. In the long, flat valley where the nation's almonds grow, bee thieves are striking hard, nabbing increasingly valuable hives from farmers' fields where bees are used to pollinate blossoming nut trees. A few weeks ago, 180 of Hall's hives were lifted over a period of days, a bit of banditry he estimates cost him nearly $70,000 in lost bees, pollination fees and honey production.

There goes a great Bullet, er, Wizard. Even if the whole world abandoned Gilbert Arenas, who had the misfortune to become perfectly inconvenient and vulnerable at the same time, there was one man who would have remembered all he meant to the Washington Wizards and the "legacy of Abe Pollin" the late owner's family keeps talking about. That man, of course, was Abe Pollin. If Pollin was different, it wasn't for being wildly successful as an NBA owner, because he wasn't.

I've grown accustomed to the bugs that flit around my desk at home while I write. They're the buddies of my office mate, a puppy who naps straddling the doggy door, with his head propping open the plastic flap to outside. That's an open invitation to insects sweltering in our Valley backyard. Rio spends entire afternoons chasing down the flies that venture inside. But Rio didn't know what to make of the buzzing that greeted us on the hottest afternoon of the year last week.

Harvard University researchers have discovered the remains of an extinct bee, perfectly preserved in amber, with a load of orchid pollen on its back -- some of the only direct evidence of pollination in the fossil record. The find, reported Thursday in the journal Nature, indicates that orchids arose 76 million to 84 million years ago, much earlier than most scientists had believed.

Male cycads, a plant group including firs and pines, actively participate in pollination by insects, researchers reported Friday in the journal Science. The cycads produce cones that open and emit a fragrance that attracts insects called thrips, which enter the cones and become covered with pollen. Then the male cycads heat up -- raising their temperature as much as 25 degrees -- and drive the thrips out.

The apple blossoms used to shake and shiver every spring. A loud, insistent buzz thrummed in Bob Barthel's ears when he was a boy, climbing in his father's orchard. He worried in those days about getting stung by the throngs of wild honeybees jostling for nectar in the flowers. Now that he is 39 and managing the farm, Barthel has sharply different concerns. The apple trees were still and silent this year, but he is far from pleased. Growing season has begun.

America's woodlands will soon be carpeted with delicate bunchberry dogwood flowers -- or maybe not so delicate. A team of scientists has reported that the blossoms explode open in less than 0.5 milliseconds and with 800 times the acceleration experienced by astronauts -- the fastest plant movement on record, making the snap of a Venus' flytrap appear glacial by comparison. Joan Edwards, professor of biology at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.

James Franco is an actor-turned-artist-turned-author-turned-actor-playing-an-artist-named-Franco in the soap opera "General Hospital" — who has made a movie, "Francophrenia," that documents the experience. He's about as "meta" as it gets. Now Franco has brought his knack for melding pop culture and fine art in unorthodox ways to a new exhibition for Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art. "Rebel," which opens Tuesday, is a high-concept group show that is a loose, interpretive ode to the 1955 James Dean film "Rebel Without a Cause.

There was no way that last shot could go in. No way the Washington Wizards could lose their first game without the only owner the franchise had known through 46 seasons. Louis Williams' three-pointer at the buzzer rimmed out, giving the Wizards an emotional 108-107 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night, hours after the death of owner Abe Pollin. "I guess Mr. P, he probably contested that last shot better than anybody," Wizards Coach Flip Saunders said. Down the hall, the opposing coach -- who worked for Pollin until last season -- uttered the same thought.

Somehow during the hot, long days of summer, our native flora punctuates the dry season with flashes of color. Horticulturists speculate that the reason is sex. Plants such as our native mallows, buckwheats, bush marigolds and hoary fuchsias manage their August shows of pink, yellow and oranges as a survival strategy. Undistracted by spring lilacs, pollinators such as hummingbirds and bees tend exclusively to them. Late blooms also allow these plants to drop their seeds closer to the arrival of autumn rains.

Third-generation beekeeper Roscoe Hall spent the last year fretting over a disease that has inexplicably caused thousands of his industrious insects to abandon their colonies. Now entire hives are disappearing too. In the long, flat valley where the nation's almonds grow, bee thieves are striking hard, nabbing increasingly valuable hives from farmers' fields where bees are used to pollinate blossoming nut trees. A few weeks ago, 180 of Hall's hives were lifted over a period of days, a bit of banditry he estimates cost him nearly $70,000 in lost bees, pollination fees and honey production.

Male cycads, a plant group including firs and pines, actively participate in pollination by insects, researchers reported Friday in the journal Science. The cycads produce cones that open and emit a fragrance that attracts insects called thrips, which enter the cones and become covered with pollen. Then the male cycads heat up -- raising their temperature as much as 25 degrees -- and drive the thrips out.

Harvard University researchers have discovered the remains of an extinct bee, perfectly preserved in amber, with a load of orchid pollen on its back -- some of the only direct evidence of pollination in the fossil record. The find, reported Thursday in the journal Nature, indicates that orchids arose 76 million to 84 million years ago, much earlier than most scientists had believed.

SOMETHING strange is happening to honeybees. They're vanishing. In parts of the country, bees are leaving hives and not returning. The phenomenon, dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder, has wiped out a quarter of the hives of commercial beekeepers since last summer, according to the American Beekeeping Federation, and set off a flurry of debate about how to stop it, whatever it is, and what it all means.

The cherimoya, a little-known fruit that looks like a green grapefruit and tastes like ice cream, is opening doors to the lucrative specialty fruit market for Ventura County growers. The fruit provides a good return, with an average 12-ounce piece selling for $3 to $5 in local markets and three to four times that in Japan. A very large, three-pound fruit--about the size of a large cantaloupe--can sell in Japan for $45.

AUTUMN hasn't truly arrived until the persimmon tree's foliage turns to sherbet shades, rivaling the best New England has to offer. By December, after the leaves have dropped, the tree bears its final spectacle: a canopy of limbs ornamented with nothing more than the season's last fruit. For those who discover these joys of Japanese persimmons, the question isn't whether to plant the tree, but rather, which one? 'Hachiya' or 'Fuyu'?

America's woodlands will soon be carpeted with delicate bunchberry dogwood flowers -- or maybe not so delicate. A team of scientists has reported that the blossoms explode open in less than 0.5 milliseconds and with 800 times the acceleration experienced by astronauts -- the fastest plant movement on record, making the snap of a Venus' flytrap appear glacial by comparison. Joan Edwards, professor of biology at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.

On a recent Tuesday, rock fans tuning in to a station on the far right of the radio dial were treated to music by the B-52s, Peaches, Ramones and Polyphonic Spree, but they weren't listening to longtime alternative stalwart KROQ. Rather, the station was a little further left on the dial, an alternative alt-rock upstart named Indie 103.1. It wasn't just dance fans who were shocked to hear rock music on what had been known as the "new party station."