Starship Asterisk*

neufer wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 11:55 am

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

TheZuke! wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 1:19 pm
All "eyes" are on today's APOD.

The Russians should launch a Spudnik probe for further invegetation.

I wonder if their dictater would risome to the occasion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterids wrote:
<<In the APG IV system (2016) for the classification of flowering plants, the name asterids denotes a clade (a monophyletic group). Common examples include the forget-me-nots, nightshades (including potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and tobacco), the common sunflower, petunias, morning glory and sweet potato, coffee, lavender, lilac, olive, jasmine, honeysuckle, ash tree, teak, snapdragon, sesame, psyllium, garden sage, table herbs such as mint, basil, and rosemary, and rainforest trees such as Brazil nut. Most of the taxa belonging to this clade had been referred to the Asteridae in the Cronquist system (1981) and to the Sympetalae in earlier systems.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanaceae wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<The Solanaceae, or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that belong to the order Solanales, in the aster(o)id group. Many members of the family contain potent alkaloids but many—including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, bell and chili peppers—are used as food. The family The name may come from a perceived resemblance of certain solanaceous flowers to the sun and its rays. Alternatively, the name could originate from the Latin verb solare, meaning "to soothe", presumably referring to some of the psychoactive species of the family. The family is present on all continents except Antarctica with the greatest diversity found in South America and Central America. In 2017, scientists reported on their discovery and analysis of a fossil tomatillo found in the Patagonian region of Argentina, dated to 52 million years B.P. The finding has pushed back the earliest appearance of the plant family Solanaceae. As tomatillos likely developed later than other nightshades, this may mean that the Solanaceae may have first developed during the Mesozoic Era.>>

MarkBour wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:23 pm
And the Astair-Rogers clip was very nice, Art. Pretty bold to try tap-dancing on roller skates. I wonder how many out-takes they had. Anyway, I came up with 3 ways that the clip relates to asteroids and potatoes. Maybe one day they'll find a pair of asteroids that they feel like naming after Astair and Rogers, which would solidify the 3rd relationship.

jdgoeschl@yahoo.com wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:41 pm A potato is not a root. it is a modified stolon which is an underground stem.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 6:00 pm

jdgoeschl@yahoo.com wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:41 pm
A potato is not a root. it is a modified stolon which is an underground stem.

A potato is not a root. But it is a root vegetable.

Kind of like the way that Pluto isn't a planet, but is a dwarf planet, I guess.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuber wrote:

Tubers soon to be reduced to shriveled-up husks

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<<Tubers are enlarged structures in some plant species used as storage organs for nutrients. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season, and as a means of asexual reproduction. Stem tubers form thickened rhizomes (underground stems) or stolons (horizontal connections between organisms). Common plant species with stem tubers include potato and yam. The term originates from Latin tuber, meaning "lump, bump, swelling".

Potatoes are stem tubers. Enlarged stolons thicken to develop into storage organs. The tuber has all the parts of a normal stem, including nodes and internodes. The nodes are the eyes and each has a leaf scar. The nodes or eyes are arranged around the tuber in a spiral fashion beginning on the end opposite the attachment point to the stolon. The terminal bud is produced at the farthest point away from the stolon attachment and tubers thus show the same apical dominance as a normal stem. Internally, a tuber is filled with starch stored in enlarged parenchyma like cells. The inside of a tuber has the typical cell structures of any stem, including a pith, vascular zones, and a cortex.

A stem tuber forms from thickened rhizomes or stolons. The top sides of the tuber produce shoots that grow into typical stems and leaves and the under sides produce roots. They tend to form at the sides of the parent plant and are most often located near the soil surface. The underground stem tuber is normally a short-lived storage and regenerative organ developing from a shoot that branches off a mature plant. The offspring or new tubers are attached to a parent tuber or form at the end of a hypogeogenous (initiated below ground) rhizome. In the autumn the plant dies, except for the new offspring stem tubers which have one dominant bud, which in spring regrows a new shoot producing stems and leaves, in summer the tubers decay and new tubers begin to grow. Some plants also form smaller tubers and/or tubercules which act like seeds, producing small plants that resemble (in morphology and size) seedlings. Some stem tubers are long-lived, such as those of tuberous begonia, but many plants have tubers that survive only until the plants have fully leafed out, at which point the tuber is reduced to a shriveled-up husk.>>

• https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1204/1204.0492.pdf