Jamie A

I'd like to disable the touchscreen feature, so that it doesn't move when I point at things on the screen, or wipe off fluff or something with my finger.

Hi there. So, I am familiar with what a sport is and such, but I hadn't conceived of how they would be 'classified' - especially if they arose from a natural species rather than a hybrid/cultivar etc.

E.g. I've just found out that Streptocarpus 'Falling Stars' is a sport of the natural species Streptocarpus johannis.

I had always presumed that Falling Stars was just a normal hybrid, formed by crossing two plants together sexually.

So now I'm wondering, is Falling Stars still considered to be S. johannis? I.e. just a different form of the same species? Or something else?

How are sports of natural species classified?

http://postimg.org/image/3n0lkttsd/

Photographed at the Wellington Botanic Garden's greenhouse. In a hanging pot, trailing. Pinky-purple, four-petalled flowers. Flowering now in our late winter-early spring weird season.

Specifically, how does Arisaema exappendiculatum grow? From a rhizome or a bulb?

A friend gave me a pot supposedly containing a died-down (its winter here in NZ) A. exappendiculatum. So I bucked it out to have a look and replant. I found a long, pencil thickness, root-like thing with other roots coming off it. But I also found some roundish little bulbs.

Hi there. My tank is 40L, freshwater, and heated to about 23 degrees Celsius, with a few fish in it. It is one of those hooded ones where the biological filter system is all built in. I would prefer to turn the filter off at night, because the tank is in my bedroom, but leave the heater on.

Am I able to do this, without detriment to the fish?

The considerations I can think of are:

- Temperature gradient/mixing - would the warmer water rising to top/cooler water sinking to bottom over night cause any problems? Can the fish choose a comfortable spot?

- Oxygen - will there be enough oxygen without filter action? The entire surface of the water is open to air.

- Biological filter - will the bacteria remain moist enough to survive the night?

Hi there, does anyone know what this is? It's growing outdoors in Wellington, New Zealand, in a fairly open location. In berry now - our early winter.

http://postimg.org/image/4mgip7qtj/

Where:

a = 1.8b

a = a whole number

b = a whole number

What is x, what is a, what is b?

I know the answer here is 15 = 1 + 9 + 5, but how do you work this out on paper? Without using sequential trial and error to find the whole numbers?

I'm 32, my friend is 45. Neither of us and done this kind of maths for decades!

I accidently snipped off the stigma of a Streptocarpus flower I was trying to pollinate - but the style and ovary was still in tact. I was annoyed at myself for being careless, but I dabbed some pollen on the end of the style, just in case.

I know that, physically, there is no reason why a pollen tube can't grow down the snipped stigma. They "sprout" even in fluid under a microscope. But I suspect that the stigma has some kind of hormonal or secretory trick that helps things along.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

Thank you.

In the process of making a cake, I pureed some blackberries in syrup from a can, and it was the usual dark purple colour you would expect. Then, I warmed the puree and added baking soda - it immediately turned black!

Why did this happen? I'm presuming that the soda, or the change in pH somehow changed the anthocyanin pigments in the berries - but how and to what?

[duplicated from 'Botany' section]

Hi guys

Years ago, I came across an Impatiens with, on the same flower, some petals that were white, and some that were pinkish/red. Not all the flowers were the same, it seemed to be a somewhat random allocation of colour to petal. Unfortunately, over the years, I lost this plant.

Does anyone know what causes this, what the variety might be called, or, if I'm very lucky, where to get some more?

I live in New Zealand.

i.e. What cools down faster, warmer water or colder water?

Given the same conditions...

I have only come across this phenomenon this year.

I cannot figure out why people would ferment tomatoes (to harvest seed) at all, let alone with all the fuss it needs.

I think it's an American thing?

i.e. common fennel aka sweet fennel.

If it is sweet, would you use it in baking?

Hi guys, I'm after some seeds or small plants of either the annual or perennial stinging nettle. I live in Wellington.

A friend and I are having a debate about armpit hair length. Is longer than average armpit hair on a man unattractive?

Also, are the colours (e.g. red, purple, black, chocolate) due to anthocyanin production?

Who was Woodstock's Mori Gansworth (sp?) and who did he marry? What did he do after Woodstock? What is he known for?

I'm just interested because his character appeared in an episode of StarTrek Voyager.