GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - why not one name for all-- stolon, rhizomes, runners; strawberries

Sean Houtman · 09-06-2008, 03:47 AM posted to sci.bio.botany

wrote in
:

Sean Houtman wrote:
wrote in news:594139d9-3345-4ad2-85eb-
:

So clover calls it stolon and brome grass calls it rhizomes and
strawberries call it runners.

Why not just call them all one name of rhizomes.

A horizontal stem that is above ground is called a stolon, if it is
below ground, it is a rhizome. Strawberry runners are stolons. Iris
rhizomes are stolons too. Bermuda grass grows both.

Confused yet?

Naming is not actual science. But let me ask you a question of
science.

Naming is important to science, it helps things stay consistent. Science
likes names.

If I had a wagon load of grass clippings to spread on a lawn as
fertilizer and if instead
I fed the grass clippings to a horse so it goes through the intestine
of a horse and
then spread the horse manure.

Does the horse intestine add nitrogen to the manure? And is there more
nitrogen in
horse manure than in grass clippings that decompose?

The nitrogen in the grass clippings are going to be in the form of
proteins. The horse that eats them is going to extract as much of that
protein as it can for its own metabolism and use. Some of that will be
returned to you as the urea in the horse's urine, which is somewhat
easier for plants to access, as there are fewer steps involved in
bacteria turning it into a form that the plants can use. But in the end,
there is less nitrogen in the grass after the horse has finished with it
than before.

I want to know the value of going through an animal intestine as
opposed to vegetation
that decomposes for fertilizer.

Going through the animal intestine benefits the animal. Some animals
grind the plant parts up quite a bit, but horses aren't one of them.

Has anyone quantified the nitrogen that comes from animal intestine
versus vegetation
decomposition.

That has been done as well. Animals extract more nitrogen from the
plants that they eat than they leave behind, until they die that is.

Sean

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