| 1319044 |
sweetpotato |
Ipomoea batatas |
New attractive sweet potato cultivar Ruddy (left) is sweet and moist and resists insects unlike the leading U.S. cultivar Beauregard. |
| 1319088 |
pennycress |
Thlaspi spp. |
Hyperaccumulators like Thlaspi possess genes that regulate the amount of metals taken up from the soil by roots and deposited at other locations within the plant.. |
| 1321003 |
soybean |
Glycine max |
Shading from soybeans leaves decreases the percentage of oleic acid in the seeds in relation to other fatty acids. |
| 1318075 |
soybean |
Glycine max |
|
| 1318074 |
soybean |
Glycine max |
|
| 1317055 |
giant salvinia |
Salvinia molesta |
Giant salvinia is a fast-growing fern that can clog ponds and lakes. Forming mats up to 2 feet thick, the plant gobbles up oxygen and blocks sunlight needed by other water dwellers. |
| 1321026 |
common bean |
Phaseolus vulgaris |
|
| 1319049 |
hairy vetch |
Vicia villosa |
Geneticist Thomas Devine inspects flowering of hairy vetch plants. Early-flowering hairy vetch is a more useful winter cover crop for farmers. |
| 1319013 |
strawberry |
Fragaria spp. |
Small-fruit geneticist Stan Hokanson displays several elite wild strawberries collected by collaborators. The small, highly aromatic berries (left) are from plants collected in Alberta, Canada. The larger berries are from a type collected in Alaska that may prove to be cold hardy. |
| 1318027 |
bird-of-paradise |
Strelitzia reginae |
Flower of bird-of-paradise |
| 1318042 |
strawberry |
Fragaria spp. |
Ranchers in California set aside portions of their farms for collaborative studies on methyl bromide alternatives for strawberries. Carolee Bull (right) and Adria Bordas evaluate biologically based methods for weed and disease control at Rod Koda's ranch. |
| 1318044 |
strawberry |
Fragaria spp. |
Farm manager Arthur Ayala and Carolee Bull discuss commercial variety trials being conducted at the farm of Dale and Christine Coke in San Juan Bautista, California. |
| 1318045 |
strawberry |
Fragaria spp. |
Plant pathologist Carolee Bull (left) and technicians Joel Stryker (center) and Adria Bordas discuss the effectiveness of biological weed and disease control at a research site on grower Rod Koda's ranch. |
| 1318047 |
strawberry |
Fragaria x ananassa |
|
| 1321096 |
wood sorrel |
Oxalis acetosella |
Wood sorrel, Oxalis. |
| 1321098 |
fire lily |
Cyrtanthus spp. |
Fire lily, a Cyrtanthus hybrid. |
| 1321100 |
chihuahua flower |
Tacitus bellus |
Tacitus bellus. |
| 1321025 |
soybean |
Glycine max |
To determine the effect of elevated CO2 on plant growth, University of Illinois students harvest aboveground growth of soybean plants. |
| 1322079 |
melon |
Cucumis melo |
Cantaloupes, sometimes called muskmelons. |
| 1322080 |
melon |
Cucumis melo |
Cantaloupes, sometimes called muskmelons. |
| 1324012 |
annual wormwood |
Artemisia annua |
Annual wormwood, Artemisia annua L., yields the important antimalarial drug artemisinin. |
| 1324037 |
common bean |
Phaseolus vulgaris |
A closeup look at Burke, the latest pinto bean from ARS and university plant scientists. It resists a host of harmful fungi and viruses that can otherwise cheat growers of a bountiful harvest. |
| 1320087 |
soybean |
Glycine max |
Mature soybeans, sitting within their pod. |
| 1320088 |
soybean |
Glycine max |
|
| 1322064 |
peanut |
Arachis hypogaea |
When you add it all up, peanuts aren't just peanuts-they're quite an important crop. The United States produces between 3 and 4 billion pounds of peanuts annually, and about 40 percent of these go into processed foods, from salted peanuts, candy, crackers, and cookies to peanut butter. They're a major source of vegetable oil too.
peanuts have been the object of scientific study since George Washington Carver's day. ARS scientists have worked to improve peanut flavor and quality both by breeding better peanuts and by finding better ways to process them. Success came with the discovery of ways to extend the shelf life of peanut products, since unstable fatty acids in peanuts can cause unpleasant flavor changes. We've also found ways to remove part of the oil from the peanut without serious loss of flavor. Partially defatted peanuts are now sold by several companies, and the market is growing.
With the help of precision lab instruments and the sensitive noses of volunteers, ARS chemists have pinpointed chemicals that are crucial to that unmistakable peanutty flavor. This work reveals that roasted peanuts probably owe their rich, nutty aroma to a blend of about a dozen natural compounds. The findings could be used to enrich the flavor of roasted peanuts by adding back compounds that are sometimes lost in processing. |
