Phytoliths- plant silica bodies

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Martin Hodson</B></FONT><B>    </B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FFFFCC" FACE="Arial" ><B>Phytolith home page</B></FONT><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Martin Hodson"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="phytobook.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Phytolith Books"><U><B>Phytolith Books</B></U></A><B>  </B><B>  </B><A HREF="archaeology.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Archaeology and Palaeoecology"><U><B>Archaeology and Palaeoecology</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG SRC="05eb68b0.png" border=0 width="182" height="139" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Two inflorescence papilla phytoliths</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Phytoliths- plant silica bodies</I></div> <div> <B>Plant silica in </B><B>palaeoecology, </B><B>archaeology and food science.</B> </div> <bR> <div> Plant silicon work can generally be split into two main areas:</div> <div> 1) Silicon biology, which is mostly the domain of plant physiologists, plant anatomists and agronomists. See <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="sicereal.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Silica deposition in cereals"><U>Silica deposition in cereals</U></A></FONT> and <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="alsiinter.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Aluminium/silicon interactions"><U>Aluminium/silicon interactions</U></A></FONT> for my contributions in this area.</div> <div> 2) Phytoliths, which are mostly studied by palaeoecologists and archaeologists.</div> <div> As it happens I am one of the relatively few scientists to have a foot in both camps! This section of my web site will be devoted to the second category.</div> <bR> <div> Plant silica bodies (<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://archaeology.about.com/science/archaeology/library/weekly/aa082700a.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://archaeology.about.com/science/arc"><U>phytoliths</U></A></FONT>) have shapes and sizes that have potential uses in palaeoecology, archaeology and food science. In certain environments they are very persistent, and can be used by archaeologists to determine what people were growing and eating in the past. Much of my early work on phytoliths has been used by palaeoecologists and archaeologists, but this was not the primary intention when I did the work!</div> <bR> <div> It was not until the work of my first Ph.D. student, Helen Tubb, in the early 1990's that I was involved in work that was specifically aimed at archaeologists. We investigated the silica bodies in the inflorescences of wheat, barley, and their progenitor species, and found that we could distinguish between wheat and barley just using one particular silica body! See:</div> <div> TUBB, H.J., HODSON, M.J. & HODSON, G.C. (1993) The inflorescence papillae of the Triticeae: A new tool for taxonomic and archaeological research. <I>Annals of Botany</I> <B>72</B>, 537-545.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" > <A HREF="http://www.idealibrary.com/servlet/doi/10.1006/anbo.1993.1142" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.idealibrary.com/servlet/doi/1"><U>Abstract</U></A></FONT></div> <div> Even this work was entirely on plant samples- no archaeological sites yet! More recently I have begun to get involved in some work on phytoliths in archaeological and palaeoecological contexts- see <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="archaeology.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Archaeology and Palaeoecology"><U>Archaeology and Palaeoecology</U></A>.</FONT></div> <bR> <div>  I attend meetings of the <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.phytolithsociety.org/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.phytolithsociety.org/"><U>The Society for Phytolith Research</U></A></FONT>, including one in Aix, Provence, France in August 1998. I have several book chapters and conference proceedings on phytoliths, and you can find details at <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="phytobook.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Phytolith Books"><U>Phytolith Books</U></A></FONT>.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>