save our conkers

Can we conquer Bleeding Canker - an infection with no chemical cure? The traditional game of conkers is much-loved by British children and adults, where the fruit of a horse chestnut tree is suspended on a thread and swung with precision and skill, to 'conquer' an opponent's conker. It gives hours of fun in the fresh air - and at no cost to anyone as long as people are sensible.

Horse chestnut trees are easily recognisable at any time of year by their 5-fingered leaf shapes, candlestick flowers, horseshoe-like leaf scars, spiky green horsechestnuts and shiny brown conkers. But of the millions of these familiar trees, many hundreds of thousands are succumbing to infection called 'bleeding canker' for which there is no chemical cure. Plant pathologists are reporting the possibility that the primary cause is not fungal as first thought, but more likely to be the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv aesculi.


So how about a biological cure - phage therapy for these trees? A combined approach with bacteriophages and a fungal virus? Do the trees have an immune deficiency? Is it worth a look at the soil to see if it is depleted of trace elements? Any EU funding yet?
We have European scientists who are ready and willing to work on this project, and plenty of families and schoolchildren who would wish it success.

The horse chestnut trees in this video are in Priory Park, Reigate - south east England, formerly a private country estate with state bedrooms, including those frequented by Kind Edward VII and his friends.

The carved wooden sculpture showing a conker in its spiky case is actually in a Botanical Garden in Poland, photographed during a Winston Churchill Fellow's travelling research into the health value of bacteriophages.

Produced by Grace Filby BA(Hons) CertEd FRSA, http://www.relax-well.co.uk and http://www.amazingphage.info

Music: Dance of the sugar plum fairy: mfiles.co.uk

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• biological
• control
• phage
• bacteriophage
• fungal
• virus
• fungus
• conker
• bleeding
• canker
• Priory
• Park
• Reigate
• pathogen
• forestry
• King
• Edward
• VII
• Grace
• Filby
• FRSA
• bacteria
• EU
• Botanical
• Garden
• Poland

[mavisbrownnose]

groovy video

[pinknonsense]

Thank you.

[mavisbrownnose]

don't mention it :D

[nixart]

I was thinking of using the "sugar plum fairy" backing for a video clip of fuchsias dancing in front of Margot Fonteyne`s statue in Reigate.