Joseph-Gottlieb Kölreuter Institute for Plant Sciences

April-September Mo-Fr 8-16, So 10-16, October-March Mo-Fr 8-15, So 10-14, entrance free! How to find us

WHY THE KIT NEEDS AN EXPERIMENTAL STATION - OUR PROFILE

Research News

Climate changes makes sea levels rise making fertile coastal land salty. The Nile delta, Bangladesh, Vietnam, but also the South of Italy are already today confronted with salt stress. Can we find crop plants that are able to thrive on such soils? In the past, we have, initiated by our Syrian colleague Dr. Adnan Kanbar, focused on stress resilience in Sorghum Millet. This ancient crop originates from Sudan and can cope with harsh conditions. In fact, we were able to show that some Sorghum varieties not only can grow under salinity, but accumulate more sugar when confronted with salinity. What happens to this sugar, differs - some Sorghum varieties store it in the shoot, what is interesting for bio-economic use (for instance for the production of bio-ethanol) others store it in their seeds, what supports food security in regions affected by soil salinity. During her PhD our colleague Eman Abuslima from Egypt was able to uncover the reason for the different sugar use: a gene switch for the sugar transporter SWEET13 decides. A very active version of this switch could be identified in the old Syrian landrace Razinieh. By breeding, this switch can now be crossed into other millet varieties, and by means of the molecular knowledge, the promising individuals in the progeny can be recognised already in the seedling stage by a simple PCR. 
 

Publication

216. Abuslima E, Kanbar A, Ismail A, Raorane ML, Eiche E, El-Sharkawy I, Junker BH, Riemann M, Nick P (2025) Salt stress-induced remodeling of sugar transport: a role for promoter alleles of SWEET13. Nature Sci Rep 15, 7580 - pdf

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Upcoming

Frühling lässt sein blaues Band... Öffentliche Führung am So, 11.05.2025, 11:15-12:15, Dr. Max Seyfried

Frühling läßt sein blaues Band 

Wieder flattern durch die Lüfte,

Süße, wohlbekannte Düfte 

Streifen ahnungsvoll das Land.

Führung über Farben und Düfte in der Natur – nicht nur bei Blüten. Wie entstehen die Farben, wer sieht sie, und warum nicht alle Düfte verlockend sind.

Anmeldung hier.

Further Events

Bioblitz-Aktion

Beobachten und fotografieren Sie vom 15. bis 22. Juni wildlebende Tier- und Pflanzenarten im Botanischen Garten am KIT – und laden Sie Ihre Funde über die App iNaturalist hoch. So tragen Sie aktiv zur Biodiversitätsforschung bei und bringen Karlsruhe in der Rangliste ganz nach vorne! mehr...

Biodiversitätsabend der Taxonomie-Initiative Karlsruhe

Mi 18. Juni 17-20 Uhr

Biodiversität zum Mitmachen: iNaturalist App und der BioBlitz-Wettbewerb . Wildpflanzen entdecken: Tipps zur Fotografie und Bestimmung mit dem Handy . Professional Insect Research – Methods & Traps explained . Solitäre Bienen und Wespen – Entdecken Sie die Brutanlagen in einsehbaren Nisthilfen . Das Entomoscope des KIT – Hightech für die Insektenbestimmung der Zukunft. mehr...

Poesie und Botanik am Di, 14.06.2025, 19:00-20:30

Am 14. Juni 2025 laden wir wieder zu einem poetisch-botanischen Sommerabend ein. Die um 19 Uhr im Botanischen Garten am KIT (Am Fasanengarten 2 in Karlsruhe) beginnende Veranstaltung im Rahmen der "Woche der Botanischen Gärten" gehört zu der seit 2016 laufenden Reihe "Poesie und Botanik", einem Gemeinschaftsprojekt des Instituts für deutsche Sprache und Literatur der PH Karlsruhe (PD Dr. Beate Laudenberg, Dr. Wolfgang Menzel), dem Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften (Prof. Dr. Peter Nick) und dem "Freundeskreis Botanischer Garten am KIT e.V.". Studierende der PH tragen literarische Texte vor, teils auch eigens von ihnen für diesen Anlass verfasst. Ernste und heitere Texte, vielleicht auch musikalische Beiträge, begegnen Erklärungen und Demonstrationen zum botanischen und kulturgeschichtlichen Hintergrund der jeweiligen Pflanzenarten. Passend zum diesjährigen bundesweiten Wochenthema "Bioblitz - Artenvielfalt in Botanischen Gärten" lautet der Titel der Abendveranstaltung "Auf der Mauer, auf der Lauer - literarische Naturbeobachtungen".  Wir sind gespannt, was es alles im Botanischen Garten und in der poetischen Literatur zu entdecken gibt!

Featuring our excursion in the local news: Anna Christ . Dahlia Ostmann und Jonathan Stürz

Virtual Garden. We have developed during the Corona time several virtual offers that are still available:

• Virtual tours through the garden (Maren Riemann)...

• Winter Excursion in the Hartwald (interactive app to stroll around, Maren Riemann)
• Every plant has a story to tell (ZKM, Uriel Orlow, Lili Carr, Peter Nick)
• the Botanical Garden - sustainable from the beginning (Verein der Freunde des Gartens, 9 min)
• Plants playing tricks (Uni für Einsteiger, 20 min)
• Hidden Healing Powers, Fig Leaf Tea (Rolf Bormuth, 6 min)
• Botany to Grip ("Green School", Marcel Göritz, Luca Wetzel, 30 min)
• Little Dandilion - Herbs and Healing ("Green School", Sofie Wirth, Annabell Stutz, Helen Schleifer, Giannina Fleischer, 15 min)

And here you can reach the PAGES OF THE GARDEN ASSOCIATIONS.

Plant of the Month: Chinese Redwood

At the Northwest corner of the garden, there is an impressive tree - at least in our region the largest specimen of its kind. In autumn, its needles turn yellow and are shed. When it protrudes, from March, its giant pollen sacks in the wind, the new leaves are still not grown to allow better access of the wind to the pollen. Only in May, the young, neatly fresh green needles emerge. Around ten species of this tree were distributed during the Jurassic all over the Northern hemisphere. These high and light-flooded forests were the site of various dramatic scenes, when Tyrannosaurus rex or other carnivorous dinosaurs devoured their prey, mostly, plant-eating dinosaurs. Together with these dinosaurs, also the Giant Redwoods disappeared at the end of the Jurassic - possibly due to the consequences of the asteroid impact in the Gulf of Mexico that made these trees, loving warm climates, give room to the more modern foliate trees.

Only in 1941 researchers from Nanjing University discovered living individuals of that fossile in a remote mountain valley in Szetchuan. Thus, similar to the Maidenhair Tree (Ginkgo biloba), this tree is the last of its kind. more...

What to see?

Entrance: Giant Pipevine . Pitcher Plants . -Experiment.

Succulent House North:  Louisiana-Moss . Breadpalm Fern . Sanseviria .

Succulent House South: Tree Tomato . Living Stones . Lemon Myrtle .

Palm House: Curry Tree . Camphor Tree . Giant insects from leaves - art project .

Tropical House: Vanilla flowers and fruits . Mango Tree . Flower of Death .

Waterlily House: Peanut . Water Banana . Banana flowers .

Outside:  Rhubarb collection flowers . Giant Horsetail . Paeonia mutants .