From stable rules to complex shapes in plant modelling
How can models capture the complexity and variation of plant phenotypes? Vidal and Andrieu have taken a look at maize. More
Alun Salt
Alun is the Producer for Botany One. It's his job to keep the server running. He's not a botanist, but started running into them on a regular basis while working on writing modules for an Interdisciplinary Science course and, later, helping teach mathematics to Biologists. His degrees are in archaeology and ancient history.
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How do plants perceive damage to themselves?
Plants use receptor proteins on the surface of their cells to recognise danger signals from pathogens. A paper recently published by Li, Wang and Mou in Plant Physiology discusses recent work that finds that plants sense signals from damaged cells in a similar manner. As pathogens are recognised from pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) so too damage is detected […] More
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Plants can prepare soils to give other plants protection against pests
It’s known that microbes in the soil can help plants fight pests. Now research published in New Phytologist shows that plants can be used to create anti-pest microbiomes. More
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How does partnership work for a lichen in the Antarctic?
Lichens are partnerships between algae and fungi. In the Antarctic Lichens offer algae shelter against the cold, but also an uncertain future. More
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in Articles
Plant Records: The plant that coordinates its colours for the occasion
It’s thought that flowers have colours to attract visitors, but it seems that’s not always the case. More
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in Articles
Plant records: Most overdue library book?
Name: the ‘En Tibi’ herbariumScientific name: ‘En tibi perpetuis ridentem floribus hortum‘ [‘Here for you a smiling garden of everlasting flowers’]Known for: not being of known originRecord broken: Most overdue library book? If you ever want to start an argument between two historians of science, ask them when a scientific field started. The problem is that creating a line […] More
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in Articles
“Plant” Records: The Planet’s Biggest Pollinator
Once again, people underestimate the effect this mammal can have on wildlife. More
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in Articles
Plant Records: The world’s most common group of plants is…
…is ‘rare’ plants. A recent article in Science Advances labelled over a third of species as ‘exceedingly rare’. More
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Hybrids may succeed where invasive species fail as sea levels rise
Invasive species might suffer from a change in conditions in tidal areas, but their hybrid offspring may have genes to survive. More
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How important is meat to a curious carnivorous plant?
Drosophyllum lusitanicum, also known as the Portuguese sundew or dewy pine, is unusual even for carnivorous plants in that it lives in dry environments. Typically, carnivorous plants live in nutrient-poor wetlands, so does it really gain much from carnivory? More
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A new molecular mechanism reveals how plants keep their cool
How do plants adjust their body plan to cope with high-temperature stress? More
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in Ecosystems
The mountains are getting warmer, and willow colonies are shrinking
Salix herbacea, as other arctic-alpine species, likely found a refuge from the Ice Age in the Apennines. As the climate changed around them, the trees survived in a fragmenting population. This fragmentation has genetic consequences. More
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