Alun Salt - Botany One (Page 42)

Ecosystems

Missing seed data from the tropics could be harming conservation efforts

Visscher and colleagues propose that global analyses of seed traits with evidence for geographical variation prioritize the generation of new data from tropical regions as well as multi-lingual searches to fill geographical and taxonomic gaps.

Alun Salt

25 Jan 2023

A hypothetical orchid showing bilateral symmetry.

Growth & Development

Why would a flower change its shape?

Bilateral flowers tend to receive less pollen than radial flowers, so why would a plant want a bilateral flower?

Alun Salt

24 Jan 2023

Cells, Genes & Molecules

Does the fungus Botrytis cinerea break plants with a sledgehammer or a series of specialised tools?

The fungus Botrytis cinerea can infect many plants, but how can it get past so many different defences? Does it have a variety of tools or one highly effective tool?

Alun Salt

17 Jan 2023

Close Encounters

Flowers play a key role in flight control for bumblebees

A bee can approach a flower from any direction, but markings on the flower help guide bees in the most effective way, like a natural air traffic control.

Alun Salt

16 Jan 2023

Close Encounters

A parasitic plant can cause an invasive plant’s allies to switch sides

Scaldweed, Cuscuta grovonii, can prevent an invasive plant from using soil microbes to help invade territory – and the parasite can even become more vicious by using those same microbes against its invasive host.

Alun Salt

13 Jan 2023

Taxonomy & Evolution

Botanists say the largest amber-preserved flower is a new species

The flower, first discovered over 150 years ago, has yielded new clues from its pollen.

eurekalert

12 Jan 2023

Cells, Genes & Molecules

How does the corpse flower’s scent change over time?

The Titan arum produces a smell like rotting flesh. Now botanists have analysed the chemicals and found that the smell changes over the two days that the plant flowers.

Alun Salt

11 Jan 2023

Growth & Development

Botanists find a cool way to preserve an endangered plant’s seeds

If you wonder how cool cool is, it’s at least -196 ℃ (-320 ℉).

Alun Salt

10 Jan 2023

Ecosystems

Pollinators like moths are increasingly missing from a warming subarctic

The complex relationships between plants and their pollinators in subarctic Finland have changed dramatically across the last century

eurekalert

06 Jan 2023

A James Bond like character among an extraordinarily lush collection of leaves in a botanic garden.

Ecosystems

Yew Only Live Twice

Biologists have talked about bringing back extinct species like the dodo, but now botanists have drawn up a list of extinct plants that might be able to return to the wild.

Alun Salt

05 Jan 2023