Close Encounters
Set a killer to catch a killer?
Carrying dengue fever and Zika virus, the Asian tiger mosquito is a danger to humans. Italian scientists have examined whether plants could help reduce their numbers.
Close Encounters
Purple Moor Grass prevents Oaks from getting help finding nutrients
Molinia caerulea out-wrestles Quercus petraea in the battle for better ectomycorrhizal colonization.
Taxonomy & Evolution
Can digital assessment of endangered plants outrace extinction?
AuBuchon-Elder and colleagues demonstrate how botanists can use automated assessment tools to assess the extinction risk of plant species and highlight the need for increased digitization efforts before rapid assessment tools can be successfully used in future research projects.
Cells, Genes & Molecules
The travel of Costa Rican palms revealed by their genetic footprints
Genetic analysis of a popular Costa Rican palm suggests that its genetic diversity could suffer from human action.
Cells, Genes & Molecules
Success tastes like something else for a high-altitude pitcher plant
Hunting at high altitude, where the insects are few, can be difficult. Quite a few pitcher plants prefer to wait for a delivery.
Growth & Development
What lies beneath? Botanists find a disconnection between how plants behave above and below ground.
Do plants invest more in a live-fast and die-young strategy, or take it slow and steady? Botanists have found that the appearance above the ground might not reflect what’s happening in the roots.
Close Encounters
Goth Rabbits spread Vampire Plants
Rabbits tend to nibble on vegetation rather than dry fruits, but the black Amami rabbits of Japan seem to be eating the fruits and spreading the seeds of an unusual plant.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.