Cells, Genes & Molecules
Botanists find nectar can be a source of antimicrobial compounds
Plants regularly have unprotected sex. How do they avoid unwanted infections?
Plants & People
Plant Remains in Coffin Pillows Betray Burial Beliefs
A top-quality pillow is essential for a good night’s sleep, but what pillow do you need for the longest sleep? A study of pillows in Polish graves shows that Catholics and Protestants had different ideas.
Close Encounters
Drought damages a plant’s perfume
Bees may be using their sense of smell to detect and avoid stressed plants.
Close Encounters
Fungi prepare the soil for plant invasions
Chinese researchers find that similar plants can gain a big competitive advantage by partnering with the right fungi.
Taxonomy & Evolution
Pansies undergo high-speed evolution when pollinators disappear
French researchers used ‘resurrection ecology’ to compare 2012 pansies with plants from twenty years earlier to see the evolutionary changes in the flowers over time.
Plants & People
Winter is coming, and that’s bad news for food security
Two recent papers take different approaches to the potentially disastrous consequences of loading the stratosphere with ash but combined, they act as a warning for the fragility of food security.
Ecosystems
It’s not too late to save the carnivorous plants of Janggun wetland
Surveys of Janggun wetland in South Korea have found some parts have no carnivorous plants, but a study of the seed bank shows that they have the potential to return if the wetland is managed correctly.
Plants & People
Ecologists discover a place for the dead in graveyards
It was thought that people preferred graveyards to be tidy. A new survey finds that visitors can accept the presence of some decaying matter – opening more possibilities for biodiversity.
Close Encounters
Bromeliads offer ants a summer residence in Costa Rica
Myrmecophobes might want to avoid studying bromeliads in the forests of Costa Rica during the summer. There are plenty of plants, but they seem to attract fire ants.
Cells, Genes & Molecules
Photosynthesis on the far side of the rainbow
Light you cannot see, in the infrared part of the spectrum, is surprisingly important for plant photosynthesis.
Close Encounters
Which ornamental plants perform best for pollinators?
Guides suggest some species are better than others for pollinators, but when you get to the plant nursery you’re confronted by half a dozen cultivars of the same species. How do you pick between them?
Ecosystems
Unexpected responses to wildfire by seedlings in the Yukon
Fire-adapted trees should be able to take advantage of wildfires, but on the boundary between the boreal forest and the tundra, something odd is happening.