Close Encounters
Herbivores can cause dioecious plants to partly swap sex
Rather than inherently being ‘male’ or ‘female’, Mercurialis annua can produce flowers as a plastic response to its environment.
Plants & People
Resilience of crops confirms that drought alone did not cause a ‘collapse’ in Mayan civilisation
In the 800s, Mayan cities in southeastern Mexico and Central America were abandoned – just as drought hit the region. But a botanical study shows that the connection between drought and depopulation was not simple.
Growth & Development
An unexpected killer lurks deep in Italian lakes
You would expect to see flowers of Utricularia australis on display just above the surface of a pond or lake. Now botanists have found open U. australis flowers on a lakebed over four metres below the surface.
Ecosystems
When landscapes are abandoned, do butterflies flee?
Agricultural intensification affects butterfly populations, but so does the abandonment of farmland.
Growth & Development
Warm nights without respite accelerates the death of seedlings in a drought
A combination of morphological and physiological traits contribute to drought mortality, along with responses to night warming.
Growth & Development
Botanists find that some herbaceous use fire as a signal to prepare for boosted flowering in the following year
In the prairies of Minnesota, Liatris aspera is almost a real-life phoenix
Ecosystems
Botanists develop a model for times when a plant thriving in a garden is a matter of life and death
A new model can help botanic gardens discover where they should source endangered plants when they want to aid conservation efforts.
Close Encounters
When foraging for pollen from flowers, timing can be crucial
By timing their visits to twilight, just as nocturnal flowers are opening, some bees can grab most of Pseudobombax longiflorum‘s pollen.
Ecosystems
Climate change will hit peat bogs not so much from greater heat but from the reduced precipitation that comes with the heat
Climate change is about more than simply warming, and these other effects should not be overlooked.
Cells, Genes & Molecules
Increasing the copies of genes increases the ecological niche that nettles can thrive in
Botanists find it’s easier to find the gene to cope with a problem if you carry more copies of genes.
Growth & Development
Las raíces seminales del maíz ayudan a atrapar nutrientes
Cuando los humanos seleccionaron maíces de semillas grandes, es posible que también hayan mejorado involuntariamente su sistema radicular.
Growth & Development
Con el frío, el polen del arroz sufre de diversas formas mientras lucha por desarrollarse
Un equipo de botánicos en Japón ha dado un vuelco a décadas de supuestos sobre cómo el estrés por frío causa esterilidad en el polen de arroz.