How do alien pathogens make inroads into native plant networks?
Plant-pathogen networks tend to be modular, with pathogens specialising on specific hosts. What happens when a pathogen arrives from elsewhere?
Alun Salt
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Alun (he/him) is the Producer for Botany One. It's his job to keep the server running.
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Damage above the ground baffles a plant’s roots
It’s common to see pictures of plants as mirror images above and below the ground, but research in AmJBot shows that leaf vein damage harms root foraging.
A rare orchid might not need a rare fungus to germinate
Orchids need fungi to germinate, but do they need to be precisely the right sort of fungi?
Does flower height matter to bats?
Is the best way for a plant to attract bats as pollinators to hoist their flowers up high?
Ants use botanical knowledge when foraging
A recently published experiment that ants don’t merely react to plant scents. They learn which scents are associated with food.
The Ribosome can act as a Metabolite Multi-sensor
How can plants react to so many chemicals? Do they need a vast array of sensors? New research says not.
A new study reveals how the cuticle protects maize leaves
The cuticle is a waxy covering of a leaf that helps prevent water-loss. A new study of adult maize leaves shows it’s not a simple structure.
How do stories get chosen for The Week in Botany?
I sometimes get complaints “Why have you shared this instead of that that?”
Trees fight infections by building barricades, but how?
Trees fight infections by trapping pathogens in one part of the tree. Hugh Morris and colleagues have been reviewing how trees use secondary metabolites in order to control the process.
X-ray CT scanning can boost tree-ring research
A new technique to scan tree rings offers to yield precious new data on past climates.
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