News in Brief
A software package to simulate daily field crop canopy photosynthesis
How can we improve crops in the future? One method would be to improve the photosynthesis process in crops, to increase productivity from the same plants.
News in Brief
How do orchids get a taste for fungi?
You may have heard the phrase “you are what you eat”, but some scientists are tracking the evolution of new diets in orchids by taking the phrase literally.
Uncategorized
The Linnean Society and Taxonomy
On September 7, 2018, The Linnean Society held a conference “How Are We Communicating the Importance of Taxonomy and Systematics?”
Ecosystems
Kew publishes its State of the World’s Fungi report
Kew’s report highlights how ignorant we are of an astonishingly successful Kingdom of life.
Uncategorized
Fungus gnats see red when pollinating
Some plants rely on gnats for pollination, but they also rely on fungi to provide a food source for the next generation of gnats.
Uncategorized
Plants and Fungi: An ancient partnership
Why are we interested in fungi here? Partly because if you’re interested in plants, you’ll find fungi everywhere.
Uncategorized
#SOTWF18 – The State of the World’s Fungi
Kew will be publishing its first State of the World’s Fungi report on Wednesday, with a follow-up symposium on Thursday and Friday. We plan
featured
The first footholds for land plants may have been much smaller than imagined
A polysaccharide found in the cell walls of land plants has now been found outside the cell. This chemical, Xyloglucan, could be one of clues as to how plants moved onto land.
Close Encounters
Plant defences can be overwhelmed by a snail’s sweet tooth
Building up toxic metals in the leaves won’t deter snails from taking a nibble, if the leaf is sweet enough.
News in Brief
The trouble with travelling tree rings
There is a huge demand for long-term climate data, and tree growth rings could help with that, but an article in Quaternary Science Reviews warns there should be some caution using the data, as not all rings are the same.
Plants & People
Dark soils are the shadow of hidden agriculture
Stains left in the soil from past farmers, and the plants they cultivated, are helping illuminate prehistoric inhabitants of the Amazon.
News in Brief
Origins of domesticated pearl millet identified in the western Sahara
A long disagreement over the origins of millet farming in Africa may have been solved by combining genetics with archaeological evidence.