Reviews
Earpedia: Plants
Amazon, through its Audible audiobook brand, is releasing free audio shows for subscribers. One of these was Zoopedia, a series looking at animals. It’s now
annals-of-botany
Can a cold snap put a stop to sex?
The alpine plant Ranunculus kuepferi can face spring frosts while growing reproductive organs. Does the cold explain why sometimes the plant doesn’t bother with sex?
annals-of-botany
The secret to conserving an endangered orchid is in the soil
A study of orchids shows the secret to conservation isn’t in the plants you can see, but the fungi you can’t.
Uncategorized
Seeking Science? See ScienceSeeker
Every so often you find a new site, and then discover everyone else has known about it for years. For once, this is a site I’
Reviews
Tamed: Ten Species that Changed our World by Alice Roberts
List books can be good, but there’s a knack to them. Nick Lane’s Life Ascending works because the various features to life he lists
Close Encounters
Do Oaks Encourage the Baby-Eating Chipmunks of China?
You might expect acorn-eating chipmunks to be the enemies of oaks. New research out of Henan and Jiangxi suggests that the chipmunks aid oaks because acorns are not the only babies that the chipmunks eat.
Uncategorized
What can you do with a holobiont?
It’s said all plants are holobionts. If that’s true why bother creating a new word? What value does the word holobiont bring that plant doesn’t already have?
annals-of-botany
Saururus chinensis, the plant that amplifies its flowers
When it comes to attracting pollinators, Saururus chinensis is a bit of a chameleon. By turning some of its leaves white, it can attract more visitors. But why don’t the leaves stay white?
Cells, Genes & Molecules
What is it that gives mānuka floral nectar its unique composition?
The secret of mānuka honey, is mānuka nectar, but what is the secret of mānuka nectar?
Ecosystems
A rare orchid makes a return to its home range
The plant that was almost loved to death returns to its former partner.
featured
The orchid that’s running out of time
Ophrys sphegodes, the early spider-orchid, is a plant with a very short pollination window. The changing climate is closing that window more and more often as the planet warms.
Reviews
A life of trees sometimes hidden by lush verdant text
The review might have appeared a lot faster, if there wasn’t a problem with the language in Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees.