The parasitic plant Cuscuta sets up barriers to some minerals when infecting a host
If the parasitic plant dodder taps its host with a straw, then it’s a specialised straw than can filter out some nutrients that the plant isn’t using. More
Dale Maylea
Dale Maylea was a system for adding value to press releases. Now he's a manual algorithm for blogging any papers that Alun Salt thinks are interesting. The idea being telling people about an interesting paper NOW beats telling people about an interesting paper at some time in the future, when there's time to sit down and take things slowly.
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How fire may burn forests into scrubland
Forests that have coped with fires in the past may struggle to regenerate as climate change increases aridity in the Mediterranean Basin. More
- in News in Brief, Oikos
Adaptability is not always positive for plants tackling climate change
Becoming an early flowering plant may be a problem if your pollinators are asleep and your herbivores are not. More
The best way to grow strong upright rose stems is to bend them over
Bending rose stems dramatically increases photosynthesis. More
Reading the fingerprints on your nuts
Are you getting the hazelnuts you pay for? How do you know? A new technique offers an alternative to subjective tests like flavour. More
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. However, there isn’t a lot of research connecting leaf-level photosynthetic manipulation and crop performance. A new software package developed by Wu et al. produces a model of diurnal crop […] More
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. More
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. More
Cells can use miRNAs to as a signal for their position within a plant.
Plants use miRNAs to pass signals between cells. But cells can’t just let anything in or out, so how do miRNAs get around? More
When is it your time to bloom? For a plant, it’s HISTONE DEACETYLASE 19 and FD that decides
A shoot shouldn’t become a flower too early, but needs some control over when the process happens. A paper in JXB finds the genes responsible. More
Stinging plants share needle designs
It’s not just nettles that sting. Plants discovered how to defend themselves multiple times, but whatever building blocks they use, they all share a similar design in needles. More
What drives the big changes in evolution, biological interactions or geography?
How did life get so diverse ?in silico modelling of evolution suggests there’s not one specific cause, but a complex interaction including diversity interacting with itself. More
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