Plants & People
Finding Meaning in the Undergraduate Research Experience
Meet them where they’re at, and show them they’re making an impact, say speakers.
Plants & People
Symposium looks at new frontiers in collecting & collections
Collections may be poised for a “renaissance of biodiversity specimen collecting.”
Plants & People
Botany 2020: More Botany Than You can Shake a (Virtual) Stick At
The shift to an online conference has brought some benefits to Botany 2020.
Plants & People
Machine learning can help clear herbarium backlogs & potentially discover new species
Computers can combat the slow pace and shortage of expertise that plagues specimen identification and species discovery.
Plants & People
Training and high quality images needed for best online annotation of digital specimens
Volunteers produced the most accurate annotations in-person, but both in-person and online volunteers gave good results.
Close Encounters
Scent and nectar rhythms of an African orchid are timed for its pollinator
Pollinator foraging and orchid scent and nectar availability both peak at dusk.
Taxonomy & Evolution
“Long fuses” delayed angiosperms’ global take-over
The time it took to accumulate key adaptations meant delays of tens of millions of years.
Ecosystems
Hurricanes help mangroves move northward in a changing climate
Storm surges overcome the species’ naturally slow migration.
Cells, Genes & Molecules
Wounds divert auxin flow like “rocks in a stream”
The hormone auxin confers stem cell identity on cells surrounding the wound to enable healing.
Growth & Development
Corner’s rules hold up across the growing season
The relationship between twig cross-sectional area and leaf surface area varied little over the course of the season.
Close Encounters
Ants a principal pollinator for a threatened member of the Proteaceae
The plant is impervious to the pollen damage ants usually cause.
Taxonomy & Evolution
New genus and species of probable arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi uncovered in the Rhynie chert
The new species bears a strong similarity to modern-day Archaeospora.