Close Encounters
Some pollen hitches a lift on butterfly wings to travel between plants
There’s not a lot on a butterfly, if you ignore the wings. That’s why some plants keen on pollination target them.
Cells, Genes & Molecules
How to eat bugs without really trying? Insights from the genomes of carnivorous plants
Genes for carnivory arose from a duplication of the genome turning plants into hunters.
Ecosystems
How do some plants become flammable? Insights from Dracophyllum
Why would a plant not frequently exposed to fire evolve to burn well?
Plants & People
Sketch by Goethe may be first depiction of intraspecific trait variation
Though the phenomenon was known in Goethe’s time, research didn’t start in earnest for another century.
Ecosystems
Orchid conservation must be guided by an understanding of their ecology
What makes orchids unique can also make saving them a challenge.
Growth & Development
7 Plants You’ll Be Seeing More Of As Model Species
What plants will be shaping botanical research in the future? Here are seven candidates.
Cells, Genes & Molecules
The mystery element: building a variable plant cuticle
Cutan must play a role in plant cuticles, but it’s not clear how much cutan a cuticle contains.
Plants & People
Larch, still Number 1!*
If a tree falls in a forest, can it still insulate people from sound pollution?
Cells, Genes & Molecules
Success the hard way: iron-dependent cell death in a rice pathogen
While the term cell death may at first thought give connotations of an undesirable process, it is actually well known that cell death is an important
Computational Models
V-Mango model: an intricate 3D simulation of the King of Fruits
The computer-modelled mangoes could identify when their real-life counterparts were most at risk from mango blossom gall midge.
Ecosystems
‘Out of Iberia’: How Bristol rock cress got to where it is today
Is a population of rare cress found near Bristol, UK, a remnant of an ice age population, or is it part of a wider European population that survived in refugia somewhere?
Reviews
How do plants work?
Beauty is more than skin deep in this book explaining how plants function.