Plant Cuttings
Tirpitz and the science of conflict ecology…
It has been said that, in war, truth is the first casualty. As understandable as it may be to tell lies, create and perpetuate falsehoods and
annals-of-botany
Population structure of Betula albosinensis and B. platyphylla
Differences in local abundance and ploidy level are predicted to impact the direction of introgression between species. Hu et al. test these hypotheses on Chinese populations
AoB PLANTS
Phenotypic plasticity of stomatal and photosynthetic features of four Picea species in two contrasting common gardens
Global climate change is threatening natural ecosystems worldwide. Mountain ecosystems are particularly vulnerable because range expansion or shifts are often not a viable strategy for species
annals-of-botany
Fire and germination in a tropical savanna
Are seeds using heat from fires as a signal to end physical dormancy and germinate?
Reviews
Between scientists and journalists, the PIO
Handbook for Science Public Information Officers by W. Matthew Shipman, 2015. The University of Chicago Press. This book had been on my ‘to-read’ list for
annals-of-botany
Now rice has more options to cope with flooding.
When waters rise, should a rice plant shut down and conserve energy till it can breathe again – or should it grow faster to get above the water? New research has produced rice that can do both.
annals-of-botany
Loss of RNA integrity precedes loss of viability in dry-stored seeds
You can see how time affects germination, by measuring the proportion of seeds that germinate after time. But is there a way of examining seed viability without germinating them?
AoB PLANTS
Outbreeding and inbreeding strategies in plant communities of the Venezuelan Gran Sabana Plateau
Ramírez and Hokche evaluated the breeding system, sexual system, dichogamy and herkogamy of herbaceous-shrubby communities from the Gran Sabana Plateau, Venezuela
featured
Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration in Soils: Can Phytoliths Help?
In October 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its report on the feasibility of us keeping under the 1.5°C target suggested
annals-of-botany
When a plant loses photosynthesis, what else does it lose?
One of the common features of plants they make their own food. But what happens inside a plant when they stop making their food and eat something else?
Reviews
Primroses and primulas aplenty
Primrose by Elizabeth Lawson, 2019. Reaktion Books Ltd. To the uninitiated, it may seem rather improbable that anybody can write 288 pages about the primrose. After
annals-of-botany
How to break down cell walls in sugarcane
One way of improving the usefulness of a plant crop might come not from studying where the plant cells grow, but where they die.