AoB PLANTS
Reducing shade avoidance responses in a cereal crop
Sun-loving plants react to changes in light quality caused by neighbouring plants via “shade avoidance” responses, including vertical elongation, upward orientation of leaves and reduced
Plant Cuttings
Cocoa, chimpanzees, and the restorative value of gorilla dung…
Having reached mammals in our meanderings, and the human involvement in global plant dispersal (admirably explored in Michael Pollan’s book The Botany of Desire) notwithstanding,
annals-of-botany
Anthers prominence above the corolla enhances pollinator visitation in wild radish
Why are anthers where they are? A new study finds there might be more to anthers than purely functional tools.
AoB PLANTS
Physiological variation of Prosopis species under drought conditions
Actions aimed at reforesting arid areas around the world are becoming increasingly complex. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Carevic et al. evaluated the
Plant Cuttings
From cocks and hens * to cockroaches (and elephants…)
Yasuhiro Uehara and Naoto Sugiura describe a new mutualistic relationship between a cockroach and Monotropastrum humile (Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 185: 113–118, 2017;
Plant Cuttings
Plant survival, on a wing and a prayer…*
As organisms that are mainly fixed in one place, plants have a problem if they are to extend their range and spread to new areas by
annals-of-botany
Start from here: SPL Theory links regenerative and life history strategies
The best chance of growing to maturity is to have the best start. A new theory connects seed and leaf size with phytomers to describe the relationship between regeneration and growth through a plant’s lifetime.
featured
Bamboosting growth: why does bamboo grow so fast?
What is it that gives bamboo its rapid growth? One team has been looking for the answer not with the fastest plants, but with the slower variants to see what they lack.
The Week in Botany
The Week in Botany 23
Our weekly email The Week in Botany continues. Here’s the one we sent out on Monday, November 13, 2017. If you want to get this
featured
Communicating Science and Scicomm career advice from Sci Comm Camp
What does it mean to be a Science Communicator? What tips can you pick up from others? Ian Street has been finding out at this year’s Sci Comm Camp.
Reviews
Where there’s Mushrooms, there’s Money!
Mushrooms: A Natural and Cultural History, by Nicholas P. Money, 2017. Distributed by University of Chicago Press for Reaktion Books. Why does anybody review books? I
annals-of-botany
Adaptation in the root epidermis: the velamen radicum
Zotz and colleagues ask for a re-evaluation of the occurrence, evolution, and function of the velamen radicum in both terrestrial and epiphytic angiosperms