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For one flower, bad hair days are the best days
If you want to please Leucospermum arenarium (Proteaceae) you’d better leave brushes and combs alone, as it has an unusual way to get pollinated. Plenty
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Adventitious root formation in rice
A new study examines the role of plant hormones in mediating production of adventious roots in rice.
AoB PLANTS
Changes in plant species composition of coastal dune habitats over a 20-year period
Coastal sandy ecosystems are increasingly being threatened by human pressure, causing loss of biodiversity, habitat degradation and landscape modifications. However, there are still very few detailed
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Stomatal density and aperture in non-vascular plants are non-responsive to above-ambient CO2 concentrations
Stomata are one of the crucial adaptations in the evolution of the land flora and the development of the terrestrial landscape and atmosphere on Earth. These
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How tree species fill geographic and ecological space in North America
Ecologists broadly accept that the number of species present within a region balances regional processes of immigration and speciation against competitive and other interactions between populations
AoB PLANTS
Rainwater in cupulate bracts repels seed herbivores in a bumblebee-pollinated alpine flower
The discovery of new adaptations of organisms to various environments always reminds us how little we know about nature. For example, rainwater surrounding sexual organs has
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Ecologists make their own flowers to study moths
Thanks to JSTOR Global Plants for pointing to an interesting paper in Functional Ecology, Shape matters: corolla curvature improves nectar discovery in the hawkmoth Manduca sexta.
Growth & Development
The European Space Agency goes back to its roots
The roots are Arabidopsis roots. They’ll be flying, along with the rest of the plant, on a parabolic flight to see how they react to
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Return of the Killer Tomatoes
My phone died, so I’m catching up with podcasts. One I listen to is by the people behind QI, No Such Thing As A Fish.
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Analysis of a Corpus of Scientific Article Titles Across Eight Academic Disciplines Finds That Article Titles in Botany Can Be Much Longer Than in Other Disciplines, But If You Ignore the Outliers They’re Not That Different
The Annals of Botany has been put under the microscope, along with a few other journals in a study that aims to find out what is
AoB PLANTS
Germination and ultrastructural studies of seeds produced by a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree: implications for its domestication and seed storage
Moringa oleifera, or miracle tree, is known in many parts of the world for its multiple uses as an agroforestry crop. However, seeds of this species
annals-of-botany
Aphid repellence in arabidopsis over-expressing FPS2
Plant-synthesized sesquiterpenes play a pivotal role in chemotactic interactions with insects. In Arabidopsis thaliana, FPS2 is involved in the synthesis of cytosolic FDP, a precursor