featured
Roses are red – but they don’t need to be, if you know how to use food dyes and Fibonacci
Valentine’s Day is here and unless you share the cynics’ view that this is a holiday invented by the flower industry, you might set off
annals-of-botany
ITS2 and phylogeny of green algal Chlorophyceae
Assessments of the phylogeny of the green algal class Chlorophyceae using standard, single markers, such as 18S rRNA and rbcL, have generally been unable to match
annals-of-botany
Biogeography of subfamily Hyacinthoideae
Subfamily Hyacinthoideae (Hyacinthaceae) comprises more than 400 species, which show distjunct distribution patterns. Ali et al. use dispersal-vicariance and Bayesian binary MCMC analyses to determine
annals-of-botany
Reproduction costs when photosynthate is limited
Reproduction imposes a cost as resources are diverted from other functions within the plant. Ida et al. use both defoliation and shading to reduce photosynthate supply
annals-of-botany
Biased morph ratios and skewed mating success
In distylous plant species, skewed morph ratios are not uncommon and may arise from a range of factors such as demographic stochasticity and leakage of the
annals-of-botany
Extreme floral complexity and pollination in asclepiads
The extreme complexity of asclepiad flowers (Asclepiadoideae–Apocynaceae) has generated much interest in the pollination biology of this group of plants. Wiemer et al. study pollination
annals-of-botany
Genome size and DNA base composition (Research in Context)
Genome size is known to affect various plant traits such as stomatal size and seed mass but these associations are not well understood for species with
annals-of-botany
Physiological mechanisms of germination responses
Germination timing, a major determinant of fitness, is extremely sensitive to environmental conditions but the physiological mechanisms regulating it are largely unknown. Barua et al. study
annals-of-botany
Varying fire-response strategies and co-occurring traits
Plants have different strategies to survive in fire-prone environments, including post-fire seed recruitment and resprouting ability; however, each strategy can have trade-offs, which
annals-of-botany
Host-plant stimulation of germination in parasitic Phelipanche
The tiny seeds of the obligate root parasitic plants of the Orobanchaceae do not germinate unless they detect chemical signals from a host plant. Joel et
annals-of-botany
Soil seed bank recovery in semi-arid vegetation
Despite the importance of seed banks, knowledge about their formation and the extent to which they can recover after severe perturbation remains scarce. Olano et al.
annals-of-botany
Functional approach to predicting root decomposition
Much of plant biomass is in roots but we know much less about root properties that affect decomposition rates than we do about above-ground tissues.