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Experiments versus real-world studies
How close are experiments to nature? The answer isn’t clean cut, partly because nature is messy.
annals-of-botany
Cress Kung-Fu
Cress seeds exude a nutrient for other plants into the soil, but is this a sneaky way of protecting the cress seedlings from competition?
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Hallowe’en and the Monster Plant
This week, the biggest flower on the planet, also known as the “Queen of all Parasitic Plants”, has come to Oxford – but not in the way you would might expect.
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Science, technology and innovation for Africa with the EU-Africa High Level Policy Dialogue stakeholder panel
What does it mean to work towards Sustainable Development? Pat Heslop-Harrison, editor of Annals of Botany, has been discussing the issue in Brussels with European stakeholders.
annals-of-botany
Not For Your Eyes: Ultraviolet Patterns in Sunflowers
When you look at a sunflower you see gold. When an insect looks at a sunflower it sees something quite different.
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Remember the dry times: functional legacies of drought in trees
William Hammond, on an increasing threat to trees in the USA and elsewhere – drought and the embolisms it causes.
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Drone strikes botanical gold
Thanks to a new tool, botanists have the power to observe and operate in even more remote parts of the world than before.
Cells, Genes & Molecules
Too much tubulin flips cell wall flexibility
Joseph Stinziano investigates how something you might find in jam controls how easily trees open or close access their leaves.
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Is Red the Signature of Life-Bearing Planets?
What colours should we be looking for from exoplanets if they hold life? New research from Japan suggests they could be more similar to Earth than previously thought.
AoB PLANTS
This Carnivorous Plant Needs Its Home to Burn
Like the mythical Phoenix, the Portuguese Sundew is reborn from ashes, but that’s a problem when people protect your habitat from flames.
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The roots of hydrotropism
Most plants are essentially rooted to a spot and immobile. While the factors they need for growth – e.g. sunlight, minerals, and water – are often present
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Plant Resources III: All the world’s trees in one place
If the POWO is not enough plant database for you [see my previous post], there is also a new database specifically for the world’s trees*