News in Brief
Endangered plant stands on the shoulders of midgets
A plant’s survival in the location can depend on the microscopic life in the soil.
News in Brief
The parasitic plant Cuscuta sets up barriers to some minerals when infecting a host
If the parasitic plant dodder taps its host with a straw, then it’s a specialised straw than can filter out some nutrients that the plant isn’t using.
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How fire may burn forests into scrubland
Forests that have coped with fires in the past may struggle to regenerate as climate change increases aridity in the Mediterranean Basin.
News in Brief
Adaptability is not always positive for plants tackling climate change
Becoming an early flowering plant may be a problem if your pollinators are asleep and your herbivores are not.
AoB PLANTS
The total dispersal kernel: a review and future directions
The distribution and abundance of plants across the world depends in part on their ability to move, which is commonly characterized by a dispersal kernel (a
annals-of-botany
The best way to grow strong upright rose stems is to bend them over
Bending rose stems dramatically increases photosynthesis.
News in Brief
The shape of leaves may be a defence against weevil attack
It’s not just taste and texture. One weevil may be using origami to find the best home for its offspring.
annals-of-botany
Flowers evolve to balance the risks and rewards of self-pollination
The longer a plant waits to self-pollinate, the longer it has to attract pollen from outside. But waiting too long can have consequences.
News in Brief
One way to kill a dangerous pest could be to encourage it to grow
Striga is a parastic plant that lurks beneath the soil waiting to strike another plant root. Strangely it might be more effective to control the weed by making it germinate, than try to keep it dormant.
News in Brief
How do you measure a tree’s flammability without burning it?
Forest fires are a problem, but how do you measure a tree’s flammability? New research suggests you look to the shoots, not the leaves.
annals-of-botany
Role of ploidy in Arabidopsis arenosa colonization of alpine habitats
Doubling the chromosomes of Arabidopsis arenosa does not always lead to strong ecological niche differentiation.
annals-of-botany
Compensatory base changes on an ITS2 phylogeny of Corydalis
Compensatory base changes (CBCs) that occur in stems of ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) can have important phylogenetic implications. Li et al. quantify how CBCs