Hello TWiB subscribers! Sarah here. This week, we're doing a little experiment at Botany One – can someone other than Alun send out the newsletter? I'm hopeful that the answer is yes and this email is in your inbox.
Not too long ago, I wrote about the joys of the Argentinian spring and the beautiful pink flowered lapacho trees that grow there. Now, in eastern North America, we're experiencing our own pink bloom, with the flowering of the cherry blossoms. The magnolias should be ready soon too. A welcome sight after a snowy winter.
If you're curious to know what might soon be blooming in your neighbourhood, Alun is cooking up a new tool that uses posted observations to predict what plants will likely be seen in a given location. We'll announce the tool – 'Hot Botany' – in the near future. Until then, a walk outside to enjoy the spring or autumn air can lead to your own discoveries.
But if the weather isn't good, then you might want to tuck in with your computer and go on an expedition to the Royal Ontario Museum's 'living library', a collection of 1.2 million specimens of vascular plants, bryophytes, algae, lichens and fungi. They are seeking the public's help in digitizing their collection, starting with plants, at Notes From Nature - Natural History at ROM Revealed.
Next week, it might be Alun assembling the posts you're sharing on Mastodon and Bluesky, or perhaps Carlos will step in. Either way, another email should arrive at the same time next week.
Sarah (webmaster@botany.one)
On Botany One
Secrets of the Living Library
You can be the key to unlocking natural history. Help the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada digitize their botanical specimen collection.
Sowing for a Warmer Britain: Are Wildflower Seeds Climate-Ready?
A new study reveals that most UK wildflower seeds can handle rising temperatures, but a few key species may struggle to germinate in the Britain of tomorrow.
Earthworms: The Invisible Gardeners of Tropical Bryophytes
A new study shows that earthworms can carry viable bryophyte propagules through their guts, helping mosses and liverworts spread across tropical soils.
Christopher Levine: "Plant Research is Rarely Straightforward"
Botany One interviews Christopher Levine, a researcher working on the effects of light on plant production in controlled environments.
Tracking and Conserving an Endangered Plant from Brazil’s Rocky Outcrops
A multidisciplinary hunt uncovers new populations of an endemic plant, while exposing the fragile balance that keeps it from disappearing.
Eau De Fourmi Mourante: A Bizarre Floral Fragrance To Attract the Right Lover
When it comes to flower scents, it’s not always roses and rainbows. It can be anything from sweaty feet to the chemical cries of suffering bugs, as recently shown by science.
The puzzles this week are, Sudoku Garden, marking the equinox, and Plant Hunt, which this week looks around Singapore.
We have a plant of the week this week, with a celebration of Symplocarpus foetidus's impatience.
There was also last week's Week in Botany, with plant factories, how sunbirds help plants reproduce after fires, canelas-de-ema diversity, climate change threats to alpine plants, tropical moss, and more.
News & Views
New evidence reveals biochemical pathway behind quinine production.
Nature
More than 50 years ago, the ariel toucan was reintroduced to Tijuca National Park, the world’s largest urban forest, located in Rio de Janeiro in southeastern Brazil. Now, a new study finds that the bird, which became locally extinct in the 1960s, has almost entirely settled back into its original role in the ecosystem, serving as a critical species for forest restoration.
Conservation news
A professor ruminates on his experience as a graduate student when he learned how to do good research and discusses whether he would hire himself today – or give the job to an AI.
science.org
Over the past couple of weeks, a rare “superbloom” demonstrated just how vivacious California’s Death Valley can be.
Colossal
The government’s plans to poach 100 US researchers might make good economic sense. But what about the existing community?
nature.com
Mr. Flower Fantastic is a graffiti artist turned floral designer who keeps his identity a secret. His new show is an ode to NYC in orchids. Oh, and did we mention he’s allergic to flowers?
NPR
Chickpeas produced seeds in simulated lunar soil, offering clues for future space farming.
ScienceNews
'Into the Forest': Etude de la perception humaine de la biodiversité. Studying human perception of biodiversity.
This survey, based at Montpellier University in France, aims to better understand how people perceive forest landscapes.
biodiful.org
From one leaf to a nation’s carbon budget, from the driest deserts to the wettest peatlands, litter isn’t trash - it’s ecology’s master variable. In this webinar, international experts tackle the challenge of how do we take vastly different processes, from photobleached leaves in the Mallee to centuries-old organic matter in alpine bogs and create coherent national models that actually work. Speakers: Heather Throop, Arizona State University; Mark Hovenden, University of Tasmania; Jacqui England. CSIRO.
TERN
This Week in Botany
5 Years Ago: Nurse cushion plants show independent trait adaptation to differing habitats
10 Years Ago: Leaf mechanical traits in insect herbivory
15 Years Ago: C4 photosynthesis in genus Cleome
Scientific Papers
“This important study investigates how structurally diverse cardenolide toxins in tropical milkweed, especially mixtures containing nitrogen- and sulfur-containing variants, influence monarch caterpillar feeding, growth, and toxin sequestration. The experiments provide solid evidence that chemical diversity within a single group of plant toxins can have combined effects on even highly specialized herbivores that differ from the effects of each toxin alone.”
eLife (March 2026)
“This study highlights the potential of linked open data frameworks to advance botanical phenomics by supporting improved data integration and computational analyses. It also highlights the importance of collaborative biocuration in closing biodiversity data gaps.”
Plant Biosystems (June 2026)
“In plants, a variety of stimuli trigger long-range calcium signals that travel rapidly along the vasculature to distal tissues via poorly understood mechanisms. Here, we use quantitative imaging and analysis to demonstrate that traveling calcium waves are mediated by diffusion and bulk flow of amino acid chemical messengers.”
Science Advances (October 2022)
“Overall, we find that cytokinin, auxin and TDIF form a tightly intertwined network of positive regulators for activation of secondary growth in the Arabidopsis root indicating extensive redundancy in this process.”
The Plant Cell (March 2026)
“Natural disturbances are intensifying under global change, yet a global synthesis of their effects on forest structure and composition remains lacking. We aimed to assess the prevalence of structural versus compositional changes and to identify common post‐disturbance reorganisation pathways across forest biomes.”
Global Ecology and Biogeography (March 2026)
“Extensive laboratory experimentation has revealed conserved molecular pathways controlling growth and stress responses in plants, yet how these programs operate in natural settings remains poorly understood. We investigated transcriptome organization in wild populations of Arabidopsis thaliana by sampling plants from 60 natural sites in Europe and North America across two seasons.”
bioRxiv (March 2026)
In AoBC Publications
Careers
We are looking for a motivated, capable, and considerate postdoctoral scholar to join our team to together create a unique research program on the intersection of chloroplast biology, evo-devo and synthetic biology. The project will address two key questions in chloroplast biology and evolution: how chloroplast division is regulated at the transcriptional level, and how plants evolved cells containing multiple chloroplasts.
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology OIST
You have a passion for quantitative tools in plant breeding? You like to work with big data? You like to teach and support students in handling plant breeding data? If yes, please apply until April 10, 2026.
Boku University
A 4-year PhD position is available in the Department of Biology at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) as part of an SNSF-funded Ambizione research project led by Dr. Thomas Lesaffre. In this project, the PhD student will work together with Dr. Lesaffre to develop new theory exploring the evolutionary mechanisms underlying the diversity of within-plant patterns of allocation.
University of Fribourg
The Company of Biologists have an exciting paid 12-month internship opportunity for someone looking to take their first step into a science communication or publishing role.
The Company of Biologists
Are you passionate about plants, heritage landscapes and creating beautiful outdoor spaces? We’re looking for a dedicated part time Gardener to join our vibrant Garden Team at Brighton & Hove Museums.
Brighton & Hove Museums
Cover image: A cherry blossom tree in bloom. Photo by Sarah Covshoff.
