Dearest TWiB Readers,

Today, the Botany One newsletter is brought to you by Sarah and Carlos. We have teamed up to get the newsletter out this week, as a few of us in the team are on leave. If anything, this shows that our little experiment with other people preparing the newsletter was indeed a success.

The newsletter may look a little different from usual, but we hope you enjoy it just the same. There'll be another TWiB edition with the latest news in botany being shared on Mastodon and Bluesky.

Until next time,

Sarah and Carlos (webmaster@botany.one)

On Botany One

The Hidden Economics of Flowers
By comparing flowers and leaves across 245 species, researchers reveal that flowers follow hidden water-use strategies shaped by the same environmental pressures as the rest of the plant.
Botany OneCarlos A. Ordóñez-Parra
How American Crops Changed Europe
Archeobotany and historical records show how American plants travelled
Botany OneSarah Covshoff
Damilola Olanipon: “Making the Invisible Visible”
Botany One interviews Dr Damilola Olanipon, a plant and microbial ecologist investigating the hidden fungal networks that connect plants, support forests, and help regulate Earth’s climate.
Botany OneCarlos A. Ordóñez-Parra
The Silent Partner: The Real Value of Pollination in Daily Life
Pollinators are a vital link between biodiversity and human health, securing both essential nutrients and family livelihoods. While their decline threatens to deepen poverty and malnutrition, protecting local plant diversity offers a sustainable path to resilience.
Botany OneErika Alejandra Chaves-Diaz
Primed Plants are Prime Plants
From ancient Roman seed-soaking recipes to modern nanopriming, seed priming could help crops germinate faster and survive drought, heat and salinity in a changing climate.
Botany OneMareike Jezek

Plant of the Week:

Cercis canadensis
The Eastern Redbud is a rare beauty in temperate climates
Botany OneSarah Covshoff

There was also last week's Week in Botany, with the interview with Diego Paredes Burneo, about the extraordinary biodiversity of the Tropical Andes.

In AoBC Publications

News & Views

Global warming is accelerating 5,000 times faster than rice can evolve
A new study finds that climate change is creating environments where humans have never successfully cultivated rice before.
Live Science
Inside the secretive and lucrative world of orchid breeding
It can take a decade to bring a new orchid to market, so breeders keep their hi-tech processes secret.
BBC News
Some plants have a genetic superpower that may help them survive a cataclysm
Many plants, including many species of bananas, have more than two sets of chromosomes. This can make the species more resilient to major environmental catastrophe, researchers find.
npr.org
A guide to converting your lawn into a wildlife friendly garden
Turning your grass into a garden isn’t as complicated as you think, but it will take time and effort. This step-by-step guide breaks down the process, from killing your lawn to picking plants to grow.
NPR

Science Shared

Three botany papers widely shared on Bluesky this past week were:

  1. Hierarchical generalized additive models in ecology: an introduction with mgcv 🆓
    Pedersen, EJ. et al. · PeerJ
  2. Fitting photosynthetic carbon dioxide and irradiance response curves for C4 leaves 🆓
    Woodford, R. et al. · J Exp Bot
  3. Cross‐kingdom communication between plants and parasitic nematodes 🆓
    Bell, CA. et al. · New Phytol

You can see the top 10 with more details at Science Shared: May 23.

Careers on Bluesky

Please note these are not jobs I am offering. Nor can I help you with any visa requirements. At time of writing there are around 100 other jobs posted at Botany One.

Lecturer, Botany/Plant Biology (Level A)
Adelaide University
Greenland Institute of Natural Resources seeks a Postdoctoral Researcher with experience in vegetation mapping and herbivory.
The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR) is seeking a postdoctoral researcher for the Department of Birds and Mammals, with a starting date on 1 July 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter, for a period of 2 years.
Government of Greenland
PhD Candidate in Data-Driven Food Security Intelligence and Decision Support
The project aims to advance the next generation of food security intelligence systems by moving toward continuous, real‑time monitoring, nowcasting, and anticipatory analysis of hunger and vulnerability.
Tilburg University

Cover image: Cercis canadensis (Eastern Redbud). Photo courtesy