You might like a drink at Christmas, but Jenna Loiseau finds that sugarcane is REALLY thirsty.
Author - Guest Author
Guest Author
Creative Destruction: How Death Leads to Function
Marcos Buckeridge explains how death and destruction in sugarcane roots can lead to the development of gas spaces, which improve root function.
Choosing learning over knowing
Is academia about having the right answers to problems? Emily Larson argues that it's the process of getting there that's important.
Annals of Botany Company member steps-down after 37 years
David Cutler, a former Chief Editor of the Annals of Botany, is retiring from the Company.
The Switch To Generation Sex…
Hugh Dickinson on a new article in Science that sheds more light on the Alternation of the Generations. When does a diploid plant decide to become a haploid? Anyone who has sat in a botany class from high school onwards...
Some plant tissues move like animal muscles but long after death
Even being dead doesn’t stop a scarious bract from protecting its florets. It still works even after a serious mechanical damage, as long as at least a strip, a few cell layers thick, remains intact.
Why we shouldn’t take seeds for granted
Seeds are the main resource for growing plants to restore degraded areas. But are there enough seeds of wild species to meet the global demand?
Predicting photosynthetic productivity of intercropping systems with image-based reconstruction
Intercropping systems contain two or more species simultaneously in close proximity. Due to contrasting features of the component crops, quantification of the light environment and photosynthetic productivity remains...
How you can use online herbaria to learn about plants
As part of Plant Facts Week (#PlantFactsWeek🌱) we present this post about online herbaria and the great things you can learn about plants and get involved in a citizen science project from Louise Marsh...
Amborella trichopoda helps reveal features of the first flowering plants
It's difficult to peer into the past to see the first flowering plant, but Charlie Scutt shows how an ancestor in the modern-era provides some clues as to what it looked like.
Who owns Annals of Botany and AoB PLANTS?
Guest post by Rod Hunt Most science journals these days are owned either by a major publisher or by a learned society. Oxford University Press publishes Annals of Botany and AoB PLANTS, but does this august institution...
“Hi, I’m an #ActualLivingScientist”
A survey that said most Americans couldn't name a living scientist. People on Twitter took this as inspiration for a positive response.
Predestined to be awake
Being able to lie dormant is a huge advantage for a seed but, in the campo rupestre of Brazil, the seeds are unusually impatient.
Iceberg lettuce in short supply – other leafy greens can fill the gap
Modern lettuces are grown a long way from where they are consumed, and genetically are a long way from their ancestors.
