Tree buds need cosy blankets for the spring rather than the winter
It may be that buds in winter are ‘on pause’ and they are in fact prepared to protect their contents in the changeable spring weather.
Juniper Kiss
Juniper Kiss (@GOESbyJuniper) is currently a PhD student at the University of Southampton working on the "Enhancing ecosystem functioning to improve resilience of subsistence farming in Papua New Guinea" project.
As a marine biology turned plant biology undergraduate, she published student articles in GOES magazine and has been a big fan of social media, ecology, botany and fungi.
Along with blogging and posting, Juniper loves to travel to developing countries and working with farmers.
Lessons from magnolias about past climatic events and plant evolution
Chinese scientists used data from Magnolia plastid genomes to peer back millions of years to understand Cenozoic climatic changes.
Most Australian shrubs have “sleepy seeds” and seed dormancy types might be driven by rainfall seasonality
Have you ever found it tricky to get some seeds to germinate? You might have wondered if it was the water, or the temperature, or the soil, or perhaps the seeds themselves that are the problem?
Grapes, mind the (cell wall) barricades against grey mould!
Grape cell walls could explain their susceptibility to fungal disease.
The bright side of Facebook: users catalogue rare plant species in Italy
A new study in the Journal of Applied Ecology highlights how photos in a Facebook group can complement plant scientists’ sightings.
The wonders of mixing and matching pigments and colourful flowers
A review in The Biochemist draws attention to the importance of flower pigments to help plants cope with environmental stresses.
No need for orchids: mycorrhizal fungi do not depend on their hosts in Australia
Several fungi had distributions extending into central and northern parts of the continent, illustrating their tolerance of an extraordinarily wide range of environmental conditions.
Plant chemicals are more important in carnivory than previously thought
Plant carnivory, at the metabolic level, likely evolved from at least two distinct functions–attraction and defence.
Drought response of European beech trees is not straight forward
Human assistance is still needed for measuring trees with laser scans
The wonders of leaf hydraulics: efficiency-safety trade offs in woody plants
A high biomechanical resistance was found to be associated with considerable hydraulic safety
From branches to entire trees and forests: a new laser scanning-based model improves estimations
New laser technology can measure faster and more accurately.
Fascination of Fruits and Vegetables
Special edition of Fascination of Plant Day infographics.
Fascination of Plants and Drones
Drones are helping find plants hiding where humans cannot go.