Is photorespiration necessary for photosynthesis?
Modelling unveils the role of photorespiration in stabilizing the Calvin cycle.
Category: News
The travel of Costa Rican palms revealed by their genetic footprints
Genetic analysis of a popular Costa Rican palm suggests that its genetic diversity could suffer from human action.
Success tastes like something else for a high-altitude pitcher plant
Hunting at high altitude, where the insects are few, can be difficult. Quite a few pitcher plants prefer to wait for a delivery.
What lies beneath? Botanists find a disconnection between how plants behave above and below ground.
Do plants invest more in a live-fast and die-young strategy, or take it slow and steady? Botanists have found that the appearance above the ground might not reflect what’s happening in the roots.
Goth Rabbits spread Vampire Plants
Rabbits tend to nibble on vegetation rather than dry fruits, but the black Amami rabbits of Japan seem to be eating the fruits and spreading the seeds of an unusual plant.
Six glorious plant science facts that happened in 2022
2022 left us memorable moments: the celebration of illustrious anniversaries, the resurrection of physical over virtual scientific congresses and the publication of remarkable research articles that showcase the wonders of the green world. It’s hard to choose among the thousands of noteworthy events and impressive discoveries … for the sake of time, here are the essentials!
Missing seed data from the tropics could be harming conservation efforts
Visscher and colleagues propose that global analyses of seed traits with evidence for geographical variation prioritize the generation of new data from tropical regions as well as multi-lingual searches to fill geographical and taxonomic gaps.
Why would a flower change its shape?
Bilateral flowers tend to receive less pollen than radial flowers, so why would a plant want a bilateral flower?
Argentina, more than football: outstanding and passionate Women in Plant Science
A movement to improve opportunities for women in Argentina may be growing to cover more of Latin America.
How does environment affect biodiversity? Did Humboldt get it right?
Modern botanists have revisited sites examined by Alexander von Humboldt. Have modern advances made the German polymath’s work irrelevant?
Does the fungus Botrytis cinerea break plants with a sledgehammer or a series of specialised tools?
The fungus Botrytis cinerea can infect many plants, but how can it get past so many different defences? Does it have a variety of tools or one highly effective tool?
Flowers play a key role in flight control for bumblebees
A bee can approach a flower from any direction, but markings on the flower help guide bees in the most effective way, like a natural air traffic control.
A parasitic plant can cause an invasive plant’s allies to switch sides
Scaldweed, Cuscuta grovonii, can prevent an invasive plant from using soil microbes to help invade territory – and the parasite can even become more vicious by using those same microbes against its invasive host.
Botanists say the largest amber-preserved flower is a new species
The flower, first discovered over 150 years ago, has yielded new clues from its pollen.