While hybrid plants might be less successful than their parents, if enough survive they can backcross with a parent species. This can help a parent colonise a new territory.
Category - Close Encounters
Alun Salt
Ant protection from elephant herbivory in West African Acacias
Ants can provide effective protection from elephant herbivory in East African Acacia species, but is this true for species of West Africa?
William Salter
Do flowers removed of nectar and pollen attract fewer bumblebee pollinators?
Do pollen thieves and nectar robbers reduce flower attractiveness to bumblebee pollinators in Impatiens oxyanthera?
A healthy sunflower diet can help domesticated bumblebees avoid infection
Sunflower pollen can reduce parasite load for a bumblebee, but it's not clear how.
Dale Maylea
Rising sea levels influence a battle to beat the shade in plants
Increasing salinity could free some shade-averse plants from the shadows of their neighbours.
Fi Gennu
Grapes, mind the (cell wall) barricades against grey mould!
Grape cell walls could explain their susceptibility to fungal disease.
Juniper Kiss
Global warming will limit opportunities for a sexually-deceptive orchid
Leporella fimbriata, the Hare Orchid, relies upon one species for pollination. A new study by Marta Kolanowska and colleagues in Czechia and Poland has looked at the impact of global warming on the orchid. They...
Kentucky crayfish aids plant on the run
What looks like a pile of mud to a human is an oasis to a dwarf sundew
Take away the deer and more subtle effects on plant communities become apparent
A twenty-year survey in western Canada shows how deer can obscure other ecological effects in forests.
A warming climate will change plants’ responses to herbivores in different ways
Invasive species might not always have the upper hand when temperatures rise.
Flies can be pollen thieves but plants deal with them
Some plants tackle thieves and pollinators eating pollen by producing enough both to feed visitors and fertilise available ovules.
Trapping pollinators with hot and smelly flowers: different strategies for different insects!
New study finds that scent is more pollinator-specific than heating up the flower-like parts
Indirect effects of drought on bumblebee pollination of common charlock
How does drought influence floral traits of Sinapis arvensis and how does this affect visitation by bumblebee pollinators?
How will plants cope with fewer pollinators?
A recent paper highlights a critical research gap, and reveals the potential for finding new data in old places.
Rachael Olliff-Yang