If you want your urban garden to be buzzing with bees, scientists say floral evenness is crucial - mix up your blooms instead of planting just a few dominant species.
Category - News in Brief
Alun Salt
A.I. Assistant
Scientists Find Close Relatives Drive Island Plants Extinct
A new study finds native island plants are more likely to go extinct when threatened by invasive cousins from the same family tree.
Dale Maylea
Phylogenetics Reveals the Importance of Biodiversity to Food Plants in Mexico
Tracing the phylogenetic patterns in native edible plants of Mexico shows how indigenous cultures have sustainably utilized regional botanical diversity for millennia.
Fi Gennu
Scientists Gene Edit Venus Flytraps to Study Prey Detection
Scientists wield CRISPR to gene hack Venus flytraps, revealing trigger hair genes assist but don't solely account for these crafty carnivores' snapping traps.
It’s Not Just Honeybees That Are Pollination Heroes
Abundant flies like Eristalis and wild bumblebees join domesticated honeybees as bugs for essential strawberry pollination, according to a new study tracking pollen transport.
Scientists Reveal Hidden Diversity in Brazil’s Iconic National Tree
Genetic testing and leaf measurements uncover five lineages of Brazil's iconic but endangered national tree pau-brasil, signalling undiscovered diversity and an urgent need to preserve the evolutionary breadth in the...
Daylight shrubbery with thieving hummingbirds
Urban hummingbirds opportunistically sip nectar from both native and non-native flowers to survive year-round, though their thieving ways may limit the spread of those alluring alien blooms
Can you predict a successful invasive species before it invades?
Researchers found that plant species with certain traits, like longer bloom periods and efficient resource utilisation, are more likely to successfully thrive in foreign environments.
How Summer Heat Kills Fragile Flowers
New research reveals how heatwaves and drought together can rapidly and irreversibly damage flowers through a process called runaway cavitation.
Native Plants Can Bring Prairie Power to Green Roofs
Research found that combining native prairie plants and Sedum species on green roofs enhances stormwater capture, cooling, and thermal insulation compared to using Sedum alone.
When Dodder Attacks Soybeans, It Invites its Friends
The parasitic dodder weed doesn't just sap soybean's strength alone - it lets in fungal gatecrashers like Alternaria too, despite soybean's attempts to biochemically barricade its roots with flavonoids.
Life on the Edge Can Be Fruitful for Plants
Plants at the edge of populations have to share genes with more distant neighbours to produce offspring, and that can have benefits.
Ancient Chinese Gardens Can Help Mitigate Modern Chinese Urban Heat
Scientists have found urban cooling solutions in the ancient wisdom of classical Chinese gardens, whose large green spaces and water features create wider cooling zones.
Tiny Plant Made Smaller By Microbes
Lemna minor, Common Duckweed, is typically a small plant only a couple of centimetres long. New research finds that it gets even smaller when microbes interact with the plant.
