Tillering is generally recognized as one of the most plastic traits affecting accumulation of biomass and ultimately grain yield in many field crops. Kim et al. (pp. 69–78) study five hybrids of Sorghum bicolor, derived...
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botanyone
Regulation of tillering in sorghum: environmental effects
Tillering has a significant effect on canopy development, resource capture, crop growth, and grain yield in cereal crops. Kim et al. conduct a series of field and laboratory experiments to determine the effects of...
False paracarpy in Seemannaralia (Araliaceae)
Seemannaralia (Araliaceae) Seemannaralia (Araliaceae) has bilocular ovaries whereas its fruits are unilocular, formed by two adjacent carpels. Oskolski et al. (pp. 29–36) find that the central cavity of these fruits...
Reproductive inter-dependence between a bee and a distylic shrub
Cordia leucocephala Oligolectic bees and host-plants frequently depend on each other to rear offspring and to set fruit, respectively. Milet-Pinheiro and Schlindwein (pp. 17–27) investigate the close relationship...
Assembly and repair of photosystem II (Invited Review)
Considerable attention has been focused on how photosystem II (PSII) is assembled in vivo and how it is repaired following irreversible damage by visible light (so-called photoinhibition). Nixon et al. (pp. 1–16)...
Plants combat plants
Question: when is a cannon not a cannon? Answer: when it’s a ‘high-pressure long-range deodorant spray’(!). For such is the description of the cannons currently being deployed in China to combat the malodorous...
Nigel Chaffey
Will ferns play a key role in mitigating climate change for some forests?
There’s an interesting paper in the July edition of the American Journal of Botany, Polystichum munitum (Dryopteridaceae) varies geographically in its capacity to absorb fog water by foliar uptake within the...
Alun Salt
Plant reproduction in the Central Amazonian floodplains
The Amazon is the greatest river system on the planet. Twenty per cent of the world’s freshwater enters the oceans through the river basin. It’s an immense amount of water, but the flow isn’t constant...
