In mature grass leaf blades as seen in cross-section, oblong cell-like structures have been interpreted most recently as intercellular gas spaces delimited by successive collapsed fusoid cells. These cells have been...
In the marginal regions of Europe, grassland-based livestock systems are dominated by grass monocultures receiving relatively high levels of fertilizer. Would the inclusion of clovers improve their productivity and...
What drives the author to spend time on the piano to re-establish calm or why did the song The Teddy Bears’ Picnic leave an unsettling feeling as a child? These comments are just some of the fascinating thoughts which...
Stomata are pores regulating gas exchange in land plants. Stomatal morphology has remained largely consistent through ∼400 million years of plant evolution, though cell wall composition has changed. Shtein et al...
Cell membrane stability, which ensures dehydration tolerance of roots and meristems, is positively and negatively correlated to fructan and sucrose contents, respectively.
Functional traits are often used as species-specific means in trait-based predictions of ecosystem processes, assuming that interspecific differences are greater than intraspecific trait variation. Although this...
Plants require nitrogen to make proteins, nucleic acids and other biological molecules. It is widely accepted that plants absorb inorganic forms of nitrogen to fill their needs. However, recently it has become clear...
Echoing a plea from Ron Milo and Robert Last that computational methods [which is sort of ‘math(s)’…] should be used to gain deeper understanding of the fundamental principles that govern regulation of metabolic...
In grasses, self-incompatibilty (SI) is based on two loci, S and Z, but the mechanisms are much less well understood relative to other gametophytic SI systems. Klass et al. review recent progress towards elucidating...
Plant diversity and functional trait variation Variation in plant traits may potentially influence niche segregation at increasing plant diversity. Gubsch et al. investigate above-ground traits associated with light and...