Surely once insects have brought pollen to a flower, then plant-plant interaction is over? Not so, says Gerardo Arceo-Gómez, who argues that heterospecific (or other plants') pollen arriving in a flower might affect...
Tag - natural selection
Fi Gennu
Regulation of flowering time in Japanese wild radish
How do climatic cues influence flowering time in natural populations of wild radish in northern and southern Japan?
William Salter
Tricky flowers: how floral variation in a food-deceptive orchid is maintained over generations
Sometimes it's a good idea not to send a consistent message to your pollinators.
Laura Skates
Evolutionary constraints on disparity of ericaceous pollen grains
Flowering plants show a high diversity of pollen morphology. This diversity is assumed to reflect not only variations in the underlying design, but also stress imposed by ecological conditions related to pollen survival...
Alex Assiry
How can sterility make a plant more fertile?
Brian Park and colleagues have been examining a peculiar fact. A plant can increase its reproductive success by producing sterile flowers. Not all the flowers are sterile. Viburnum lantanoides, (Adoxaceae) has enlarged...
The rewards of chasing nectar
We know that flowers entice pollinators with nectar, but how much and what causes a flower to produce as much or as little nectar as it does. In this guest post, Amy Parachnowitsch, Jessamyn Manson and Nina Sletvold...
Guest Author
Frequent wildfires modify genetic structure in Pinus halepensis
The recurrence of wildfires is predicted to increase due to global climate change. Budde et al. examine the population genetic effects of frequent fires in natural stands of the fire-adapted Mediterranean tree Pinus...
botanyone
Botanists disprove Nietzche
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger”, or so said Friedrich Nietzche, but is that really the case? This month in Annals of Botany Orians et al. have published a paper where that tests this idea:...
Alun Salt
2013, International Year of the Wallace(?)
If 2009 ‘belonged’ to Charles Darwin then, if there’s any justice in the world, 2013 has to be ‘owned’ by Alfred Russel Wallace.
Nigel Chaffey
Pollinator and herbivore effects on Erysimum
Erysimum capitatum (Brassicaceae) is a widespread and variable plant species with generalized pollination that is attacked by a number of herbivores. Lay et al. find that individuals of E. capitatum are visited by...
