You may have heard the phrase "you are what you eat", but some scientists are tracking the evolution of new diets in orchids by taking the phrase literally.
An investigation on a tiny island reveals that microscopic fungi can dictate the destiny of giants, opening the possibility of mycorrhizal-driven speciation.
There’s been a thoughtfulness* of books recently that reflect on aspects of plant intelligence – e.g. Daniel Chamovitz’s What a Plant Knows, Anthony Trewavas’ Plant Behaviour & Intelligence, Richard Karban’s Plant...
There’s an insufficiency of people to grow the new crops that aren’t being identified because of the dearth of plant taxonomists. Where will it all end..?
There are plant biology journals that seem to concentrate on a single taxon (you know the ones I mean!) – e.g. The Plant Journal and The Plant Cell. There are others devoted to the molecular biology of plants, such as...
Roots generally absorb water from the soil and transport it above ground to the stem, branches, etc. Where the soil is too dry for water to be absorbed by the roots, the roots might actually lose water to the soil and...
Whilst members of the Plant Kingdom might dominate terrestrial biomes, non-Plant Kingdom members are the major photosynthetic organisms in aquatic habitats
Picking up on my elemental theme, fire has long been considered a major influence on evolution of the angiosperms, whether natural or anthropogenic conflagrations. This incendiary interaction has not been helped by...