Do plants invest more in a live-fast and die-young strategy, or take it slow and steady? Botanists have found that the appearance above the ground might not reflect what's happening in the roots.
Tag - roots
Fi Gennu
Seminal roots help maize grab nutrients
When humans selected for bigger seeds in maize, they may have also unintentionally improved its root system.
Improving roots for crops could improve habitats for wildlife
New research finds that root capturing more nutrients could help wildlife breathe many miles away.
Alun Salt
When phosphorus levels are low, mycorrhizae outcompete root hairs in maize
The two adaptations both aid in nutrient uptake, but may work against each other
Erin Zimmerman
Has agricultural intensification impacted maize root traits?
How have the roots of maize changed since the introduction of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser in the 1940s?
William Salter
Thicker roots: to grow or not to grow? Investigating the dynamics of secondary root growth
Secondary growth of the roots of annual dicots has functional significance with regards to soil resource acquisition and transport, interactions with soil organisms and carbon sequestration.
Juniper Kiss
Decoding Soybean Nodulation
A new framework aids in predicting gene regulatory networks associated with soybean nodule formation.
Rachel Shekar
Early Lateral Root Development Is Driven by Thirst
Roots are critical for plants to find water and nutrients. They can also be expensive to grow, so a plant needs to send them in the right direction. How do they do this? A new paper by Daniel von Wangenheim and...
Dale Maylea
Visually stunning: Flora for juvenile – and adult – fauna
Flora: Inside the Secret World of Plants by DK [Dorling Kindersley] with contribution by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2018. Dorling Kindersley. Dorling Kindersley’s Flora: Inside the secret world of plants [hereafter...
Nigel Chaffey
Microplastics could pose a threat to plants
There’s been plenty of media attention on the threat plastics, especially microplastics, pose to animal life. A paper in New Phytologist suggests that there’s more to this. Plants might be suffering from...
Elevated carbon dioxide: Getting to the root of the problem
How will plants respond to rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere? Botanists at BIFoR, the Birmingham Institute for Forest Research have gone underground to find some of the answers.
Guest Author
Root hairs to halt global warming
Can plants help fight global warming? Nigel Chaffey looks to the roots.
Roots create … rock
The more I learn about roots, the more amazing they appear. Not only do they provide essential support for, and anchorage of, the aerial, above-ground, parts of the plant, they are the prime organs for abstracting water...
Plant records: Can a plant be too trusting?
Name: Orchids Scientific name: Family: Orchidaceae Known for: Beauty, epiphytism, providing vanilla flavouring, tiny seeds, mycorrhizae, deceptive pollination, mycoheterotrophy, medicinal usage, vegetating Krakatoa…...
