Bulbine frutescens keeps track of temperatures so it's ready for passing pollinators.
Tag - South Africa
Dale Maylea
Ceropegia gerrardii smells of pain to attract ‘blood’ drinking flies
New research uncovers how this South African plant tricks kleptoparasitic flies into pollination by imitating wounded honey bees.
Daisy’s Intricate Fly Decoy Attracts Pollinators with Ingenious Gene Repurposing
A flower has found a shortcut to attracting males through sexual deception.
A long-lasting connection? Links between genome size and stomata size in plants
The variation in genome size between different plant species is enormous, with a variation of 2300-fold in flowering plants alone. Whilst variation in plant genome size is well recorded, it is debatable how much of this...
Liam Elliott
Differences in Protea Traits Add up to Explain Differences in Fitness
It's the differences in individuals that make one Protea more successful than another.
Alex Assiry
Aridity-related stomatal differences in a South African shrub
Plants in arid environments often have predictably different phenotypes than those in moist environments. Within species, such trait–environment associations could indicate local adaptation, yet supporting evidence is...
botanyone
Curious case of Cape coprobotany
Now, and please be honest, if you saw an article entitled, “Faecal mimicry by seeds ensures dispersal by dung beetles” you’d want to read it, right?
Nigel Chaffey
For one flower, bad hair days are the best days
If you want to please Leucospermum arenarium (Proteaceae) you’d better leave brushes and combs alone, as it has an unusual way to get pollinated. Plenty of plants are pollinated on the wind, or via currents in...
Alun Salt
Plants, Pollination and Paywalls
We put The natural history of pollination and mating in bird-pollinated Babiana (Iridaceae) live on the Annals of Botany site this week. It’s been covered in the press, notably by the BBC, Plant has evolved a...
