Celebrating Plants and People
-
Climate Change Is A Unique Disaster For The Tallest Trees
Shrubby, low-statured plants are most likely to survive, whereas tall, old-growth forests are particularly vulnerable to warming climate.
-
Plants Trick Diseases Into Revealing Themselves Early On
Perception of pathogens is essential for immunity. Plants have very efficient defence mechanisms to stop a pathogen, if they can detect it soon enough. In turn, pathogens are constantly evolving to become stealthier to evade perception by the host. This arms race means both plant and pathogen are constantly under pressure to evolve new ways…
-
Have We Managed Our Forests At The Expense Of Pollinators?
Two conservation goals of the early 20th century, extensive reforestation and reduced wildfire through fire exclusion, may have contributed to declining pollinator abundance as forests became denser and shrub covered
-
Botanists Are The Latest Endangered Species
The teeming plant world could become a virtual mystery in the coming decades as college students increasingly shy away from studying botany and universities across the U.S. shutter their long-standing herbaria.
-
The Great Amazon Basin Is Home To Varied Plant Communities
Looking at the lowland Amazon with this kind of detail, you can see back in time, from the way the topography was shaped millions of years ago, which still affects soils and mineral availability today, to the way that different species evolved to take advantage of this great variety of subtly changing conditions. And we…
-
Why Eastern U.S. Forests So Resemble Asian Forests
A new analysis of DNA studies shows that over half of all the trees and shrubs in the southern Appalachians can trace their ancestry to relatives a half a world away in Asia.
-
The Sound Of A Plant Dying Of Thirst
That is the sound of a plant dying of thirst. Heartbreaking isn’t it?
-
New Species Evolves From Two Invasive Aliens…Twice
A Scottish species of monkey-flower that evolved from two invasive species – twice.
-
Deep Down, A Panda Remains A Carnivore
The gut bacteria of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) have not evolved to efficiently break down cellulose, a hard-to-digest fibre found in plant walls. The bears’ gut microbiome is more closely related to that of carnivores, rather than other herbivores.
-
The Universal Mathematics Of Bamboo Flowering Cycles
This remarkable cycle would be fascinating enough on its own. But it turns out a number of other species of bamboo grow flowers on cycles lasting decades, too. A species called Bambusa bamboos flowers every 32 years, for example. Phyllostachys nigra f. henonis takes 60 years. Three biologists at Harvard got puzzled by these cycles…