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New Tree Species of Lauraceae Family Found

By | Botany, News

The genus Endiandra of the Lauraceae family has approximately 100 species and its diversity is strongly centered in south-eastern Malaysia and Australia. In China, there are only three recognized Endiandra species (two endemic) and they are distributed in Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan and Taiwan.

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Investigations into Factors Controlling Growth and Lignin Synthesis in Spruce

By | News, Plant Science

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are toxic compounds generated by living systems through aerobic respiration and photosynthesis. Now, researchers have studied the mechanism to regulate the activity of ROS-producing enzymes and revealed that ROS is involved in the growth of spruce and synthesis of lignin, a key cell wall component. The findings could help develop technologies for producing valuable timber-based materials and boost the growth of coniferous trees.

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Early crop plants were more easily ‘tamed

By | Agriculture, News, Plant Science, Research

Did humans favor certain wild plants for domestication because they were more easily “tamed”? New research calls for a reappraisal of the process of plant domestication, based on almost a decade of observations and experiments. The behavior of erect knotweed, a buckwheat relative, has paleoethnobotanists completely reassessing our understanding of plant domestication.

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