Researchers explore the functional significance of different types of two-pore channels in a liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha.
The absence of large herbivores after the extinction of the dinosaurs changed the evolution of plants. The 25 million years of large herbivore absence slowed down the evolution of new plant species. Defensive features such as spines regressed and fruit sizes increased.
Not all lentils are created equal. Lentil genetics can affect both the quality and yield of lentil crops. Environmental factors – like rainfall and soil conditions – can also impact lentil crops. Even the same lentil variety can have vastly different yields and nutritional profiles when grown in different environments.
When faced with conditions that are too dry, salty, or cold, most plants try to conserve resources. They send out fewer leaves and roots and close up their pores to hold in water. If circumstances don’t improve, they eventually die. But some plants, known as extremophytes, have evolved to handle harsh environments.
Research team investigates shifts in seasonal development of early-blooming forest plants – herbarium records show climate warming.
Flowering time in chickpeas’ wild relatives is influenced by one to three major genes, according to new research.
A protein that allows the fungus that causes white mold stem rot in more than 600 plant species to overcome plant defenses has been identified by a team of scientists.
Airborne pollen may induce annoying congestion for some, but a new paper shows that these grains may provide a new way of looking at the climate over 300 million years into the fossil record.
A new study describes a breakthrough in the quest to improve photosynthesis in certain crops, a step toward adapting plants to rapid climate changes and increasing yields to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050.
For a tropical wildflower first described by scientists in 2000, the scientific name “extinctus” was a warning. The orange wildflower had been found 15 years earlier in an Ecuadorian forest that had since been largely destroyed; the scientists who named it suspected that by the time they named it, it was already extinct. But in a new paper researchers report the first confirmed sightings of Gasteranthus extinctus in 40 years.
