Flowers come in a multitude of shapes and colors. Now, an international research team has proposed the novel hypothesis that trade-offs caused by different visitors may play an important role in shaping this floral diversity.
Optogenetics can be used to activate and study cells in a targeted manner using light. Scientists have now succeeded in transferring this technique to plants.
People often thing of flowers as a bright and showy splash of contrasting colors. But some plant species actually produce two types of flowers: normal ones with a colorful appearance, and “runts” that are small, never open. Why do some plants produce small and unattractive flowers? Two researchers think they’ve figured out why, supporting a hypothesis dating back 150 years to Charles Darwin.
A pair of researchers has conducted an overview of Langsdorffia, a parasitic flowering plant. In their paper they give an overview of the flower, its four species and explain why they believe more study of the plant is needed.
New research shows, in a world first, a recreation of the evolution of flowering plants through time – a complete angiosperm ‘time-tree’.
