Some people fixate on honey bees as essential for pollination. Reality is more complicated. For one species, honey bee visits actively harm its chances of pollinating a partner.
Tag - gymnosperms
Alun Salt
Flowering plants spelled the end of gymnosperm dominance
Coupled with the negative effects of global cooling, angiosperms pushed gymnosperm extinction past the point of recovery.
Erin Zimmerman
Scientists suggest bringing a fresh set of eyes to the problem, ‘When did the first flowers evolve?’
A disagreement on when flowers evolved could be solved by studying the real experts on pollination, the pollinators.
Unexpected flowers in the Jurassic
Did flowering plants appear earlier than the fossil record indicates? Two papers independently conclude they did - and suggest what fossil evidence we should look for.
Integrative approaches to understanding angiosperm origins and diversity
The rise of angiosperms should be studied as part of the global increase in biodiversity.
botanyone
Phylogenetic and functional signals in ovular secretions of gymnosperms
This study reinforces the antiquity of insect–plant pollination mutualisms in Gnetophyta, which have a fossil record beginning in the Triassic.
Photosynthetic plasticity and survival across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary
Why did Gingko almost disappear during the Triassic–Jurassic mass extinction when ferns did so well? The answer has relevance for future atmospheric changes.
A stable phylogeny for the cycads
The cycads (order Cycadales) are an ancient order of gymnosperms comprising ten genera and 331 species found in all tropical regions of the earth. Using sequences of five single copy nuclear genes, Salas-Leiva et al...
Giant organisms, giant genomes…
Humans are 98% junk! But a carnivorous plant is far more efficient - containing only 3% junk-DNA.
Nigel Chaffey
Fire
Picking up on my elemental theme, fire has long been considered a major influence on evolution of the angiosperms, whether natural or anthropogenic conflagrations. This incendiary interaction has not been helped by...
DNA content for 407 plant species from the USA
The genome sizes of plants represent a key character often associated with other traits. Bai et al. use flow cytometry to provide prime C-values for 514 taxa. Most of these (407) are new reports, including 129 genera...
Bryophyte ‘sperminator’…
Co-opting animals to help with pollination is a major event in flower (angiosperm) biology – and is very much a do-or-die act. But have you ever considered that a similar role might be performed by animals in the case...
Leaf display by conifer and angiosperm seedlings
The contemporary relegation of conifers mainly to cold or infertile sites has been ascribed to low competitive ability. Lusk et al. use 3-D modelling of plant architecture and structural equation modelling to compare...
