Carbohydrates and plants means more than just sucrose, starch and cellulose.

Pollen is not a gamete. It’s a spore.

Genetically modified plants are usually produced using tissue culture, but techniques used to modify a plant genome also affect its epigenome.

Taxonomic education and botany are increasingly neglected in schools and universities, leading to a ‘missed generation’ of adults that cannot identify organisms, especially plants. The ‘taxonomic illiteracy’ of Western cultures has been recognised but limited research exists on the most effective methods for teaching species identification, especially in adults. A recent House of Lords inquiry [...]

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 plants themselves, which not only generate highly calorific and combustible dry matter but also provide the oxygen needed to permit their combustion. The [...]

Aesop (slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece 620–560 BC(E)) is credited with many fables that delivered morality tales, etc. But one you won’t find amongst that collection is ‘the fruit-fly and the cactus’. However, this modern-day cautionary tale has a ‘take home message’ (THM) that would not be out of place [...]

Today is a holiday (Thanksgiving) in the USA and most of our American readers will be taking a well earned day off in order to overeat and watch football (as opposed to soccer ) This afternoon as you slowly realize you should not have had the second slice of pumpkin pie, let AoB Blog try [...]