New research reveals the secret nightlife of moths, fluttering under cover of darkness to carry out their vital work as unsung heroes pollinating blackberry brambles.
Tag - Flowers
Nigel Chaffey
How Summer Heat Kills Fragile Flowers
New research reveals how heatwaves and drought together can rapidly and irreversibly damage flowers through a process called runaway cavitation.
Alun Salt
A.I. Assistant
Building Flowers for Pollinators: Does Every Flower Really Have Its Perfect Match?
Flowers and their pollinators are highly diverse. So, what determines the characteristics of flowers and their visitors?
Victor H. D. Silva
Botanists say the largest amber-preserved flower is a new species
The flower, first discovered over 150 years ago, has yielded new clues from its pollen.
Dale Maylea
Want to save the bees? Pay attention to pathogens and flowers
Researchers at UMass Amherst deploy fluorescent paint, pipettes, tents, tweezers and scissors to trace three-way connection between plants, pathogens and bees
The wonders of mixing and matching pigments and colourful flowers
A review in The Biochemist draws attention to the importance of flower pigments to help plants cope with environmental stresses.
Juniper Kiss
Primroses and primulas aplenty
Primrose by Elizabeth Lawson, 2019. Reaktion Books Ltd. To the uninitiated, it may seem rather improbable that anybody can write 288 pages about the primrose. After all, whilst it may be understood that primrose is a...
Visually stunning: Flora for juvenile – and adult – fauna
Flora: Inside the Secret World of Plants by DK [Dorling Kindersley] with contribution by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2018. Dorling Kindersley. Dorling Kindersley’s Flora: Inside the secret world of plants [hereafter...
Plant anatomy goes back to its roots (stems, leaves…)
Does "Essentials of Developmental Plant Anatomy" cover the essentials of developmental plant anatomy? Nigel Chaffey looks over the introductory textbook.
Plant-insect relationships, a double-edged sword
Flowering plants have had an intimate relationship with insects for millions of years. Indeed, this is often cited as an example of co-evolution , particularly with regards to the flowers and their pollination...
Ecologists make their own flowers to study moths
Thanks to JSTOR Global Plants for pointing to an interesting paper in Functional Ecology, Shape matters: corolla curvature improves nectar discovery in the hawkmoth Manduca sexta. The research looks at how the the 3D...
Has spring sprung yet?
It's not just humans waiting for Spring - recent research reveals that microbes are also looking forward to the new growth of plants.
A blooming marvellous innovation
I know that this year’s British summer hasn’t been much to write home about (and you would be writing home to the UK– who would have sojourned in that sodden isle given the choice?). But at least the traditional hay...
Cretaceous flowers of Ericales
The rapid increase in knowledge of the fossil record of angiosperms in the past 30 years has provided important evidence on the antiquity of different lineages. Schönenberger et al. add to the fossil record of asterids...
botanyone