Future shifts in precipitation regimes and temperature are expected to affect plant traits dramatically. To date, many studies have explored the effects of acute stresses, but few have investigated the consequences of prolonged shifts in climatic conditions on plant growth and chemistry. Orians and colleagues assessed plant size and metabolite profiles on naturally occurring Plantago […]

Water limitation is an important determinant of the distribution, abundance and diversity of plant species. Yet, little is known about how the response to limiting water supply changes among closely related plant species with distinct ecological preferences. Comparison of the model annual species Arabidopsis thaliana with its close perennial relatives A. lyrata and A. halleri, […]

Quaternary glaciations strongly affected the distribution of species from arid and semi-arid environments, as temperature drops were accompanied by strong fluctuations in rainfall. In this study, Ossa and colleagues examined the response of xerophytic species to glacial cycles, determining the genetic patterns and climatic niche of Echinopsis chiloensis var. chiloensis, an endemic columnar cactus of […]

Plant survival under extreme drought events has been associated with xylem vulnerability to embolism (the disruption of water transport due to air bubbles in conduits). Despite the ecological and economic importance of herbaceous species, studies focusing on hydraulic failure in herbs remain scarce. Larissa Chacon Dória and colleagues assess the vulnerability to embolism and anatomical […]

By the year 2100, atmospheric CO2 concentration ([CO2]a) could reach 800 ppm, having risen from ~200 ppm since the Neogene, beginning ~24 Myr ago. Changing [CO2]a affects plant carbon–water balance, with implications for growth, drought tolerance and vegetation shifts. The evolution of C4 photosynthesis improved plant hydraulic function under low [CO2]a and preluded the establishment […]

Most crucifer species (Brassicaceae) have small nuclear genomes (mean 1C-value 617 Mb). The species with the largest genomes occur within the monophyletic Hesperis clade (Mandáková et al.; also known as Clade E or Lineage III). Whereas most chromosome numbers in the clade are 6 or 7, monoploid genome sizes vary 16-fold (256–4264 Mb). To get […]

Differences in local abundance and ploidy level are predicted to impact the direction of introgression between species. Hu et al. test these hypotheses on Chinese populations of Betula albosinensis (red birch, Betulaceae, a tetraploid) and B. platyphylla (white birch, a diploid). Leaf morphology divided our samples into red and white birch, but genetic analyses unexpectedly […]

Are seeds using heat from fires as a signal to end physical dormancy and germinate?

You can see how time affects germination, by measuring the proportion of seeds that germinate after time. But is there a way of examining seed viability without germinating them?

Roots don’t simply take up nutrients from the soil. They also exude chemicals. The exudates released from living roots play an important role in plant nutrient acquisition. and biochemical processes in the rhizosphere. Root exudates can stimulate microbial activity to accelerate mineralization of soil organic matter, a phenomenon termed rhizosphere priming effect (RPE). The RPE […]

Adventitious roots are roots that form after the plant embryo has grown. They’re the roots that can grow out of stems when you make plant cuttings. Adventitious root formation is a bottleneck for the survival of isolated plant fragments. Adventitious root formation plays an important ecological role and is a critical process in cuttings for […]

Secondary growth is a process related to the formation of new cells that increase in size and wall thickness during xylogenesis. Temporal dynamics of wood formation influence cell traits, in turn affecting cell patterns across the tree ring. Buttò et al. verified the hypothesis that cell diameter and cell wall thickness are positively correlated with […]